Tag: small groups

The Gender Dance, Part II. 1 Corinthians #17

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Corinthians, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment


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Last week we found that 1 Corinthians 11:3-16 contains both universal truths, and cultural applications. We spent most of our time looking at the universal truths. Here is a summary of what we have learned so far:

  • Men and women are created in the image of God to be equal

  • Men and women are created in the image of God to be different and have different roles. The spiritual role of men is “head” and the spiritual role of woman is “helper companion.” (*We did consider how to apply this).

  • Men and women are created to function as a team.

It seems that one of the most controversial things I said last week is that I sometimes watch “Dancing with the Stars.” I stand by decision, and I stand by my analogy that God created the genders to relate in a way that is something like a dance. The dance can be a beautiful, attractive thing to watch. In the dance, men and women don’t have the same steps. Sometimes their steps mirror each other. I have heard it said, more than once, that Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels. I get the sentiment, but the truth is more subtle than that. She didn’t do the same thing – her steps were different from his A backwards step is not the same thing as a forward step. Rogers’ role may certainly have been more difficult. But she could not have done it without Astaire. It certainly would not have been a dance without both of them. Imagine Ginger had said, “I want to do your steps” and Fred said, “OK, we’ll both do them.” We would not be talking about them today, because the result would not be a beautiful dance.

Now, I heard some jibes about “Dancing with the Stars” from some of you male Neanderthal types who are no doubt insecure in your masculinity (I’m just kidding – I enjoyed the ribbing I got). So, to satisfy everyone, I want include another analogy – gender relationships are like a football game. Ladies, bear with me – apparently your husbands need this.

In a professional football team (apologies to my international friends – I mean American NFL football) the coaches discuss and plan the plays for the upcoming game. During the game, the Offensive Coordinator calls the plays, occasionally checking with the head coach. The quarterback gets the play-call through a radio in his helmet, and then he tells the rest of the team, and they run the play.

On the field, the other players listen to the quarterback. It isn’t that the quarterback is always the best, smartest or most experienced player on the team. But his position or role means that he is responsible to get the team into the right formation, and then get the ball to the right person.

A wide receiver would not technically have to run the route the quarterback tells him to. But if he doesn’t, he ends up hurting the team. In recent memory there have been incredibly talented wide receivers who ended up as liabilities to the teams on which they played. Terrell Owens and Randy Moss are both very able receivers. But they generally choose to act as if the purpose of the game was about their own individual performance. They have both jumped from team to team, not because of lack of talent, but rather the lack of ability to work with others.

Every year some teams lose their starting quarterback, and have to replace him with someone younger and less experienced. Some teams start off with young inexperienced quarterbacks. Undoubtedly, some of the centers, wide-receivers or running backs on these teams know more about the game, and are more talented than their own quarterback. Even so, the quarterback is called on to lead the team, and tell the others the plays given by the coaches. When the other players respect this, they have a greater chance of success.

The quarterback does not have to make all the plays. In fact, usually, teams don’t do well unless everyone is doing what the coaches ask, and working together. The quarterback’s job, in fact, is usually to get the ball into the hands of someone else who will make the play.

The rest of the team has relationships with the coaches also. They don’t have to go through the quarterback to talk to the coach. It isn’t a hierarchy like that. Even so, when they are on the field, the quarterback is the one who is responsible to communicate the play and lead the team so that everyone is on the same page.

Paul teaches us in 1 Corinthians 11:3-16 that men hold a spiritual position, just like quarterbacks hold a team position. The spiritual position of men is called by the bible, “the head.” This doesn’t mean that men are better than women. But it means that men are responsible before God to lead both men and women in accomplishing God’s purposes. If a quarterback allows a wide receiver to determine which play the team will execute, the coach will still blame the quarterback if it goes wrong. Adam allowed Eve to direct their spiritual choices in the Garden of Eden. The Bible is clear that Eve made the choice, and she took the fruit, and she gave it to Adam, who followed her leadership. Even so, both the Old and New Testament blame Adam, not Eve, for what happened. This because Adam was the head – the player on the field who was spiritually responsible for the team.

It isn’t a hierarchical situation. Women have the same direct relationship with the Lord that men do. But here on the field of life, men will be held spiritually responsible for the care of their families and churches in a way that women will not.

Women are definitely called to be involved. Just like on a sports team, things don’t work unless well everyone is playing hard, and people are paying attention to the role they have on the team. God did hold Eve accountable for what happened, but in a different way than Adam. So also, He will hold women responsible for supporting and assisting and helping their husbands and church leadership.

Male Leadership/headship does not mean domination. It has nothing to do with that. It means responsibility. It means that when God calls us to account, he is going to hold men responsible for the spiritual direction taken by their churches and families.

Male headship does not give men the right to control women in any way. In fact, it is about men caring and taking responsibility. If a woman chooses not to respond to male headship, that is between her and the Lord. A leader shows the way, but never forces. So men cannot force women to follow or to submit.

The best leaders exemplify a combination of being personally involved, and delegating. The quarterback on a football team does touch the ball on every play. He calls the plays. But he doesn’t make the plays. Almost always, he hands the ball off, or throws it to someone else. In the same way, male leadership doesn’t mean that men are supposed to do everything while women must sit quietly and do nothing. It just means that men must be responsible and involved while also welcoming and inviting the involvement of women.

To put it another way, male headship does not mean that women need to stay barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. In fact, this very passage contains one of the most clear affirmations of public female ministry – that of prophesy.

New Testament prophesy comes in three variations. There is predictive prophesy – that is the Holy Spirit, through the prophet/ess tells His people about events that are coming in the future (Acts 11:28-29; Acts 21:10-11). There is present prophesy: when the Holy Spirit, through the prophet/ess reveals His will for His people in the present, as He did when He told the church at Antioch to send Barnabas and Saul as missionaries (Acts 13:1-3). There is also a prophesy of exhortation, where the prophet/ess gives a message of encouragement to the people of God (1 Corinthians 14:3).

There is nothing in 1 Corinthians 11, or anywhere else in the Bible, that restricts women from any of these three forms of prophesy. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul assumes that women will prophesy. He also assumes that they will pray out loud in church meetings.

Prophesy and prayer are powerful gifts in God’s kingdom. According to this passage, it is good and appropriate for women to speak out to encourage other believers. It is good and appropriate for women who have the gift of prophesy to say what they believe the Lord wants to do among his people.

When it comes to the application of these things, what Paul is saying is that the Corinthians should conduct their church meetings in such a way that others can tell that men and women are involved in the spiritual gender dance. He wants their public conduct to reflect the image of God, to demonstrate the headship role of men, and the helper-companion role of women – in whatever ministries the church has. In 1st Century Corinth, apparently you could show all this, at least in some measure, through head coverings.

You may think it’s crazy that head coverings could communicate anything like that. And I certainly believe that head covering do not communicate such things in modern Western Society. Even so, I have a young single Muslim friend from South America. We were eating together once, and he remarked that he had seen some ladies at the bank with little white hats on. As he described them further, I realized he had seen some Mennonites. He was very impressed with them. He said, “I want to meet some young ladies like them. It shows that they have good character.” If you know anything about Mennonites, they dress very conservatively. But he was instantly attracted to these young Mennonites because they wore head coverings. It communicated something to him that it does not communicate to most Americans or Western Europeans. So I think it is certainly possible that head coverings did indeed communicate some significant things in 1st Century Corinth.

So what about now? Since in our society, head coverings generally don’t mean the same thing, what do we do?

First I think we should consciously engage in the dance. Some women have the gift of speaking out publicly to encourage others (that is, the gift of prophesy). They should use it. We should all welcome it. Women who have it should use that gift as women, and not try to imitate male pastors or leaders as they share. In addition, they should somehow offer recognition of the spiritual dance, and that the male leadership of church and family will be held accountable – even partially for what they (the women) say and do. In the dance of the Trinity, the Father honors and Son, and the So honors the Father and so on. So, even in public ministry, women can honor men.

Men need to recognize the dance (or the football team, if you prefer) and engage. We are not called to dominate or control. But we are called to take responsibility for the spiritual state of our families and our church. This means we need to be more involved, more relational. We too, need to lift up and honor women, and not relegate them to the kitchen and nursery, unless they feel called to those places.

As with everything, we need to pray and rely on the Holy Spirit as we implement these truths.

1 Corinthians #14. A Way Out. 1 Cor 10:1-13

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Corinthians, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment


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Just as in 1 Corinthians chapters 1-4, Paul has a general subject in mind here, but he starts straying and covering all sorts of topics before he comes back to finish the discussion. The topic, begun in chapter 8, was about food sacrificed to idols. But he tells us in that chapter that the point is not what you are free to do, but how your actions affect the consciences of others. In chapter nine, he spent a great deal of time detailing his own rights and freedoms, and pointing out that he gave those up for the Corinthians.

In chapter 10, he warns the Corinthians that they are not above falling. He uses the Israelites as an example. In verse 11, he says:

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction…

This isn’t the main point, but it is an important one. He says something much like it in Romans also:

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4)

The reason I point this out is that sometimes Christians act as if the Old Testament is no longer relevant to us any more. But the New Testament itself teaches that the Old Testament offers us instruction and encouragement. It applies to us – certainly in a different way than it applied to the Israelites who lived before Jesus, but still, it is there for our instruction, encouragement and benefit. Paul, looking at the Old Testament, sees its fulfillment in Jesus, and its application for present followers of Jesus.

So he uses an Old Testament example for the Corinthians. The Corinthians were baptized into Jesus Christ. They had faith in Him. They regularly received the Lord’s Supper. But, says Paul, that does not automatically mean that they will be in heaven, if they don’t persist in these things. He says that the ancient Israelites, had their own baptism-like experience. They had their own experience of the Lord’s Supper, partaking of food and drink that were not only physical, but spiritual (v.3-4). Paul even says that Jesus Christ was present with them through the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, just as Jesus is present with us through the Holy Spirit.

I have seen two common attitudes among Christians like the attitude that Paul warns about. In the Lutheran and Catholic traditions, many people have the attitude that if they simply get baptized as babies, get confirmed as teenagers, and take communion once or twice a year, they automatically go to heaven. They feel that if they just do those things, they can live the rest of their lives however they want, and it will have no eternal consequences.

Many Baptists and other evangelicals have exactly the same attitude, only in a different way. They laugh at the idea of putting their faith in sacraments. But instead, they put their faith in a different ceremony, that of “getting saved.” They believe if that at one single point in their life, they respond to an altar call, walk down to the front of the church and say that they believe, then they “got saved.” Church of Christ people would add that they have to get baptized too. But the attitude is that if they simply do that once, they can go live the rest of their lives however they want, and it will have no eternal consequences.

The result of all this is that we have people all over the country who never go to church, never talk to God, never read their bibles, live in all different kinds of moral sin, give their lives to alcohol and drugs, or to the pursuit of money, and yet believe that when they die, they’ll be in heaven with a Lord they have never known or cared about. But Paul says:

Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence. (1 Cor 10:12, the Message).

Now, there is great debate between Christians about a related topic. Some Christians feel that if you are truly saved, you can never lose your salvation, no matter what. They point to several verses like Romans 8:38-39

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Others point to this passage, and other passages like Hebrews 6:4-8, which contain strong warnings about falling away, and even to people like Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom Paul says rejected the faith and so destroyed themselves spiritually (1 Timothy 1:20).

I like to solve the dilemma by saying this: First, there are great many promises to us so that we can rest assured, knowing that the power and grace of Jesus holds us and will keep us and bring us safely to eternal life with Him. Second, a life of true faith will show itself by growing closer to God and moving away from sin and worldly ambitions (even if the movement is slow).

The point Paul is making today is the second one. If you have true faith, you won’t neglect your relationship with God. If you think that you can more or less ignore God for the rest of your life and still have eternal life, then you are in desperate spiritual and eternal danger.

But Paul also has a word of comfort. He says:

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. (1 Cor 10:13, New Living Translation)

In other words, though the possibility of spiritual danger is very real, God does not simply leave you to figure it out yourself. He doesn’t abandon you to stand or fall on your own – he is there to help in the middle of your temptations and trials. The word for temptation here means to “trap” or to “test.” This word is for you if you are tempted to sin, or if you feel caught, or if you feel your faith is being tested in some way.

Now, I want to be honest with you: there were times in my life when I wasn’t sure that this was true. For a long time I struggled with a sin that I always seemed to give in to. If I was tempted in that way, I was going to sin. I wondered where my ‘way out’ was. Slowly, over the years, I’ve learned two things about the “way out” listed here.

I had areas of my life where I was holding on to hurt and not forgiving others. I had closed off parts of my heart from God, and that naturally opened them up to the devil. I was defeated by that particular temptation, because I let Satan live in a little corner of my heart where I wasn’t letting God come in. In other words, God couldn’t give me a way out, because I closed part of me off from him. I needed help and prayer from other believers to discover this and to walk through the process of dealing with it. Once I did that, I was till tempted to sin in the same way, and yet I found that I could now resist that temptation.

If you are dealing with a particular sin in which you fail again and again in the same way, I encourage you to talk to me or another mature Christian about it, and seek the wisdom and prayers of others.

There is another aspect about this way of escape from temptation. You must believe that the Holy Spirit really does offer it, and that means you need to keep looking until you find it.

I grew up in Papua New Guinea. We always had plenty of food available to us, but not nearly the variety of food there is in the United States. We could always find meat and bread. There was always rice. Fresh milk was never available. Other things, like crackers or potato chips or breakfast cereal only showed up occasionally. If we saw Froot Loops or macaroni and cheese in the store, we knew a ship had recently come in to town. We also knew that within a few days, all boxes would be gone, and we probably wouldn’t see that kind of food again for a year or more.

One year we returned to the US for a few months of furlough. I went to an American grocery store with my Grandfather. We got various items, and then we started looking for oyster crackers. We went to the aisle where Grandpa normally found them. They weren’t there. Grandpa was puzzled, and we looked very intently without finding them.

“Grandpa,” I said after a while, “they’re probably just out of them.”

Grandpa didn’t really know any more about New Guinean grocery stores than I knew about American ones. He stared at me like I was an alien. “They’re not out of them” he said. He was vastly amused at my idea that there would be no oyster crackers.

If it had been me, I would have gone home without oyster crackers, because I did not believe they were there. However, to my great surprise, we eventually found them, and my grandpa laughed at my consternation all the way home.

In order to find the way of escape promised by the Holy Spirit here, you must believe that it really exists, and you must keep searching, believing you will find it. If you don’t believe it is there, you might be like me with the oyster crackers – you’ll look around a little, and then give up. But my Grandpa found what he needed because he believed it was there, and kept searching until he had obtained it.

That needs to be our attitude when we face temptations and trials and tests of any kind. The way is there. God has promised it. Don’t stop, don’t give up until you have made use of it to find relief from temptation and trial.

Love & Liberty. 1 Corinthians Part 12. 1 Cor 8:1-12

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Corinthians, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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In order to better understand 1 Corinthians 12 we should learn a little about the historical context. You may remember from the introduction to 1 Corinthians, that Paul wrote this letter in response to a letter that the Corinthians sent him, and also in response to the report some visitors from Corinth gave him about the church.

In 1 Corinthians 7:1 Paul says, “now concerning the matters about which you wrote…” Apparently chapter 8 is continuing to address some things that the Corinthians wrote about in their letter to Paul. The topic for this chapter is food (almost certainly meat) that had been sacrificed to idols.

In those days, meat was a relatively rare commodity. There was no refrigeration of course, so all meat had to be eaten within a day or two of the slaughter. Even as recently as the 19th century, one of the great attractions for joining the British army was that all soldiers were given a ration of meat every day. Daily meat was rare enough to make this a big selling point for recruiters. In the 1st century (when Paul wrote this) meat was at least that scarce, if not more so.

When I was a child, my family sometimes went to live in small villages in Papua New Guinea for weeks at a time. The situation there was similar, as regards meat. We ate vegetables and rice. Meat was only for special occasions of celebration and feasting. Once an animal was slaughtered, it had to be eaten with a day or two.

In 1st Century Corinth, the main occasions for eating meat would be connected one way or another with the worship of idols and false gods. If it was a feast day or some other special day of worship in the pagan religion, people would go the temple and slaughter an animal. Part of the animal might be burned on an altar, or left in front of the idol. Another portion would be given to the priests. A third portion would be given back to the worshipers to feast with. Sometimes families would make a sacrifice or have an idol feast for some personal reason, and the meat was divided the same way. On feast days especially, the priests and temple workers would often end up with more meat than they could eat before it spoiled. So they would sell the rest in the city meat market. If the animal was large, the family celebrating might also have too much meat, and likewise, sell the extra. Alternatively, the family would sometimes invite friends and relatives over for more feasting after the pagan worship, in order to use up the rest of meat.

So during or immediately after pagan worship celebrations, meat would be more available, and less expensive than at other times. But a lot of that meat would have been originally part of pagan worship ceremonies to idols and false gods.

Not only that, but for a poor family, they might have a chance to eat free meat by going with friends to a pagan temple, or by eating at the houses of friends who had just sacrificed at the temple.

Apparently the Christians at Corinth were divided over whether it was OK to eat meat that had been involved in pagan worship, or whether it was wrong. We don’t know know for sure, but is possible that when Paul says “we know that all of us possess knowledge” he is quoting their letter to him. From this, and from the tone of his response, it sounds like at least some of the believers at Corinth were saying, “Look, we know that there is only God, and idols are nothing. So we are free to eat whatever we want, whenever and wherever we want to.”

Paul responds in two parts. The first part of his answer is here in chapter eight. He gets into a very involved discussion and then concludes his answer in chapter 10. But there appears to be two distinct issues here. The first is, “is it OK, in general to eat meat that might have been sacrificed to an idol?” The second question is, “is it OK to attend the idol feasts themselves and eat there?”

Paul’s answer in chapter eight is to change the subject.

It isn’t that he doesn’t have an answer – he gives the answers fairly definitely in chapter 10. But his point in chapter eight is that the issue is not really about eating meat, but rather about looking out for each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

It is set up like this. In Paul’s opinion, nothing is unclean.

6 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism…(Colossians 2:16-18)

There are some things in the bible that are neither commanded nor forbidden. We should not accept someone judging us regarding something like that. When it is not commanded or forbidden, we can keep a clear conscience about our own behavior, whatever we choose.

At the same time, Paul recognizes that not everyone is in the same place with regard to conscience. Some of the Corinthians had previously been Jews; they had never in their lives worshiped idols, nor believed that there was anything to an idol. Therefore eating meat used in sacrifice, or even eating at the temple, presented no problem to them.

On the other hand, many of the Christians in Corinth used to worship those very same idols. Going to the temple might suck them back into that lifestyle and belief system. In some cases, they felt that even eating something offered at the pagan temple would be sinful. Paul says, even though they are technically free from all that, if they believe it is wrong and then do it, they have succumbed to sin in terms of their intentions. They have violated their own conscience.

Once when they were younger, one of my children took a swing at one of her siblings. She wasn’t terribly coordinated, and the punch did not connect at all – she punched air. So technically, she did nothing wrong. But obviously, it was her intention to punch her sibling in the face. I disciplined her just as if the punch had connected. I did this because obviously something in her heart needed to be corrected, even if she failed to carry out the deed. It is the same here.

Suppose I point a gun at someone, believing it is loaded, and pull the trigger. If the gun is not loaded, I will not actually harm the person. Even so, I could be arrested and convicted for attempted murder. The fact that I did not actually do wrong does not change the fact that I intended to.

Paul, writing about basically the same subject as 1 Corinthians 8 in Romans 14, puts it this way:

But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)

So a person who eats idol-meat, believing it is wrong, has deliberately done something they think is wrong. In that person’s heart, he made a choice to do wrong, even though the action itself is morally neutral. Paul’s conclusion about all of it is this:

20Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats.21It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. (Romans 14:20-21)

The point is not what you are free to do, but rather, how your actions affect your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.

Now, I haven’t been invited to any idol-feasts lately. I couldn’t tell you if I have ever eaten meat sacrificed to an idol (though considering how I grew up, my chances are better than yours). So what does this mean for us today? Is it just a historical curiosity, or is there a principle here that helps us even now?

I think the principle is clear: when something is neither commanded nor forbidden by the bible, we should internally hold on to our freedom, while externally behaving in such a way so as to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ.

These days, many Christians aren’t sure about alcohol. Some drink to excess and never worry about it. Others feel that even a sip would be sinful. It is clear to me that Jesus and his disciples drank alcohol in the form of wine. Paul wrote to Timothy to drink a little wine for his health. But the New Testament also clearly says that drunkenness is a sin. It is listed alongside adultery and homosexual behavior in 1 Corinthians 6, which we studied a few weeks ago.

So for myself personally, I have a clear conscience drinking a glass of wine with dinner, or having one alcoholic beverage over the course of an evening. I have never been drunk. Praise the Lord, I’ve never even been tempted to drink too much.

But I know some people who think it is categorically wrong. If I am around someone who feels that way, I won’t drink anything at all, so that I don’t throw them into confusion, or cause them to violate their own conscience.

Likewise, I know some people who can’t stop with just one drink. If they have one drink, they are going to have at least three or four (or maybe a lot more), and they won’t stop until the alcohol affects them. They can’t drink without at least getting “buzzed.” Unfortunately, that usually means they would be legally considered drunk if they were driving. Those people may or may not feel alcohol is wrong. But I won’t drink when I’m around them either, for fear of encouraging them to drink too much.

I am settled in my own mind that I’m free to drink alcohol without abusing it. I have a clear conscience about my occasional use of it. But in terms of where and when I have some, my concern is not about my own freedom, but about the spiritual welfare of the people I am with.

There are other things like this. Some Christians feel that dancing is wrong. Others have issues with certain foods. Some believers feel that you have to observe certain Christian festivals or ceremonies. Some people feel it is wrong to shop on Sunday. I am convinced in my own mind about my freedom in Jesus Christ. Even so, I am willing to alter my behavior so as not to cause harm to another believer in Jesus. Paul puts it this in Romans 14:13. [When he says “brother” he means “person who believes in Jesus Christ, whether male or female.”]

13Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

Far from being some ancient and irrelevant problem of the Corinthians, the whole concept of food sacrificed to idols is very relevant today. Ask the Lord to speak to you about this right now.

Christmas Morning 2010

On By Pastor TomIn Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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One of the things we preachers like to point out about Christmas is that it was an incredible sacrifice, not only for Jesus to die on the cross, but for him to become human in the first place. One thing the New Testament emphasizes is that Jesus took our humanity upon himself. He took our sins on himself. He was true God; he became true man and the humiliation was, he took on all the shame and guilt that it means to be true man. That shame began with the human family he was born into.

Jesus Christ was born into a human family. His human ancestors were kings. You may wonder how it it was that a descendant of the ancient kings was unknown, and unrecognized as royal. Let me give you an illustration of how this could be. I am the king of Serbia. Really. Well, actually, I would be the king of Serbia, if Serbia was still a monarchy, and if several thousand people who are ahead of me in the line of succession were to die. So, although my ancestry can be traced back (on one side of the family) to a Serbian king, it doesn’t really matter because Serbia doesn’t have kings any more, and even if they did, there are other people more directly in the line of descent.

So, with Jesus, his ancestors can be traced back to King David and beyond, but that doesn’t mean he was in the direct line of inheritance for the throne, and anyway, the Jewish people had not had a king for 500 years before Jesus came into the world.

Actually, Jesus’ human ancestors include some shocking people. Matthew records the genealogy of Jesus. Luke also records a genealogy, with some slightly different names involved. Matthew is obviously tracing the physical ancestors of Joseph, who was the legal father of Jesus, though not the biological one. Many bible scholars feel that Luke, with his different genealogy, is tracing the ancestors of Mary. Though this is not explicitly stated, it is quite possible.

Matthew’s genealogy skips generations at times (so does Luke’s). We know from the records in the Old Testament books of Kings and Chronicles that not every generation is listed here. So where most English translations say some thing like “Azor, the father of Zadok” it would more accurate to say, “Azor, the ancestor of Zadok.” This is typical of how Jews/Hebrews recorded ancestry. One result is that those generations that Matthew lists were probably included for specific reasons. I want to to look at some of those reasons today.

Matthew starts the list with Abraham. Abraham was a man of faith. But he had his failures. He slept with his slave Hagar; in fear, he lied to kings about his wife Sarah, telling them she was his sister. Isaac, Abraham’s son, was a pretty solid guy. But Jacob, the next in line was a trickster, a con man. He had two wives, and also slept with two different slave girls.

Judah was the next ancestor of Jesus. He was one of the ten brothers who sold their own sibling Joseph as a slave. Matthew records that the line is traced through Judah’s son Perez, who was born to him by Tamar. Tamar was actually Judah’s daughter in law. After her first two husbands died, Judah would not allow her to marry his last son. So she disguised herself as a prostitute, and Judah slept with her, and so the next ancestor of Jesus – Perez – was concieved.

A few generations later came Salmon. Salmon married a prostitute named Rahab (and she wasn’t even an Israelite either) and they had Boaz. Boaz married a foreigner who had been married before, and they had the next ancestor of Jesus.

A while later came King David. David was perhaps the most noble ancestor Jesus had. Yet he had a major moral failure also. He committed adultery and murdered the husband of the woman he had sinned with. Then he married that woman, and she became the mother of the next ancestor of Jesus Christ. That’s right, one set of Jesus’ ancestors were adulterers. Matthew even remembers her, not as the Queen, nor as David’s wife, but rather “the wife of Uriah” (Uriah was her first husband, the one David had killed).

In fact, in this entire list, Matthew mentions only four mothers: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah (who was called Bathsheba). Aside from Ruth, the most significant thing about these women is that they were involved in major sins committed by both the mothers and fathers mentioned here. And even Ruth was a foreigner, an outsider to the people of Israel. In other words, it almost seems like Matthew is trying to draw attention to the checkered past of Jesus’ family.

In 1:7-11, Matthew continues with a recitation of the royal ancestors of Jesus proceeding from David until the time of Exile. There are a couple of great kings in this list. Hezekiah was a good ruler and man of faith. Josiah was too. But both of them failed to raise their children in faith. And most of this list is a remembrance of bad kings. Here are a couple of the individuals mentioned:

    • Manasseh did evil in the eyes of the Lord (2 Kings 21:2)

    • Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. (2 Kings 16:2-3)

    • And he [Joram] walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. (2 Kings 8:18)

    • And he [Amon] did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. He walked in all the way in which his father walked and served the idols that his father served and worshiped them. (2 Kings 20:20-21).

You get the picture. Let’s put it plainly. The human ancestors of Jesus the Messiah were a bunch of lecherous, fornicating, murdering, idol-worshiping, faithless thugs. This is the heritage that Jesus was born into. You see it’s not just that Jesus was born into poverty and humility in human terms. He was also born into a heritage of spiritual poverty and spiritual shame. This is the heritage that we all share as human beings. This is what Jesus took upon himself.

When I consider all these, three things occur to me. The first is that Jesus’ humanity extended to having a dysfunctional family, and relatives that did shameful things. Although he himself committed no sins, the sin that corrupted the entire human race was a part of his human heritage. For our sake, he took that heritage upon himself.

God made him who had no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:21)

That began at the moment of Jesus’ conception. That sin-heritage was completely and inextricably bound with the humanity that Jesus inherited from Mary, and even the family he inherited from both.

Second, it seems clear that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to deliberately include these particular people in the recounting of Jesus’ human heritage. The Lord seems to be pointing out that he can and does use even deeply flawed people. Some of these ancestors of Jesus never repented, and everything I know about the bible suggests that many of them will be in Hell, not heaven. But even so, God used them, willing or unwilling.

Third, even these deeply flawed people can be redeemed. As I just mentioned, some of them rejected God’s grace. But others – like Judah and David and Josiah – repented and received redemption. In fact, that is why Jesus came – to bring the redemption that had to come both from humanity and from God. Jesus, eternally God, but born human on a particular day in history, is the only way for that redemption to be total and effective. He bore in his nature the weakness of humanity and the strength of divinity.

Maybe you know someone who feels like they already have too many disadvantages to ever become a redeemed, holy follower of Jesus. Maybe you feel like that. Maybe you feel like you could never have anything to do with a Holy God. Well, just look at where this Holy Messiah came from. He didn’t have a better family than you. He wasn’t born in a nicer place. He took on all the disadvantages that humanity has to offer, so that HE could offer YOU every advantage of heaven. Like the gifts we give at this time of year, all you need to do is have the faith to believe the gift is truly given to you, and to reach out and receive it.

1 Corinthians # 8. 1 Cor 6:1-9

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Corinthians, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Let’s begin by reviewing. In the very opening of his letter, Paul told the Corinthians that in their relationship with Jesus Christ they were complete, mature and had all that they needed. As we have studied other New Testament passages, we understand what Paul mean. As we place our trust in Jesus, he makes our dead spirits alive. He transforms the eternal, non-dying part of us (the spirit) into a new creation, and spiritually, we become someone holy, innocent, and complete, living in perfect relationship with God.

This begins a process – the new life we have in the spirit is supposed to flow into our souls and then to our bodies, and to influence how we think, feel and act. But the problem in Corinth was that, while they had put their trust in Jesus, they were not drawing on the life of the spirit. Instead they were basing their motivations, desires, decisions and lifestyles on the “life of the flesh” – that is they were influenced not by the Lord’s redemption, but rather by the desires, attitudes and cultures of the physical world. So Paul writes:

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people.

But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. (1 Corinthians 2:11-14)

And then he points out to them:

Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, because you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, because you are still fleshly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not fleshly and living like unbelievers? (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)

We need to keep this in mind as we proceed through the whole book of 1 Corinthians. In most of the letter he is pointing out to them ways in which they are living by the flesh rather than the spirit. The solution is not for them to work harder or shape themselves up. Instead, they need to return to who they are in Christ, to draw their life and make their decisions from the spirit, rather than from the world around them, or from the temptations they face.

In particular, he seems to be focusing on how they exercise judgment. They are judging according to the flesh, not the spirit, when they break up into factions following one leader or another. They are doing the same thing when they evaluate how well a Christian brother is serving the Lord. They are judging (or failing to judge) from the flesh when they allow a Christian brother to flagrantly, persistently live in sin without repenting.

In chapter six, Paul points another way in which they are living from flesh rather than spirit. They are engaging in lawsuits against one another. Once again, this has to do with their failure to exercise spiritual judgment. Paul points out that from a spiritual perspective, there is no one outside the church more qualified than they are to judge disputes.

Or don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest cases? Don’t you know that we will judge angels — not to mention ordinary matters? So if you have cases pertaining to this life, do you select those who have no standing in the church to judge? I say this to your shame! Can it be that there is not one wise person among you who is able to arbitrate between his brothers? (1Cor 6:2-5, HCSB)

I have to admit, Paul’s claim that ordinary believers will judge the world and angels is a little bit startling (when Paul says “saints” he just means anyone who is a disciple of Jesus). I can’t think of any place else in scripture that states it quite this way. Jesus told his disciples that they would sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke 22:29-30). But that seems like something special for those original twelve. Paul tells Timothy that we will “reign with Christ” (2 Timothy 2:12). There may be more to it, but at the very least, I think Paul is being explicit about the fact that the life we’ve been given in Jesus Christ is more powerful and enduring than anything in this temporary existence of ours. God’s Spirit has the only clear, correct and righteous view of things. There is no one better qualified to judge than the Holy Spirit. In Jesus Christ, we have access to that Spirit.

So when the Corinthian Christians go to secular courts for lawsuits, not only are they judging according to the flesh, but they are even abdicating their access to the Holy Spirit and submitting to the judgments of those who cannot access the Holy Spirit. Paul’s sarcastic questions reveal how ridiculous this is. In his opinion, any Christian, relying on the Holy Spirit, would certainly be a better judge than a person, however wise, who cannot rely on the Spirit of God.

There is another aspect to the lawsuits. Why do they even have them in the first place? The very fact that it comes to the point where Christians are taking each other to court is a disgrace. Paul writes:

Therefore, to have legal disputes against one another is already a moral failure for you. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather be cheated? (1Cor 6:7, HCSB)

This is a real challenge to me. It bothers me intensely when I think I have been cheated, or treated unfairly. If it is by someone who calls himself a Christian, I get even more angry. But Paul says it would be better to let it go rather than take it to court.

Couldn’t this lead to people taking advantage of you, because you are a Christian? The answer is obviously yes. But remember, one of Paul’s points is that we are not living for this life only. What happens in this life is important. This life is where we make choices that affect how we spend the rest of eternity. This life is where we can affect others for eternity. We experience real joy here, and are touched by real sorrow. But this life is only a very small slice of time, the very tiny prelude to the beginning of never ending life with Jesus (if we trust him). What does it matter, in the light of life with Jesus, if we are cheated out of $1000, or even 10,000? Paul is telling them (and us) to have an eternal perspective on these matters.

Picture yourself in the middle of a football game. The referee makes a bad call. It’s unfair. Maybe he even does it deliberately. Maybe it even costs you the game. That sort of thing really makes me angry when I see it. But it’s just a game. Ultimately, in the rest of life, the bad call doesn’t matter. Let me put it this way: I have never received any actual harm from a bad call at a sporting event. In the same way, while we are deeply involved in this life here and now, it is an indisputable fact that our lives are quite short, even measured against the relatively short time-span of human history. When I am with Jesus, it will not matter to me in the tiniest way, that I was once gypped for $11,000. To put it another way, I need to judge from the spiritual perspective, not the flesh perspective.

I’m not saying we should never try to fight injustice. But Paul makes it clear that it would be better to accept injustice from other Christians, than to take them to court. Think of it this way: if they treat one of their fellow-Christians unjustly, if they swindle one of God’s beloved children, they have a lot more than a lawsuit to worry about. They are going to have to explain themselves to God. And of course, this is another thing that Paul calls them out about. He says:

Instead, you act unjustly and cheat — and you do this to believers! Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? (1Cor 6:8-9, HCSB)

As a practical matter, it seems like Paul is suggesting that if there is some kind of dispute between two Christians, they should seek another Christian person to help arbitrate it (1 Cor 6:5). Of course, there’s not much you can do if you are the one being sued, but you could at least attempt to resolve things out of court with the person if she is a Christian. Show her this passage, and then suggest that you find a Christian arbitrator. She may not take you up on it, but it’s worth a try.

What if you have a dispute with someone who is not a Christian? Is it OK to sue them? This particular passage is not very clear about this. I would suggest in that case, that you continue to walk in your faith relationship with Jesus. In other words, ask Him about it. Seek his wisdom and leading in that circumstance.

All of this in general is a clear signal that Christians should be living radically different lives from those around them who do not follow Jesus. Our relationships in Christ must be more important than “business as usual” and even more important than our rights. Our relationships in the body of Christ should be so important that we are willing to be cheated or suffer in injustice.

I think it goes beyond lawsuits. The Holy Spirit wants Christians to live with a practical recognition that when we trust Jesus, we join a family of other brothers and sisters who also trust him. It shouldn’t just be something we talk about on Sunday mornings. It needs to make a difference in how do our daily business.

1 Corinthians Part 7. Excommunication? 1 Cor 5:1-13

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Corinthians, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment


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One of the reasons I think it is good for us to learn about the letter of 1 Corinthians, is that it challenges us at times to look at things we might prefer to ignore. I find chapter 5 to be one of those places.

Imagine you are a doctor. You have a patient who comes regularly. One day you notice a growth under his arm. You run some tests, and find out that this growth is a cancerous tumor. You could remove it with surgery. You might also have to treat the patient with chemo or radiation afterward. Instead, you say, “No, let’s leave it alone. If we remove it with surgery, that will be a big hassle for the patient, not to mention all the mental trauma he will feel if we tell him he has cancer.” Of course, such a doctor would not deserve to practice medicine.

This is almost exactly what has happened in the Corinthian church. There is a cancer of sin growing in their church. Now, let’s be clear. It’s not just that someone has sinned. The New Testament makes it clear that no one is perfect, and we all fail at times. But in Corinth, a church member is living in sin. He is persisting in a sinful lifestyle openly with no attempt or intention to change.

The sin here is something that Paul calls (in the Greek) “porneia.” You may recognize that our English words“porn” and fornication are based upon this term. In the New Testament, “porneia” means any kind of sexual activity between people that takes place apart from couples who are married to each other. In this particular case, a man and a woman who aren’t married to each other are engaging in sexual activity. It is a man and his father’s wife – probably his step-mother.

This isn’t an isolated incident. It is a repeated pattern of behavior. Even worse, no one in the church seems to have anything to say about it. In fact, Paul says “and you are inflated with pride instead of filled with grief.” This could mean that the Corinthians are proud in general (which Paul has already chided them for), but in context, it appears that they are actually proud of the fact they have welcomed and accepted someone with an immoral, and even incestuous lifestyle.

Paul says instead of pride, they should have been filled with sorrow. This is important to pay attention to. Even when a judgment must be made and action must be taken, it should not be done with anger, or even righteous indignation. The presence of a fellow-Christian who persists in a pattern of sinful behavior, should be cause for mourning in the church. It should cause us grief to have to take an action that makes a person aware of their sinful lifestyle. It should cause us grief that this person may have to leave the church.

Paul says that if the Corinthians had appropriately responded and been filled with this grief, the one who was doing this would be “removed from among you.” The Greek word used for “removed from” is an unusual one, and it occurs only twice in the entire New Testament, both times in this passage. The transliteration is “exairo.” I suspect that our English word “excise” comes from this term. The idea is exactly like the removal of a tumor.

Without wasting any more words, Paul tells them what they must do. The next time they meet as a church, they are to “hand over that person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.” This is obviously a strange and difficult command. But it isn’t the only place in the New Testament where this idea is given. Paul writes to Timothy:

Hymenaeus and Alexander are among them, and I have delivered them to Satan , so that they may be taught not to blaspheme. ( Timothy 1:20)

It is difficult to know exactly what Paul means by these statements. He says to the Corinthians that this is for “the destruction of of the flesh.” It could mean the literal destruction of his body. Sexual promiscuity always carries with it a risk of disease, and in those days, before modern medicine, many people died of sexually transmitted diseases. So Paul could mean that. However, that was not exactly a sure proposition, and Paul often uses the term “flesh” to mean the impulses, habits and decisions associated with a sinful lifestyle. The idea then, would be that this man would indulge himself fully in a “flesh oriented” (sin-oriented) lifestyle until he is sick of it. However, this is also a tricky proposition.

I think there are two things that we can definitely know from this verse, however. The first is that the man is to be “handed over to Satan.” The idea in the Greek words is that this individual will no longer be entrusted to the care of the church, but instead, “entrusted to” or “committed to” the devil.

The New Testament clearly teaches that we are in a spiritual war. During the second world war, the Japanese soldiers continued to fight long after it was obvious that Japan could not possibly win. In fact, they typically fought to the death in individual battles, even after it was clear that the battle was lost. It is the same with the powers of evil. They have lost the war. But they will fight until Jesus returns and destroys them forever. So the picture here is this: the church is turning out this unrepentant man – sending him over to enemy lines. He will no longer have the protection or care of the kingdom of God, or of God’s people. He isn’t their responsibility any more. He will now be in the realm that is dominated by the Enemy. If you aren’t in God’s kingdom, you are the mercy of Satan’s realm.

Second, the purpose of all this is: “so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” In other words, they aren’t turning him over because they are angry, or because they hope the worst for him. Instead, they are hoping for a positive result, the best possible result.

Now, the obvious question is, “how will turning him over the the realm of the devil cause him to be saved?” I think the hope is that this man will see the contrast between his life before he started down this path, and what it is like after. The idea is kind of like a medical diagnosis. If a person comes in limping into the doctor’s office, and an ex-ray reveals a broken leg, the doctor has a responsibility to tell the patient that her leg is broken. Perhaps the patient doesn’t want to believe this, or feels it isn’t a serious problem. The doctor can’t force treatment on her. But he can warn her, and refuse to give her something for the pain until her bone is properly set. Maybe if the patient limps around in pain for a few more days, she’ll decide she’d be better get the cause of the problem taken care of.

It’s the same idea here. A repeated pattern of an unrepentant, sinful lifestyle is a serious problem for spiritual health. If a person refuses to even repent and try to address the issue, maybe they need to experience the consequences of their behavior, with the hope that they will come back and repent.

There is another aspect to all this. The first thing, as we have said, is that the unrepentant sinner is putting his own spiritual life in danger. But the second aspect is that tolerating this sort of behavior within the church is a danger to the others who are part of the church. Paul says, “Don’t you know that a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough?” In other words, when the church begins to compromise, it is a serious problem that has far reaching effects. Compromise, false doctrine and sin have a way of spreading. Just as a little yeast can affect a large ball of dough, so a little compromise can affect a church. For the good of the individual, and for the good of the church, Paul tells them to remove the person who won’t repent.

This is not the only place in the New Testament that tells Christians to take these sorts of actions:

15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault when the two of you are alone. If he listens to you, you have regained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others with you, so that at the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be established. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. If he refuses to listen to the church, treat him like a Gentile or a tax collector. 18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven. 19 Again, I tell you the truth, if two of you on earth agree about whatever you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. 20 For where two or three are assembled in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:15-20)

There is an aspect to this that churches often miss, and it is because these miss this point, many Christians are held in contempt. Paul makes it very clear in verses 9-13 that this teaching is for dealing with unrepentant, persistent, lifestyle sinners within the church. This is not an approach we take with those who are not Christians, those who are not a part of the church. Paul says: “For what is it to me to judge outsiders?”

Too many churches do this backwards. We preach sermons about all the sin and immorality in the world around us. We talk about the problems of others. But we don’t address the problems within our own group. That’s one reason Christians are called hypocrites all the time. We point out the sin of people who have nothing to do with us, and ignore the persistent, unrepentant sin of our own friends and fellow-christians. It’s like a mother who keeps telling everyone else to discipline their children, while all the while, her own children are running wild.

There is sin and immorality in the world – don’t be surprised about that, and don’t get sucked into it. But it is none of my business if a man who is an atheist wants to live an immoral lifestyle. Telling him he is living in sin won’t accomplish anything, since he doesn’t even believe in sin. However, it is my business if someone in our own church is persisting in sin and is not repenting from it. It is your business too, if you are part of the church.

Now, I want to reiterate something. I’m not talking about picking on everyone who fails in a moment of weakness. Paul is talking here about a Christian who is willfully continuing to do what he knows is sinful. He is persisting in it, and he is not repentant. It is not a moment of weakness, but rather, a continuing pattern of behavior. We need to use the same guidelines. If I see someone in our church drunk once, I might talk to him about it, or maybe I’ll just pray for him. But when I see that getting drunk is a regular part of his lifestyle, a pattern of behavior, we’ll talk for sure. And if he refuses to repent, and claims that it isn’t sinful and it isn’t a problem, then I will be filled grief, as Paul said the Corinthians should be, and, depending on his response, that grief might have to lead to separation.

Now, there is one thing nowadays that makes this all different from when Paul wrote this. When Paul wrote, there was only one church in Corinth. They probably met in several different homes, but they saw themselves as a single church. So the persistent, unrepentant sinner who was kicked out, had no other church to go to. He couldn’t feel good or spiritual about himself by just showing up at a different church where no one knew him.

Nowadays, that is exactly what some people do. They leave one place if they are confronted with their persistent, unrepented sins, and go somewhere else where no one knows them. I only want to say this: spiritually speaking, they are playing with fire. That is like going to a new doctor, because your old doctor wants to treat the disease that is killing you, instead of just giving you pain medicine to alleviate your symptoms. You might be able to cover up your symptoms somewhere else, but you’ll only end up dead.

So, what does this mean for us today? I think there are two major applications, just as Paul had two major concerns. The first is for us as individuals. Is there any way in which we might be persisting in a sinful lifestyle? By the way, I think that at any given time, the answer to that for the majority of disciples would be “no.” But it is possible that someone reading this might be caught in a persistent pattern of sinful behavior – sin that you are not repenting of. If so, now is the time to repent. All we need is in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, your spirit is already perfect. Let the Spirit rule, not your flesh. Repent, seek help from other believers, and leave it behind.

The other application is how we view sinful behavior in others. The sins of those who do not claim to be Christians are not really our business. Of course we should pray for those people, and try to lead them to Jesus, but there is no purpose in telling them to stop sinning if they don’t even know the Lord.

If we notice a fellow-disciple fail, like we all fail from time to time, we should pray for her. Maybe we could also ask her if she needs help or encouragement. We could remind her that she is forgiven, and already made perfect in her spirit in Jesus.

If we notice a persistent pattern of sinful behavior in another believer, we need to prayerfully take the steps that Jesus and Paul give us.

1 Corinthians Part 6. Liberation Theology? 1 Cor 4:7-16

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Corinthians, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment


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I was preparing this week to move on to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. However, I think the Lord suggested that I take an opportunity presented by the text in chapter 4. Verses 7-16 address an issue that has become more and more important in churches in the United States.

About 10 years ago some very dear friends of ours felt that the Lord was calling them to take a step of faith. He had a good job in the software industry, which allowed her to stay at home and raise the kids, and home-school them – something which they both felt was important. He quit his good job to launch out into a new career as a Realtor. He was positive that the Lord was calling him to do this. A year later, they were $30,000 in debt and on the brink of losing their home. She had to go back to work. He found a job painting houses, where he worked long hours at something he liked less, for less money.

Another couple we know had a dream farm in the country. He built this house on his own land, the land he grew up on. He has incredible skills – he can build or fix just about anything. But they felt the Lord calling them to start a home-school publishing business. To make a long story short, they lost their home, and ended up living in a campground in a 5th wheel trailer with five kids.

Now, what do you think when you hear these types of stories? I know what I thought – they must not have heard correctly. I came to this conclusion for two reasons. First, I thought they had made a mistake because things did not go well with them financially. Second, I thought they had made a mistake because they had no outward success in doing what they felt God had called them to do.

You see, I didn’t want to believe that God might deliberately call his people into a situation that was difficult. I didn’t want to believe that you could hear God correctly and follow him with your whole heart, and end up looking like a failure.

And then it happened to Kari and me. I can’t describe how much prayer went into our decision to leave our congregation in Minnesota. Our decision to move to Tennessee was drenched in prayer and godly counsel. And for three years it looked like one of the most stupid things either of us had done in our entire lives.

We were victims to what I call the American version of Liberation Theology. I personally know dozens of people who are influenced by this false teaching today. Liberation theology in other countries, maintains that the primary reason Jesus came was to bring political liberation to people who are oppressed. They don’t really emphasize the business of sin and forgiveness that much, or the fact that all humans seem born with a spiritual hole in their hearts. Instead, they point to various passages, most of them in the Old Testament. If you take these passages out of context, and apart from the rest of the Bible, you could make a case that their message is one of liberation from political and social oppression.

In America, we laugh at the foolishness of this, since we aren’t very oppressed (yet). But even so, we have a version of this, and it based on the same basic error. That error is to believe that God is primarily interested in making this earthly life comfortable for us. And so in America we either imply, or teach explicitly, that God wants to “bless” you. And we usually assume that the “blessing” means financial stability and growth, physical health, success in our efforts and a generally pleasant life. In case you wonder if many people really think this, let me share some words from a very popular “bible” teacher:

  • “Your faith will cause you to overflow in possessions, health, etc.”

  • “Having no [financial] increase renders you useless to the kingdom of God”

  • “The Word of God is the highway to the world of wealth”

These are not just quotes taken out of context. They are representative of the teaching of this man who has an extensive “ministry.” I know people from our town who attend his conferences. In addition, there is a widespread acceptance of the basic premise that faith is about God helping us get more comfortable. There is a little book called The Prayer of Jabez. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and it was basically about how we should expect God to bless us with outward success. There was another movement that started with a biblical approach. They were called “The Word of Faith” movement, and their basic idea was, that if God promised something, we ought to claim it, and believe that through faith, we have what is promised. So far so good. But gradually, that movement has gotten more and more focused on shallow, limited-situation promises that have to do only with this life.

Kari and I have attended church meetings here in Lebanon where the preachers said clearly that disease and trouble was a result of sin in our lives. They said if we lived as true Christians, we wouldn’t experience disease or financial hardship. The bible has a lot to say about this. It calls people who teach such things:

“…men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think godliness is a means to financial gain” (1 Timothy 6:5)

Even so, these teachings and teachers are very popular. They are popular precisely because they say what we are so eager to hear: that life is all about me and my personal comfort. Paul writes this to Timothy about such things:

Proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

Now, it is true that following Jesus will bring you blessing. You will be blessed in that you were created for a relationship with God, and so through faith in Jesus, you enter into the very reason you exist. You were also created to do certain things in this world – to work with God and God’s purposes here and now. As you submit to that purpose and do those things you were made to do, you will experience a sense of fulfillment and joy. The Holy Spirit brings healing and wholeness to our Spirits, and that healing is meant to flow down into our psyches – to restore us each one as the unique person she or he was intended be.

It is also true that sometimes God bring physical healing. Sometimes he does other miracles that improve our lives here and now. But the Bible is clear that God’s purposes for us will only be truly fulfilled after the end of the world, when we inhabit resurrection bodies in the New Heavens and New Earth. In other words this life is not about this life.

This is exactly part of the message of 1 Corinthians 4:7-16. Paul takes the Corinthians to task for thinking they are like Kings, for thinking that they have already, in this life, achieved all that God has for them. Their attitude has been like that of many American prosperity preachers, or Liberation Theologians. In contrast, Paul shares a little bit about what his life has been like, following the Lord faithfully. So one popular teacher in our time says “Your degree of Soul Prosperity determines how well you prosper in other areas of life.” The apostle Paul says:

Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless; we labor, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now, we are like the world’s garbage, like the dirt everyone scrapes off their sandals.

Either the apostle Paul, who wrote half of the New Testament, did not have a good relationship with Jesus, or these teachers are wrong. Paul also said this:

If we have put our hope in Christ for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone. (1 Cor 15:19)

I understand that this life can get grindingly hard and crushingly depressing. I know there is grief here that cuts like broken glass. Sometimes, you can’t help caring deeply about the difficulties you face. The Lord does offer comfort here and now. Sometimes he brings objective relief into our circumstances. But we must never accept the idea that what we experience for 70 or 90 years here in this life matters more than the future of unbroken eternity that we face when life is over.

Paul suffered hardship, as he recorded here. His faith did not bring him riches. It did not even bring him physical healing (2 Corinthians 12:6-9). But it did bring him joy and comfort. And never forget this – Paul’s sufferings ended – completely – almost 2,000 years ago. Even if he lived for 100 years and suffered every day of it, he has been in the presence of God for twenty times that long already. And this is what life is like for Paul today:

Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.

1 Corinthians Part 5: Judgment. 1 Corinthians chapter 4

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Corinthians, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment


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In these first few chapters of Corinthians, Paul has been taking the Corinthians to task for their underlying spiritual immaturity. One manifestation of that immaturity is that they were splitting up into little cult-like groups following one particular leader – even though the leaders were absent, and did not wish them to behave that way.

Last time we looked at how Paul said to them that there is only one foundation – Jesus Christ – and that Christians will receive (or not receive) rewards for how they build upon that foundation. The passage we will look at this time is a continuation of those thoughts, which all come in the broader context of the pride and immaturity of the Corinthians.

If you remember, at the very beginning of this letter, Paul opened with a reminder of all that the Corinthians had in Christ. In Christ, they were perfect. In Christ, they had all wisdom, all spiritual gifts. Once more, Paul pauses to remind them of this. In fact, he points out how foolish it is to exalt one apostle above another, because all them, their teachings and their “style” belong to the Corinthians through Jesus Christ. So he writes:

21 So then, no more boasting about mere mortals! For everything belongs to you, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. Everything belongs to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Once again, the answer is not for the Corinthians to reform themselves – it is to go back to the well – to find their strength, their joy, their very life, in Jesus Christ. If they do that, they will be building wisely upon the foundation of Christ, and there will be no purpose in splitting up to follow the various apostles as if those apostles somehow meant anything apart from Jesus. They already have everything in Jesus.

Paul closes out this entire first section of the letter with chapter 4:1-21. There are two things I want to look at in this section.

By the way, as we go through this book I want to point out that I am not covering every little thing that could be covered in every single verse. Mostly, I am trying to listen to the Holy Spirit, and see what he wants to say to us, at this time, through this part of the bible. I am consciously by-passing some things that we could examine at greater length. Hopefully, I am doing that as the Spirit leads.

The first (and main thing) I want to examine today are Paul’s words about being evaluated, (or as some translations say, judged). Paul says he and Apollos are examples for all believers in this respect. He says that we are servants of Christ and managers of God’s mysteries. He goes on:

In this regard, it is expected of managers that each one be found faithful. It is of little importance that I should be evaluated by you or by a human court. In fact, I don’t even evaluate myself. For I am not conscious of anything against myself, but I am not justified by this. The One who evaluates me is the Lord. Therefore don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.

Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the saying: “Nothing beyond what is written.” The purpose is that none of you will be inflated with pride in favor of one person over another.

In Western culture today, there is a great deal of confusion about judging. One of the most misused and misunderstood verses of the Bible is Matthew 7:7 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged.” This does not mean we can’t call sin, “sin.” It doesn’t mean that we can’t say what the Bible says, which is that the only way to be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ. For example, when confronted with someone who says “All religions lead to the same God and the same heaven,” I don’t need to pass judgment. I can simply say what the Bible says: “Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, the Life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” Acts 4;12 says “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.” I am not judging anyone. I am simply repeating what the Holy Spirit has already said. I don’t have to do it in an attitude of condemnation. I can simply pass on the information that the Spirit has given me through the Bible.

If I say “adultery is wrong” I am not making the judgment – I am simply affirming what the Holy Spirit Himself said through the Bible. Actually, it is when I insist on saying something that the Bible does not say – like that all roads lead to heaven – that I am making that judgment myself.

So when Jesus said not to judge, and when Paul says human judgment doesn’t matter, they are not saying we should just ignore the Bible – in fact, they are saying the opposite – let God do the judging, not our own biased opinions. In fact, in the very next chapter, Paul is going to apply God’s Word to someone who is sinning. He will call a certain behavior sin. He will tell the church to have nothing to do with the sinner until he repents. This is not judging someone – it is simply saying what God has already said. The actual decision of that person’s eternal future is still up to God.

In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul is talking about a specific kind of judgment – we are not judge someone else’s Christian life and service when sin is not an issue. He said the same thing in Romans 14.

Who are you to pass judgment on someone else’s servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand (Romans 14:4)

What Paul is saying is this: “You Corinthians are picking sides, and saying ‘Apollos is better than Paul. Paul is better than Peter.’ But Apollos, Paul and Peter are not accountable to you. God will judge how well they have served him. Your judgment about that is irrelevant.”

There is a lot of freedom as we walk with Jesus. There are many things that the Bible neither commands, nor forbids. For instance, not to shock you, but the Bible does not forbid smoking. I think we all know that smoking is extremely bad for your health, so it’s definitely not a good idea to do it. But if you are already hooked, understand this: You may be killing yourself physically, but you aren’t sinning every time you light up. We are not supposed to judge each other on these matters.

There are other things which are important, but which bible believing Christians disagree upon, and have for centuries. We all agree that baptism is important. But there is some discussion about how to do it, and what it means. I think what the Holy Spirit is saying to us through passages like these, is “follow me to the best of your understanding, and don’t condemn others who have a different understanding than you.”

We make evaluations based upon outward appearances. We looked at this a few weeks ago when we studied 1 Cor 1;26 – 2:16. We see a person with an outwardly successful life, and say “she’s doing well.” Actually, that’s judgment we aren’t qualified to make.

I don’t think New Joy has a problem with this, but you’ve probably been in churches in the past where people were judged based upon the clothes they wore to church.

Sometimes, it’s a positive judgment. But this isn’t any more right than a negative one. We might judge a person who does a lot of outward good works to be Holy. People are always surprised when a Deacon at the church who volunteers at homeless shelters suddenly turns out to be a child-abuser, or runs off with his secretary. This surprises us because we are making judgments we have no right to make. We’ve judged the man “good” by what he does on the outside.

We often make judgments based upon our traditions, our culture or what we are used to.

Churches are usually fairly traditional. By that I mean, many churches place a great value on tradition. That’s often a very good thing. However, because of this value of tradition, we may tend to have a negative view of things and people that are different from those traditions. The Bible claims that it is the revelation of God. It is different from, and has authority over, human-made traditions. So just because something is traditional, does not necessarily mean it is biblical. And something that we view as not traditional (according to our traditions) may in fact be more biblical than our traditions.

Paul’s emotional discourse after he makes these statements shows us something about the effect of making judgments. Even though Paul does not regard their evaluation of him as valid, it is still painful to be wrongly judged by others. Paul says it is of little importance that he should be evaluated by the Corinthians (4:3). I believe he means it, and was inspired by the Holy Spirit to say it. At the same time, though the evaluation of the Corinthians was not important to him spiritually, I think it is safe to say that Paul was deeply hurt emotionally by their attitude toward him. He is saying, in a godly and righteous way, that he deserves better from them.

Our brothers and sisters deserve the same from us. We can – in fact we must – say what the bible says. There are times when we need to point to brothers and sisters that their behavior is against what the Holy Spirit teaches through the Bible – Paul himself does that many times in this very letter, following this section. But even so, the actual judgment of that person is God’s responsibility, not ours.

Even more, we have no business bringing our evaluation or judgment to another believer when neither sin nor biblical truth is an issue. My sister in Christ is not my servant. She doesn’t exist on earth to do my work. She is here for God’s work. I should encourage her and help her. But it is not my business to evaluate how well she is serving God.

My biggest problem, practically, with this passage, is Tom. Paul says he doesn’t even evaluate himself. My biggest temptation is not to evaluate you, but rather me. But Paul says this is equally wrong. I don’t even have the authority to judge myself, because I do not live to serve myself, but Jesus.

Once again, we are in the realm of grace. We are called hear to give grace to others, and also receive it for ourselves. What will you do?

1 Corinthians Part 4. Rewards. 3:1-15

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Corinthians, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Sermon, Uncategorized2 Comments


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If you remember, in 1 Cor 1:1-9 Paul took great pains to remind the Corinthians that everything they had, and everything they needed, was in Jesus Christ alone. He reminded them that they lacked nothing in him, and in fact, were perfect in him. But in these first four verses of chapter 3, he is showing them that there is a contrast between all they have in Jesus, and the way they are living their daily lives.

In Christ they are complete and lacking nothing. But they are not living out of that. They are living and acting as if they were not in Christ. Paul says

Brothers, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were not yet able to receive it. In fact, you are still not able, because you are still fleshly. (1 Cor 3:1-3)

Several different times during the past year or so, we have encountered Bible verses that teach us how Christ has given us new and perfected life in the spiritual realm. The Life of Jesus is in our spirits. It is supposed to flow through our spirits, into our souls and into our outward lives. The life of the Spirit is supposed to influence the life we live out in our bodies. But in the case of the Corinthians, that wasn’t happening very much. Instead, they were living their daily lives as if Jesus had not redeemed them in spirit. Their redemption was not affecting their regular lives the way it was supposed to. They were living “fleshly” – that is, it was their body-life, not their Spirit-life which dominated their thinking and acting.

There is a member of this church who drives a car with a vegetable-oil fuel system. Just to be on the safe side of government regulation and taxes, I won’t mention his name. His car has a dual system. He starts it up with diesel fuel. After the oil warms up, he flips a switch, and then burns vegetable oil for the rest of the trip, until the last few miles. When he is using vegetable oil, it costs him just pennies per gallon. When he is burning diesel, obviously, it costs him more. Now, the system is installed, and it works. But if this man doesn’t simply flip the switch to draw fuel from the vegetable-oil tank, that system does him no good. He’ll be paying a high price for diesel fuel.

Now, all that is required for this man to pay almost nothing for fuel, is faith. He simply needs to trust that the system is working, and trust that it is worthwhile to flip the switch

Our spiritual fuel-system is in place. We are meant to draw life from our relationship with Jesus. But if we choose not to do that, then our relationship with Jesus isn’t helping us very much in daily life. All we need to to, is to trust Jesus more – trust that he really has given us that new life, and he really will use it to effect our daily existence.

Let me offer one more analogy. Imagine you have poor vision but your vision could be corrected with glasses. You go to the optometrist and get the prescription that will give you 20/20 vision. You order your glasses, and then pick them. In your glasses, you have all you need to see perfectly. But if you choose not to wear them, you receive no benefit from them, and your vision remains unchanged. You need to believe that the glasses will actually give you a benefit, and take the step of faith to put them on.

In the same way, we need to trust that the life of Jesus really can make a difference in how we see the world, how we relate to others and deal with the various struggles and joys that life throws at us. We need to ask for His Life to flow through us, and then believe that he has heard us, and is answering that prayer.

Paul goes on to address some implications of the fleshly attitude the Corinthians have. Since they are inclined to follow human leaders, he points out two things about their human leaders: first, that they are merely vessels, workers for God. Second, he points out that he himself does not have the fleshly attitude that they have.

As a third point, Paul brings up the issue of rewards in heaven:

Now the one who plants and the one who waters are equal, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. (1 Cor 3:8-9)

Each one’s work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one’s work. If anyone’s work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire. (1 Cor 3:13-15)

I want to look at this study in depth. It is central to the point Paul is making, and it is one of the least understood and taught doctrines in the New Testament. Paul says the foundation is Jesus Christ. Rewards in Heave are based upon what we build upon that – and no other – foundation. Let’s begin by making sure of it. The Bible teaches in numerous places, over and over again, that we are saved only through God’s grace, which comes to us through a faith-based relationship with Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:20-25; Galatians 2:16-17 & 3:11-13; Titus 3:4-5; Ephesians 2:8-9 and John 14:6 are just a very small portion of the many verses which explicitly teach that we are saved only through faith in Jesus Christ.

Yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified. (Gal 2:16-17)

So we know that our eternal destiny – whether we go to heaven or hell – is determined not by us being good enough, but by trusting Jesus. That is the foundation. Paul says, you can’t build on any other basis (3:11). If we have that foundation, we will spend eternity with Jesus and our loved ones in the New Heavens and New Earth. The whole Bible is crystal clear on that.

However, we do find that many places in the New Testament, including 1 Corinthians 3, also talk about rewards for doing good works. Now, we know that heaven itself is not a reward for doing good. So when the New Testament talks about some kind of reward in the afterlife based upon what we do here, it cannot mean salvation. So what kind of reward does Paul mean here?

This is actually very important for how we interpret the Bible. When we read any other book, we assume that the author will not deliberately contradict herself. It should be the same with the Bible. So if the Bible says clearly (as it does) that salvation is not a reward for good behavior, but only the result of faith in Jesus; and then it says there is a reward for good works, we have to assume that the reward for good works is something other than salvation. As it turns out, there are many Bible verses that talk about these rewards. Just a few of them are Revelation 22:12; Matthew 5:11-2, 6:1-6, 17-18, 10:41-42; Luke 6:35; and this one:

7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. (Ephesians 6:7-8)

James writes that not many should presume to be Bible teachers, because they will be judged more strictly (James 3:1). Well, as a Bible teacher I know that my salvation will be judged based on whether or not I trust Jesus. So in what way will I be judged more strictly? In the matter of my work, and any reward I might get for it.

Now, for many people, the idea of reward in heaven presents some problems. First, some people feel that it implies that there might be inequality in heaven. Second, some people feel it implies unhappiness there also.

Scripture is clear that in heaven, God wipes every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more grief or suffering or pain. So rest assured, reward or not, your joy will be complete.

What Paul says in this passage is that those who have no reward will still be saved, but it will be like an escape through a fire. If we really imagine that, we get a sense for what it is like. Ultimately we will be safe, and will find joy in that. But as we initially enter heaven, if we have built poorly on the foundation of Jesus, we will find the judgment day to be harrowing.

Now, I want to speculate a bit on what the rewards mean. I do have some scripture that suggests what I am speculating about, but I can’t nail this down for sure. In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells the parable of the Talents. In it, three servants were given different resources. They were rewarded according to how they made used of those resources. They were given additional resources, according the ability they had demonstrated.

So, I think of rewards in heaven in terms of capacity. Picture two buckets. One bucket can hold a gallon of fresh, clear water. The other bucket can hold five gallons of beautiful clean water. Now imagine both buckets, filled to the brim. Which bucket has more water? Obviously, the one that can hold more. But they are both full. The one gallon bucket has as much water as it can possibly hold. It doesn’t have as much as the five gallon bucket, but then, it can’t. It is still completely full. I think maybe heaven will be like that. We will all be as full as we can be. But some people will be able to contain more of God’s fullness and joy than others. The ones with smaller capacity will still be completely full and satisfied – but the ones with greater capacity will experience their joy to level that the others can’t.

Think of it this way. In my left eye, my vision is about 20/100. It cannot be corrected, and so I am considered legally blind in that eye. Now, my right eye is basically fine, and it does most of the seeing work for me. I can drive, and watch movies, appreciate visual art and generally enjoy life. Where my half-blindness affects me most is in depth perception. I have a horrible time shooting a basketball. Things that are far away look equally distant from me. If I see man standing 100 yards away, and another man 200 yards away, they look to me like they are standing next to each other. A few years ago, 3-D pictures were popular. I never could actually see the pictures in them. I get some experience of 3-D movies, but not the same as other people. Binoculars only work for me if I close my left eye. But I was born this way. I have never seen correctly out of my left eye. So I don’t actually know what that would be like. I don’t feel sorry myself. I don’t feel handicapped. I’m perfectly happy with my vision, and I don’t really know what I’m missing, except the basketball hoop. But if there was something I could do to get true binocular vision, I would be a fool not to do it. Though I enjoy the visual aspects of life as much as I can, it would be great to get the full range of vision.

I think in heaven, some people will be like I am with my eyes. They will be happy. They will get as much joy as they can handle. But if they had made different choices while they were living on this earth, they might have been able to experience much more in heaven.

I used to say that heaven itself was enough reward for me, and so it should be – it is, in fact, more than I deserve. Even so, what a fool I would be to waste any opportunity to enjoy heaven to the fullest possible capacity! Paul is basically saying to the Corinthians: Do you really want to make a deliberate choice to enter heaven by the skin of your teeth, with the minimum possible capacity to enjoy it?

That is an attitude that comes not from the Spirit, but from the flesh. And it is ridiculous, when you think about it. It’s like a teenager saying, “I don’t care about my future after High School. As long as I’m alive and can work a minimum wage job, I’ll be fine. So right now I’m not going to study or learn or prepare for the future. What is important is not life after graduation, but only life right now.” Some people have that attitude, but it is a very short-sighted one, and most people who do take that approach end up regretting it within a few years.

Paul is encouraging them (and us) to take a more spiritual approach to the future, and to the here and now. Jesus himself said:

“Don’t collect for yourselves treasures here on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt 6:19-21)

1 Corinthians Part 1. 1:1-9. The Foundation

On By Pastor TomIn apostle paul, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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We are going to begin a new study this week. We will be looking in some detail at the first (surviving) letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians. As we do this, it will helpful to have a little cultural and historical background about the city of Corinth and the church there.

Corinth was situated on the narrow neck of land (isthmus) that joins the Peloponnese peninsula (say that five times fast!) to the rest of Greece. If you look at a map of Greece, the Peloponnese is the big mass that looks a bit like a four-fingered hand sticking south into the Mediterranean sea. One of the most famous cities on the Peloponnese is Sparta. From the ancient city of Corinth, at the narrowest isthmus of the peninsula, if you looked to the West and North you would see the gulf of Corinth; to the East and South is the Saronic gulf. The land between these two bodies of water is less than four miles wide at that point. The Romans tried to dig a canal there, but they found out it was solid rock. A canal was not successfully completed until 1893. Even so, in ancient times, ships would come in to both sides of the isthmus, and send their goods over the four miles of road to the opposite side, and thus save the time and risk of a much longer trip around the Peloponnese. The people at Corinth even developed a system for hauling smaller ships across the short stretch of land, completely loaded.

Because of the shipping advantages, and because anyone traveling to or from the Peloponnese had to pass through there, the city of Corinth became a major commercial center. It even has a modern day claim to fame in the realm of agriculture. A certain type of fruit flourished in the soil nearby, and even today we call it the “currant” a name which is derived from “Corinth.” Long before the time of Christ, Corinth was famous for its temple of Aphrodite – the Greek goddess of love. It is said that at one time more than 1,000 prostitutes worked for the temple. The Romans destroyed the city in 146 BC, and then re-built it about 100 years later. It quickly regained its status as a major trade center, and though the temple of Aphrodite did not return, Corinth was still a watchword for sexual immorality. In addition, the Corinthians hosted the Isthmian Games – much like the Olympic games, but held on different years. These games were immensely popular, and continued uninterrupted even after the Romans destroyed the city, and on after they rebuilt it.

Scholars estimate during the time of the New Testament the city of Corinth was home to about half a million people. So what Paul encountered in Corinth was this: a large city in which people of many different races and economic levels mixed; a place where you might make a fortune, or where you could find ways indulge your sensual desires; or where you might make a name for yourself as a famous athlete. It was a place to pursue your personal dreams and ambitions, and a culture in which pride was more evident than humility. It was not a place known for strong moral character. If I may be so bold, in some ways it was a little bit like America in the 21st century.

Paul arrived in Corinth a little the worse for wear. He’d been kicked out of three cities in a row (Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea). After that he’d been to Athens, where he wasn’t very successful at starting a church. Then he came to to Corinth. He met a Jewish couple – Priscilla and Aquila – who had been expelled from Rome along with most Jews there. They may have already been Christians – that part is not quite clear. Paul did his usual thing, preaching in the Jewish synagogue. As usual, a few Jews received the message, and then trouble started, and he began preaching to the Gentiles. But this time, Paul heard from the Lord in a dream. The Holy Spirit said to him:

Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.

So Paul ended up staying in Corinth peacefully for about eighteen months, and when he left, it was by his own choice, not because he was driven away. Priscilla and Aquila went with Paul when he left, and then they parted ways at Ephesus. The couple met another man of God, named Apollos. After giving Apollos some further instruction, they sent him to do more work with the church at Corinth.

At some point, Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthians that was lost. Paul refers to this letter in 1 Corinthians 5:9. He apparently wrote another letter in between 1 and 2 Corinthians, which was also lost (there are references to it in 2 Corinthians). So, out of four letters from Paul to Corinth, we have two. This is not any cause for theological concern. The Holy Spirit preserved for us the writing that he wanted preserved.

Sometime after his first, “lost” letter, the Corinthian Christians sent a letter of their own to Paul, with some questions about various matters. At roughly the same time, some people from Corinth visited Paul – they may in fact, have personally delivered the letter. From the letter, and from the visitors, Paul learned some things about the Corinthian church that disturbed him. In response, he sat down and wrote the letter which we call 1 Corinthians.

The first three verses of the letter are a fairly typical greeting: virtually all of the letters in the New Testament have greetings that are similar to this. However, there are slight differences in the opening of each letter, and the differences here, taken together with verses 4-9, seem to have a purpose.

The fact is, Paul is going to write some things in this letter that are not very complimentary to the Corinthian Christians. He has to take them task for causing unnecessary divisions; for sexual immorality; for devaluing the word of God through Paul’s own ministry; for suing each other; for abusing spiritual gifts; for abusing the Lord’s supper; and for disorderly worship. Sadly, the Corinthians Christians have begun to compromise with their culture and they’ve screwed some things up in a big way.

Paul knows all this, and has it mind as he begins writing. But he has something else in mind also. That other thing on his mind is the great grace and love and power that are in Jesus Christ. Ultimately, the spiritual reality of the situation is not based upon the behavior of the Corinthians. It is based upon the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

Paul uses the name “Christ Jesus” or some variant of it nine times in the first nine verses. He makes additional references to Jesus (as “he” or “him”) three more times in the same verses. He reminds the Corinthians that he himself is called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by God. He tells them that they have been made holy, and are called to remain holy, only in Christ Jesus. He reminds them several times that Jesus Christ is their Lord. Their grace, their knowledge, their spirituality are all given to them by and through faith in Jesus Christ. They have been enriched in every way in Jesus. They lack nothing – in, and because of, Jesus Christ.

One of my greatest struggles as a parent has been to effectively convey this dual message: I love you no matter what. Nothing you do or don’t do could make me love you any more. Nothing you do or don’t do, could make me love you any less. And, at the same time, I want you to change your behavior.

This is kind of what Paul wants to convey. The Corinthians need to change their behavior. They are living in ways that are destructive to themselves and to others. They are becoming ineffective as witnesses for Jesus.

And yet, Paul wants to make sure they know that in and through Jesus Christ, they lack nothing. In Christ Jesus, they are complete. It is not about their performance – it is about God’s grace, love and power, given through Jesus Christ and received through faith. Yes, they need to address some things about how they are living their lives in the world. But in the spiritual realm, where their spirits are alive and connected with God through faith in Jesus, they have already been made perfect and complete. The task is to bring that power to bear on the way they live their lives. Paul closes this opening section like this:

He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.