2 Corinthians 13:11-14 We Have Unity Through the Trinity 1. Unity with God 2
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
2 Corinthians 13:11-14 We Have Unity Through the Trinity 1. Unity with God 2. Unity with one another 3. Unity with all Christians Trinity Sunday June 11, 2017 "Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints send their greetings. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." (NIV84) There can be a big difference between union and unity, isn't there? You can certainly have the former without the latter. If you want to see an example of union without unity, tie two cats together by their tails and hang them over a clothesline. You'll see union, but you won't see unity. Or if you’re old enough to remember watching Archie Bunker and his son-in-law trying to go through the same door at the same time, you’ve seen union—but not unity. Or, more ominously, think of those meetings you sit in at work--you're all together in the same room, but you all have a different hidden agenda. And yes, think about some of those tense evenings around the supper table at your house. You're all gathered around one table, but that's the only way in which you could be said to be "together." Is unity possible? Unity with God? Unity with one another? 1. Unity with God If you read 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, by the time you get to the end, you might think that unity with God would be just about impossible for the Corinthians. After all, of all the congregations to whom Paul wrote, the congregation at Corinth would appear to have been the least godly. In 1 Corinthians, Paul had to chastise them for the fact that they had split into factions--some claiming to be followers of Paul, others claiming to be followers of Peter, and still others claiming to be followers of Apollos. He goes on to tell them that he has to treat them as infants, so weak and worldly that they still could only handle milk instead of solid food. Yet in spite of this, they were puffed up and proud, acting as though they were highly advanced in their spirituality. As proof of their advancement in spirituality, they proudly pointed to the fact that an unrepentant adulterer was part of their congregation. In light of these things, it's hardly surprising to learn that the members of the congregation were using their Christian freedom as an excuse for sexual sins, that their fellowship activities had degenerated into drinking contests, and that they still tried to claim more "spirituality" than the next person. Perhaps even worse, the members of the Corinthian congregation were so lacking in unity that they were actually taking one another to court! And all this was just in 1 Corinthians! Paul had to write 2 Corinthians to address additional problems! Yet Paul closes his letter by saying such things as, "The God of love and peace will be with you." These people didn't even have unity with one another! How could Paul expect that they would have unity with a holy God?!?! Union with a holy God--that we might expect--union in the sense of God administering an awful punishment to them. If Paul had said, "The God of holiness and judgment will be with you" we could understand that. But as sinful as they were--and as appalling as some of those sins were!--there simply couldn't be any way they could join themselves with God in peace, could there? No. They couldn't join themselves to God, because all they would have to offer was compromise. Neither can we play any role in having unity with God, because all we have to offer is compromise. And God isn't willing to compromise. God will not settle for a fake, outward unity. We might have hoped that if we showed up most Sundays for church and tried to live more or less (sometimes "more", but quite often "less") according to God's commandments, he would treat us as his children, pretending that we are really decent people, while ignoring our testiness with our families, our tendency to look down on others, and our occasional excesses. But God does not compromise. God has demanded perfection, and he will accept nothing less. He told Adam and Eve as much in the Garden of Eden when he said that because of their one sin they would die. If unity with God were dependent on us, we would have no hope. But it was also there in the Garden of Eden that we saw what Paul calls "the love of God." For it was there that God said, "No, I won't simply look the other way and pretend this didn't happen--even though we all know that it did. I won't change my standards--and reveal myself as a God who will not keep his word. I won't be a God who speaks and then does not act. I will punish your sin. But I will punish my Son for your sin. He will take your place. And when he has done so, in love I will accept his payment on your behalf." And so in love, God sent his Son to earth. In that Son we see what Paul calls "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ." Grace is undeserved love, and Paul couldn't have picked a better word to describe what Jesus did. In obedience to his Father, and out of undeserved love for us, he humbled himself, subjecting himself to life on earth--but not just any life. No, for his grace caused him to subject himself to a life of rejection, poverty, and finally suffering of soul and death. In order that we might receive the benefits of Christ's suffering and death, in order that we might be made aware of our new status before God, Jesus sent--as we heard last week--the Holy Spirit to work faith in our hearts. When the Holy Spirit takes someone who hated God and his demands and converts them, or turns them around, by bringing them to faith, that person has peace with God and "the fellowship of the Holy Spirit." There you see the Trinity in unity--all 3 persons active in different ways, but all working in unity for our salvation! Then "the God of love and peace is with us", and we are with him. We have not joined ourselves with God in peace, but God has joined himself with us in peace. Through the Trinity, we have received unity with God. 2. Unity with one another And not only do we have unity with God, but this leads to unity with one another. Paul talks about that unity when he says, "Greet one another with a holy kiss." Now of course when we hear this, our first reaction might be, "That's a little more unity than I would like!" But for people of Paul's time it was the equivalent of a firm, smiling-and-looking-someone-in-the-eyes handshake. Or perhaps the equivalent of a warm embrace. It was a way of letting someone know that whatever differences there were between you, they didn't really matter, because you were in complete agreement on the really important things. And that was true for the Corinthians too. It didn't really matter whether they thought Paul was a better or worse teacher than Peter or Apollos. It didn't matter anymore whether they had previously erred on the side of permissiveness or on the side of being judgmental. What mattered now was that they believed in God the Father Almighty, whom Paul had preached. What mattered now was that they believed in Jesus Christ our Lord, whom Peter had preached. What mattered now was that they believed in the Holy Spirit, whom Apollos had preached. So also with us. We already know that it doesn't matter whether we live in Cottonwood or Clarkdale or Camp Verde or Rimrock. We already know it doesn't matter whether our family income is 5 figures or 6 figures. But we also know that it doesn't matter whether you like the old Lord’s Prayer or the new Lord’s Prayer. What matters is that when we pray that Lord’s Prayer, we are both praying to the same God and Lord. We know that it doesn’t matter whether we think pipe organ or electric guitar are the best form of music in worship. What matters is that when God’s people make use of their musical gifts in worship, they are doing so in order that they and we might give glory to the triune God who has created us, redeemed us, and sanctified us. We know that it doesn’t matter whether we are long-time members of Peace or whether we have joined Peace more recently. What matters is that we are here, having been brought into unity through the Trinity. 3. Unity with all Christians Finally, we have unity with all other Christians. Paul said to the Corinthians, "All the saints send their greetings." Now maybe at first this doesn't sound particularly personal. Kind of like when you’re talking on the phone with someone, and they say, "Oh, so and so just walked by, and they told me to say hi to you." What is your response? "Tell them I said hi, too." Yet neither you nor they say, “Let me talk to them”—because neither of you are particularly interested in doing so.