11) For
it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the
house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
12) Now
this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of
Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas;
and I of Christ.
13) Is
Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
14) I
thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus
and Gaius;
15) Lest
any should say that I had baptized in mine own name.
16) And
I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides,
I know not whether I baptized any other.
17) For
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
18) For
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us
which are saved it is the power of God.
|
I |
t
is important for those of us with the truth to understand the difficulty of the
problem we are facing. Why must we understand about "getting the truth to
the perishing?" Because too often, we get frustrated
explaining the requirements of salvation and telling them about all of our
blessings. Yes, even after all this, the
individual can still often seem unmoved. What does this do to us? Generally, it
causes us to feel that we are being rejected.
There
is no reason that we should accept this as a personal reflection, for anyone we
approach who is without the Holy Ghost is not equipped
to understand the truth we bring. If the Lord can ever get
His people to understand this, He will have much more successful "kingdom
workers."
Why
is it such a hard job to impart truth? Why is there such disparity in what is
accepted as truth? Because if an individual thinks that what he already knows
is truth, he will not be open to correction. In order for any of us to learn
anything, we must always remain open to the possibility that there is something
that we do not know.
There
has never been as much exposure for the Word as there is now. We are the age of
the media and as long as one has the money, he can have the time. Obviously,
this opens opportunity for the lie, as well as the truth. On any given day, you
can turn from station-to-station and hear all manner of interpretations of the
truth. What we need to understand is that most often, one teaching an error is
not doing so in utter defiance of God, but simply because he has never been
taught anything different. Now, when we think of how many people this
encompasses that we see and or hear, how many others are there about whom we
never know? What a responsibility we have!
Who
else is better equipped to promote truth than those who have? The
"packaging" of God requires three elements: 1) A teacher of truth 2)
A receiver of truth and 3) A promoter of truth. An essential requirement for
all of these is patience for it is never easy to get Man to change what he
believes.
Too
often, we take the promotion of truth personally, as if its acceptance is
dependent upon our efforts. We must never forget that it is not our truth to
give, so we also need not have a problem if it is not readily accepted.
You
know, when someone is "perishing," he is in an actively diminishing
state. He is undergoing a process whereby life is ebbing from him. One in this
state is not in any position to hear, much less accept the
"foolishness" of the preaching of the Word of God. He is in dire need
of an example—an example of victory strong enough to sway him from lethargy to
power in the Lord.
Part
of the responsibility of being an example in Christ is being able to show the
lost and the perishing that God's blessings last! We accomplish absolutely
nothing when we claim healing, deliverance, blessings and other things from the
Lord and then promptly find ourselves in need again. Not that these things
won't present themselves, but we are never to present the impression that we
are without direction or in distress. In other words, "God's blessings
last."
We need to beware of remaining "mute" about our blessings in the Lord. Since the Lord does all He does to win man, how will we ever fulfill our responsibility if we never tell others what He has done? Even thought several times, Jesus instructed those He had healed not to broadcast the deed, this was to keep Him crucified. Today, he has already been crucified, so the more attention we can bring to His accomplishment, the better.
In
case we had a doubt, we have no right to be afraid to tell, or not care about
telling others what we know to be the truth of the Word of God. The
"freedom" that we have and take for granted comes not of ourselves,
but the fact that we have accepted the truth. Accordingly, Everyone
deserves the opportunity to be free from his flesh. If this is not our desire
for others, we are prisoners of that most dangerous of vices—selfishness.
The
enthusiasm we have for what we have received is what will anoint others to bear
witness with us of the Lord's joy and goodness. But, enthusiasm for anything is
born of appreciation and if we have none for God, we will fail to be able to
entice anyone to His side.
No
matter what he says or how he acts (how resistant he appears to be), Man must
be given the opportunity to hear and accept truth, for this is the divisive
issue between those who will be saved and those who will be lost. Many who resist
truth do so because of a lack of understanding, making our dedication to our
job that much more important.
"Getting the truth to the perishing" must be the focus of any "last days" ministry—for it is God's focus. And He has a right to deal with anyone in His Church any way He wishes. When we learn to accept this, the program of God will be that much closer to being fulfilled.