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

As Paul comes to the conclusion of this letter to the Corinthian believers he reminds them of what he had preached to them as the gospel, the good news which had brought them salvation.  Paul had preached to them that the Scriptures had predicted that Christ, the Messiah of God, would die for our sins, and Jesus did indeed do that.  But, He did not just die, He was raised from the dead after three days, which had also been predicted by Scriptures.  Paul lists here some of those who had witnessed that Jesus had risen from the dead, which he had told them about when he first preached in Corinth.  After reminding them of what he had preached when he first came to Corinth, and that they had believed him when he first preached it, Paul emphasizes that if Christ had been raised from the dead, then there must be a resurrection which we also will experience.  Paul continues by pointing out that all of the rest of what he preached relied upon the resurrection and was of no value if the resurrection was not true, both that of Jesus and the one yet to come for us.  Paul goes on to address some of the objections which had been raised to the idea of the resurrection in similar fashion to the way in which Jesus addressed the Sadducees, by showing that those who raised those objections both failed to understand what Scripture taught about resurrection and failed to believe in God’s supreme power.  The Gospel which Paul, and all of the other Apostles, preached was the death and resurrection of Jesus.  All of the rest of their teachings derived from those things.

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

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

A lot of times the way in which my Bible Reading schedule splits up the passages causes me to miss the context of certain passages.  Today’s passage is one where that is not true, by putting chapters twelve, thirteen, and fourteen together we get a much clearer understanding of the point Paul is making in chapter thirteen.  And probably a better understanding of twelve and fourteen as well.  In chapter twelve Paul tells us that we cannot point to a spiritual gift and say that “If you don’t have this gift, you don’t have the Spirit.”  He also tells us that we cannot say that we are better than someone else because we have a particular special gift or another, nor should we allow ourselves to think ourselves less than others because we do not have some particular spiritual gift or another.  Actually, he even addresses those who think that because they don’t have some gift which they think is more valuable that they are not saved.  Even when he lists certain gifts in order, he is referring to the order in which they appear in the Church, not their importance.

I wasn’t going to go there, but now that I have written the above I feel that I should.  I mean think about it.  If God did not send apostles, there would be no Church in a particular area.  Next, the local Church is going to need some prophets to understand what its mission is.  Once it knows what its mission is, it is going to need teachers to teach God’s word to the people to whom it has been called to minister.  Once people begin to be taught God sends those through whom He performs miracles to draw them to Him.  But none of these are more important than another.  We even see an example of this in Paul’s life.  Paul was an apostle, but he did not begin his ministry until a prophet revealed that God desired to send Barnabas and Paul (at that point known as Saul) on a missionary journey.  I am not going to go into much depth on the rest of the passage, but I want to point out that Paul tells us that NONE of these gifts have any value if we do not use them in love.

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

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

Paul begins today’s passage by discussing the freedom he had as an apostle that he did not use.  Instead of taking advantage of the rights and freedoms he had, he made himself a slave to the desires and thoughts of others so as to bring as many as possible to the Lord.  In telling us this, Paul is offering himself up as an example of our need to discipline ourselves to do God’s will.  I think understanding what Paul is saying hear can be made more clear by remembering what he wrote in chapter three, where he told us that no foundation could be laid aside from Jesus, but that what we build on that foundation would be judged.  If we built with good materials, what we had built would survive that judgement, but even if what we built on that foundation was burned up in the fire of judgement we would still be saved as one “escaping through flames.”  Later in today’s passage he writes that while we are indeed free to do anything we like, we should bear in mind that not everything is beneficial.  So, when we choose how we act, let us choose those things which will provide us materials to build on our foundation that which will survive the fires of judgement.  And Paul gives us guidance to understand what types of things will allow us to build something which will last.  He tells us that we should avoid actions which might cause another to stumble.  He gives further instruction on knowing how to recognize that which will last; if instead of seeking our own good we seek the good of others, so that they may also come to know the Lord, then we are building a structure on the foundation which is Jesus which will shrine bright after passing through the fires of judgement.  Seek to do that which will lead others to a closer relationship with God.

I use 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.

In yesterday’s passage Paul began his letter to the Corinthian Church by rebuking them for allowing disagreements to divide them.  Today’s passage begins with Paul rebuking the Corinthian Church for boasting about having a member who was sleeping with his stepmother.  He reminds them of a previous letter where he had told them not to associate with sexually immoral people.  Here he clarifies by saying that he meant those who claim to be believers.  Then he expands on that by saying that we should not associate with those who claim to be believers who are sexually immoral, greedy, an idolater, slanderer, drunkard, or swindler.  We should expel such people from among us.  He uses this incident to teach that while we should not pass judgement on those outside the church, we should judge between believers.  Specifically, if we have a disagreement with a fellow believer we should take that disagreement to the church for resolution rather than take it to the secular court system.  In fact, Paul tells us that rather than allow the secular court system to decide the resolution to a disagreement we have with a fellow believer we should allow ourselves to be cheated or otherwise wronged.

I use 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.

There are many non-denominational  congregations which base their decision to not affiliate with a denomination on today’s passage.  They have a point, but they usually miss the fact that Paul calls out the faction which separates itself by claiming “I follow Christ”.  Paul’s point is not that we should not follow the teachings of specific teachers, rather we should not allow ourselves to be divided.  I find it interesting that Paul segues from writing against dividing ourselves according to the leader we learned from to writing about how the Gospel seems foolish to the worldly.  I had never considered the link between our desire to be viewed as wise leads to division in the Church.  Or, perhaps I should more accurately say that I never realized that Paul was making that connection here in the beginning of 1 Corinthians.  Paul writes here that God made the wisdom of this world foolish through the Gospel.  I believe that he is referring here to the idea he wrote about in chapter one of his letter to the Romans (although he had not yet written that when he wrote this letter).  In Romans he wrote about how people rejected the knowledge of God which was revealed by Creation in order to pursue their own ideas about how thing should be.  So, if you think that you are wise, then you are actually a fool.  By God’s standards we are all fools.  Our only hope to act wisely is to allow God’s Spirit to direct us.  I always struggle to find a way to fully express what Paul says here about God using he weak and foolish, as this world judges things, to accomplish His acts of power and wisdom.  That struggle has two sources.  First, I struggle with my desire to appear wise to people, rather than embracing the foolishness of God.  Second, one can only come to understand what Paul is getting at by surrendering to God’s power.  No amount of eloquent or persuasive words will truly convey the message which God has for us.

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

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

I thought about covering several things in today’s passage, but then I came to what Paul wrote about giving in order to aid the Lord’s people who are in need.  First, he commends the Macedonian churches for giving as much as they were able, sometimes even going beyond that level.  Not only did they give willingly, but they plead with Paul for the opportunity to give.  Paul then goes on to commend the church in Corinth for being the first not only to give, but the first with a desire to give.  He encourages them to continue giving according to their ability, and makes special note that God does not call us to give beyond our means.  So, while Paul praised the Macedonian churches for giving beyond their means, he discourages others from doing likewise.

Paul then warns the Corinthian Church that Titus is on his way to them on his mission of collecting for the relief of Believers in need (from elsewhere I believe this to be Believers in Jerusalem who were suffering economic hardship).  This warning is not as a threat, but rather so that they will not be embarrassed by being unprepared to give when Titus gets there.  However, I want to point out the more important point Paul makes here.  He tells them that Titus is accompanied by men who were appointed by the churches which had given to the cause.  The men accompanying Titus were chosen so that no one could claim that Paul or Titus misappropriated the funds.  Paul makes it clear that he encouraged this arrangement so as to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

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

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

There is a lot of valuable stuff in this passage, but I am going to focus on what Paul writes in chapter three verses four and five.

Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.

First I want to point out that Paul tells us that we should have confidence.  We should not be timid as followers of Christ, but we also should not be arrogant.  We should have confidence that we will be able to accomplish whatever task God has given us.  This confidence does not derive from our own abilities.  So, we should not necessarily believe that we have better skills to perform a task than others.  God does not call us to do something because we are better than someone else.  God calls us to a particular task so that others can be shown His power (or, perhaps to show us His power).  Paul goes on in chapter four to expand on this point.  He tells us that he refused to use deception or distortion to bring people to faith in Christ and calls on us to do likewise.  Many will refuse to see the light of the Gospel, but that is not our problem.  He writes that we should allow Christ’s light to shine through us, not attempting to gain glory for ourselves but to allow people to see and glorify God through what they see in us.  Our competence to do the tasks which God has set before us does not come from ourselves.  Rather, we can confidently believe that we will accomplish the tasks God has given us because His Spirit will work through us.

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

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

Paul concludes his teachings in this letter by reminding the Corinthian Church, and us, what he taught as the Gospel.  Paul writes that the tenets of the Gospel of highest importance are that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and then rose from the dead on the third day.  What Paul writes here runs directly counter to those who claim that they find value in Jesus’ teachings without believing in His resurrection.  Paul points out that if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then those who passed on His teachings were liars because they all claimed that He did indeed rise from the dead and that they had seen Him.   Paul writes that if Christ was raised from the dead, then we who put our faith in Him will also be raised from the dead.  On the other hand, if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ was not raised from the dead. Further, he tells us that if our only hope in following Christ’s teachings is for this lifetime then we, and anyone else who follows Christ, is to be pitied.

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

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

In today’s passage Paul writes about gifts of the Spirit.  He starts by telling us that no one speaking in the Spirit will curse or condemn Jesus, and no one will praise Jesus except by the Spirit.  Or to put that another way, only through the power of the Holy Spirit will anyone bring honor to Jesus and no one who brings disgrace to the name of Jesus has the Spirit working through them.  Paul writes that while there are different gifts, thee is only one Spirit.  He follows this up with something interesting.  He goes on to say that there are also different kinds of service and different kinds of working, both of which come from the same, singular Spirit.   Then he writes that each of us will receive a manifestation of the Spirit for the purpose of promoting the common good of the Body of Christ.  I draw two conclusions from what Paul writes here.  First, the Spirit will manifest in each and every follower of Christ in a way which will build up others in the Body of Christ.  Second, some of those manifestations will be in the performing of miracles and signs.  Others will have a manifestation of the Spirit which appears more mundane to those around them.

Paul writes that not everyone has the same gifts, not everyone has the same manifestation of the Spirit.  And that we should not think that we are better than others because we have a more glamorous gift of the Spirit, nor that we are inferior to others because we have a more mundane manifestation of the Spirit.   Paul applies the metaphor of the human body to the Church, the Body of Christ in order to make this point.  Paul writes that we should desire and seek the greater gifts (the way he writes this suggests that our desire for certain gifts may make it more likely that we get those gifts).  He then makes the point that the greatest gift of the Spirit is love for others.  Every thing else Paul writes about the gifts of the Spirit follow from what he writes about love.  If we utilize whatever gifts the Spirit gives us out of love for others, we will use them to build others up, not to gain honor and recognition for ourselves.

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