THE SIMPLICITY THAT IS IN CHRIST- 1 Corinthians 11:1-3

Preached June 26, 2011
from
1 Corinthians 11:1-3

Theme: We must not let ourselves be deceived from ‘the simplicity that is in Christ’.

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(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

One of the most passionate of all of the apostle Paul’s New Testament letters is his second letter to the Corinthians. It’s a letter that he wrote in much love; but also from a greatly burdened heart, because he was very concerned for his dear brothers and sisters in Christ. They were being negatively influenced by ‘false apostles’ who were infiltrating the fellowship, were boasting in false credentials, and were seeking to turn the Corinthians believers against Paul genuine apostolic authority.

Now; Paul loved the Corinthian believers very much. But he wasn’t burdened so much over the fear that they would reject him as that they might reject the gospel of Jesus Christ that he had been commissioned to preach to them. And so, near the end of his letter, he did something that must have been very distasteful to him. He countered the boasting of the false apostles by writing a long section of “boasting” over his own spiritual credentials as a true apostle.

It must have felt like great ‘foolishness’ for him to have to boast to the Corinthian believers in this way. But he was willing to do it if it would mean the preservation of their souls in Christ. And so, in the first three verse of chapter eleven, we find that Paul writes;

Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:1-3).

And for the next two chapters of his letter, Paul engages in the ‘folly’ of boasting in his own apostolic credentials. I encourage you to read what he wrote sometime. His ‘credentials’ were certainly not anything that the phony apostles would have wanted to boast in. But they gave conclusive proof that he was the real thing.

And what I am wanting to particularly draw your attention to in that passage is what he specifically said that he was most concerned about. He was very much afraid for the Corinthians that, somehow, the devil would deceive them; so that their minds would be “corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ”.

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I very much love that phrase, “the simplicity that is in Christ”; don’t you? Some versions of the ancient text have included the word “purity”; and so, you may find it also is included in the particular translation of the Bible you’re using. But whether the word “purity” really belongs there or not, it still amounts to the same thing; because the word that’s translated “simplicity”¹ itself conveys the idea of ‘purity’. It speaks of a simple, straight-forward, unadorned, unadulterated, pure, singular faith upon the sufficiency of Jesus Christ alone—with nothing else added to that faith—for the meeting of all our spiritual needs. That kind of simplicity of faith is a very precious and wonderful thing—both to have and to protect.

If I may share with you on a personal level, I have often thought about how little there is in my faith in Christ with respect to external ‘religious’ matters. In obedience to the scriptures, I was baptized shortly after I believed. I make it my commitment to regularly fellowship with my brothers and sisters on the Lord’s day. And I regularly observe the communion meal with them, just as our Lord instructed. But other than those few things, I do not observe any religious ceremonies or rituals. I don’t follow a religious calendar. I don’t keep any appointed feasts, or observe any appointed fasts. I don’t make any pilgrimages anywhere. I don’t wear any special garments, or abstain from any particular foods, or light any candles, or burn any incense, or recite any chants. My spiritual standing before God is strictly a matter of a personal relationship of love with His Son Jesus Christ by faith, in which I walk with Him in obedience throughout the course of daily life. It truly amazes me to think of how little there is to it all beyond just that.

But it also amazes me how that simple relationship alone is completely sufficient for all that I will ever need before a holy God—and how none of those other ‘external’ things could possibly add one bit to the standing of 100% acceptance in the sight of God that I already enjoy right now in Jesus Christ. It’s not that those other religious and ceremonial things are necessarily wrong. It’s just that Jesus has completely fulfilled all that is required; and that, before God, nothing else is needed. I have grown to have absolute confidence in this, because Bible tells me that it’s so. It says that grace and peace are multiplied to us

in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue . . . (2 Peter 1:2-3; emphasis added).

It says that “in Him”—that is, in Jesus Christ—

dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:9-10; emphasis added).

It invites us to let Christ dwell in our hearts through faith;

that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17-19; emphasis added).

Now; when it came to his Corinthian brothers and sisters, Paul was very concerned to protect that simple, sincere, unadulterated devotion to the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. He told them that it was because he was “jealous” for them. It wasn’t a selfish jealousy, however; but rather a “godly jealousy”. Literally, he tells them that he’s jealous for them with God’s own jealousy! He was jealous toward them for God’s sake—that they, whom God had purchased for Himself with the shed blood of His own Son, would stay devoted to Him and remain confident in His sufficiency; and that they would not be tempted to turn from Him and trust in anything else.

Paul tells them that he had “betrothed” them “to one husband”. Nowadays, we don’t consider a young man or young woman to be married until they say “I do” at the wedding ceremony—even though they may have been “betrothed” to one another for a long time. But back in Paul’s day, a young woman was considered to be married to her man as soon as the father betrothed her to him—even though she may have still lived in her father’s home for several years afterwards. Then on the wedding day, after he had made all the preparations, the groom would go to her father’s home and take her to himself; and the father would present her as the pure bride he had been keeping chaste for him. Just like a good father would do with respect to his young daughter, Paul had sought jealously to protect and preserve the Corinthians for faith in Christ alone; “that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ”.

And the reason he was so jealously protective was because the Corinthian believers were under threat of being ‘deceived’ from that pure faith in Christ. He said, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his own craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” Do you remember how Satan tempted Eve? He put doubts into her mind about what God had said: “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). He lied to her: “You shall not surely die” (v. 4). He got her to question God’s motives: “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (v. 5). He was crafty. He corrupted her in the area of her thinking, so that she turned away from a simple faith in what God said. And Paul was afraid that these false teachers—with Satan himself working behind the scenes—would likewise attack the thinking of the Corinthian believers, and corrupt their minds from “the simplicity that is in Christ”.

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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; you and I are complete in Christ. We are fully accepted by God through faith in Him; and nothing else is needed but that we faithfully rise up in the hope of heaven and walk in obedience to His word. But we, just like those Corinthian Christians, are nevertheless under the danger of being deceived from a pure, unmixed, unmingled, unadulterated, sincere, simple faith in His sufficiency. We must not only rejoice in that simplicity of faith, but also diligently protect it.

So then; what sort of things ought we beware of? How might it be that our minds could become corrupted from “the simplicity that is in Christ”? Let’s spend the rest of our time together considering what the Bible tells us about some of those ways.

One way is . . .

1. THROUGH WORKS OF THE LAW.

One of the most common ways people are deceived from a simple faith in the sufficiency of Jesus is through ‘legalism’—that is, the belief that we are somehow made righteous in the sight of God by a strict obedience to rules and regulations of the Old Testament law. They may believe that they are made ‘partially’ righteous in the sight of God through faith in Jesus; but they also believe that they must now somehow make themselves ‘completely’ righteous by a strict obedience to the law. And so; they’re careful not to eat any forbidden foods. They’re careful to observe the appointed feasts and fasts. They work hard, in the power of their own flesh, not to break any of the rules. And thus they become deceived. They mix the work of Christ with works of their own, and their minds become corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ.

Paul wrote a letter once to the Galatian believers, because they were being deceived in this way. He used some very passionate language; and asked them,

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? (Galatians 3:1-4).

The Bible tells us plainly that “by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (Galatians 2:16). To be “justified” means “to be declared 100% righteous in the sight of God”; and we can never make that happen—not one little bit—by the power of the flesh through the works of the law. To be sure, we ought to live in obedience to the law of God! But it should never be in order to be make ourselves righteous in His sight. Rather, it should be because we’ve already been declared righteous in His sight through our faith in the full sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross; and because we desire to live as righteously as we have been declared to be in Him.

May we never be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ through the works of the law!

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Another way that our minds can be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ—a very similar way, in fact—is . . .

2. THROUGH RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS.

Men make religious rules and regulations and practices and rituals for other people from out of the imaginations of their own hearts. God never commanded such traditions. And quite often, there’s nothing wrong with them in and of themselves. But just as often as not, those who make them then seek to bind other people to them, and obligate people to them as if binding them with chains.

The Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day were famous for this. In the fifteenth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, we’re told that

the scribes and Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus, saying, “Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread” (Matthew 15:1-2).

They wanted to know why Jesus and His disciples didn’t observe the religious tradition that other men had created—that is, the tradition of washing their hands in a ceremonial way before eating. But in challenging Him in this, they didn’t realize what it was that they were getting themselves into:

He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition? For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”—then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition (vv. 3-6).

In other words, the Son of God told them that they actually disobeyed God His Father in their devotion to their man-made religious traditions. And then, to show how men can be pulled away from the simplicity of faith through religious traditions, Jesus said,

Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’” (vv. 7-9).

It’s a rather ironic fact that a proud devotion to religious traditions has kept many people from a humble faith in the full sufficiency of Jesus Christ alone to make us righteous before God. A devotion to “religious tradition” has actually kept some people from salvation through faith in Christ!

May we never be turned away by ‘religious tradition’ from the simplicity that is in Christ!

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Sometimes, it has nothing at all to do with the pretense of religion. Another very common way that people are drawn from the simplicity that is in Christ—and perhaps never so frequently as in our day—is . . .

3. THROUGH HUMAN PHILOSOPHIES.

When men reject what God has said in His word, and when they rebel against the pathway He says they must follow to have a relationship with Him, they set about to create in its place an entire view of the world that is of their own creation—a system of thinking that completely leaves Him out of the picture. Today, a multitude of such human philosophies and man-made systems of spirituality fill the world. You find them promoted all day long on the television talk shows and over the radio. They’re available all over the Internet. They’re displayed today like goods in a grocery-store isle; and people can just walk along and shop for the ‘latest philosophy’ or ‘newest system of spirituality’ that they believe will best suit their lifestyle. They all make the claim to present things as they really are. They all propose to have the answers, and to solve all our problems.

But these phony philosophies are all creations of the fallen human imagination in a state of rebellion against God our Creator; and an undiscerning acceptance of them has lured many professing Christians away from the simplicity that is in Christ. The apostle Paul once wrote a letter to defend Christians against the way such human philosophies can draw them from Jesus. In Colossians 2, he stressed the sufficiency of faith in Jesus when he wrote;

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving (Colossians 2:6-7).

But then, he added these sobering words;

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ (v. 8).

And in verses 18-19, he said;

Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God (vv. 18-19).

We need to beware, dear brothers and sisters; so that we’re never ripped-off by the deceitfulness of human philosophies, and fantastic “visions” and “experiences”, that are intended to draw us away from a simplicity of faith in Him—in whom alone we are made complete!

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Another way that we can be drawn away from the simplicity of faith—one that is like the danger present by human philosophy, but that is much more deceitful—is . . .

4. THROUGH FALSE DOCTRINE.

The reason false teachers are such a danger within the church is because they seem to be fitting into the church when they do their work and teach their false doctrines. They use all the language and the forms of Christianity, so that the things they say sound ‘biblical’. But they deceitfully turn people away from a sound understanding of the scriptures and from a simple faith in Jesus. They end up justifying, and applauding, and even advocating the very sins that Jesus died on the cross to save us from—telling people what they want to hear in ‘religious-sounding’ words; rather than defending the faith once delivered to the saints.

Paul once preached a sermon to a group of ancient pastors in Asia Minor. That sermon is contained in Acts 20. And in verses 28-31, he told them,

Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears (Acts 20:28-31).

It’s so important, dear brothers and sisters, that you check everything you hear against the unchanging truth of God’s word. Paul once told his young ministry assistant Timothy;

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables (2 Timothy 4:1-4).

Please be on your guard, dear brothers and sisters; and never let yourself be drawn away—through the deceitful nature of false doctrine—from the simplicity of faith in the sufficiency of Jesus. Study the scriptures for yourself to make sure that what you hear truly is from God; because the scriptures are “able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).

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Let me suggest one more way that we might be drawn from the simplicity which is in Christ; and that is . . .

5. THROUGH TOLERANCE OF SIN.

Jesus is the Savior from sin. He died on the cross to remove the guilt of sin from us, and to make it possible for us to walk in fellowship with Him in holiness. But when we start having a relaxed attitude toward sin; when we begin to tolerate its presence in our lives; when we begin to rationalize it, or celebrate it, or adopt the world’s attitude toward it and begin to imitate its sinful ways, then we’re being drawn away from the simplicity of faith in Jesus. He is a holy Savior; and He will not have fellowship with us and with our sin at the same time.

Paul wrote about this in Ephesians 5. He said;

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them (Ephesians 5:1-7).

Now; I praise God that I don’t have to be perfect in order to have a relationship with Jesus my Savior. It’s His sacrifice for me—and my faith in Him—that makes me righteous. And when I stumble and fall (which I often do), His blood covers my sin. As 1 John 1:9 promises, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

But ‘confessing’ my sins, and ‘tolerating’ their presence in my life, are two radically different things! Life becomes dreadfully complicated when we try to make sin “work” in the living of it. May we never let ourselves be deceived, through the deceitfulness of sin, into being corrupted in our minds from the simplicity which is in Christ.

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Such simplicity in our faith in Christ is a valid thing. He has, after all, accomplished for us all that is needed. It’s worth having. But it’s also worth protecting! May God keep our minds from being corrupted from the precious simplicity which is in Christ!

¹Aplotēs; “simplicity”, “sincerity”.