I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

9Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Corinthians 9-13.

Paul writes that God will reward us if we give generously to those in need. This is not a form of prosperity gospel. Rather what Paul is writing here is more in line with what Jesus said about the widow who gave her last two coins. There are two aspects to the way God blesses us when we give generously. Giving to help those in need teaches us financial discipline, which results in us wasting less of our money. However, there is more to God’s blessings than that. When we give generously, God blesses us in more ways than we can possibly imagine. We recognize that we do not need many of the things we spend our money on and learn to be happy with fewer material goods. Actually, that is not quite correct. As we stop trying to attain happiness through material goods, we gain more happiness. Further, we discover the happiness of making other’s lives better. There is also a material aspect to what God will do for us. God will always provide for our material needs. As we give from the excess He has given us to help those who have less, as we become the conduits by which He provides for the material needs of others, God gives us more to give. If you give $10 for those in need, next week you will likely discover that you have $20 to give (often because you discover another $10 worth of things that you can live without).

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

9Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Corinthians 5-8.

    Ordinarily I do not speculate much on what we will experience after death, but what Paul writes here is important. Especially considering how it follows on his earlier writing about the place o the resurrection of the dead in our faith. Here Paul tells us that we will experience a true resurrection, but not of bodies subject to aging and decay like the ones we live in today. Instead, we will be resurrected into new, perfect bodies. We will spend eternity in a physical world, a world which is not subject to decay and destruction like the world we currently live in.

    One of the things which Paul talks about again and again in his letters is the transformation which we go through when we become believers. The Holy Spirit transforms us into new creatures when we accept God’s gift of salvation. One of the ways in which Paul describes this transformation is by describing us as God’s ambassadors. It is important to understand how an ambassador was viewed when the government was a monarch. The ambassador was the person of the king. Anything said or done to the ambassador was viewed as if it was said or done to the king he represented. If you honored the ambassador, you were honoring the king who had sent him. If you dishonored the ambassador, you dishonored the king who had sent him. As a result, the ambassador was expected to only say and do things which he knew had the approval of the king he represented. Further, an ambassador was expected to act in a way which brought honor, and not dishonor, to the king he represented. We should live, speak, and act so as to bring honor to God and to avoid bringing dishonor to Him.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

9Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Corinthians 1-4.

    The first thing that struck me today was the reason Paul changed his mind about visiting Corinth on his way to Macedonia. He changed his mind about visiting them because he was so angry over the news he had received. He was afraid that if he went to Corinth before the believers there had time to act on his letter that he would say hurtful things to the believers there that they would have trouble recovering from. Paul well understood human nature. When someone tells us that we have done wrong, our first reaction is to defend our actions, which can lead the other to more strongly state their accusation, causing things to escalate. On the other hand, the process of reading a letter and composing a reply gives us time to acknowledge the truth of the accusation of wrong-doing and temper our response. So, by writing a letter about the problems in the Church in Corinth, Paul was able to more calmly state what they had done wrong and suggest the remedy. Then by putting off his visit, he gave the believers in Corinth time to cool down after receiving his letter and put his recommendations into action once tempers had cooled.

    Paul talks about how Moses put a veil over his face to shield the people from the glory of God. He went on to point out how in Judaism there was still a veil between the people and the glory of God. He then goes on to make the point that the purpose of Jesus’ death and resurrection was to allow us to come into God’s presence without a veil between us and Him. The human tendency is to put some type of barrier between ourselves and God. God, however, wants us to be directly in His presence and has worked throughout history since Adam ate the forbidden fruit to bring us back into His presence, into fellowship with Him. Even today we continue to attempt to put something or someone between ourselves and God. Many in the Christian Church elevate the clergy to be intermediaries between themselves and God. It is not God’s desire for us to do that. The only intermediary needed between ourselves and God is Jesus Christ. When we elevate the clergy to the position of intermediary we distance ourselves from God and make it harder to receive direction and guidance from the Holy Spirit.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

9Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Corinthians 15-16.

    Paul emphasizes here that Chrit’s death and resurrection are the core of the Gospel message. That without them, the Gospel is meaningless. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, those who first preached the Gospel were liars. Worse than mere liars, they lied about God. The mystery of the Gospel is that Jesus defeated Satan by dying, but the evidence of His victory was His resurrection. There are those who believe that Jesus never died: either the person on the cross whom people thought was Jesus was someone else, or Jesus went into some kind of trance (the explanation for that varies) and the Romans merely thought He was dead. The first one of these makes a mockery of the Gospel, which states that Jesus died for our sins. It has someone else dying in Jesus’ place rather than Jesus dying in our place. The second one has no one die, and therefore our sins are not forgiven. More importantly, Jesus’ death was His victory. When Jesus died, Satan had done the worst to Him that He could do and it was not enough to make Jesus forsake the will of His Father. Jesus’ resurrection is the evidence of His victory. Even more than that, without Jesus’ resurrection, the Gospel is hollow. If the end of the story is death, Satan wins in the end because no one is left to oppose him. However, death is not the end. It was not the end for Jesus, and it will not be the end for those of us who put our faith in Him.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

9Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Corinthians 12-14.

    In today’s passage Paul writes about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He tells us that the Holy Spirit gives each and every one of us gifts in order to make us able to fill the role which God has given us. However, the Holy Spirit gives each of us different gifts. God has not called us all to the same roles, so the Spirit has not given all of us the same gifts. Furthermore, we do not decide what gifts we need. After all, they are gifts, therefore the Giver will decide what to gift to give us. However, just as a parent takes into account what gifts a child desires, so God takes into account what we desire. Therefor we should desire the better gifts, which is not the same as desiring the most impressive gifts. One mistake we often make is to think that those with the most impressive spiritual gifts are the most important. Paul states in no uncertain terms that this is not the case. Those with the most “mundane” spiritual gifts are every bit as important as those with the flashiest spiritual gifts.

    In fact, the gift which we should all desire, and which the Spirit will give each of us if we do, is the gift of love. Speaking in tongues is wonderful, but if it is not paired with love it is just so much noise. The ability to prophecy is wonderfully useful, especially combined with great faith, but if the two of them are without love, they are completely and utterly worthless. There are people who seem to have no other spiritual gifts except the ability to love the most unlovable people. When I read chapter 13:4-7 I think of people I know like that. I would rather be one of them than someone who cares nothing for others but can make wonderful speeches and perform great wonders.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

9Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Corinthians 9-11.

    What Paul writes in chapter nine can be a bit confusing. I believe that he is responding to people in Corinth who accused him of trying to take financial advantage of the Corinthian believers. His answer to that is twofold. First, he emphasizes that, as one who had preached the Gospel to them, he had the right to their financial support. The other part of his rebuttal of that accusation was to point out that he had never exercised that right. The case Paul makes here leads me to an important conclusion, also two part. Those who minister to their fellow believers and provide leadership for the Church are entitled to be paid. We should be prepared to provide for the financial needs of our pastors. However, some people are called by God to refuse that financial support. This latter can only be something that someone comes to on their own by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

    In chapter ten Paul goes into more in Depth on the issue of eating meat offered to idols. However, actively taking part in worship rituals to idols is idolatry. if for no other reason than it will cause some to believe that we worship those idols. Actively taking part in the worship rituals of pagans will encourage them in their false beliefs. It will bind them more deeply into their servitude to demons. Going on from there Paul lays out the guidelines we should follow, guidelines which can be easily applied in other areas. The most important point Paul makes is that since idols are of no real significance there is no harm if we eat meat that we were unaware had been offered to an idol. Therefore, we should make no effort to find out if the meat we are purchasing in the market had been offered to idols. This “willful ignorance” extends to the food served to us by a pagan who has invited us to dinner. Don’t ask, just eat what is offered. However, if someone makes the effort to inform us, either our host, another pagan, or a fellow believer, that the food put before us was offered to an idol, we should decline to eat it. This is not because our knowing it was offered to idols would change our relationship to the meat, the idol, or even to God. Rather, it is because, if we eat the food after being informed, we will encourage whoever informed us in worshiping idols.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Corinthians 5-8.

    Paul writes about sexual sin in today’s passage. He addresses an issue where, rather than discipline someone for sexual sin, the Church in Corinth bragged about it. They were proud that they accepted someone going beyond what was acceptable in the very libertine city in which they lived. Here is where it gets interesting, Paul had previously told them not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. Apparently, the Church in Corinth had concluded that was impractical because so many of the people of Corinth indulged in sexual sin and chose to ignore Paul’s guidance. So, Paul reiterates and clarifies what he had written previously (in a letter which is lost to history). And the clarification point is important because many Christians today fail to pay attention to it. We as believers should not associate with those who claim to be followers of Christ who indulge in sexual sins. But not just sexual sins, we should also not associate with those “Christians” who is greedy, abusive, a drunkard, or cheats people. However, this guidance does not apply to those who are outside of the Body of Believers, who do not claim to follow Christ. In order to avoid associating with those who practice the sins Paul mentions who do not claim to be Christians we would need to isolate ourselves from the world in a way which would make reaching people for Christ impossible. In the Church today, we have both those making the same mistake the Corinthian Church made, boasting of their acceptance of sinful behavior, and those who try to stay away from all sinners.

    After addressing the issue of the Church member who was sleeping with his father’s wife, Paul discusses lawsuits between Church members, then returns to the issue of sexual sin. Because of the way Paul addresses the issue we often separate these two teachings, but in fact they are closely linked. Paul states that other sins should be handled the same way as sexual sins. In addressing the issue of lawsuits between believers, Paul is giving an example of evidence of those other sins, and the logic which shows that the lawsuits are because of sin. The lawsuit is evidence that one believer is greedy and/or trying to cheat another. If both parties to the lawsuit genuinely believed that it was a legitimate disagreement over the meaning of their agreement, they could have, and should have, brought their disagreement to the Church for resolution. Further, if the other party would not abide by the decision reached by the Church, it would be better to allow them to cheat you than take the case to unbelievers for resolution.
    After finishing his message on sexual sin, Paul discusses marriage in the Church. From what Paul writes here it is clear that some in the early Church thought that marriage was an obsolete institution. However, Paul makes it clear that this is not the case. Paul advocates for the benefits of remaining single, but makes it clear that not everyone is called to remain single. Paul tells us that remaining single should be the default assumption for Christians, but that not everyone is called to such a life. Marriage is neither the preferred state for followers of Christ, nor something for them to avoid.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Corinthians 1-4.

    When Paul writes about the divisions in the Church in Corinth, I believe he is talking more about factions than about actual disagreement over actual teachings. He is addressing those who are making a claim to being more righteous than those who are part of different factions. I have often heard this used by non-denominational congregations to justify not being part of a denomination, and to imply that they are superior to those which are part of a denomination. While they do have a point about denominations being the result of a failure of Christians to be truly faithful, they have clearly failed to fully read the passage because Paul addresses them when he writes “or, ‘I follow Christ’.” When we become divided into factions, we become more concerned with remaining loyal to our faction than in serving God. Factions also serve to make us feel superior to others and to gather power. We should be seeking to serve others and to elevate them, not lord it over them.

    Paul tells us that we will never convince people of the Gospel message by the wisdom of our arguments. By human thinking the Gospel message is foolishness. On the one hand are those who refuse to believe in the miraculous and thus will not accept Jesus’ resurrection. On the other hand are those who will not accept that Jesus’ death was His victory. Another way to put this is something I have said previously. No matter how sound your logic, if your starting assumptions are faulty your conclusions will be as well. Until we accept God’s assumptions, no amount of wisdom or logic will get us anywhere. One cannot arrive at the Gospel through the application of wisdom or logic, only through the action of the Holy Spirit. Paul makes clear that this does not mean, as some have concluded, that wisdom and logic do not have their place in Christian faith. Once one has come to understand the power of God and accept the assumptions upon which He created the Universe, the Holy Spirit can show us the wisdom and logic of God and how it should shape our lives.