Mere Men
Mere Men. It sounds like some aquatic super-race that can’t spell very well. But “mere men” is a biblical phrase that I’d like to rant about for a little while, if you don’t mind. The whole sentence is: “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 word “mere” was added to the original Greek text that just read, “men”. But I think it helps us to see what Paul is getting at. He was writing to believers in Jesus. Saved people. Born-again, heavenly citizens, who were not acting like it. They were acting like people who had never been quickened by the Spirit of God. They were acting like mere men.
It’s not just that they were sinning. They were. There was some bad stuff going down in Corinth. A guy was sleeping with his mother-in-law. Not good. But it wasn’t just that. It was not all “sin” per se. They were acting like being a Christian was like being a janitor. It was a job. And… they got off work sometimes and took off their uniforms. Or they went on vacation from their little offices, with plaques that read, “Joe Smith: Christian of the Board” or something like that. I guess we would call them “Sunday Christians” today. They knew the lingo, they knew when to show up, but they let their hair down everywhere else. It reminds me of a song by Andrew Peterson, called “Come, Lord Jesus”, where he sings, “I carried my cross through the dens of the wicked - you know I blended in just fine.” That was Corinth. And maybe that’s you. Maybe it’s me.
The truth is that if you have come to know that Jesus died for you, as you, and that you died with him that day – then you are over. You’re done. Kaput. You’re not human anymore. That died with Christ. The bible calls it “Adam”. Jesus was the “Last Adam”, sending him to extinction. Jesus is the firstborn among many – You included. Maybe you don’t know this, but when you got saved, a seed was dropped into what used to be you. Your old life is just fertilizer. Soil. Life like Christ got planted into that ground and the new you (in Christ) is coming up. It’s hard to see sometimes. It’s easier to just act like the old man, because that dirt is still available to you. But the new life is there. It’s the real you. It’s not mere man, it’s “Christ in you”. It’s growing, as the Son shines on it.
There is a new super-race on the planet. It’s not dyslexic half-fish people. Members of the very Body of Christ are walking the globe. There is a unification of believers in Jesus, that makes life – Christ. “To live is Christ…” we read. Singular. Not the plural of “men” with their varying degrees of carnality. But the simple singularity of Jesus. HE is our life. Not US. It’s like it says in the letter to the Ephesians – “You have not so learned Christ.” The words, life and Christ become synonymous. The question is no longer, how should I live? It is, what is the shape that Christ is taking in me? If you are saved, He is taking shape. “I am in birth pangs until Christ be formed in you.” Paul wrote. Mere men is earthly, earthy – dirt. Let is be soil for the seed of “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Grow up and out of it. You don’t see flowers burying themselves.
BJ
It’s not just that they were sinning. They were. There was some bad stuff going down in Corinth. A guy was sleeping with his mother-in-law. Not good. But it wasn’t just that. It was not all “sin” per se. They were acting like being a Christian was like being a janitor. It was a job. And… they got off work sometimes and took off their uniforms. Or they went on vacation from their little offices, with plaques that read, “Joe Smith: Christian of the Board” or something like that. I guess we would call them “Sunday Christians” today. They knew the lingo, they knew when to show up, but they let their hair down everywhere else. It reminds me of a song by Andrew Peterson, called “Come, Lord Jesus”, where he sings, “I carried my cross through the dens of the wicked - you know I blended in just fine.” That was Corinth. And maybe that’s you. Maybe it’s me.
The truth is that if you have come to know that Jesus died for you, as you, and that you died with him that day – then you are over. You’re done. Kaput. You’re not human anymore. That died with Christ. The bible calls it “Adam”. Jesus was the “Last Adam”, sending him to extinction. Jesus is the firstborn among many – You included. Maybe you don’t know this, but when you got saved, a seed was dropped into what used to be you. Your old life is just fertilizer. Soil. Life like Christ got planted into that ground and the new you (in Christ) is coming up. It’s hard to see sometimes. It’s easier to just act like the old man, because that dirt is still available to you. But the new life is there. It’s the real you. It’s not mere man, it’s “Christ in you”. It’s growing, as the Son shines on it.
There is a new super-race on the planet. It’s not dyslexic half-fish people. Members of the very Body of Christ are walking the globe. There is a unification of believers in Jesus, that makes life – Christ. “To live is Christ…” we read. Singular. Not the plural of “men” with their varying degrees of carnality. But the simple singularity of Jesus. HE is our life. Not US. It’s like it says in the letter to the Ephesians – “You have not so learned Christ.” The words, life and Christ become synonymous. The question is no longer, how should I live? It is, what is the shape that Christ is taking in me? If you are saved, He is taking shape. “I am in birth pangs until Christ be formed in you.” Paul wrote. Mere men is earthly, earthy – dirt. Let is be soil for the seed of “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Grow up and out of it. You don’t see flowers burying themselves.
BJ
posted by BJ at 4:59 PM
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