In Your Thinking

​5th Sunday after Epiphany – C                                                                       LSB #’s 400, 850, 411
Text – 1 Corinthians 14:20
 
Brothers, do not be children in your thinking.  Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
 
IN YOUR THINKING
 
 
Children can be genuinely nasty  to each other.  In their zest for self-promotion, they’ve been known to do whatever is necessary, even at the expense of other children,  for vicious self-seeking.    Adults    are nothing more than old children  & can also be genuinely nasty  to children & adults  alike.   The apostle Paul was dealing with that  in the church at Corinth. 
  Corinthian society, like ours, was characterized by a feverish quest for power.   That’s why our federal bureaucrats & politicians are screaming so much,  because there was a huge power shift  after the last election.  The cabinet confirmation hearings  are not much more than televised moments of self-promotion.  One group is gaining power  & the other is losing it. 
Corinthian society was much more overtly spiritual  than ours.  The pagan religions of their day thought that divine or cosmic forces  infilled certain people to liberate them from the physical nature & misfortune of this life.   While on this ‘cloud nine,’   they’d demonstrate power through prophetic utterances that were sensational  even if they were incomprehensible. 
This was in great contrast to St. Paul’s message.   He preached that truly spiritual people still live & struggle in weakness  under the shadow of the cross  of Jesus Christ.   Gifted with the Spirit of the true God,  His followers live  not by sight,  but by faith.   They patiently endure the injustice of this world   to join God’s Son  at the final & eternal resurrection from the dead. 
Christ’s followers endure the tensions of their “already but not yet” existence  as saints longing to be delivered from weakness.  They long to put on their spiritual bodies when the Lord returns.   In this  they constantly bear with others in longsuffering love.  They do it to lift up & encourage one another  that as many of us as possible  might enter the pearly gates.  Father, Son & Holy Spirit never endorse a self-centered focus on works, feelings or empowerment  in this life.  Instead, followers of Jesus are always pointed to & oriented toward Christ crucified.  The end goal of that  is to point us toward our neighbor in love  because of how Jesus first loved us. 
It hardly needs to be said that sinful human beings have struggled with this.  After the fall into sin,  Adam & Eve tried to shift the blame to each other, even to God.  The very 1st child born to them murdered their 2nd child.   Thus was born sibling rivalry  along with physical death.   No loving your neighbor there.     Likewise,  members of the Corinthian Church needed instruction:
“Brothers,  do not be children in your thinking.  Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.”   (1 Corinthians 14:20 ESV)    You know from experience that being mature  isn’t always  a lot of fun.   It requires patience & self-sacrifice.  It involves practicing self-control, gentleness & faithfulness.   Being mature does not come naturally.  It must be taught  & modeled for us. 
The congregation at Corinth was deeply troubled by members who thought  they were superior to many of the others.  To Paul it was clear – these “superior” members were being tempted by Satan to think that,  &, like children, they were too immature to resist the temptation.   Our saying “No!” to temptation  is called self-discipline. 
It’s a matter of maturity  when we are eating  to know when we’ve had enough.  It’s a matter of maturity when we’re feeling annoyed by someone  to still treat them with grace & respect.  It’s a matter of maturity,  when someone is offending us,  to talk to them honestly yet not in anger.   “Be infants in evil,  but in your thinking  be mature.”  (1 Corinthians 14:20b ESV) 
Evidently, members who spoke in tongues were convinced they were of more value to the church.  In chapter 13,  Paul approached the conflict by pointing out that sacrificial love is the primary criterion by which the church assesses the value of any gift.  In chapter 14, he shows how speaking in tongues fails the test of love for others in the church.  By comparison, speaking in tongues is extremely insignificant.  It requires the help of another gift – interpretation – to fulfill the highest purpose of every genuine spiritual gift.  All of God’s gifts are for this purpose – the encouraging & building up  of the body of Christ. 
Gifts are given by the Holy Spirit  only  to help other people.  They are not given  so that one person may claim superiority over others.   That  is the work of Satan as he leads us to be genuinely nasty to others. 
Why does St. Paul raise his sharp questions about the specific practices of Corinth in worship?  He does so to guide the church’s life  in  any age.    Unclear,  confusing  or noncommunicative speech in the church  fails the criterion of Christ’s love, which always wants to build up & encourage human beings in the body of Christ. 
Whether the confused tongues of a charismatic service,  or the ecstatic, overly emotional content-less songs  finding their way into church services,  all practices must point to,  & be oriented toward Christ crucified.  That is the only event in history  that pays the penalty of our sin.  It is the event  that enables our resurrection from death  to eternal life. 
Our worship service has no room for selfishness no matter how ‘cloaked’  in spirituality.  Self-promotion  prompts others to say things  far removed from Amen!   In the brokenness & the sorrow of this world,  it is always right  to long for perfect communion with God.   However, due to our own sinfulness,  it always wrong to expect that perfect communion in this life. 
It is always & only  our own sinfulness that separates us from perfect communion with our Creator.  Nothing can overcome that  except our resurrection from the dead.  Where does that resurrection come from?  Not from our own efforts  in any way,  shape  or form.   No amount of mature thinking  can raise our bodies from the dead,  or gain our entrance into heaven. 
We can illustrate it this way.  You can get from here to downtown Detroit in about 90
minutes,  but it’s impossible to do that on your own.  You need a car to make that trip.   However, if your driving on the way  is immature  that can harm your life  & the life of your neighbor.    In the same way,  though we cannot get ourselves to heaven,  childish thinking along the way harms our spiritual life,  & it harms our neighbor. 
That’s what Paul is writing about in the epistle reading.  He tells us  not to be children in our thinking, but to be mature.   He doesn’t say that  so that we earn our way to heaven.  He says it because,  along the way,  we can reduce the harm we do  to ourselves & to the people around us.   Fortunately,  Jesus is able to overcome our childish thinking & the harm we cause. 
You see,  the sermon title tends to focus on the law – on what we should do  to please God.  While the law is good,  & for believers it is helpful,  it does not save us.  In Your Thinking you will always fail,  but in His thinking,  in Christ’s heart & mind,  you are always the focus of His saving grace.  God’s power is such that  at all times  He can focus on each of us  individually. 
The grace of God invites us to encourage one another in Christ’s thinking.  St. Paul wrote of that thinking  in Philippians 2:
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,  who,  though He was in the form of God,  did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,   but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.    And being found in human form, He humbled Himself  by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  (2:5-8 ESV) 
 
That death cannot  & will not  be erased  no matter what Satan tempts us with.  Responding to that Good News  we long to think  like Jesus.  He sends His Spirit to help us in that,  & for that too  we rejoice.  Amen. 
Lo,  the hosts of evil round us  scorn the Christ,  assail His ways!   From the fears that long have bound us  free our hearts  to faith & praise.    Cure Your children’s waring madness;  bend our pride to Your control;  shame our wanton, selfish gladness,  rich in things & poor in soul.    Save us from weak resignation  to the evils we deplore;  let the gift of Your salvation  be our glory evermore.   Grant us wisdom,  grant us courage  for the living of these days.  Amen.  LSB 850:2-4.