The Picture of Perfection

Do you ever think you found the "perfect" church to attend?  Some might call the thought impossible, but there is a description of God's people in the writings of Paul, which might cause us to think otherwise.  Look at 1 Corinthians 10:1-4  "For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. ² They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴ and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ."

Paul is writing about the followers of God in Old Testament days, at a time when they were the picture of unity.  Did you notice, in the verses above, the repeated use of the word "all?"  Bible Research 101 is the class where we learn something  interesting.  When the Word of God uses the word all, it doesn't mean some, it doesn't mean part, it means ALL.  The same can be applied to the use of other words in the Bible, like "every,"  "never," "only," and countless others.

Paul says they ALL were under the cloud, and then used the word all to describe the other applications to them.   People following God and all doing the same things?  Every preacher in the world would give his right arm to be able to lead such a unified church.  It really would be a preacher's dream.

But not everything was peachy.  The single verse that followed our above reading, brought a different side of the story.   Let's look at verse 5. "Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness."  How could that be?  Four detailed verses by Paul describe their unity, their agreement in purpose, and their collective sense of being followers of God.   Then one little verse ruins the perfect picture, when we learn that in spite of all the good things we can read about them, God was not happy with most of them, and those are the ones that died in the wilderness.

Further study lets us know some of these people of perfection were guilty of idolatry, some were involved in drunken revelry, some were committing sexual sins.  Collectively, the picture of perfection, yet most of them were individually guilty of personal sins and as the scripture says, "God was not pleased."

Think with me for a moment, is it possible for your church to be united in purpose, united in the following of Jesus, united in accomplishing great things for God, while at the same time raising the level of God's displeasure because of individual sins?  Can we see how this limits our effectiveness in doing God's work?   

Paul was writing about this to show Corinthian Christians and us, how we have a personal responsibility to maintain our lives of purity and integrity while joining with the body of Christ in our united purposes and goals.  Paul lets us know in the closing verses of the chapter how we can be successful in this.  He says in verse 31, "do all for the glory of God." 

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