Hey, I stumbled across this yesterday as I was working on the Corinthian study. This paragraph stood out to me because of what we have been talking about lately concerning healing and faith in God. Here, you are stating a question about the Corinthian saints and their faith:
“Why will it be only when their faith is increased that they will be able to see who Paul is? Because nothing, even the most obvious truths, can be believed without faith. The Corinthian’s are struggling because of a lack of faith, not a lack of attention and care from either Paul or God, not from a lack of spiritual gifts, not from a lack of real experiences in the holy Ghost, but a lack of faith. Worldliness had crept in and robbed them of faith. Paul is continually pointing them to spiritual purity (unmixed worship and doctrine) so that their faith can be restored and increased. It is by faith that we understand anything that is from God (Heb. 11:3); it is not by intelligence that any man knows Him or His ways.” (Pastor John)
It made me think of you, your efforts, and your admonishments to us on how to stay pure and holy before the Lord. And how each time the Lord gives you something, you pass it on to us, to tweak, clean us up, or pass on truth for us to believe in – to increase our faith, and to keep worldliness unmixed with our worship. Paul was always working. And because of the Corinthians lack of faith, they could not see who Paul was for them.
I thought about the conveniences of life that we have and how those things can creep in unawares. You can see how those things can dull your faith and you can become satisfied or complacent with things (in the sense of becoming unaware of or unwilling to address potential dangers to your spirit, deficiencies (things lacking spiritually), or the need for further effort or improvement (being lazy spiritually or puffed up). It seems that you can believe in miracles, have experiences and spiritual gifts, but if you don’t put aside worldliness, you won’t increase in faith.
We watched your message last night about not being a part of the “Gentile religion” [Christianity], where you were talking about gleaning faith from others in Christ but not taking on their doctrine – even the Gentile religion is a form of worldliness. We’ve seen the evidence of that. There are so many things that can dull your faith, even if we are like the Corinthians. They had spiritual gifts and experiences and were not lacking much. But their faith being dulled meant, in the Corinthians future, falling away from the truth Paul taught them. Whew!
It got my attention yesterday. You wrote this over 30+ years ago, and it still stands today, just as Paul was dealing with it centuries ago. I have a thankfulness in my heart to know these things and also a prayer to not let my/our faith fail and be overcome with worldliness of any sort. So that our faith will be increased!
Amy B.
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Pastor John,
I give this paragraph a big amen. I have been searching my heart and soul, and praying for godly sincerity and godly humility – something this world knows nothing about at all! MY heart has been hurting, longing for what Jesus has for us! There are no frills or thrills in this world for me, nothing like Jesus! I feel like I’m just going thought the motions, longing to be consumed with HIS LIFE HE HAS GIVEN ME.
Jimmy T.