MERE MEN

July 10

Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 3

1 Corinthians 3:1-4, “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”

The church in Corinth had a problem—the people were quarreling with each other, acting in a partisan matter regarding their preferred leaders.  But their quarrelsome divisiveness was just a symptom of an underlying debility. The real problem was that they were fleshly in their behavior.  “Jealously and strife”—sure evidence of their fleshliness—were at the heart of the discord.  Because of their fleshly ways, Paul could not speak to them as spiritual people.  They had no heart for the truth, and their lives reflected that.

God had called them to a higher plane of living.  They were called to be “saints,” but were not acting like “holy ones” (1 Corinthians 1:2, saints = “holy ones”).  They were indwelt by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13), but His fruit was not apparent in their lives (Galatians 5:22-23).  Though destined in Christ to grow and to love, they were wallowing in the mire of selfish sins.  They were called to a different, holy, manner of life, but their lives looked no different than those of the lost (Ephesians 4:17).  They were behaving as though they were “mere men” (1 Corinthians 3:4), though God had called them to a superhuman manner of life.

While walking through the forest one day, a man found a young eagle who had fallen out of his nest.  He took it home and put it in his barnyard where it soon learned to eat and behave like the chickens.  One day a naturalist passed by the farm and asked why it was that the king of all birds should be confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens.  The farmer replied that since he had given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it had never learned to fly.  Since it now behaved as the chickens, it was no longer an eagle.

“Still, it has the heart of an eagle,” replied the naturalist, “and can surely be taught to fly.”  He lifted the eagle toward the sky and said, “You belong to the sky and not to the earth.  Stretch forth your wings and fly.”  The eagle, however, was confused.  He did not know who he was, and seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again.  The naturalist took the bird to the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, “You are an eagle.  Stretch forth your wings and fly.”

But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self and world and jumped down once more for the chicken food.  Finally, the naturalist took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain.  There he held the king of the birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, “You are an eagle.  You belong to the sky.  Stretch forth your wings and fly.”  The eagle looked around, back towards the barnyard and up to the sky.  Then the naturalist lifted him straight towards the sun and it happened that the eagle began to tremble.  Slowly he stretched his wings, and with a triumphant cry, soared away into the heavens.

It may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with nostalgia.  It may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard.  But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to lead the life of a chicken.

The believer is a “new creation” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), delivered through His death and resurrection from the penalty and power of sin, that he might “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).  He is Christ’s “workmanship” (His masterpiece), saved by grace “for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).  The lost selfishly scavenge in the chicken yard for scraps, the believer is one who has been delivered from sin that he might soar above in a higher plane—loving Jesus by loving others to God’s glory.  Don’t scavenge in the chicken yard in fleshly pursuits, by the Spirit spread your wings and fly (Galatians 5:16, 22-23).

“This book (the Bible) will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining ev’ry day;
Still praying as I’m onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
By faith, on heaven’s tableland;
A higher plane than I have found,
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.