Day 45: Be careful of cliques - 1 Corinthians 3 vs 10 - 23
10-11 Because of God’s grace to me I have laid the foundation like an expert builder - now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have - Jesus Christ. 12-13 Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials - gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgement day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. 14-15 If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward, but if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.
16-17 Don’t you realise that all of you together are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. 18-19 Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say: 'He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness.' 20 And again: 'The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise; He knows they are worthless.' 21-23 So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you - whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. (1 Corinthians 3:10-23 New Living Translation.)
'Cliques' are formed when folk with a common agenda associate together and don't allow others to feel part of their group. We may come across cliques even in Churches and among Christians, and that's really sad. We saw in Chapter 1 that this Church at Corinth had become divided into groups who had a favourite personality. (They were very partial to intellectualism). Some preferred Apollos, some preferred Peter, and some preferred Paul. What illustration does Paul use to describe the different roles that people like he, Peter and Apollos played? (vs 10-11)
Keeping to his illustration of a building and builders, he reminds them that the only foundation of God's building (which they were) can ever be Jesus Christ. But why does he say that those who want to help others to grow in Christ need to be careful? (vs 12-15).
As Christians it's a great comfort to know that our salvation isn't something we have today but can easily lose tomorrow. But Paul's words surely teach that we may be deeply ashamed when judgement day reveals how much of our service to God was from wrong motives and done in a way that wasn't pleasing to Him at all. (vs 14-15) What can we do to avoid that embarrassment? Vs 16-23.
It seems to me the old saying of thinking ourselves to be a big fish in a small pond rather than a small fish in a big pond could apply here. We need to recognise that God's Church and God's work is far bigger than the individuals who are part of it. Great evangelists are not really more important than the lowly Sunday School teacher. Yes, God may use them in a bigger way, but that doesn't mean they are more loved by Him. Paul says if you belong to Jesus then all of His servants belong to you. We all belong to each other.
Let's make it our aim to avoid cliques. Let's not focus on individuals and think no-one can be as smart as our favourite preacher or Christian author, or that our denomination is the only one with 'all the truth'. Christians belong to each other - yes, even those who may be a bit mixed up in theology. If we're going to try and help them then let us take care to do it with much patience and love, and not in arrogance and pride. Remember that the day will come when our works will either receive the Saviour's 'well done', or they will burn to ashes.