Chapter 6

The Larger Place

The church at Corinth was dysfunctional in many ways. That’s why Paul wrote two separate letters to their congregation, discussing various tendencies that were emerging that troubled him. In chapter one of 1 Corinthians, Paul acknowledges the good things they had going for them. He mentions how God had poured out His grace upon them (v. 4) and as a result, they “were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge” (v. 5). They came behind in no spiritual gift (v. 7), and they were also financially well off, a sign that many Jews saw as a clear indication of God’s favor.

However, in spite of all that they had been given, the Corinthian Christians were not living up the lifestyle modeled by Jesus Christ. They were displaying imbalance in areas that were crippling their spiritual growth and hindering them from effectively advancing God’s kingdom. Earlier in this book I talked about the man in their midst who was involved in sexual sin with his father’s wife. Paul addresses this problem in chapter five. But here, we want to look at the tendencies that the whole congregation was displaying that had attracted Paul’s censure. There were three main areas he put his finger on that were affecting the whole congregation:

• Divisiveness
• Immaturity
• Lack of love

In chapter one Paul entreats them to abandon the loyalties to leaders and minor doctrine that was dividing up the body of Christ into contentious groups within the church. “I plead with you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, … that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been declared to me concerning you … that there are contentions among you. … Each of you says, ‘I am of Paul,’ or ‘I am of Apollos,’ or ‘I am of Cephas,’ or ‘I am of Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (vv. 10-13) He finishes the chapter by quoting “as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”

Dividing up the body of Christ is a far more serious sin than most of us understand. Paul saw that it would hinder their witness to the outside world and create unnecessary pain in their church members. That’s why he continued to warn them throughout this letter to guard the unity of the Spirit and not judge others by how eloquently they spoke or how “wise” their spiritual interpretations might appear. He pointed out that God uses the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and the things that appear weak in men’s eyes to shame the things that are mighty… so that “no flesh should glory in His presence” (1:27-29). Exalting one leader or idea to the extent that divisions are formed within a group is unbalanced and destructive. Paul sees their behavior as not only divisive but also immature.

He begins chapter three by saying he could not speak to them “as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.” What made him think that? He saw the characteristics of people whose hearts have not been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. They still demonstrated the works of the flesh towards one another—envy, strife, divisions (v. 3).

How sad that these intelligent, skilled, and blessed believers weren’t living out all that they had been saved for. They still lived as carnal men and women, much the same as their pagan neighbors did. Paul again admonishes them to not glory in men and their accomplishments and gifts but to remember that they belong to the only One who really deserves all glory and honor: the Lord Jesus Christ.

He points out that we are mere servants of Christ—all equal before Him—and we have been entrusted with the mysteries of God as His stewards. Our primary role is to be found faithful, not to bring glory to ourselves or any other man. God wants us to use our gifts to bless and build up the entire church, not just the select little group that we’ve decided to identify with.

To foster division on any basis other than outright heresy is immature and carnal, according to Paul. He encourages the Corinthians to flee from such spiritual vanity: “that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? … if you did indeed receive it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?” (4:6-7).

All the apostles at that time (including Paul) were suffering dishonor, deprivations, and persecution, yet the Corinthian church seemed to feel they were somehow above such things. Paul tries to warn them about their attitude of superiority, reminding them that by one Spirit they were all baptized into one body in Christ (12:13), and because of that, they shared the afflictions of the apostles with them. “If one member [of that body] suffers, all the members suffer with it” (12:26).

The Absence of Love

This brings us to the third tendency that is so closely tied to the first two. Instead of recognizing their mutual dependence and interconnection with other members in the Lord’s body, the Corinthian believers displayed a lack of Christian love, even though love was the one sign that was supposed to distinguish the disciples of Jesus (see John 13:34-35).

In the 11^th chapter of 1 Corinthians, we can see clearly how this congregation felt about each other. Paul mentions their divisions again, and postulates the reason: “For there must be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you” (v. 18). In the next verse he states something surprising—their coming together was not what they assumed. “It is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.” He goes on to explain what he means.

In order to really remember the Lord together, we must “discern the Lord’s body” (v. 29). We must understand that we are one body—united by a common faith and spiritual baptism—and we stand before God as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are from the same family, and our Father expects us to show the same kind of love to one another that He showed to each of us. Communion (the Lord’s Supper) implies a common life together and a commitment to the good of each other.

In Corinth, the members of the church were divided up into subgroups and didn’t care about those outside of their particular group. One expression of this disregard for the welfare of others was demonstrated in their communion meeting. The “have” families would callously bring in a sumptuous meal for themselves in plain sight of the families who were hungry. Some even came in to the meeting drunk. “What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in?” Paul asks. “Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you” (v. 22).

This greedy behavior betrayed how they felt about the “lesser” members of the congregation. They weren’t worth worrying about! In the next portion of his letter (Chapter 12), Paul explores how each Christian is related to every other Christian worldwide. He explains how spiritual gifts work within the Body and how each member of Christ’s body should honor and care for other members, no matter what their life circumstances might be or how unattractive they may appear outwardly.

“Those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; … that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another” (vv. 23, 25).

Chapter 12, the teaching on the Lord’s body, leads naturally into the most famous chapter of the letter, the preeminence of charity (love). Chapter 13 is read at almost every wedding these days, but Paul’s remarks on the centrality of love was meant to be applied to all human relationships, not just the one between husbands and wives. It should be especially evident in churches, since this was the “new commandment” that Jesus gave His disciples before He went back to heaven (John 13:34).

Paul was grieved by the Corinthian believers’ lack of love, both towards him and towards each other. In his second letter to them, he writes: “We [he and the other apostles] have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also” (2 Corinthians 6:11-12, NIV).

Those in unbalanced Christian groups have a hard time opening up their hearts to those unlike themselves. They view Christians from other groups suspiciously, for all the reasons we have already discussed. The result is they avoid contact with them or any contact they do have is mostly full of anger and accusation. After all, they believe, these other so-called Christians have chosen to disobey what God clearly teaches in His Word! Like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, they see duty to God and right doctrine as more important than finding the common faith and shared doctrines. In order to “open wide” their hearts, they need to find the Larger Place.

Where Is The Larger Place? How Do I Get There?

In the apostles’ letters to the churches God’s intentions for His children are revealed. The recurring themes throughout the letters of mutual submission and interdependence, freedom from restrictive rules and divisive doctrine, and joyful service to Jesus and others form the foundation for Kingdom living. They reveal something that members of imbalanced groups rarely grasp: that God is more concerned with our heart attitudes than with specific codes of behavior.

These lifestyle principles are lived out in the Larger Place, but we shouldn’t assume that they are easily adopted or maintained. It may be called a larger place, but few people are comfortable in it at first. Only after we’ve been there a while will we begin to appreciate how wonderfully edifying it is.

Since the world’s values have shaped us for so many years, we find the Lord’s values hard to accept at first. From childhood we’ve been taught to look out for old number 1, to view others as competition, and to always ask, “What’s in it for me?” In many ways, these motivations drive the destructive tendencies found in unbalanced Christian groups. Selfish ambition, envy, fear, and pride interfere with mutual submission and contribute to an atmosphere in which division, strife, and domination reign.

In stark contrast to unbalanced groups, members living in the Larger Place find humble not arrogant leaders; freedom to express divergent ideas on minor doctrine, not controlled thought; a variety of worship practices, not restrictively narrow “approved” behavior; restorative correction, not vengeful discipline; and acceptance towards everyone who knows the Lord Jesus, not a judgmental avoidance of anyone not associated with our particular group.

The Larger Place may look kind of scary at first, since no one is acting as a policeman to keep out those who might threaten our orthodox faith. We must study the Scripture for ourselves, not expect our leaders to interpret it for us. Paul encouraged Timothy to “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, NIV). Once we are familiar with what the Bible teaches, we will need to rely on the direction of the Holy Spirit to help us apply it effectively to our lives.

We must be able to distinguish between what is major doctrine that we must contend for (see Jude 1:3)—our common salvation—and what is a matter of personal conviction and conscience (see Romans 14:22-23) that may vary from one Christian to another. In the last category, we will likely see great diversity in The Larger Place that does not threaten our common salvation.

Benefits of the Larger Place

Here are just a few of the benefits of living in the Larger Place:

• Unlimited and unrestricted fellowship with the worldwide body of Christ
• New converts for Him, not our particular group
• Greater opportunities for spiritual growth

Have you ever met a fellow Christian that you seem to have nothing in common with… yet you enjoy instant fellowship around the person of Jesus? That’s the work of the Holy Spirit! Because we share a common salvation experience, adhere to the same book of Scripture (the Bible), and have dwelling inside of our hearts the same Spirit of God, we can find fellowship with anyone who is also born of God. That’s what we miss out on when we belong to unbalanced groups. We’re going to spend eternity together, so we may as well start to enjoy all of our spiritual family right here and now!

One of the unfortunate results of sectarian loyalty is that new believers become commodities to battle over. As one group gains a convert, other groups scheme how they can “win” that person over to “their side.” We should be rejoicing with one another that a lost sheep has been found and delivered safely into the Savior’s arms, but instead we grouse about “sheep stealing” and fret that the new convert won’t be privy to our superior spiritual understanding if they stay in the other group.

How much more freeing it is to point people to the Lord Jesus himself, not to our particular camp in the Kingdom. If they belong to the Lord, it’s His responsibility to watch over them and bring them to maturity. Sure, He will enlist the help of His people in doing that, but ultimately He is the shepherd of each individual sheep. We should be glad of that! The government of God’s kingdom is on His shoulders (Isaiah 9:6).

Opening up gates and fences does run the risk of losing track of some members of our individual flock, but it also gives Christians a greater area in which to graze, cutting down on their chances of becoming diseased or malnourished spiritually. Individual groups or denominations may lose some people, but Jesus makes sure that “none of them is lost” (John 17:12). Christians need room to explore and grow within the fences of orthodoxy. If their area of grazing becomes too small and restrictive, they grow restless and discontent, and in time their sources of nourishment become depleted.

There’s a verse in 1 Corinthians 3 that captures quite well the atmosphere of the Larger Place. “So don’t be proud of following the wise men of this world. For God has already given you everything you need. He has given you Paul and Apollos and Peter as your helpers. He has given you the whole world to use, and life and even death are your servants. He has given you all of the present and all of the future. All are yours, and you belong to Christ and Christ is God’s” (vv. 21-22, TLB).

In his book entitled Christ at the Round Table, Christian missionary E. Stanley Jones, who served in India for many years, comments on this verse: “Both liberty and law have a truth within them. … Here is the liberty: All things belong to you: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present and the future—all things. A universe is thrown open. Was there ever such liberty offered to human beings as this? Here is the law: You belong to Christ—the most amazing bondage ever insisted on in life. For this ownership and sovereignty goes down to the last thing, the most secret aspiration …  nothing is left out of its sway. Was there ever such a law imposed on human nature as this?”[1]

Only in Christ Jesus can we find a perfect blending of these two elements of truth. He had dominion over everything in the world and out of it, yet He willingly made himself subject to another’s will—the Father’s. That “law” affected every movement of His life and eventually took Him to the cross. Yet, at every moment He was completely free. Liberty and law found their best expression in Him.

The Larger Place is available to anyone who has put faith in Jesus Christ and has been born again of His Spirit. If we choose to dwell there, we will need to be intimately connected to Him, not some particular group or doctrine that will draw our affections away and rob us of the spiritual power we need. Jesus declared that His purpose for His people was that they “may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

In an unbalanced Christian group, spiritual life is far from abundant. It is more like the meager existence of those living in poverty. They get by, but just barely. In the Larger Place, we experience a richer, fuller spiritual life and have the opportunity to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

Because of the diversity of spiritual opinions, practices, and perspectives in the Larger Place, we have the opportunity to exercise more forgiveness, reconciliation, and grace towards others. That means we will grow and mature in our faith, becoming more like Jesus in how we live and think. As the fruit of the Spirit begins to permeate our personalities and changes us from the inside out, we will be better equipped to accept, love, and edify all other members of the body of Christ.

Then we can see Paul’s prayer for believers in Thessalonica fulfilled in us. “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you, so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13).

Increasing and abounding in God’s kind of love—that loves in spite of, not because of— is only possible when we are faced with people who don’t agree with us on every point. As the old saying goes, “It’s easy to be an angel when nobody ruffles my feathers.” In the Larger Place, where freedom and diversity are welcomed, we must know what we believe and why we believe it. Then we must learn how to express those beliefs with grace and truth towards those who may not share them. We tenaciously hold on to our biblically based convictions, but we inform our brothers and sisters of them in a way that honors them and their relationship with Christ Jesus.

Church Leadership in the Larger Place

Paul told Timothy to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance” (2 Timothy 2:24-25, NIV).

In unbalanced groups, this is rarely practiced. I’ve seen leaders quote this verse, then exercise unfair and cruel measures against a member who has dared to oppose his biblical teaching on some point. Some groups go so far as to bar such an “unruly” member from taking communion, sending a clear signal that they either don’t consider him a fellow Christian or they don’t care to see him restored to full fellowship unless he recants his position publicly.

This spirit of retaliation is not biblical, and those in the Larger Place won’t bow to it. They know that God has instructed his leaders to be gentle with His flock.

“To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder … Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:1-3, NIV)

In balanced Christian groups, leaders will be held accountable to these guidelines. They are called to set a standard for the rest of the congregation of loving, consistent discipline that is administered “without partiality and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17). They gently and patiently instruct those who are in error, remembering that they are God’s stewards over His church and the members of His body. Error must be addressed—it would be irresponsible for church leaders to overlook it, whether it is in the area of behavior or doctrinal thought. But in the Larger Place the leader is careful about the spirit in which he administers that correction.

When I was a brand new Christian, I believed in something that was clearly unscriptural, but I didn’t know it yet. Before coming to Jesus, I had been exposed to the Hindu idea of reincarnation and had embraced it because I thought it seemed fair in terms of righting wrongs in the world. It appealed to my sense of justice. I had been looking for some evidence of it in the Scripture, but several weeks after becoming a Christian, I still hadn’t found any evidence for the idea.

Finally one of the elders in our church fellowship felt he should talk to me about it. He turned to Hebrews 9:27 and read it to me, asking me what I thought it meant. He was gentle and humble in his approach and didn’t put me down for my obvious ignorance about the subject, just as the passage in 2 Timothy 2 instructed.

When I saw what the Lord said about death and immediate judgment, I realized that I would have to make a choice. Would I keep my pet belief in defiance of the Bible, or would I submit to God’s Word on the subject? It was my choice to make, but I believe the Bible teacher’s kind attitude made it easier for me to make the right decision—to submit to God’s wisdom. That’s the kind of interaction that the Larger Place encourages within the body of Christ.

Discerning the Lord’s Body

There’s no place for spiritual pride or arrogance in the Larger Place. Unbalanced groups tend to view those who are different from them as less important than themselves. In fact, if individuals don’t join their ranks, they figure they are second-class citizens of heaven, unable to do anything meaningful for God’s kingdom. This attitude is a clear violation of all that Paul and the other apostles taught throughout the New Testament.

In the parable of the tenants in Mark 12, Jesus describes a scene that speaks to church leaders as well as to the Jewish leaders of His day. A wealthy landowner gives oversight of His vineyard to tenants before going far away. Soon the tenants begin to regard it as their own—they forget that they are simply stewards of something planted and owned by another.

When the landowner sends his servants to collect the fruit produced on the land, the tenants treat them shamefully. The first two they beat up and send away empty. The third is killed outright. Finally the landowner sends his son, thinking they will surely respect him, but they kill him too. In all this, the tenants demonstrated their flagrant disregard for the owner and revealed how contemptuous they were of his authority and power over them.

Leaders of God’s people need to heed the warning of this parable. God will hold them accountable for how they treat His servants, just as the landowner held the tenants responsible for those he sent in his name. In Ezekiel 34, there is a stinging rebuke to Israel’s shepherds that could be applied to many leaders in unbalanced Christian groups as well.

“You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered… and became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.” (vv. 4-6, NIV)

This passage ends with the awful pronouncement that God is “against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock” (v. 10). This is why the New Testament writers warned church leaders of their grave responsibility in leading a church congregation. James (a leader himself) advised, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (James 3:1, NIV).

The rest of us aren’t off the hook, either. We’ll also give account as to how we have treated each other. We’ll all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and we’ll have to answer questions like these: “Did you discern my body? How did you treat your fellow servants, the ones I sent to labor together with you? Did you show them love, as I instructed, so the world would know that you belong to me? Or did you let your sinful nature rule your behavior—showing strife, envy, suspicion, and arrogance towards those who did not agree with you?”

When we choose to live in the Larger Place, we learn how to value and honor each member of His body through mutual submission, taming our tongues, and loving others simply because they belong to Christ. The landowner in Jesus’ parable was shocked that the tenants had so little regard for him or his representatives. When we mistreat one of the Lord’s servants, we show a similar disregard for Him. They are part of His body, so in mistreating them we are actually mistreating Him too. That’s what Jesus was pointing out when He said “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40).

The Basis of Christian Fellowship

Author Paul Billheimer writes: “It is clear that God fellowships with people on opposite sides of various disputed doctrines. This suggests that, in God’s book, fellowship should be on the basis of life rather than doctrine. I know of no other possible ground for universal unity except a common life, an authentic family relationship. No amount of grace will ever enable all born-again people to agree on what formulated doctrinal system constitutes absolute conceptual truth. If the prayer of Jesus for unity of the Body is realized this side of heaven, it will have to be on the basis of agape love. It means that love for the family will exceed devotion to one’s personal opinions in nonessentials to salvation.”[2]

This sounds wonderfully simple in theory, but how do we put this principle into practice? One of the best documents I’ve run across that seeks to address this issue of worldwide Christian fellowship across denominational lines was compiled by Keith Price (1929-2001), former founder and director of Christian Direction in Montreal, Quebec and Minister-at-Large for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada for many years.

He writes, “These principles are based on many years of inter-denominational fellowship and are conclusions I have reached after making many mistakes and after having had considerable discussion with scores of Christian leaders. I am particularly indebted to the correspondence of Anthony Norris Groves, a dentist-missionary to Baghdad in the 1830s, who practised many of these principles. Although they have never before appeared in the form I now give, I have retained a number of the excellent expressions he used in his correspondence.”

These principles can serve as a starting point for finding genuine and authentic fellowship around the person of Christ regardless of denominational affiliation or doctrinal persuasion. Here are the main points of his compilation:

1. The basis of our fellowship is life in the Christ of the Scriptures rather than Light on the teaching of the Scriptures. Those who have part with Christ have part with us. Because our communion is one of life and love more than one of doctrine and opinion, we seek to show that the oneness in the life of God through Jesus Christ is a stronger bond than that of being one of us – whether organizationally or denominationally.
2. Because our fellowship is based on our common life in Christ, we do not reject anyone because of the organization or denomination with which he may be affiliated; nor would we hold him responsible for the conduct within that system, any more than we would a child for the conduct in the home of which he is merely a part.
3. We do not feel it desirable to withdraw from fellowship with any Christians except at the point where they may require us to do what our consciences will not permit, or restrain us from doing what our consciences require. Even then, we maintain our fellowship with them in any matter where we are not called upon to so compromise. This ensures that (inasfar as we understand the Scripture) we do not separate ourselves from them any further than they separate themselves from Christ.
4. We do not consider an act of fellowship to be indicative of total agreement; indeed, we sometimes find it a needed expression of love to submit to others in matters where we do not fully agree, rather than to prevent some greater good from being brought about. Our choice would be to bear with their wrong rather than separate ourselves from their good.
5. We believe it more scriptural to reflect a heart of love ready to find a covering for faults, than to constantly look for that with which we may disagree. We will then be known more by what we witness for than by what we witness against.
6. We feel it biblical never to pressure people to act in uniformity further than they feel in uniformity; we use our fellowship in the Spirit as an opportunity to discuss our differences and find this to be the most effective way of leading others—or being led by them—into the light of the Word.
7. While enjoying such a wide range of Christian fellowship, we would not force this liberty upon those who would feel otherwise minded. In such circumstances, we enjoy fellowship as far as they will permit, then pray that the Lord would lead them further into this true liberty of the common life in Christ.

Point number seven reminds me of a wonderful little poem by Edwin Markham:

He drew a circle that shut me out,

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout;

But love and I had the wit to win—

We drew a circle and took him in.[3]

That, in a nutshell, sums up the essential difference between the Larger Place and narrow, sectarian groups. In the final chapter we’ll talk about what we should do if we’re involved in such a group.

---

[1] E. Stanley Jones, Christ at the Round Table (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1928), 303-305.

[2] Paul E. Billheimer, Love Covers (Fort Washington: Christian Literature Crusade, 1981), 28-29.

[3] Ibid., 113.