1 Cor. 4:20.
The Corinthian assembly was not walking in the truth and light as becometh the children of God, and Paul wrote his first epistle apparently for the purpose of instructing and admonishing them. They had but recently "turned to God from idols," as had the Thessalonians, "to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven," and consequently were not well instructed and established in the truth as it related to the assembly. Hence we have much of what may be called church or assembly truth set forth in this epistle.
In that part now before us the apostle admonishes them of their ways as already reigning, while here in the world, and intimating that if they did reign here it must be as men in the flesh, because the Christian portion here cannot be in the pleasures of this world. He teaches them that in this world we must, if faithful to Christ, suffer with Him. That the world is necessarily in hostility to Christians, as it was to their Master and if they are reigning here something must be out of place with them. He cites the case of the apostles themselves who are suffering here as the outcasts of the world while some of the Corinthians are reveling in sensuous enjoyment. He then tells them that "some of them are puffed up as though I would not come to you, but I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. For the Kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power." "Puffed up" is never of the Spirit, but always of the flesh. "Puffed up by their fleshly minds " (Col. 2:18). The Spirit humbles. He teaches us our own nothingness. As to the flesh, "We are weak with Him; for He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God." So we, to faith, are crucified with Him, ended, dead men, as to the flesh; but we too, like Him, blessed One, live by the power of God !
This life is a new one. It is from above. It is out of death. It is a new creation. It is as born again. It is of God. It is resurrection life. It is beyond the Cross. It is beyond death and the grave. It is divine and eternal, therefore the power of this life is its source. It is of God by the Holy Spirit. "Of ourselves we are not sufficient to think anything, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." "We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us."
This is the power that Paul desired to see in the Corinthian assembly. It was not human power as manifested in eloquence of speech or the wisdom of human words, but the power of God in the demonstration of the Spirit. The power of the new life that is in Christians. " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." This is the power of Christian life, for worship and service of every sort and kind. Without Christ we can do nothing. With Him all things are possible. He acts in the assembly by the Holy Spirit when it is in the normal Christian condition. That is with every member conscious of his connection with the Head of the body, and of his place in the body, in full subjection to the Head, as the members of the human body, in health, are subject to its head; acting in obedience to the head. So in the assembly, all of one mind and heart, all in communion with the Father and the Son, having been once for all by the blood of Christ – cleansed from all sin. In this condition gathered by the Holy Spirit unto Christ the Head, He is there in the midst, leading by the Spirit, and His power is manifested; manifested through the earthen vessels.
It is-
" Our hearts are full of Christ, and long
Their glorious matter to declare!
Of Him we make our loftier song,-
We cannot from His praise forbear."
It is this power that is so much lacking in the assemblies of the saints. These cannot be worked by human power. It must be of God. The Holy Spirit not only dwells in individual saints but also in the assembly; and this is wherever two or three are gathered unto the name of Christ,-there He is in the midst; and "whatsoever ye shall ask it shall be done unto you." Of course, there will be no asking for any but spiritual blessings, and these God is concerned that we should ask and desire more and more. He is always pleased to give, and more willing than we are to receive.
In our normal place then as a Christian assembly there will be no lack of this power manifested, but we cannot expect it when an assembly is leavened with unbelief, worldliness and disobedience. It must be in the faith, by the power of God; man subjected, ended. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God." All must be of the Spirit. Neither should the enthusiasm of the flesh be mistaken for the power of the Spirit. The former excites, exhilarates; the latter subdues, humbles, subjects; so that like Paul when caught up into Paradise, we lose sight and knowledge of the body, the flesh altogether, and know not whether we are in it or out of it. J. S. P.