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The War for the Soul of the Church
If Jesus is God’s road, God’s way, and if He intends to come into greater clarity among His people in the years ahead, then how does God intend to help us discover and then stay on His road? The answer is really quite simple. Just as He had Paul bring apostolic “fine-tuning” to the church at Corinth, He is presently restoring authentic apostolic ministry to His house in our day.
Have you ever heard someone make beautiful music while playing a cheap, beat up, old guitar? It is amazing what a skilled musician can do with a properly tuned instrument. On the other hand, have you ever heard someone strum a very expensive yet out of tune guitar? It can sound pretty ugly. Proper tuning is crucial to producing a harmonious sound. Even so, God’s people are like an instrument in His hand. And He is tuning us; He is bringing us into proper harmony with himself and with one another. The biblical term is “reconciliation”. He has reconciled us to himself and given us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).
But we must stay in tune with Him. Paul challenged the church at Corinth to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20). Though they had at one time been reconciled to Him, they had somehow fallen out of tune. The heavenly sound in His heart that the Master Musician wanted to express to the city of Corinth was in fact being distorted in and through His people.
One function of apostolic ministry in the New Testament was to not only plant churches, but to help the local congregations come increasingly into harmony with the values and priorities of Christ, their head. When a local church moved in a wrong direction, apostolic ministry would either visit them or write letters. As a result, we have in our possession New Testament epistles filled with apostolic insight to fine–tune us with the Lord as well as with each other. What a precious treasure God put into our hands when He gave us the Bible.
But false ministry had come in among the Corinthian believers, and their influence had adversely affected the church. The believers had begun to think and then act in ways that were not in harmony with God’s heart. Paul referred to the false ministries as “super–apostles” (2 Corinthians 11:5 ESV). The problem is that Christ did not give “super–apostles” for the equipping of His saints; He gave apostles.
There are no super–pastors, no super–prophets, etc. in God’s house. Even the most highly visible international ministries are but redeemed people infused with the presence and grace of God. We are all totally ruined apart from Him. Yet because of His amazing mercy, He has given grace to each of us that we might be conformed to His likeness as we serve Him and one another. None of us has any proper grounds for thinking of ourselves as anything more than simply the recipients of His great mercy and kindness.
But these intruders among the Corinthians arrogantly saw themselves as greater than Paul, because they evaluated on the basis of outer appearance rather than according to the heart. Notice Paul’s words.
We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart.
(2 Corinthians 5:12 ESV)
They accused the apostle of writing letters that seemed powerful but were not backed up with a validating personal presence. And besides all that, as far as they were concerned, his ability to speak publicly was simply atrocious.
For they say, His letters are weighty and impressive and forceful and telling, but his personality and bodily presence are weak, and his speech and delivery are utterly contemptible (of no account).
(2 Corinthians 10:10 The Amplified Bible)
Because the church had started to buy into the thinking of these impostors, they began to believe that such flawed input was actually essential. “These men have brought a different perspective than Paul. What perception! Why apart from them, we will never come into the fulfillment of God’s purpose for us.”
Paul’s response was to quote from Isaiah Chapter 49, verse 8.
For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.”
He then went on to say:
Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Isaiah’s prophecy was referring to a promise from God the Father to His Son. According to the prophet, after experiencing hatred and rejection, the Messiah would bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth. Indeed, kings and princes would arise and worship Him because of Yahweh’s faithfulness (Isaiah 49:6-7).
The Father’s promise in scripture to His Son written many years before the fact was that in an acceptable time He heard Him and in the day of salvation He helped Him. Then centuries later, both in His earthly ministry and culminating in the garden of Gethsemane, the acceptable time arrived. There, the Father heard His Son when Jesus cried out to be saved from the power of death (Hebrews 5:7). A few days later, the day of salvation had come and the Father manifested his power by raising His Son from the dead.
Indeed, God had been faithful and Christ was now bringing His salvation to the ends of the earth by His Spirit operating through the apostles. But the Corinthians had turned their eyes away from the Lord’s sovereign work and had put them on these false apostles. Their vision was being diverted.
False ministry will always redirect the attention of believers away from Christ and onto themselves. To the degree that she gives heed to such influence, the bride of Christ will slowly but surely find her interest being rerouted toward the greatness of the minister, his spiritual gifts, his particular stream of churches, or of certain doctrines he espouses.
But the Corinthians themselves had become living proof, not only of the present ongoing activity of Christ among the nations, but also of the fulfillment of the ancient promise made through the prophet Isaiah that God’s salvation would extend to the nations. The accepted time was now; the day of salvation was now. The grace of God had now come to them through the gospel and to some degree had transformed their lives. How great certain men thought they were compared to others was simply not the point. And those who espoused such thinking were false.
In fact, even the twelve apostles had themselves fallen into such comparative thinking during Jesus’ earthly ministry. Just when He had opened His heart to them about His coming suffering, their hearts were so wrongly focused that they fell into an argument about which one of them was the greatest (Luke 9:44 - 46).
After the Lord adjusted their perspective concerning competition among themselves, one of the disciples moved the discussion toward how they as a group were greater than others. Now John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us” (Luke 9:49). In other words, John’s view was that such ministry should only be connected to the group that he was in with the Lord. “Our group is the more significant one here.” Again, Jesus adjusted their perspective. Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side (Luke 9:50).
First the apostles fell into comparing themselves with each other. Then they fell into comparing themselves collectively to others not in their group. Then, as if that were not enough, they thought it appropriate for apostles of Christ to call down fire and destroy those (in this case, some Samaritans) who had not received them properly (Luke 9:53-54). The fact that these people were both racially different as well as theologically mistaken probably made it easier for the disciples to think the way they did.
How grievous.
Jesus response? You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them (Luke 9:55-56 NKJV).
The apostles had tasted some power, authority, and success in ministry (Luke 9:1 - 6). A few had even recently experienced something of Heaven’s glory at Christ’s transfiguration (Luke 9:28 - 32). Yet the attitude they exhibited afterward was so painful to the Lord that He had to rebuke them. Sometimes our success in ministry can be the greatest tool in God’s hand for exposing pride in us.
I believe that the above scriptures reveal a progression. The first step is when we compare ourselves with those close to us and conclude that we are greater than them. The second step is when we see our group or fellowship of churches as greater than others. The final step is to then move into the kind of violent spirit that seeks to forcibly change or remove those who simply will not fit into our vision for the Earth. Here is the heart of the religious wars that have brought such grief to Christ and have been such a stain to the history of His Church.
And the root of the whole problem is pride and self–promotion.
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