Daily Impact: 13th August 2023
Topic: Do not be a Corinthian Christian
Text: 2 Corinthians 10:1-7
Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you. But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s. 2 Corinthians 10:1-7 NKJV
Don’t be a corinthian Christian church. Do not Live by the culture of the Corinthian church as seen in the text. Church here refers to an individual or entity and not a building. Where two or three of us are gathered, we become the church.
We are admonished from the ways of the Corinthian church for the following reasons:
1. They were in the mold of the world system. Any organization, any believer or group or church, so to speak that is in the mold of the world system is a corinthian Christian church. This is a church that must be avoided.
2. They operated in carnality.
They were operating in the flesh, in total carnality. You will see very shortly how they lived recklessly, in fornication, in adultery, somebody sleeping with his father’s wife and on and on like that. They walked in the flesh. They lived in the flesh. We established that those who live in the flesh cannot please God. We are not to live in the motions of the flesh. Any man who is dominated by the motions of the flesh is a carnal Christian. You can never please God in the flesh. And don’t forget we also said that the newness of life is not a slogan that we should chant, but a way of life we must live.
3. They fought one another.
Any church, any group, any organization where people fight one another is a Corinthian Christian church.Paul said, the servant of the Lord must not strive. But the Corinthian Christians were fighting. They were always fighting one another. Sisters fighting sisters, brothers fighting brothers. There was always a fight.
4. They criticized Paul, their pastor. Anywhere you see people who criticize their pastor, or leader, it’s not for any blatant error, but for their perceived infractions. Everybody see things the way he is. There are people who criticize their pastor all of the time and I have said it is totally wrong for a believer to criticize his pastor. There’s is no problem when criticism is done constructively. There is the room for constructive criticism to rectify areas of shortcomings, but there are people whose penchant is criticism. They criticize their pastors and leaders. They do not see anything good in their leader. A leader you don’t honour and believe in cannot be a blessing to you. I admonish you to avoid gatherings where pastors are being criticized. Don’t be a partaker of the visitation of the wrath of God who has called that pastor, when he shows up with His rod.
5. The Corinthian Christian Church were very competitive. You must avoid competition. Competition is one instrument of the devil to polarize and make one miss out on God’s purpose for his life and destiny. Competition takes your attention from the things that God has given you and makes you fixated on those things that you have not been given. Competition makes you to criticize and condemn others, their results and achievements. The Pharisees and Sadducees, out of competion criticized and condemned Jesus. They even accused him of casting out devils by Beelzebub. There is nothing you have that you have not received. So don’t be in competition with anybody. Praise God for other people’s graces, gifts and be grateful to God for yours.
6. Finally, they winked at gross immorality.
They overlooked and glossed over iniquity. They glossed over immorality. They glossed over fornication, adultery. They saw those vices and knew those who were indulging in such vices, but they pretended as if such vices did not exit. That is a corinthian Christian church. Glossing over immorality. Winking at immorality. The Bible says those who will be punished are not only those who perpetrate these actions, but those who take pleasure in perpetrators of sin.
You must renounce every work of the flesh and the world system. Don’t operate in the mold of the world system. Don’t operate in carnality. Don’t fight others in the church. Stop criticizing your pastors. Don’t be competitive and don’t have fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness. Don’t wink at or gloss over immorality. The Bible says, have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Prayer Focus
1. Father, pull me away from the mold of the world system I am being lured into.
2. I cast off every negative manifestation of the corinthian believer, the works of the flesh I drop all in the name of Jesus. I want to be a genuine Christian whose life is worthy of emulation in the name of Jesus
3. I receive the grace not to go into competition with any but to compliment other believers. I receive the grace to celebrate other people’s achievement and accomplishment in the name of Jesus.
4. I pray for that grace to be a genuine believer, whose life will bring glory and honor to the name of the Lord.
Stream the audio for more
||STREAM|| ||DOWNLOAD|| || SHARE||
