Lessons from a Messed-Up Church

The city of Corinth was a wealthy, busy metropolitan city in the days that Paul established the church there. It also had a much-deserved reputation for moral bankruptcy. The sins out of which the Corinthian Christians came attest to the type of society it was.

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor. 6:9-11, ESV)

They were a troubled group at the time Paul wrote his first letter to them, struggling to jettison the influences of their past. Factions had formed in the church over preachers. There was an immoral relationship among them that they not only refused to deal with, but were proud of their tolerance of it. They were taking each other to small claims court. They were trying to navigate sticky marriage situations. There was dissension over what to do about eating food that had been offered to idols. Their worship assemblies had become chaotic and divisive. And if that were not enough, a sizeable number of them there were denying the resurrection of the dead, a fundamental tenet of the Christian religion.

What could we possibly learn from a church that was so messed up?

Churches will have problems as long as they are made up of people. Christians are not perfect people. We are saved people. We are justified people. We are sanctified people (1 Cor. 6:11). But we are still weak and we still sin. This will be our lot until the Lord returns. Those imperfections and sins inevitably lead to the arising of difficulties in the church.

Congregational leadership cannot ignore problems. Shepherds are not shepherding if they refuse to care for sick sheep and ward off dangerous wolves (John 10:11-15; Acts 20:28-32). Though the ideal is to avoid problems, we can benefit from them if we respond properly to them (1 Cor. 11:17-19).

God’s longsuffering is immeasurable. It is amazing that even with all their problems, the church in Corinth was still God’s church (1 Cor. 1:2). They were still set apart in Christ. They were still saints. This did not mean that they could ignore their problems and maintain that good standing indefinitely (cf. Rev. 2:5; 3:20). But it does shine a bright light on the longsuffering of God, reminding us that he has the final say on the status of his churches.

We should have confidence in each other. Though they had more than their share of problems, Paul was confident that they would fix them and not forfeit their eternal salvation. Because we live in a skeptical and cynical world, it is easy to look at each other – brothers and sisters in the same family – with the same kind of carnal skepticism and cynicism. Why not chart a different course? Let’s follow Paul’s example and demonstrate more confidence in each other. “[Jesus Christ] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:8-9). The writer of Hebrews wrote similarly, “Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation” (Heb. 6:9).

At the time that Paul wrote his first letter to our brothers and sisters in Corinth, there was little for which he commended them. But there is much we can learn from them. The church is God’s temple (1 Cor. 3:16-17). As such, we are to embody all that it means to belong to God (cf. 6:19-20), showing our contemporaries that there is a difference between the life of a sinner and the life of a saint. In addition, the church is to function as the body of Jesus Christ (10:17; 11:29; 12:12-20), putting aside our own personal agendas and working together in harmony. We should prepare for problems, tackle them when they come, have confidence in each other through the process, and gratefully trust in the longsuffering of our God as we strive to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (15:58).