A COVENANT PEOPLE

Acts 8:1-4 records that the Romans persecution separated the Christians
in Jerusalem and sent them in small groups to live in other parts of the
empire. Little did Roman know how God would use that action to spread
the gospel. Everywhere the Christians went, the Christians witness sprang
up because of the way the Christians shared the gospel.

Well . . . nearly everywhere! The group who went to Corinth did not do so
well. After their relocation they had a treasurechest problem. Jewish
values did not fare so well in the lust capital of the empire. Located on a
little strip of land between two major bodies of water, their new town was
filled with pagan and immoral influences.

Conflict between Christians values and Corinthian values began to take its
toll. One man had an affair with his father's wife. Critical spirits, fed by guilty
consciences, fractured the life of the little group in the church. Spiritual gifts
were used as toys for play and for private, personal enjoyment. Embarrassed
by their lack of fellowship with the Master, Christians found little basis for
fellowship with one another. A selfish spirit replace their servant spirit.
Gatherings were marked by strife. Factions and divisions devastated their
meetings.

The Christians at Corinth were still going through the motions of worship, but
the reality of being the body of Christ had vanished. They were similar to clouds
with no water. When servanthood is lost, the body of Christ is dead. What replaces
it is an ugly and self-serving assembly. When they tried to share the Lord's Supper,
there was no intimacy, no love. The feast time was marked by self-serving actions
common meal was shared; each family brought food and are separately from the
others. As a result, one drank too much wine while a poor family ate little or nothing.

How different from the church they left behind in Jerusalem! There they had gone
from house to house, breaking bread and sharing their wealth as needs arose. Here
they had kept the form of a body of Christ, but the life of that body was dead.

*The most powerful form of evangelism available today is the lifestyle of the
transformed community of God.
* When servanthood is lost, the body of Christ is dead.
*The church's fellowship suppers were actually adding to the problem rather than
helping it.
*The church was divided.
*Factions existed.
*The Corinthians were not sharing their food at the fellowship suppers.