一切都是你们的 Everything Belongs to You

哥林多前书 1 Cor 3:18–23

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Review

Hook

Passage

1 Cor 3:18–23

• 愚拙 Yúzhuō Foolishness, stupid
• How are they deceiving themselves? By going after wisdom (replacing God with wisdom),
  by trying to destroy God’s temple (the church)
• They think they’re spiritual, that they know secrets revealed only to them
• Who are these who are doing the destruction? They’re among you
• In 1:18–25, God and God’s plans look foolish to the world
• Here, what the wise think and do look foolish to God

Paul is quoting Job 5:13, part of the speech of Job’s so-called friend Eliphaz.

Eliphaz is from Teman, a place known for wisdom (Jer 49:7)

The quote is from Jer 49:7b; the verse has 4 parts.

• 虚浮 Xūfú
• Next quote is from Psa 94:11
• The same idea: those who think they’re wise are simply foolish in God’s sight

1. So don’t boast in men, church leaders, evangelists, etc.
2. Don’t say, “Oh, look at that guy, he was a true servant of God, …”
3. When we do Bible study or preach, study the Bible, preach the Bible and Jesus Christ;
   don’t preach on the testimony of so and so
4. We can certainly share someone’s testimony or life example,
   but put the focus on God’s word and the gospel
5. Boasting in leaders not only divides and destroys community, but also glorifies oneself before God （BECNT)

• Why don’t we say that? Because everything belongs to us!
• This part (1 Cor 3:21b) reminds of what other passage? Rom 8:38–39
• Don’t boast about Paul, Apollos, Peter, etc.
  They’re all servants of God, just like we are
• E.g., a few weeks ago, I asked someone, “Which church to you attend?” He said, “I worship at so-and-so’s church.”
  NO! A church doesn’t belong to so and so. Corinthians can’t say “I belong to Paul.”
  They should really say, “Paul belongs to us!”
• Everything is upside down from what the world sees:
  • Wisdom is folly, folly is wisdom
  • Weakness is power
  • Leaders are servants
  • Leaders belong to us
  • God’s people are nobodies, yet they possess all things

Here’s a list of 5 things, we look at them one at a time. Notes are from CCM:LL1C

• This world squeezes us into its mold. It demands so much of our attention and allegiance that we seldom devote thought and passion to the world to come

• This world
• We look for respect and worth in this life, but forget that the Bible keeps telling us our lives are like vapour,
  or that Jesus told us NOT to fear those who can take away this life a la Matt 10:28 那杀身体、不能杀灵魂的,不要怕他们;惟有能把身体和灵魂都灭在地狱里的,正要怕他.

• Life
• No one escapes death, and we spend a lot of time and energy putting it off.
• We have “life goals” because we know this life will end sooner than we wanted it to.
• We plan for this life, but never for the life of eternity that is to come.

• Death
• Live for the present, for tomorrow we die; diverting our attention from God
• As in 1 Cor 15:32 我们就吃吃喝喝吧！ 因为明天要死了

• Now
• Same thing, plan for the future, but only for this life, and neglect the eternity that will come.
• Sad thing is, many don’t even know about this eternity.
• For many, “future” means a bit further down THIS life.

• Same thing, plan for the future, but only for this life, and neglect the eternity that will come. Sad thing is, many don’t even know about this eternity. For many, “future” means a bit further down THIS life.

But if we’re in Christ, these 5 things look very different:

1. This world becomes a gateway to the next. God put us here (wherever “here” might be), we know we no longer belong to this world, but are just here for a while to do God’s work. Everything belongs to Christ and Christ belongs to God, so we also belong to God. We are God’s children. We belong to the one who will one day create a new heaven and new earth, and we will be able to delight and live in this new heaven and earth as God’s children, coheirs with Christ (Rom 8:17 与基督一同承受产业 CCV)
2. Our lives are used to serve our master Jesus Christ, to serve God. We serve in anticipation of the return of Christ, looking forward to our real home.
3. Death no longer scares us, because Christ already conquered death. His resurrection is prove that we will also be resurrected. Like Paul in Phil 1:21 因为对我来说,活着是为了基督,死去也有益处 (CCV)
4. The present is where/when I serve God. We serve as best we can, as long as we can.
5. The future belongs to Christ, so he’s sovereign over it as well. I belong to Christ, Christ belongs to God, and God controls the future. So future holds no fear for us, whether future as we live in this world, or future after we die.

• This is like a doxology (hymn of praise)
• Concludes this section

与我有什么关系? So What?

1. Boasting about people (no matter how great they might be) is wrong, because the focus is wrong.
2. It’s not that we belong to such and such a pastor or evangelist,
   but that they belong to us.
3. Wisdom comes from God, never replace God with our wisdom (like many try to do with science).
4. There’s a great reversal, everything is upside down with God.
5. We know these reversals are certain (even though not all such reversals have appeared yet),
   because we have the cross and resurrection as evidences of such certainties.
6. Are you willing to exchange the wisdom of this world for God’s wisdom?
   It won’t be easy, because you’ll look stupid to the world.