On February 23, I attended the worship service at Orion Christian Church in Orion, IL. My first preaching ministry was at Orion, and when we decided to go there, it was the first ministry decision that Christine and I made together after we were married. Nancy was born while we ministered there. I knew after Christine died that I needed to see people at Orion who have been our friends for over 38 years, and I appreciate our elders giving me the opportunity to be away from Westwood to do so. That morning I experienced the kind of love that Christians are meant to both practice and experience from others.
When I arrived at the Orion church, I walked into their worship auditorium as their adult class was taking place. One of the ladies sensed me or saw me coming down the aisle behind her. She got out of her chair, turned to me, and we hugged and hugged and hugged, while both of us cried. Class over. Within moments, it was hugs and tears all around, and they continued through the morning.
As we have already seen in 1 Corinthians, the church at Corinth had not learned to love like that. In fact, they were divided and it had been reported to Paul that there was quarreling among them. They were choosing between personalities, always a danger in the church and life in general, so that some claimed to follow Apollos or Paul or Cephas (Peter) or Christ. They were not only listening to the teaching of their chosen leader, they were claiming to be disciples of that leader.
Paul wrote to them that their choosing sides in the church showed that they were spiritual infants. Thus, he could not address them as spiritual people because they were being merely human.
There are other behaviors besides quarreling and division that can cause us to be spiritual infants, mere humans. Any behavior or activity in the church that takes us away from making Christ central in our lives and in the church keeps us from being spiritual people.
What, then, was Paul’s solution to the problems faced by the church at Corinth? It was the same solution that works in the church today when we neglect to grow as spiritual people. It is the same thing that was poured out on me at Orion and that you have poured out on me in the last three months: We demonstrate an unconditional love to each other.
One of the high points of 1 Corinthians comes in chapter 13. Paul says that no matter how great our spiritual knowledge or faith, it means nothing unless we love each other. Why? Because “love never ends.” Because “faith, hope, and love abide, but the greatest of these is love.”
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