We live in the end times and more than ever, I believe it is time for the church, the bride of Jesus Christ to get herself ready for the day of the Lord. Part of getting herself ready is by learning to submit herself to the teaching of the Lord, learning to die to herself. Indeed, this is not anything new, the life of the follower of Christ is a life of ultimate sacrifice. Paul urged us in Romans to “offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1). Similarly, in the first letter to the Corinthians church, Paul adds that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) and so we must live in a manner that is honouring to the Lord. Part of that honour is to live with “sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:8) since that is in alignment with the Spirit of God who dwells in us. Lately, it seems evil has been prevalent and on the forefront of the world. News are filled with it: sexual trafficking, the rise of pornography in minor, the promulgation of laws that are anti-biblical, the confusion about gender, murder, corruption, the killings of unborn babies, human sacrifices, etc. the list can go on and on. On top of that, there have been a wave of sexual allegations and sins from the pulpit. The place where you least expected sin to be rampant is where you find it. Paul knew the world was turning evil and he warned us in his letters, encouraging, and commanding us even to walk by the spirit and not by the flesh. Because this command is very known in the church, it is easy to miss it and not understand where it applies so my goal today is to show you where as a church we have failed to live according to the spirit and have instead lived according to the flesh.
The first area I would like to highlight where we, as the bride of Christ are living according to the flesh is in our love for elevation. We are people who love to be celebrated, we love to receive the honour and glory, we love power. This manifests itself easily in our churches. We elevate one leader over the other, we make one denomination superior to the other, we boast of being those who know the truth, we make one doctrine greater than the other. Essentially, we are prideful because we believe that our way is the only way. Please, do not misunderstand, I am saying this with the assumption that Jesus Christ is the only way to God, there is no other way by which a man must be saved. I am not talking about the disagreements between other religions and Christ with regard to the way to salvtion, no, I am talking specifically about issues that arise within the body of Christ that show we are living according to the flesh. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul highlights the division that exists in the church of Corinth by showing the church that they are still living according to the flesh, they are worldly (1 Corinthians 3:3). The very fact that there were clans within the church, coupled with jealousy and quarreling was enough for Paul to know that the church was acting like “mere men”. This is telling, because often times, we are not sure how we are living according to the flesh, but here Paul tells us ways we can recognize when we are living according to the flesh: 1) when there are quarrels; 2) when there are divisions; 3) and when there is jealousy. When those conditions are met, it is safe to conlude that what is at work is the spirit of the “old man”. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we ought to live in harmony, we ought to love our brothers and sisters, we ought to serve them, we ought to treat them as we would have them treat us. When Paul found a way of life that was inconsistent with the gospel of grace – in which Christ died in our place for our sins so that we would be declared righteous and live a life of righteousness – he could not let it slide. Unfortunately, we have become too good at rationalizing our differences and divisions. To the point that is has become normal to split over issues. Instead of learning to live in peace with our own brothers and sisters, we prefer to make our own clans. How is it that we have come to the conclusion that living in peace means to separate? Who has taught us that living in peace means agreeing with one another? How many churches and congregations were born out of a disagreement or a division? How is it that the church has bought into the lie that she must choose the easy way out? When we act in this way in the church, is it surprising that even in our marriages we leave at the first sign of a disagreement? Paul is clear that first of all, Christ is not divided therefore, division should not be the portion of the church nor of the followers of Christ. In fact, it is an insult to what Christ represents. Secondly, Paul says that no man should be more elevated than Christ himself. We are not our own as he has said in Corinthians (1 Corinthians 6:19). We must elevate Christ above any man, even our pastors, ministers, spouses, parents, supervisors, presidents, yes, above any person in authority. Our boasting, as Paul continues is to be found in Christ, not in a man. Christ died for our sins, Christ gave us his righteousness, no other man or no other living creature has been able to do that for us so Christ should be our standard and reference. Our own selves cannot take the place of Christ. How do we elevate ourselves above Christ at times? Simply when we choose to disobey Christ’s commands or when we choose to not walk “in line with the truth of the gospel”. In the book of Galatians, Paul also gives us a practical example of how we can elevate ourselves to our detriment and to the detriment of the church. In Galatians 3, Paul recounts the story of Peter not walking in line with the truth of the gospel as he followed Jewish Christians in not eating with Gentiles believers even though the latter were equally accepted by God just like the Jews who believed were. Peter had been deceived because he would initially eat with those Gentiles believers but when the Christian Jews came around he would withdraw himself from his Gentiles brothers (Galatians 2:11-15). In that, Peter had elevated himself above the Gentiles, just as his fellow Jews had. This is precisely the attitude Paul rebuked and is still rebuking today. We cannot and should not love our flesh above Christ Jesus. Nothing in us saved us, we are all saved by grace through faith in Christ. It is Christ Jesus who justifies, not us or any man. Therefore, we cannot look at ourselves any highly than what we are. We need to obey Christ and live in accordance with his words and this must be reflected in our churches, marriages and families.
The second area I would like to highlight where we, as the bride of Christ are living according to the flesh is in the sins we tolerate. One of those sins is gluttony. This one is hard because that is all we do these days. Food is everywhere, it has become a god, a stronghold even. Outside the fact that we are being fed with bad food, we ourselves are spending way too much time eating, and particularly overeating. We eat when we are not hungry, we live to eat instead of eating to live. It is interesting how we have used and use food as a therapy, since it makes us happy, we run to it when we face difficulties in life. That is what authors like Geneen Roth call “emotional eating”. Although much of the food we have readily is processed which turns us into overeater because it leaves us with a feeling of not being satiated however, this does not justify our sin. Gluttony is described as 1) excess in eating or drinking 2) greedy or excessive indulgence by the Merriam-Webster dictionary. As a society, we have food in excess, we waste food in excess and we eat food in excess. As Christians, we have indeed let our belly become our god (Philippians 3:19) and that is a sure way to live by the flesh. Since gluttony does not at first appear to harm anyone but the eater, we often brush it aside and we rationalize our actions. However, when we engage in gluttony, we are not acting in line with the truth of the gospel. Indeed, Christ has redeemed us and set us free so that we would live a life of freedom. We are no longer slaves to unrighteousness, which includes our flesh, our only master now is Christ, righteousness. Food cannot be our god because we have been set free from that. I have not read any research on this but I would make the case that maybe as the bride of Christ, one reason we are not making ourselves ready today by fasting is because of our gluttony and our love for food that surpasses our love for our Husband. Is it any wonder then that the church today does not humble herself when dealing with sin? Is it any wonder that the church does not put aside any delicacies like Daniel did for the purpose of killing sin or simply being in obedience to the Lord? Our focus has been too much on ourselves, our needs, our wants. No one is seeking to put the needs of the other above their own. The husband is not seeking to count his spouse as more significant than himself and vice-versa; the pastor is not looking at the wellbeing of the sheep. In fact, in every relationship that members of the body of Christ find themselves in, they fail to “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3). I am convinced that if we were to humble ourselves, not regard ourselves as anything but only servants, we would be better. If our concern was to see Christ and Him crucified in our relationships, many of our problems with one another would fade and we would be less tolerant with certain sins. My prayer is that the Lord kills our flesh, that He gives us the strength to be diligently working at killing our flesh, learning to be servants and filling our minds with heavenly things (Colossians 3:1). Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 