From his book The Cross and Christian Ministry (which I am reading in my quiet time), D. A. Carson provides some apt application after his discussion of 1 Corinthians 3:16-17:
The ways of destroying the church are many and colorful. Raw factionalism will do it. Rank heresy will do it. Taking your eyes off the cross ad letter other, more peripheral matters dominate the agenda will do it – admittedly more slowly than frank heresy, but jut as effectively onthe long haul. Building the church with superficial “conversions” and wonderful programs that rarely bring people into a deepening knowledge of the living God will do it. Entertaining people to death but never fostering the beauty of holiness or the centrality of self-crucifyinglove will build an assembly of religious people, but it will destroy the church of the living God. Gossip, prayerlessness, bitterness, sustained biblical illiteracy, self-promotion, materialism – all of these things, and many more, can destroy a church. And to do so is dangerous: “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:17). it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
These kinds of truths the factionalists of Corinth ignored. And these truths are all too frequently ignored by their modern counterparts. This calls for thoughtful self-examination and quiet repentance.
Well said. Worth praying about carefully.
