Category: Correction & Counsel

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 12:4-31 (day three)

And now I will show you the most excellent way.

He means love, of course.  Paul was ramping up to the resplendent summation of love’s life-bringing strength and power in what we now call chapter 13.  As he did so, he reframed the Corinthian congregation’s understanding of the gifts of spiritual ability.  Prophecy exists because there is someone who has lost his way and needs a light to follow. Wisdom makes its way through a congregation because foolishness has not ceased to plague the church.  Healing comes because we are sick and weak.  Interpretation of tongues rises up because accuracy and accountability escape us so easily.  The abilities come amidst our weakness.  We handle them poorly.  And yet in love’s excellent way, we give them to one another.  This is another reason we call them gifts.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 12:4-31 (day two) 

Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. vs. 27

As a conductor I have always loved reading this scripture and relating it to a musical ensemble; especially an orchestra. When you consider an offertory the our Orchestra at First may present think about how unique each instrument is. They are oddly shaped ones, brass ones, wooden ones, percussive ones. They each make different sounds, have different ranges, and play different roles. If you are to take one of those instruments out of the ensemble, the work of art is less than it could be. Less than it was created to be. Even those instruments that predominantly play the melody will be diminished by not being accompanied by the whole group. A composer knows this when writing for an orchestra. Every part is critical to the whole.

God knows this too. There are no small parts (pardon the mixed metaphor), all contribute. Revel in the beauty of his diverse church. Help those around to play their part to the fullest so that we may all offer our sweet smelling sacrifice of praise.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 12:4-31 (day one) 

“On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem weaker are NECESSARY. . .on these we bestow abundant honor.”– v 22-23.

It was a familiar analogy in the ancient world.  Even among secular writers.  Human societies are like the body.  Different assignments but one common life and destiny.

“The figure was ordinarily used to urge members of the subordinate classes to stay in their places in the social order and not upset the equilibrium by rebelling against their superiors.” (Richard B. Hays)

Paul uses the image in a very different way!  Rather than attempt to keep subordinates in their place, he urges privileged members to respect and value the contributions of every member.  In spiritual dignity and potency we are all equals!  Diversity, responsibility, respect. . . core values of an amazing new family!

And one of the ways that God teaches these revolutionary ideas is through the church.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 8 and 1 Corinthians 10:22-33 (day seven)

Two quotes stuck out in my study this week:

1 Corinthians 8:6 is a stunning theological innovation…one of the greatest pioneering moments in the entire history of Christology.
-N.T. Wright 1992

The modern church seeks to inconvenience the believer as little as possible.
-Anonymous 2003

The first quote elevates the grand reality of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, and our example, while the second quote acknowledges the grand laxity of the church.  At some point we must realize that Christ has called us to follow him into a service that will cost us dearly.  Our self will be wildly inconvenienced when Jesus Christ is Lord of our lives.  If we are going to experience the abundance of God’s holy kingdom the fleshly self must die however painful that might be.

Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
1 Corinthians 8:6

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 8 and 1 Corinthians 10:22-33 (day five)

“Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.” 8: 13

At the heart of Paul’s teaching/writing in chapter eight are significant questions he proposes to the church in Corinth. “Am I  causing others to stumble?”  “Am I communicating love with actions and attitudes?”

Let me suggest some other good questions to help with discernment:

Which is more important, my knowledge of God, or His knowledge of me?

Does my behavior bring others closer to God?

Do my attitudes and actions strengthen the faith of Christians?

Are people glad to have met me?

Is my knowledge of God balanced with love for others?

“When a Christian’s knowledge is radiated and released by love, he is clearly demonstrating that he knows God and that God knows him, i.e. that there is a deepening personal relationship between the two.”- David Prior

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 8 and 1 Corinthians 10:22-33 (day four)

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.  (Isaiah 55:8)

Have you noticed that the principles we have in the Bible are always the exact opposite of the ways the world teaches us?  The Bible says love your enemies, the world says crush your enemies.  God says it is better to give than to receive, the world says get all you can get.  God says the truth will set you free, the world says tell them what they want to hear.

In our passage this week, God says seek the good of others, the world says do whatever you want to do…be happy.  Paul is instructing the Corinthians to always choose to follow the Lord’s ways.  If we compromise the truth of Scripture, we may lead another person astray…we may keep them from seeing an accurate picture of God.  Our witness to His truth is more important than doing what we consider to be in our own interest.

Re:Verse reading—1 Corinthians 8; 10:22-23 (day three)

“Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.”

Living as a “good witness”—a reliable conveyor of the gospel—is a good and right aspiration, but that’s not Paul’s focus here.  Rather, his stated reason for refraining from meat is the well-being of his Christian brother.  He marks the controversy in the fellowship—to eat or not to eat—as an unsolvable clash of opinions.  It’s ultimately a sham question, not unlike the one the Pharisees put to Jesus: Give to Caesar or nah?  Jesus transcended the arguments.  Paul does the same.  At issue here isn’t “Who’s right?” but “Will we love one another?”  Vexing conflicts that become zero sum games always call us to stop debating and, instead, to love.

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 8 and 1 Corinthians 10:22-33 (day two) All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. 10:23

If I can have it, and I want it…I should get it, right? Notice nothing in that question stated motive or circumstance. If you can have something, meaning it is not immoral, illegal, or harmful, then why should there be a problem getting what you want?

Here is Paul stated another way: Just because you can do something, it does not mean that you should do that thing.

If we have a Christian world-view our hearts should constantly burn for an unbelieving world. If abstinence from some activity will help strengthen your witness, are you willing to give up a behavior? Paul is reminding us that the action in question may not be “bad”, but we are called to consider others. There are larger issues at stake than our own creature comforts and desires. Is being a stumbling block to your unsaved friends worth it?

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 8 and 1 Corinthians 10:22-33 (day one) 

“Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again.”   v. 8:13

It was a revolutionary ethic!  Not one anyone saw coming.  I will live love.  The good of others will be the foundational principle for my personal choices.

The alternative is ubiquitous.  The default of human history is self.  Self-advancement.  Self-protection.

Only the church (and only with the undeniable example of the selflessness of Christ) imagined a different way to make choices.  Concern for others.  The larger good.  A grand dream of the salvation of the world ( see 10:33) with all the logical and ethical and practical choices that flow from that vision.

A few months ago, our church met to ask ourselves, “What does LOVE look like?”  1 Corinthians 8 and 10 make that question larger than a single topic.  It is the center of the New Testament ethic.

Because we have been loved, we love.  At least we should. . .

Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 5 (day seven)

Paul begins 1 Corinthians 5 with a damning accusation: a seemingly powerful man in the church is sleeping with his stepmother.  We don’t know all the details of the situation, but we do know that Paul is flabbergasted that the church is not embarrassed by this ordeal. Unrepentant sin in the church is unacceptable, and unrepentant sexual sin (pornia in the Greek) carries an extra burden as Paul explains in the next chapter.

Flee immorality (pornia – sexual looseness). Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20

Those sexual sins directly alienate you from God in a way other sin does not, and Scripture pushes back on the church with a heavy hand when do not lead one another towards repentance.  May we confess all our sexual sin before God and be healed.