Into Repentance
A Child Will Lead Them • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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We live in a day and age when contacting other people is incredibly easy. With some clicks and some taps you can fire off messages and updates and information in ways that, thirty years ago, few of us would have ever dreamed of.
But while it is easy to send someone a message, it isn’t easy to actually communicate. How many times have you sent what you thought was a simple reply to someone and it is misunderstood or misconstrued or totally taken the wrong way?
So how do you respond when all of the sudden the conversation takes on an adversarial tone? When, unexpectedly, a simple matter gets personal? Most of us have run across those delicate moments, when you type out a way-too-long text message or email and you’re just about to click send. For a second, you hesitate to pull the trigger. Maybe you re-read the whole thing. Perhaps you seek out a loved one to be your impromptu editor. Maybe the whole thing spends that night tucked away in your drafts folder. It’s pretty rare, when it goes through that process, that everything stays as it was. More often than not, a second reading, a second set of eyes, or more than a few seconds to compose yourself changes what you originally composed.
Why is that? Because when you feel like someone is attacking you it is hard not to respond in kind. When their message seems to you to be filled with snark and scorn, it is difficult not to retaliate.
Which makes these verses all the more amazing. Though these are the opening verses of 1st Corinthians, this is the not Paul’s first interaction with the Christians at Corinth.
On his second missionary journey, Paul spent eighteen months in Corinth teaching many of these people the good news about Christ crucified and risen from the dead. After a year and a half, Paul moved on to another city and did more church planting work. But he stayed in touch with God’s people in Corinth. And even though we rightly call this letter First Corinthians, it was not the first time he had written to them after he left. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul references another letter that he had written to them—a letter that was not preserved by the Holy Spirit and, while useful to the Corinthians, not something the invisible Church had need of.
In that letter, Paul addressed specific issues & temptations the Corinthians were facing. They responded with a letter that asked several follow-up questions—which Paul addressed in this letter—but also challenged Paul’s authority as an apostle and called into question everything that he had taught them.
As a result the Corinthians had fallen into immorality and heresy. They were quick to use the freedom they had in Christ as a cover-up for sinful behavior. They were eager to talk about all the spiritual gifts they had as individuals—gifts like prophecy and wisdom and the ability to speak in tongues—but they were slow to love one another sacrificially and live the body that Christ made them to be. Their celebration of the Lord’s Supper had devolved, too. Some got drunk. Others got nothing.
As a church, the Corinthians were dysfunctional. Doctrinally speaking, the Corinthians had gotten too big for their britches. They thought they were wise. They thought they were mature. They thought they didn’t need Paul looking over their shoulder. The Corinthians were like a bratty teenager who couldn’t see their own foolishness and stubbornly insisted they knew better. And that is why Paul was writing to them.
Can you imagine how you would respond to this group? If you’ve raised teenagers, you might not have to imagine. Perhaps there were moments when you lost your cool. But not Paul. (1 Cor. 1:3) Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 1:4) I always thank my God for you. (1 Cor. 1:5) In him you have been enriched in every way. (1 Cor. 1:7) You do not lack any spiritual gift.
Paul is so effusive in his thanks & praise that some commentators suggest he is speaking ironically. They come to this conclusion because they believe that no one in Paul’s position could speak that highly of a group of people who had been speaking so poorly about him in his absence. Their view is that Paul is human and humans take challenges and insults personally and respond in kind. They go on to point out that many of the things that Paul mentions here, he will circle back to and offer scathing criticism about. The Corinthians think they are rich, but they are living as poor examples of their faith. They think they are eloquent, but their words are faulty. They think they are wise, but they have been behaving foolishly. They think very highly of all their spiritual gifts, but they have neglected the greatest gift: love. They are anything but blameless. With all the infighting and selfishness and false teachings running rampant in this divided and struggling congregation, they are hardly enjoying the fellowship that God has called them into.
And that makes sense, to you and me, doesn’t it? Because dealing with confrontations is difficult and demanding work. It is hard enough to address someone when they are headed down the wrong path. And it only becomes all the more difficult when someone challenges your right and your capacity to correct them. It only gets more grueling when that person retaliates by attacking your character and your very identity.
When that happens, how do you respond? We get quiet or quarrelsome.
Let start on the softer side. Many of us, when we see someone who is living at odds with the Law of God, say nothing at all. Confrontation like that is just not in our nature—or so we tell ourselves. In the rare moments when we do find the courage to address the evil elephant in the room, we shudder when someone lashes out at us—especially when they make it personal. We’re hesitant to deal with a friend with a substance abuse problem or a problem with pornography, when we think they are going to bring up that time we had too many drinks or those times we have fallen prey to sexual temptations. We’re reluctant to rebuke the spiritual failings of our own children in how they raise their kids, when we anticipate them recalling all our mistakes in raising them. And when they say what we think they might say about us, we shut down. And the sin continues to run unchecked and rot whatever spiritual foundation that person once had.
Of course that isn’t how it goes every time. Sometimes, instead of being quiet, we get quarrelsome. We view it as an argument to be won. We know we’re right and we want that person to see that we’re right. So we brandish the Law of God recklessly. We raise our voices and we wag our fingers. We cannot believe anyone would be so stupid as to sin in this way. And so rarely is that approach effective because it shows little compassion for the sinner and their soul. Because it only seeks to crush and destroy, rather than to rebuke and lead to repentance.
These are the two ends of the spectrum. In between you have gossiping behind the person’s back, passive aggressive digs, silly attempts to prevent the sinner from having to face the consequences of their sinful choices, nagging, and outright hostility.
While all of these responses to sin seem different, they have one thing in common. They are loveless. This is how you respond to someone sinning if you don’t love God’s Word or God’s creation—mankind.
That is not what we hear in Paul’s words, is it? From his greeting, to his thankfulness, to his detailed commendations, it is clear Paul loves these people. He wants what is eternally best for them. And that is why he takes their attacks on his apostolic authority seriously, but not personally. He understands why they are behaving the way they do. Paul is not the problem. It’s their sinful nature. The reason they have gotten too big for their britches, the reason they have bought into all kinds of false doctrines, the reason they are plagued with infighting and disunity, the reason they are abusing the Lord’s Supper is because they are sinful people who have fallen into temptation. Paul knows what they need. They don’t need him to wag his finger at them. They don’t need him to trot out all his credentials. They need Jesus. They need to see that the Lord their God takes a personal interest in them—in their sin and in their salvation.
Paul knew this is what they needed, because he knew that was what he once needed. Paul knew the Lord God took a personal interest in proud and even belligerent sinners, because that is what he once was.
There was a time that Paul challenged the authority of the whole Christian church. He was there and offered his approval when Stephen was executed for professing his faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior. In fact, he was so certain that these believers were wrong that he hunted them down. He made it his mission to (Acts 8:3) destroy the church. He was breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He had men and women thrown in prison and executed. He traveled to foreign cities (Acts 26:11) to hunt them down and have them punished or compel them to blaspheme Jesus. By his own admission, he was obsessed with persecuting Christians. And then Jesus stepped in. A bright light flashed around Paul, or Saul, as he was known in those days. Jesus asked him one question: (Acts 9:4) Why are you persecuting me? Paul asked who was speaking. (Acts 9:5) I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
But that Jesus did more than just speak to Paul. He lived for Paul. He died for Paul’s sins. And he rose again from the dead so that Paul—and all sinners—might have the hope of resurrection from the dead. This reality is what made Paul so thankful. He knew the grace of God had been revealed in the Son of God. He knew that peace with God had been established by his Lord Jesus Christ. He knew the life-changing power of the Gospel personally and he trusted in that power to bring the Corinthians to repentance and to help them grow and mature in godly living.
And that is what he emphasizes in these opening verses. At first blush, it may seem like Paul is buttering up the Corinthians before really laying into them. But he is not. Everything he praises about them is something God has done for them or in them.
God their Father and their Lord Jesus Christ has gifted them his undeserved love—grace. Because God so loved the Corinthians—and the whole world—he took on flesh and blood and gave himself up for us all, so that we might be reconciled to God and have true peace with our holy God. Peace that lasts. Peace that passes all understanding. Peace that transforms our relationships with other sinners.
We all have received that same grace and peace. And look at how it impacts how Paul speaks to these people who had been trashing him behind his back. I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. You have been enriched in every way, with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge. You do not lack any spiritual gift. Paul was not saying things that he wished to be true. Paul was not naively optimistic. He was confident in the power of God. He knew the Corinthians had received God’s grace in Word and Sacrament. They had come to know (Eph. 2:4) the riches of God’s mercy and had been made alive with Christ. God had a plan to (Eph. 2:7) show the incomparable riches of his grace through these people. The Lord their God had brought them together and he remains faithful.
And he does the same for us today. There are so many times when you and I find ourselves in situations like the Apostle Paul. There are people we know and love and we know that we really ought to address some particular sin. Perhaps it is an unbridled tongue. Maybe they have drifted from being in God’s house and his Word with any regularity. It could be that they have grown gossipy or always griping about their fellow Christians.
Can you see the pattern Paul provides us here? He does not get into a war of words. He isn’t looking to show up or even shame the Corinthians. He speaks forcefully and clearly—just read the rest of his letter—but he always does so with a spirit of humility and love. He is not looking to win the argument, but win his brothers and sister over.
So he begins with the gifts of God. He reminds wandering sinners of all the riches of God’s mercy and love. He points out all the blessings that God has showered on them in his Word and with their fellow believers. He points them to Jesus, the author and perfecter of their faith. The one who has taken a personal interest in our salvation. The one who knows every single one of our sins and has died for them so that we might not have to. The one who personally claims us as his own in the waters of Baptism, where he cleanses us of all our sins and renews us by his own Spirit so that we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life in heaven.
We can do no better than that. We live in a world that is quick to chew people out and criticize them, but is slow to admonish and rebuke and instruct and encourage. Our world is quick to point out faults and flaws because they do not have what we have. They are just trying to fix people to suit their own tastes and sensibilities. We want to fix people’s eyes on Jesus, the one who loves us fully and sacrificially. We have the powerful Word of God which is able to make any sinner wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Because of God’s great love for us, we have every spiritual gift we need. And that is reason to thank God—for each other, for his Word, and for his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.