Bible Shorts

"For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's {people,} that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, "I am of Paul," and "I of Apollos," and "I of Cephas," and "I of Christ." Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?"

Imagine this; there's a church but within that church there are, effectively, many sub-churches; Within this church are those who consider themselves a little better than the others because they listen to a particular preacher, they follow a specific belief, they read a certain daily reading or go to a certain respected person for advice and as such, have found a well of wisdom from which nobody else has the privelage of drinking.

Each of these subgroups act like they wish that all the others could have the same supreme revelation as themselves but are quite proud of their uniqueness because, after all, they are the group that are 'of Christ' and are therefore the real leaders (because they got this 'special revelation' first).

In such a place, who are the real leaders? Who are the genuine Christians? Who are those who can be trusted as not looking out for themselves and promoting themselves beyond their calling?

I think that there is a group missing from this list in 1Corinthians 1:12. This is a group who don't call themselves anything other than Christians; they are just living their lives according to the calling of God and feel no need to label themselves for the express purpose of exalting themselves (for what other reason could these people here be saying "I am of Paul" if they saw being 'of Paul' a bad thing?).

These unmentioned people are the people who are within the structure of the church and part of it; They are just people who love Jesus. They don't have time to split off and do their own thing, they're too busy being Christians. They don't care about making a priority of telling people "I am of ...".

They don't get involved with telling people why they're so much better than the other lot because they are content to live as Christ ordained them to live. These are the people who are truly 'of Christ'. They don't worry and panic about what other people think of them, feeling the need to remind them that they're 'of a group'; they just live. They allow their identity with Christ to speak for them, living under submission just as Jesus Himself did.

I made mention, back in 2003, of a man who wasx a self appointed leader and who refused to give a testimony of God's work in his life. The account given in Galatians 1 & 2 by Paul makes it clear that knowing where a person is from is very important because when you come under someone's teaching, you're taking of what they are.

So, when you come to a church, ask yourself;

Who made this leader a leader? The church in Jerusalem gave Paul the recognition of being a leader. This is the mighty Paul who preached to the world and brought Gentiles to faith, yet submitting to leadership. God appointed Paul and the church recognised it. Who recognised the calling of the leader you follow? Paul said to Timothy that what authority Timothy had was given through the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Who laid hands on your leader?

Has this leader known what it is to be lead by someone else? Someone who gives orders must be able to take them. Where is the evidence of this? Every single person is under authority, so to whom does the leader answer?

Out of what was the leadership born? This is important since if a leader is a leader because he couldn't get his way in a church assembly elsewhere, he or she is not fit to be a leader. If a church stands on the statement "we're not that lot", there's a problem. If they spare time to criticise another church (or even another religion), it's got a problem. The gospel stands on what it is (the power of God for salvation), not what it isn't.

We need to be united, not divided and bitter. We need to accept that there are those whom God has put over us, and those people may very easily make mistakes and hurt us; but they are still our leaders (think of king David both in his error as a leader and his atrtitude to his predecessor, king Saul). If God wants us to be any form of leader in His Son's church, then He doesn't need us to do othe promoting, He can do it quite well Himself.

I had a job interview yesterday. If you looked at the odds and what I'd been told, it should have been a mere formality; and the benefits which it would have offered me to better serve in my church meant that it must surely have been in God's interest to ensure I got the job.

But I didn't, and as I read the e-mail telling me that I'd come second (second place is first loser and all that), and that the person who got the job did a whole lot better than me, I started to feel the inevitable disappointment.

I started to think of how those who think I'm stupid would gloat, that I could somehow snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I started to ask; What if I'd said something in another way? What if I'd tried another way of handing myself? What if I'd revised something different? What will people in my church think? What about those who will think I'm less of a 'man' because I failed?

Times like this can be so difficult, and the temptation to be angry at God for 'leading me on' is great. But it's at times like this, when we may want to cry and hide in a cave away from all human life, that we need to keep a steady hand and a fixed gaze at the end-game... and remember the promises of God.

The enemy of your soul wants you to focus on your failures as a sign of anything ranging from your stupidity to God giving up on you. What if your best friend thinks that if you failed, then you're a wimp? What if some in your church will rejoice at this proof that you're not a proper Christian and not as special or gifted as them?

The bottom line is that nothing has changed. Yesterday, as I walked out of the interview, God could already see me reading the e-mail today. He knew what was awaiting me. What's more, He knew that I'd be reading that e-mail on the day that He made me and put me together in my mother's womb, yet in the time between my birth and today's e-mail, He has chosen to bless me, He has chosen to give me promises concerning my life and purpose and He has given me eternal life at the cost of His own Son's life.

Has His will for my life come to an end because of this? Of course not.

But if I'm honest, I have no problem with the God-side of it; I know His attitude toward me hasn't changed. But I am feeling that bitterness of what others think. This is why I believe that it's situations like this that test how good a friendship I have with God. While others may turn their backs on me and gossip, do I rely enough on my Heavenly Father to support me in my trials? If they gossip, then they are simply showing how far short of God's friendship their friendship actually is.

America depends on the Middle East for its oil and when that oil is at risk, America is at risk. Am I looking to my (so called) friends to be my support? God is a friend who will never turn His back on me.

Others may not believe in you, but God does and He's the one who makes the difference, not them.