Culture of the Kingdom
Today’s Topic: Fellowship: Spiritual Families: Orphans and the Church
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:14-21
Greetings Kingdom Citizens
Paul says to the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 4:21: “What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?” Now Paul can say this because He told them that he is their spiritual father in Christ Jesus through the gospel (1 Corinthians 4:15). But if we look at today’s current church culture are we producing spiritual fathers who watch over the souls of a group of individuals and disciple them in the ways of the Christ or are we producing orphans?
Based upon what we see the current church system produces and maintains orphans which makes the people fatherless. Now you may say that is harsh but let’s look at the character of an orphan and correlate it with today’s church culture. First, you cannot discipline an orphan because an orphan is someone who already knows the rejection of a father. Now most of what we hear from people in the church is come join our church and become a member or “my bishop is so-and-so and we have all these programs but you have to become a member”. Rarely do we hear I have a spiritual father who shows me the ways of Christ and has assisted me in growing spiritually and if you have a problem, I would like to introduce you to him if you would like to meet him?” The church membership is largely based upon the entertainment and popularity of the preacher. But if we look at the scripture, Paul is clear when he tells the church at Corinth, you need fathers (1 Corinthians 4:15). Now being a spiritual father means you disciple the sons and daughters to maturity.
If you cannot disciple a person, you cannot bring them into maturity. I do not care if you been in the church for 65 years and your parents attended the church and bought the land for it, if you cannot be discipled then spiritually you will stay an orphan and many times they are the ones that keep up the most confusion in the church because they choose not to submit and be taught. Many times if you put weight or pressure on any of these orphans they will shift to some place where they are comfortable or even leave the church to go to a place where they “feel” comfortable. The biggest problem in the church as it pertains to discipleship is people accepting correction and this is what Paul was speaking about in 1 Corinthians 4:21. Boy, I tell you, people in the church today will slice your head off if you try to correct them but if they cannot accept correction then they will remain immature and orphans. Now the sad part of that is God WILL NOT entrust the responsibilities of the Kingdom to any immature person.
Now God corrects us on two levels and these levels vary in consequence and severity. The first way God tries to correct us in through a spiritual father or another person in general. He speaks through a human to give us correction. Now at this level you have a chance to change and repent and most times punishment is minor. Now if you are an orphan or someone who is unfathered can never have an appropriate vision of who God the Father is. Why? Because God will correct you. He tries to give you a chance to correct the behavior through the spiritual father but if that is not possible correction moves to the next level, God Himself. Now let me make this clear, you do not want this type of correction because if God has to do it Himself it is because your problems are fully matured and there is no other alternatives but to suspend your behavior by confrontation. One of the situations that God did not put up with, especially from the children of Israel was false god worship. After showing all that power and showing He is the One True Living God and the God of their Fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when they were delivered and Moses met with God in the mount, the children of Israel built the false god of Egypt, Apis, the golden calf at the foot of the mount where God came to speak to them. God did not come through Moses to deal with this, He dealt with it directly and 3,000 souls lost their lives to sin. Direct confrontation with God is not the way. Many people have left this Earth because they chose not to be corrected or repent from destructive behavior. You rather God whisper correction to you through a spiritual father than confront you directly and correct you Himself. Direct correction from God is not good and I have personally felt it from the previous worldly ways I was living. I felt like I was at the bottom of life and nothing seemed to want to go right. But when I repented and changed my ways to His ways, I could understand the love God had for me because instead of taking me out, He loved me enough to know that I truly had repented and knew that I would walk in my destiny and do His Will.
In the next message we will continue discussing spiritual families.
At the Father’s Service,
Elder Calvin Calhoun Jr.
