Aug 7 1 Chronicles 24, 1 Chronicles 25, 1 Chronicles 26:1-19 1 Corinthians 3 Psalm 92:1-15
1 Cor 3:1-3
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
Paul’s expectations for the church in Corinth weren’t out of line. He’d expected them to grow and develop – that’s reasonable to expect. Nobody starts with solid food in life, we all start with milk. But Paul was a frustrated because they were stuck on the basics. There must be an expectation of change in the life of a believer. There must be development. We are all works in progress but to really be a work in progress…. there needs to be progress. What’s the yardstick Paul is measuring maturity by? How many scriptures they’ve learned? How much they met together? No, he saw jealously and quarrelling amongst them and stated that means they’ve not developed. When there’s that kind of behaviour, it shows us up as Spiritual children.
1 Cor 3:16-17
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. We all know this to be true that we are individually the place where The Holy Spirit takes us residence.
But let me also throw another idea in. Another body is also a temple of the Holy Spirit: the church. Not the building, but the community. We need to look after this collective body just as we look after our personal body. God’s Spirit dwells int he midst of the church – Paul says that you TOGETHER are that temple. Church is a sacred and special thing and must be protected.
Bickering and pulling each other down, that’s damaging to the temple of the Holy Spirit. There should be no place for that.
