Arrogance. I don’t know anybody who likes an arrogant person. Two things stand out about arrogance: it is so self-serving and it is so corrosive of unity within a group of people. Adam and Eve were tremendously arrogant toward their creator when they did not listen to his warning, disobeyed and committed that first sin. They put themselves over God and it resulted in broken fellowship.

As Paul has responded to the report of division among believers in the Corinthian church, he has reminded them of their humble beginnings. He has reminded them of the contrast between God’s way and the world’s way. He has reminded them of the absolute centrality of Christ crucified for sins. His goal – to unite them in Christ. They are one household built on one foundation and they have let other worldly things, and their own desire for self-promotion, pull them apart. Their arrogance has been a big part of creating this division.

Paul knows these folk well and would be greatly grieved by the damage done to their unity and their witness.

Today’s passage wraps up Paul’s initial response to this division. He will turn to a different problem in Chapter 5.

Paul’s argument – that the Corinthians have let Corinth back into God’s church, and so undermined the message (‘Christ crucified’) and job (‘proclaim him to the world’) given them by God – is being examined in the context of God’s mob becoming divided by buying back into the culture of personality leadership (‘I follow Apollos…’). His dealing with this first manifestation of ‘Corinth back in’ goes all the way to the end of chapter 4.

In this section – 1 Corinthians 3 – Paul wants God’s mob to get a right view of their leadership. Their unwillingness to grow in maturity as God’s mob (vs.1-4) and their self-deception about true wisdom (vs.18-23) bookend his examination of their understanding of leadership in God’s mob: true leadership in God’s mob is not about personality or influence or a power-base or which leader you might like or identify with; true leadership is serving God, with the role God has given, so ‘Christ crucified’ is proclaimed and practiced.

Anything else is leadership that poaches from God, empties the proclamation of ‘Christ crucified’, and fails to enable God’s mob to be who he has made them.

In the first chapters of his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul locates the source of their ungodly behaviour in their failure to marvel at the wisdom and power of God displayed in the cross of Christ.

For as long as they continue to be impressed by human wisdom and power instead, they will remain immature in their faith and persist in worldly living. It’s by the grace of God through his gift of the Spirit that anyone comes to truly see the glory of God displayed in the crucified Christ.

Corinth is the place you came to, to make your name, to disappear, to gain your fame. It was a town built on commerce, on the deal, on being connected to the right people. It was a town renowned for its cosmopolitan life, for its ability to make you, for its connections.

Paul came to this town with a message which was none of these. As a travelling tentmaker, who was an eyewitness of Jesus, there was not much to recommend Paul. And his message didn’t help: that Jesus is THE Christ, that he died and rose again, and this can restore any person who trusts in him to God, bringing them into God’s mob.

In a world where reputations made or broke people, where wit and wealth got you ahead, where your connections made you, such a message seemed stupid, foolish, hopeless.

But such a message was actually the display of God’s nature – his power, his wisdom, his grace. And when God’s mob didn’t live this message, the power of God’s work was tarnished, emptied, undermined.

There is a certain particularity about winning the World Cup – it is an exclusive club, with not many members. It makes you a part of human history in a pretty special way. It changes your life, your identity. But, let me be blunt, it is one of many particular and ‘unique’ clubs in this world.

Being a Christian – one of God’s mob, part of the eternal community called the ‘church’ – well, that is particular in a truly unique way. It means that you describe God as ‘Father’. It means that Jesus is your ‘Lord’. It means that you are set aside to relate rightly to God. It means that you can relate rightly with God. It means that you are joined to a global and eternal community that will never disappear. It means that your life reflects the community you are now part of, solely and completely and uniquely. Church – being one of God’s mob – is not one of a series of clubs or loyalties that shape you – it is the fundamental identity that shapes everything!

And Paul wants God’s mob in Corinth to know – and live – this.

In Philippians 4:11-13, Paul says it is by learning the secret of contentment ie. that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us because, through a relationship with Christ, Christians learn to have confidence in God and in his promise of salvation. In Philippians 1:12-30, Paul says that the purpose of learning this secret of contentment is that we might follow in the example of our Lord Jesus and suffer all things for the sake of the gospel, to the glory of God.

Paul’s secret to contentment is that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. Because through Christ, Christians have been given access to the riches of the glory of God, the fullness of his character that makes him worthy of praise. However, life’s hardships and opposition to the gospel undermine our confidence in God and in his promise to share his glory fully with us on the day when Jesus returns. In Philippians 3, Paul shares his testimony of finding this confidence in his relationship with Jesus and therefore pursuing the glory of God instead of the passing glory of earthly things.

How do Christians endure opposition and hardship in the service of God?

Christians are commissioned to proclaim the gospel to all nations and to do so in the face of opposition and hardship. The apostle Paul endured strong opposition and hardship in his gospel ministry and in his letter to the Philippian church offers tips for endurance. In Phil 4:11-13, Paul shares with the church the secret of being content in all circumstances that has allowed him to persevere in gospel ministry. Paul is able to do all things through Christ who strengthens him. We examine the rest of Paul’s letter to understand what he means by contentment in Christ Jesus.

The question of the future of humanity has occupied the minds of both the religious and non-religious alike throughout history. Both camps envision a utopian future for humanity but disagree on what it will look like or even how to get there. However, both camps agree that key to unlocking that future is overcoming the problem of death. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul argues that the resurrection of Jesus guarantees bodily resurrection for all Christians because it solves the cause of death and sin. Jesus’s resurrection also guarantees the condemnation of all God’s enemies and ushers in an eternal reign of his righteous rule over humanity.

In a culture with ‘fur babies’, and calls to limit population growth by having no children, we must keep remembering God’s view of children: they are a blessing from God, part of his creation blessing and command, and they bear his image.

Children are the fruition of God’s command to ‘be fruitful’ and to ‘fill the earth’ (Gen.1:28) and are born out of the ‘one-flesh’ of the first marriage (Gen.2:23-25). And, they are affected by the fall – a child of Eve will crush the snake (Gen.3:15), their birth is painful under judgement (Gen.3:16), and they are sinful from birth in every part of their being (Gen.6:5; Ps.51:5).

God has always regarded children as part of his mob – they do not ‘grow’ into this, but their birth and life brings them into that community. They are there in the Exodus (Ex.12:13), they are there in the commandments (Ex.20:12), and they are present in the return and restoration of God’s mob (Ezra 8:21, 10:1; Is.59:21). Moreover, in the New Testament, nothing changes – just read the command at the end of Acts 2 (vs.37-40), and the instructions to the churches in Ephesians (6:1-4) and Colossians (3:20-21).

Like any human, this is only possible because of the work of the one seed of Eve: Jesus. It is by his life, death and resurrection, that any child, of any age, can be saved from their sins and brought back to God (Rom.5:12-19; John 3:16).