WHEN THE WORLD ENTERS THE CHURCH: 1 COR 1-4.

Evangelicalism suffers from a serious malady. Not in doctrine, but in its prodigal absorption of the world’s values. And to this issue I would like to use the Corinthian church as the comparative template, hoping that churches might take heed of their cultural assimilation. We begin by saying the more subtle the error the more insidious. What we can’t detect is far more dangerous than a visible enemy. The true church is called to spend a great deal of time detecting doctrinal errors; and this I say it right. But doctrinal errors are relatively easy to detect. The influence of culture on the church, however, often falls under the radar. Yes, the world enters the church is ways that are almost imperceptible. Because the churches live in a foreign land they can easily adopt the ways of their indigenous host land without realizing it. Such it was true in Corinth, perhaps more than any other New Testament church. So lets exactly what cultural enticement snookered this ancient church and see if we can draw lessons from it.

Paul begins his letter by noting that divisions had sprung up in the Corinthian church. This topic takes up the first four chapters. The ostensible issue was that the people in the church were dividing themselves along the lines of their favorite teacher. One band followed Paul, another Apollos, Cephas, and the ones who claimed to follow only Christ. Coming out of a Hellenistic culture, this tendency would not appear all that unusual. The refined elements of Hellenistic culture, of which the city of Corinth was a part, divided itself up along the lines of philosophical schools of thought. Every group had their own teachers and every group prided itself on having the ultimate answer to life. So we have, for example, the Stoics and the Epicureans mentioned in the New Testament. The Greeks, we much mention, were all about the pursuit of truth and all about their favorite leader. Apparently this feature of Greek culture had seeped into the Corinthian church. The Greeks divided over things like matter verses spirit, essence verses existence, and being verses becoming. It shouldn’t surprise us that when heathens in Corinth came to faith, they carried into their Christianity this propensity to follow their favorite teacher. As Christians teachers divided over different sorts of things like, how to interpret the Old Testament, how to present the gospel, what to do with the Jewish law, and the meaning behind the resurrection of Christ. Many Corinthians preferred the high theology of Paul while others were attracted to the eloquence and charisma of Paul’s successor, Apollos, while even others clung to the blue collar message of the fisherman, Cephas, who was called the rock. Each school followed their ‘guru’ to the exclusion of all others and it seems as if these ‘schools’ were no longer fellowshipping with one another. To Paul this was very serious.

What we can surmise is that Paul saw the Hellenistic influence and realized that the Corinthians had imbibed to a cultural norm that was detrimental to their Christian witness. For this reason Paul begins this epistle by contrasting the ‘wisdom of this world’, i.e. Hellenistic philosophy, with the simplicity and straightforwardness of the gospel, which Greeks deemed foolishness. But Paul is not deterred. He puts on both gloves and the hat of a critic and takes the Greek culture to task. He sarcastically mocks the smug Greek disputers and wise men and labels them as the real fools. He will compare Greek wisdom with the Christian message (1:23) and will find the Greek answer to be wanting. In doing this he was well aware that he would be dismissed by the highly cultured Greeks as a wacky seed-picker just as he had been in Athens. Throughout the first four chapters of this letter, Paul constantly compares the bloody, earthy, physical nature of the gospel with the spiritual, theoretical, formless ideas of Greek philosophy. Paul admits that his message would be crude to Greek ears and that he himself, the messenger, would be written off as a rough and untutored bore. He possessed no eloquence, and lacked an impressive physical presence (2:1-5). Whereas the Greeks would see these things as barbaric, Paul considered these weaknesses as being in line with the message of the gospel. For the message he preached was not a highly refined philosophical construct, but a blood and guts, rough-hewn historical account of a common Jew who claimed to be deity and then died on a Roman cross. Paul found comfort knowing that if anyone did believe this message it must be a work of God (2:5).

Paul next unleashes a dose of logic to show that Greek philosophy and Christianity were incompatible. While the Greeks would say no one could understand proper wisdom apart from Greek philosophy, Paul turns it around and says that no Greek could understand the saving gospel apart from the Holy Spirit. In other words the Greeks were too ‘spiritual’ to understand the saving beauty of Christ Crucified. Only a work of Spirit could cause one to see the gospel (2:14). Paul further explained that the deep things of God are given only to those low enough to receive them (2:10). The Greeks, who deified strength and self-sufficiency would hold this view in derision. No common ground existed between the two systems.

Paul moves forward in chapter three with an autobiographical account of how the Corinthian church began. His point is to show that teachers were not the important element of church building; only Christ and His gospel. What had brought the church into existence was not the teaching methods of the gurus, but the sinner’s resting upon the the person and work of Jesus Christ. To align oneself with a teacher, whether that be Apollos or Cephas, was only to move away from a certain foundation. In Paul’s mind, he and Apollos were mere bondservants of the risen Christ (3:5). As servants they had subservient roles under the Master Builder, Jesus. No role was superior to any other. Paul had planted and Apollos had watered but neither could save a single Corinthian soul. That authority belonged to Jesus alone. For the Corinthian church to be looking to human leaders for its identity was to simply ape the culture. This kind of partisanship would only detract from Jesus and His main message. Thus, the Corinthians must jettison all Greek ideals and stand solely on the ground of Christ crucified for sinners, which is the only foundation of the Christian faith (3:11).

In sum what Paul is doing here is challenging the Corinthians penchant for cultural assimilation. And in the apostle’s mind this is never a good thing. When the church adopts cultural values and makes them her own, this will most certainly start a glacial move away from Christ and His gospel. Because all cultures revile the gospel, taking any element of their value system is to bring the serpent into the garden. Thus, the church has one calling and that is to eschew the culture and preach the simple message of the gospel. The culture will not only despise the church’s message but will try to absorb her into its clutching arms. In so doing the guts of the gospel will be ripped out. The church must ever watch out for this standing threat.

In writing to largely American audience, we must ask, how has the American Evangelical Church fallen prey to the American culture? To do this one we in the church must understand ‘our times’ as the children of Issachar did. In order to resist the enemy we need to understand the values of the enemy. So in the remainder of this article we note some of the values of our American culture which have quietly been assimilated in the church. Without getting too technical we will look at three such American cultural values of specialization,freedom, and personal fulfillment.‍ ‍

In America there has been an increasing capitulation to specialization in every area of society. This phenomenon has increasingly seeped into the church. It began in the late nineteenth century with the advent of the industrial revolution and has only gotten worse with the advent of the technological revolution over the past seventy five years. It all began with the constant pressure to be competitive in a free market economy. Efficiency quickly became the one, indispensable virtue of the day. Efficiency expressed itself through the hands of feet of pragmatism and resting on the philosophic base of the ends justify the means pragmatism bulldozed its way over ethics. What done most quickly and efficiently was considered to be the ‘good’. In order to maximize productivity businesses turned to specialization. No longer was it productive to be good at many things. What was now needed was specialized experts at every stage of the task. This philosophy quietly overrode long held moral values and led to such abuses like sending young boys into unhealthy coal mines to work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, in order to meet production quotas. In our modern day this drive toward efficiency has elevated specialized technology to be the new sacred cow. The upshot is that in every field of human well-rounded, ethical people have been replaced by the anti-social, relativistic, specialized computer nerds so that humanity-based business paradigms have replaced by function-based Technocracy. What now matters most in American culture is whether or not something increases production. Take for example the medical field. Once upon a time there was the family physician who knew the names of your children and actually asked about Aunt Sally in Arkansas. Now patients walk into sterile rooms where they are met by a specialist whom they have never met, who hardly makes eye contact as he peruses the patient’s computer generated health summary. From this he makes medical decisions without ever once touching the patient’s body. Long gone is the traditional ‘handyman’ or ‘jack of all trades’, and the days of Ol’ Mr. McCracken who was able to work on everybody’s car in the neighborhood. The new hero of our age is the specialist who knows nothing about many things but everything about one thing. This is the person that will help businesses achieve maximum productivity. But productivity is not a virtue in Christianity or the church. And when churches make productivity and specialization the priority, they soon find that the baby they birth looks more like Amazon than Jesus. William James the father of modern Psychology saw how this move toward pragmatism would alter the very nature of truth. Everything, including truth, only has ‘cash-value in experiential terms?’ If something produces, it is true. Goodbye Moses and Jesus.

The thing to remember about specialization is that it has no soul. It is simply a ruthless way of achieving an end. In American culture it has great ‘cash value’. In the church pragmatism and specialization are Trojan horses that bring in boatloads of Confederate money. We see it on so many levels. It shapes ministries so that only those are considered worthwhile that bring measurable results. The damage is seen most glaringly in church leadership. Once there were pastors, elders and deacons who served in many capacities that centered on the care for human souls. But in many churches today, pastors who could minister to their flock in every stage of life have been supplanted by functionaries who specialize in everything from media, to security, to communication, to counseling, to administration, to small group dynamics, and everything in between. Sheep who are hurting are bounced around from one person to the next as they try to locate that one person who specializes in their need. Little wonder that many in churches walk around with confused and depressed looks on their faces. Perhaps this is a reason why many quietly exit the back door of impersonal and specialized churches. It is hard to feel loved when personal relationship has been trumped by specialization. In itself, specialization is not evil. In the economic realm it has brought many people to higher standards of living than ever before. But the church is different. Sheep are not employees of profiteering organizations but members of a living body whose task is to model human love and concern. Churches exist to serve human souls not maximize hefty profits. What the church needs the culture cannot give; qualified and compassionate pastors, elders and deacons who are called to dispense the unbounded and unspecialized love of Jesus Christ.

Another cultural icon that has seeped into the life of the church is that of freedom. We as Americans live In a country that was built on the fight for freedom and it has become the cherished value among Americans to this day. It is our ‘right’ to go where we want to go and do what we want to do, as the Mamas and Papas told us. So it shouldn’t surprise us that personal freedom is a value that pervades the church. Like the culture at large, America Christians are always intent on keeping their church options open. We fear being bound to anything that smells of commitment. As a result American Christians are generally aloof when when it comes to involvement with their spiritual communities. The reason lies hidden in our warped goal of liberty. We believe it is a right (America’s Declaration told us so) given to man to increase his wellbeing. We get to choose what is best for us and we will cling to that freedom unto death. But the fact there is such a thing as liberty assumes some kind of prior bondage. A teenager who gets his own car is free only because he was previously dependent on others. Freedom is not an innate human right but a gift given by a Liberator. But we see freedom as being in a state of complete detachment from all things. We equate freedom with America wanting fighting off the yoke of Britain. But that liberty was not Christian but a secular philosophical ideal that flowed from the Enlightenment. In other words, to the American mind freedom is one’s right to challenge and escape authority. But in the church freedom is not a freedom to escape, but a freedom to serve; to serve the Liberator, Jesus Christ. Liberty as defined by the bible is being loosed from law and ourselves to voluntary submission to the Creator. That is, true liberty is being freed from the harsh mastery of self-will to the loving mastery Christ’s will. Or to say it another way, the American version of liberty is rooted in human choice, while divine liberty is the loving choice of arising from conviction. Many Americans see liberty as that which enables us to escape conviction. Convictions bind, convictions limit choice and therefore to believe anything to be true is chokes liberty. This version of liberty is a death sentence to the community of faith. If liberty is simply doing what one wants, there is no biding conviction to do what it right, and so people hold any attachment to spiritual community lightly. But when one understands one’s liberty is based on a charter of freedom that comes from God, then one will most gladly limit his libertarian mind and gladly serve God and His people. So long as the secular view of liberty prevails, churches and other Christian ministries will find it hard to recruit dedicated people because Americans must be free of all shackles. Unfortunately many churches try to counter this trend by pounding people with the necessity of church membership, or by preaching the law of commitment in order to move the masses by guilt. The truth is that only when the Holy Spirit illumines our Christian minds and shows us to true meaning of liberty will the church prosper as it ought. And it is only by a steady preaching of God’s free grace of liberation from sins that liberation in Christ will take root.

Personal fulfillment may well be the most potent ideal in American culture. We are a nation built on the ‘pursuit of happiness.’ The American life has always been marked by fulfilling one’s dreams. Unlike cultures of yore, American culture is optimistic and ever looks forward to those halcyon days to come. Our history does nothing to squelch America’s bullish view of the future. With resources abounding, empty arable land stretching for thousands of miles, an enviable ethnic mosaic, and the security of hiding behind a great ocean have conspired to make the American experiment a unique 250 year period of prosperity. The downside is that generations who have not been part of laying the foundation want only to feed off the bounty but pay nothing. America has become a nation of handouts and entitlements. No wonder that messages like ‘having your good life now’ or ‘doing it your way’ or ‘you deserve a break today’ find such fertile ground in America. While most cultures in the history of the world struggled with day to day survival Americans today rarely struggle with anything. We have become a people who expect life to be easy. This is the core feature of the American Dream. And how this message has been uncritically imbibed in the American Church! But this ideal is antithetical to the whole drift of Holy Scriptures. The bible teaches us how difficult life on earth will be and Christians are ever exhorted to look to a future hope wherein they find eternal comfort. Not a forward look to a better future but a hope of the world to coming promised in the gospel. The Bible always pushes Christians to look away from current dreams of the present age to another world which is made real by faith. So John exhorts believers to ‘love not the world, nor the things of the world’ because we shall someday see Jesus ‘as He is’ (1 John 3:1-3).

The strength of having this future hope of fulfillment in a coming age is immeasurable. But it is constantly under siege. Christians are daily besieged with the American message of prosperity, success, joy and satisfaction now. It is a hard message to tune out. It accords with our fleshly natures. No surprise that this ideal of personal fulfillment has settled comfortably in the church. Programs, music, worship services, various ministries, are often designed to make people feel good about themselves and church. Feeling better about oneself has become the religion of the day. Preaching that entertains and centers around problem solving and tips for successful living has become the normal diet. Sadly, many churches rival the most sanguine politicians in their shameless promises of a wonderful life now. And Christians, eager to find meaning in life, soak up the product with gusto.

Sadly, prospects for a massive change in American churches is not likely. So long as people in America have everything they want and see their neighbors prospering more and more, the more likely it is that the message of fulfillment will thrive. The only hope for a reversal is that there might be a sobering work of repentance instigated by the Holy Spirit. And this, sadly, will only come if America falls into a period of economic and social darkness. Though the author does not hope for this dark prospect, he nevertheless believes it to be the best hope the American church has to forsake her pompous quest for self-fulfillment.

As in Corinth, the modern church will be ever vulnerable to the powerful influences of the world around her. Only God can save the church from assimilating the values and ideals that surround her. Careful vigilance by each individual soul will be required to detect areas where cultural assimilation is taking place. What is needed is not more pulpit pounding but more solid gospel preaching that produces grateful saints who are willing to serve the one and only Savior of sinners. Moral suggestions, practical tips devoid of the cross and showy presentations must be abandoned in favor of the radical power of Christ crucified. Only then will the church be able to ward off the blandishments of the world and stand firm in the faith once given to the saints.