Apostle Paul presents to his brothers and sisters in Christ at Corinth self-examination questions. Are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? Doesn’t your pledged loyalty to a human instead of Christ Jesus show you are mere human beings? The answer to all these is yes. They were worldly, mere humans. Paul calls them infants in Christ.
Christians are called by God to be more than mere humans. How? We are to “live by the Spirit” (1). Living by the Spirit has become a modern Christian clique sometimes heard in mostly Pentecostal congregations. Yet, many who attend those congregations are guilty of the same faults found in Corinth in Paul’s day.
So, what is living by the Spirit? Living by the Spirit is living in obedience to the will of God. Elsewhere, it is defined as the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-23), and the greatest of the fruits is love. So, when the Corinthians argued and divided, they were not living in love. They were not living by the Spirit. They were carnal, mere humans. Be like Jesus means as Jesus himself said loving others as he has loved us, self-deny. Die as a kernel of wheat so that others may live by the Spirit.
