The American Church

When the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, he said, “I can’t speak to you as to spiritual men (mature men in the faith) but as to men in the flesh (as people without the spirit) as to babies in Christ” (l Corinthians 3:1). Well, in our study together, we will look at the characteristics of a baby, and I believe we will see that the American church is much like the church at Corinth. The church in America is basically full of babies in Christ. The first characteristic of a baby I would like to look at is that babies are very dependent on others to take care of them. Babies are a joy, but they also are a burden. It takes a lot of money and a lot of care to take care of a baby. Babies have to have others clothe them, bathe them, carry them, change them, feed them, etc. They are very dependent on others to care for them. If your baby does not grow up and you still have to feed them, clothe them, change them at 20 years old, it is no longer a joy but a burden. If your child never grows up but stays a baby, the joy becomes a burden. Part of maturing and growing up is being able to take care of yourself both in the physical world and in the spiritual world. You are not a burden to anyone, in fact, you are very conscious that you do not want to be a burden to anyone. Part of maturing is taking care of yourself and not having others take care of you. You don’t want to be a burden to others; you want to be able to stand on your own two feet. The church in America is full of believers who can’t or won’t take care of themselves both physically and spiritually. They are a burden to society and sometimes they are a burden physically to the church. When the apostle Paul went to Thessalonica, he purposed not to be a burden to anyone. Listen as I quote 1 Thessalonians 2:7-9, “Even though as apostles of Christ, we could have used our authority over you (we didn’t), but we were very gentle with you, like a mother caring for her little children. Because we loved you, we were happy to share not only God’s Good New with you, but even our own lives. You had become so dear to us! Brothers and sisters, I know you remember our hard work and difficulties. We worked night and day so we would not burden any of you while we preached God’s Good News to you.” Listen also to 2 Thessalonians 3:6-10. “Brothers and sisters by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, we command you to stay away from any believer who refuses to work and does not follow the teaching we gave you. You yourselves know that you should live as we lived. We were not lazy when we were with you. And when we ate another person’s food, we always paid for it. We worked very hard night and day so we would not be an expense (burden) to any of you.”