Expel the Immoral Brother!
1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. 2And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
Dig Deeper
While in college, I found myself getting into a great deal of unbiblical behavior. It wasn’t that I didn’t know any better, because I certainly did. Many of my behaviors wouldn’t have even seemed related at a glance, yet the fact was, they all had one common underlying source. The source of all of this unruly behavior was my arrogance. Once we give into arrogance, it will surely be the cause of all kinds of ungodly and unseemly behavior. This is the key to understanding Paul’s line of thinking here. He has been dealing with the ‘puffed up’ attitudes of the Corinthians to this point. At a surface level, he appears to have changed subjects rather abruptly. A closer look, however, reveals Paul’s train of thought. Rather than changing subjects, he has moved into specific examples of their arrogance causing other problems.
It is clear that, although Paul is certainly disturbed by the specific immoral behavior, he is more concerned with dealing with the underlying root cause. He wants to deal with the disease not obsess over the symptoms, which is evidenced by the fact that he never directly addresses the offending party in this case. Of greater concern, is the attitude and arrogance of the entire church.
There are two main aspects of their incredible arrogance that are on display here. The first is that they have come to believe that in becoming Christians they no longer need to be restrained by any standard of moral decency. The act of a man marrying his step-mother (most likely the situation going on here is that a Christian man had married the widow of his deceased father, his step-mother, who was most likely not a Christian, since Paul never suggests how they should deal with her) was against both Roman and Jewish law. The Corinthians believed that throwing caution to the wind and not being bound by the standards of the world around them was a sign of their spiritual maturity. Paul, however, believes that it is a sign of their spiritual arrogance. Rather than grieving about the situation, they have actually become proud of it. Arrogance has a way of twisting things in our mind so that we become proud of things that should make us feel ashamed, calling evil good and good evil (Is. 5:20).
The second aspect of their arrogance is shown in the fact that they have not disciplined the man involved in this scandal. Western churches today rarely engage in church discipline and most Americans get a little queasy about the topic. Yet the Church must maintain discipline. To not do so does not demonstrate kindness, but arrogance and a lack of regard for God’s standards. It exalts man’s preferences over God’s holiness. The questions that Paul wants the Corinthians to understand is where are the lines of godly behavior to be drawn and what kind of discipline is appropriate in cases of severe misbehavior.
It is not entirely clear what Paul means when he says that he is with them in spirit. He may mean be referring to the Holy Spirit which would be ensuring that his apostolic discipline was enacted. He may mean that he is spiritually present with them through this letter. Or this may just be a figure of speech, meaning something like he is with them in his thoughts. Regardless of what he meant, precisely, it is clear that Paul expects his authority to recognized and enforced. When they enact the type of discipline that this case calls for, they have the authority and blessing of both Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul wants this man treated in a manner fitting his behavior. He has engaged in behavior that could very well lead to his spiritual death, and so, he should be treated like an unclean corpse and be removed. Paul says that they should hand this man over to Satan. In Paul’s theology, the Church is an alternate reality to the realm of the world, which is in the grip of Satan. Once a man enters into the body of Christ, he comes to life spiritually and enters the ‘age to come’, he is freed from the power of evil. He has been liberated in the power of the Spirit. If this type of behavior is tolerated or even encouraged within the confines of what is supposed to be the place of freedom from the slavery of sin, then this man is hopeless and the entire body is endangered. The charge of the church is to be responsible in discernment and disciplining those whom God has entrusted into the life of the church. To fail do so is to arrogantly deny the very function with which God has charged them. Within the Church, God trusts the Spirit-empowered body to deal with and correct one another. The work is His outside of the Church.
In expelling this man, the Church would be humbly confronting their own failure to live up to their responsibility. They would also be putting this man back into to realm of the present world where they can no longer fail him, he cannot further infect the body, and where his only real hope would be in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. This may seem like a harsh act, but Paul hopes that this will, in the end save both this man and the Church. He hopes that the act of expulsion would shame this man into right behavior (in a culture where shame was viewed as a fate worse than death), and that it would lead him to repentance and ultimate salvation. The situation had come to a point, though, where the Church could no longer facilitate this, only God could do it.
Devotional Thought
Pride is different from arrogance. Pride is our tendency to put ourselves first, often without even thinking about it. Arrogance is an outcropping of our pride. It is the belief that we know better and have the solution to everything by doing it our own way. As we saw in this reading today, arrogance often is the root cause to many other symptomatic behaviors. Do you struggle with arrogance in your life? What other problems might that be causing in your character? How can you go about defeating arrogance in your life in a biblical way?
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Monday, July 09, 2007
1 Corinthians 4:14-21
14I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. 15Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.
18Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. 20For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 21What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?
Dig Deeper
From time to time while I was growing up, my parents would leave our house and go out for a while, leaving my older sister in charge of the house and of me. These could be perilous times for me, yet they were no easier, I’m sure, for my sister. Although she was left in charge, and I followed her authority to a degree, I still always knew that she was just a babysitter. She wasn’t the real source of authority in my life. When my parents came home, however, that was different. There was real power there. They had power and authority without even having to use many words. One or two quick commands from them was all it took. In fact, just knowing that they would be coming home soon, kept me in line because I wanted things to go well when they arrived rather than having to face discipline.
To fully understand this passage and Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians, we must have something of this concept in mind. Paul sees himself as their spiritual father, the one who begat, the Corinthians. The other teachers and leaders are important, but they are babysitters (the NIV translates the word ‘guardian’, but the word refers to a servant who acted as the babysitter or nanny for the children of the household). Only Paul has the true power and authority over them that a father has. He addresses them, then, with a great deal of love, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek in this section.
He begins in verse 14, saying that he has not written this letter to shame them. What Paul means by his language here is not that he doesn’t want to embarrass them with a look at their own behavior; he wants to do that. What he is saying is that he doesn’t want them to turn in on themselves and become inactive from shame. His goal is to embarrass them so as to instruct them and motivate them toward change. Paul feels that he is the only one that can truly do this to the level of effectiveness that is truly needed because he is their only spiritual father. Why does Paul consider himself to be the father of the Corinthian church? It is because he ‘beget’ them through his preaching of the gospel (this is a bit obscured by the wording in the NIV).
Because he is their father, Paul urges his spiritual children to imitate him. In Paul’s world it was common for children to imitate parents or disciples to imitate masters. This was not a matter of simple mimicry, though. He is talking about the type of imitation where the values of the one being imitated are internalized until they become like the person they are imitating. Paul, then is not asking them to merely copy him. What he is telling them is that he has dedicated his life to Christ in every possible way, particularly in the way he thinks and views the world. Imitating this same heart is what Paul is calling them to, not a mere imitation of his actions. Imitating actions would not make them more Christlike, only internal change would do that.
To help them with this goal of imitation, they need to be reminded of the heart and life and Paul. Since Paul cannot come to them at the moment, he sees no better way to do that then to send Timothy to them. Timothy has spent so much time with Paul, learning his way of life that he is in a position not just to tell them about the radical new way of living that Paul is calling them to, but he can actually model the life of Paul, which is ultimately the life f Christ. 1 Corinthians 16:10-11 hints that Paul is a bit concerned abut the welcome that Timothy will receive in Corinth. There is obvious tension between Paul and some of the Corinthians and Paul is worried that, as his agent, Timothy will come under the same sort of criticism that Paul has.
In the original Greek, verses 18-20 are really one long, complex sentence. Paul directly addresses those who have criticized him and his ministry. Paul says that he will come to them soon, despite the claims of these troublemakers, and when he does he will see what kind of power they have. His point is that they have been talking a lot, but they don’t even have the authority of a babysitter. When Paul comes, however, he won’t need many words. He will come with the power and authority of their father, their only father in the faith. The true power of the kingdom does not resemble human authority at all. It comes from the spiritual truth of the gospel. Paul’s authority comes from the kingdom; he doesn’t need a bunch of words or convincing arguments to establish a worldly sort of authority. Paul’s language in these three verse has been rather point blank and confrontational, but in verse 21, he returns to a more good-natured, teasing tone, saying that their choice in respecting Paul’s authority will determine whether he comes to them with the rod or in love and with a gentle spirit. (There is no support for the NIV’s ‘whip’ here. Paul uses the word for rod, which is an allusion to the Old Testament rod of correction. He is not literally threatening them with physical violence)
Paul’s tone of authority might be shocking to 21st century westernized Christians. He has no intention of coming to Corinth to take a vote on what kind of church they would like to be. Paul feels that it is his duty and right to exercise the authority of Jesus Christ in the church of Corinth. Yet, he wasn’t bullying them with edicts from afar. He is calling them to nothing less than the life of Christ, found manifest in the lives of Paul and Timothy. He doesn’t need a lot of words, he’ll leave that to the puffed-up trouble-makers. His life, the one that he was calling them to imitate said all that needed to be said.
Devotional Thought
Paul called the Corinthians to imitate his desire to live a Christlike life. Have you ever followed that wise advice? If you haven’t already, find someone you know who is deeply committed to following Christ in a sincere way. Develop a relationship with them so that you can learn to imitate the passion that they have for the life of Christ. If you have, you can still always find someone who is further along, at least in some areas, in living the life of Christ. Get closer to them and learn from them.
18Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. 20For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 21What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?
Dig Deeper
From time to time while I was growing up, my parents would leave our house and go out for a while, leaving my older sister in charge of the house and of me. These could be perilous times for me, yet they were no easier, I’m sure, for my sister. Although she was left in charge, and I followed her authority to a degree, I still always knew that she was just a babysitter. She wasn’t the real source of authority in my life. When my parents came home, however, that was different. There was real power there. They had power and authority without even having to use many words. One or two quick commands from them was all it took. In fact, just knowing that they would be coming home soon, kept me in line because I wanted things to go well when they arrived rather than having to face discipline.
To fully understand this passage and Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians, we must have something of this concept in mind. Paul sees himself as their spiritual father, the one who begat, the Corinthians. The other teachers and leaders are important, but they are babysitters (the NIV translates the word ‘guardian’, but the word refers to a servant who acted as the babysitter or nanny for the children of the household). Only Paul has the true power and authority over them that a father has. He addresses them, then, with a great deal of love, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek in this section.
He begins in verse 14, saying that he has not written this letter to shame them. What Paul means by his language here is not that he doesn’t want to embarrass them with a look at their own behavior; he wants to do that. What he is saying is that he doesn’t want them to turn in on themselves and become inactive from shame. His goal is to embarrass them so as to instruct them and motivate them toward change. Paul feels that he is the only one that can truly do this to the level of effectiveness that is truly needed because he is their only spiritual father. Why does Paul consider himself to be the father of the Corinthian church? It is because he ‘beget’ them through his preaching of the gospel (this is a bit obscured by the wording in the NIV).
Because he is their father, Paul urges his spiritual children to imitate him. In Paul’s world it was common for children to imitate parents or disciples to imitate masters. This was not a matter of simple mimicry, though. He is talking about the type of imitation where the values of the one being imitated are internalized until they become like the person they are imitating. Paul, then is not asking them to merely copy him. What he is telling them is that he has dedicated his life to Christ in every possible way, particularly in the way he thinks and views the world. Imitating this same heart is what Paul is calling them to, not a mere imitation of his actions. Imitating actions would not make them more Christlike, only internal change would do that.
To help them with this goal of imitation, they need to be reminded of the heart and life and Paul. Since Paul cannot come to them at the moment, he sees no better way to do that then to send Timothy to them. Timothy has spent so much time with Paul, learning his way of life that he is in a position not just to tell them about the radical new way of living that Paul is calling them to, but he can actually model the life of Paul, which is ultimately the life f Christ. 1 Corinthians 16:10-11 hints that Paul is a bit concerned abut the welcome that Timothy will receive in Corinth. There is obvious tension between Paul and some of the Corinthians and Paul is worried that, as his agent, Timothy will come under the same sort of criticism that Paul has.
In the original Greek, verses 18-20 are really one long, complex sentence. Paul directly addresses those who have criticized him and his ministry. Paul says that he will come to them soon, despite the claims of these troublemakers, and when he does he will see what kind of power they have. His point is that they have been talking a lot, but they don’t even have the authority of a babysitter. When Paul comes, however, he won’t need many words. He will come with the power and authority of their father, their only father in the faith. The true power of the kingdom does not resemble human authority at all. It comes from the spiritual truth of the gospel. Paul’s authority comes from the kingdom; he doesn’t need a bunch of words or convincing arguments to establish a worldly sort of authority. Paul’s language in these three verse has been rather point blank and confrontational, but in verse 21, he returns to a more good-natured, teasing tone, saying that their choice in respecting Paul’s authority will determine whether he comes to them with the rod or in love and with a gentle spirit. (There is no support for the NIV’s ‘whip’ here. Paul uses the word for rod, which is an allusion to the Old Testament rod of correction. He is not literally threatening them with physical violence)
Paul’s tone of authority might be shocking to 21st century westernized Christians. He has no intention of coming to Corinth to take a vote on what kind of church they would like to be. Paul feels that it is his duty and right to exercise the authority of Jesus Christ in the church of Corinth. Yet, he wasn’t bullying them with edicts from afar. He is calling them to nothing less than the life of Christ, found manifest in the lives of Paul and Timothy. He doesn’t need a lot of words, he’ll leave that to the puffed-up trouble-makers. His life, the one that he was calling them to imitate said all that needed to be said.
Devotional Thought
Paul called the Corinthians to imitate his desire to live a Christlike life. Have you ever followed that wise advice? If you haven’t already, find someone you know who is deeply committed to following Christ in a sincere way. Develop a relationship with them so that you can learn to imitate the passion that they have for the life of Christ. If you have, you can still always find someone who is further along, at least in some areas, in living the life of Christ. Get closer to them and learn from them.
Friday, July 06, 2007
1 Corinthians 4:6-13
6Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. 7For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
8Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings—and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you! 9For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. 10We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! 11To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.
Dig Deeper
One of the great illusions of life in the present age is that the world can offer things like wisdom, power, and money, that will actually benefit people in the long run. We buy into the belief that if we could just achieve the money, power, and fame that the world has to offer that then life will be better and easier. Yet, in our own culture and throughout history, those who achieved all of those things according to the world’s standards, are usually among the most miserable people on the face of the earth. They have achieved what most can only hope for and have realized that it has still left them wanting. Most Christians have rejected those values to one degree or another, yet we are always in danger of letting those values slip into our vision of what Christianity is. This is precisely what the Corinthians were doing, and the core issue (although with many different manifestations) that Paul will deal without throughout this letter. Rather than realizing that they were now people who were to live the life of the ‘age to come’ and reject the values of the world, they were trying to be Christians and still maintain the worldly principles of those around them. They did not understand that they had died to their own life and entered into the life of Christ.
Paul begins with an appeal to them to not go beyond what is written. He is most likely applying this saying to the Old Testament Scriptures that he has previously quoted in his letter. Their core problem is that they have been viewing the world through worldly glasses rather than biblical glasses. Rather than living as people of the ‘age to come’ they are living as though they still value the hollow wisdom and principles of the world. This was causing them to get puffed up with pride. In viewing themselves their Christianity through the eyes and values of the world, they were under the mistaken impression that they were some sort of superior hybrid of worldly ability and spiritual wisdom that no one could challenge.
Paul reminds them, in verse 7, a very fundamental truth. They have absolutely nothing to have pride over because anything that they may have, was a gift from God. When humans fall into the trap of boasting and bragging about the gifts that they have, they make the mistake of thinking that they are responsible for what they do have. Paul reminds them that anything they have comes from God. This is a fact they should not soon forget.
Paul must move beyond that point, however, because the Corinthians have gone far beyond that foolishness. They’re not just bragging about their own gifts, they think that they have been so spiritually fed that they are now complete; they believe they have achieved the pinnacle of spiritual wisdom and ability. In focusing on their abilities and achievements, they have missed the one thing that does actually make them special: God’s grace.
Paul moves into a bit of rhetoric that is highly sarcastic, but is, he feels, the only thing that will awaken them to the silliness in which they are engaged. Although this language is startling, we know that Paul must have felt the strength of the relationship he had with the Corinthian Church could survive this loving rebuke.
Paul sets up a clear set of contrasts between the worldly form of Christianity in which the Christians in Corinth were engaging, and the true Christian life that was on display in the life of the apostles. In describing the life of the apostles in verse 9, Paul uses the imagery of a Roman parade where the army would march triumphantly through the streets with the weary and worn prisoners in a chain gang in the back of the procession. Thus, he describes the apostles in terms of those who would be brought up last to die in the arena.
The contrast that Paul describes is stark and as opposite as it could be. The Christians in Corinth have created a brand of Christianity that values worldly wisdom; human strength; and the honor that comes from men. Paul doesn’t believe that this is the sort of life demanded by the Cross at all. The underlying question throughout this passage is: have they entered the life of the crucified Messiah or not? His unstated answer to that underlying question is that the apostles have, they have yet to do so. In contrast to the type of Christian life they have supposed for themselves in Corinth, Paul and the other apostles have embraced the way of the Cross, the life of the ‘age to come’ which seems like sheer foolishness to those in the world. In the eyes of the world they are foolish, weak, and dishonored, yet in the Kingdom of God, all things are turned upside down.
Paul has learned a different way of living. Harsh circumstances are no reason to question or leave the Christian life. There is no promise of a trouble-free life, just the means to overcome any problems in the present age because of the hope and power of the ‘age to come’. When cursed, persecuted, or slandered, Paul has learned to respond as someone who realizes that he lives in a different reality from the world. This, of course, seems like madness to the world, but it is the wisdom of God. What seems absurd to the world is just right in God’s eyes. Paul sums up his point at the end of verse 13. Once they realize that they have entered into the ‘age to come’ in some sense (with the promise of its full consummation at the return of Christ), they will stop living like the world, stop valuing what the world treasures, and stop caring what the world thinks of them.
Devotional Thought
What aspect of your life are you most likely to be tempted to take pride in as though you have accomplished something? Paul would remind us all that struggle with that, that anything we have is a gift from God. How would reminding yourself of this principle change the way you approach certain aspects of your life?
8Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings—and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you! 9For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. 10We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! 11To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.
Dig Deeper
One of the great illusions of life in the present age is that the world can offer things like wisdom, power, and money, that will actually benefit people in the long run. We buy into the belief that if we could just achieve the money, power, and fame that the world has to offer that then life will be better and easier. Yet, in our own culture and throughout history, those who achieved all of those things according to the world’s standards, are usually among the most miserable people on the face of the earth. They have achieved what most can only hope for and have realized that it has still left them wanting. Most Christians have rejected those values to one degree or another, yet we are always in danger of letting those values slip into our vision of what Christianity is. This is precisely what the Corinthians were doing, and the core issue (although with many different manifestations) that Paul will deal without throughout this letter. Rather than realizing that they were now people who were to live the life of the ‘age to come’ and reject the values of the world, they were trying to be Christians and still maintain the worldly principles of those around them. They did not understand that they had died to their own life and entered into the life of Christ.
Paul begins with an appeal to them to not go beyond what is written. He is most likely applying this saying to the Old Testament Scriptures that he has previously quoted in his letter. Their core problem is that they have been viewing the world through worldly glasses rather than biblical glasses. Rather than living as people of the ‘age to come’ they are living as though they still value the hollow wisdom and principles of the world. This was causing them to get puffed up with pride. In viewing themselves their Christianity through the eyes and values of the world, they were under the mistaken impression that they were some sort of superior hybrid of worldly ability and spiritual wisdom that no one could challenge.
Paul reminds them, in verse 7, a very fundamental truth. They have absolutely nothing to have pride over because anything that they may have, was a gift from God. When humans fall into the trap of boasting and bragging about the gifts that they have, they make the mistake of thinking that they are responsible for what they do have. Paul reminds them that anything they have comes from God. This is a fact they should not soon forget.
Paul must move beyond that point, however, because the Corinthians have gone far beyond that foolishness. They’re not just bragging about their own gifts, they think that they have been so spiritually fed that they are now complete; they believe they have achieved the pinnacle of spiritual wisdom and ability. In focusing on their abilities and achievements, they have missed the one thing that does actually make them special: God’s grace.
Paul moves into a bit of rhetoric that is highly sarcastic, but is, he feels, the only thing that will awaken them to the silliness in which they are engaged. Although this language is startling, we know that Paul must have felt the strength of the relationship he had with the Corinthian Church could survive this loving rebuke.
Paul sets up a clear set of contrasts between the worldly form of Christianity in which the Christians in Corinth were engaging, and the true Christian life that was on display in the life of the apostles. In describing the life of the apostles in verse 9, Paul uses the imagery of a Roman parade where the army would march triumphantly through the streets with the weary and worn prisoners in a chain gang in the back of the procession. Thus, he describes the apostles in terms of those who would be brought up last to die in the arena.
The contrast that Paul describes is stark and as opposite as it could be. The Christians in Corinth have created a brand of Christianity that values worldly wisdom; human strength; and the honor that comes from men. Paul doesn’t believe that this is the sort of life demanded by the Cross at all. The underlying question throughout this passage is: have they entered the life of the crucified Messiah or not? His unstated answer to that underlying question is that the apostles have, they have yet to do so. In contrast to the type of Christian life they have supposed for themselves in Corinth, Paul and the other apostles have embraced the way of the Cross, the life of the ‘age to come’ which seems like sheer foolishness to those in the world. In the eyes of the world they are foolish, weak, and dishonored, yet in the Kingdom of God, all things are turned upside down.
Paul has learned a different way of living. Harsh circumstances are no reason to question or leave the Christian life. There is no promise of a trouble-free life, just the means to overcome any problems in the present age because of the hope and power of the ‘age to come’. When cursed, persecuted, or slandered, Paul has learned to respond as someone who realizes that he lives in a different reality from the world. This, of course, seems like madness to the world, but it is the wisdom of God. What seems absurd to the world is just right in God’s eyes. Paul sums up his point at the end of verse 13. Once they realize that they have entered into the ‘age to come’ in some sense (with the promise of its full consummation at the return of Christ), they will stop living like the world, stop valuing what the world treasures, and stop caring what the world thinks of them.
Devotional Thought
What aspect of your life are you most likely to be tempted to take pride in as though you have accomplished something? Paul would remind us all that struggle with that, that anything we have is a gift from God. How would reminding yourself of this principle change the way you approach certain aspects of your life?
Thursday, July 05, 2007
1 Corinthians 4:1-5
Apostles of Christ
1So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. 2Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.
Dig Deeper
Not long ago, my family began to pack up the things in our house, preparing to move to another city. At one point during the packing period, I walked into the room that served as an office for me and my wife. What I saw appeared to be absolute chaos. There were papers everywhere as though a tornado had just gone through. I was tempted to be a bit irritated before my wife reminded me that I should not judge a job that is half done. She was in fact, doing a wonderful job of organizing papers and throwing away excess and finished her job shortly thereafter.
This is something of the message that Paul is sending to the Corinthians. They are running around judging and obsessing over things from a worldly point of view. They needed reminding that there will be a final judgment where God will put all things to rights. Yet, there is a human tendency to want to grasp for justice now, through our own resources. Throughout this short section, Paul wants his readers to understand the proper point of view through which they should be seeing things.
In the worldview of the Corinthians, it was quite proper for them to judge Paul, since this is what audiences did with the speakers and sophists. They were judging not so much whether Paul was a legitimate servant of God, but they were judging the form of his ministry in both his words and his presence.
Paul begins deconstructing this worldview by putting straight what apostles really were. They were not like the sophists and great speakers of the day. Their aim was not to become rich or gather throngs of adoring disciples around themselves. In short, they were not the show. They were mere servants. The word Paul uses for ‘servant’ was that of the steward of a household, the one entrusted to oversee and take care of the valuables of the household. Paul says that, as servants, it is part of their vocation to prove faithful to their handling of the gospel. Paul doesn’t even mention things like eloquence and wisdom as necessary traits for a servant of God. Those are the worldly traits that the other citizens of Corinth would look for. In God’s view, however, the servants of God were to be faithful. In saying this, Paul alludes to the fact that it is God who has the ultimate authority over the apostles and the entire situation. Apostles and teachers do not own the treasure, they merely do what they’re told with it.
In verse 3, Paul hits the high note in this short song of rejection of the standards of the world. To do so, he turns to language that invokes thoughts of the final day of judgment by contrasting that day of divine judgment with judgment by humans in the present age. There is no point, according to Paul, for them to get all caught up in human judgments, when there will be a day when God will judge all things perfectly. In other words, they shouldn’t waste any time judging a job that is half done.
It is not that Paul is indifferent to what other people think of him or that he is being arrogant or unconcerned. Paul’s reasoning for his attitude is nothing as worldly as that; it is because it is the Lord who will judge Paul. He is the steward of the Lord, and will have to answer to no one about the form or effectiveness of his ministry except for God alone. He will determine Paul’s faithfulness. It is this view of the end (Paul’s eschatology) that determines the value of his present ministry and activity. Because of this truth, Paul understands that no human will judge him. Once we think we understand where Paul is going with that line of thinking, though, he goes one shocking step further. He says that he is not even capable of properly evaluating his own faithfulness. Paul realizes that even his own heart is deceitful and incapable of such a judgment. Paul confirms that his own conscience is clear, but that does not make him innocent (a word that means, in essence, ‘right with God’). The human conscience is simply unable to make such a determination. It is Christ the Lord, and He alone, that can judge such matters.
Many have taken verse 5 out of context and forced it say something that Paul did not intend to say. When he says to judge nothing, this must be understood in context. To judge things before the appointed time means to judge from a human, present age point of view, rather than from God’s point of view. This did not exclude them from all evaluation. It means that they should avoid judging in the present age, things over which Christ has the final word. There is a balancing act, however, that Paul will pick up in chapter 5. There are some instances when, for the health of the Church, they must bring God’s judgment forward into the present age. When to judge and when not to, when to listen to criticism and when to dismiss it are things for which they needed wisdom from the Lord, himself, as do we in our churches.
Devotional Thought
Do you struggle between judging situations and people from the viewpoint of this present age or from God’s viewpoint? Paul says that our final standard in all matters should be the standard that God will use on the final day. This means realizing that some things must be left strictly to His judgment and other things must be carefully judged by His standard.
1So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. 2Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.
Dig Deeper
Not long ago, my family began to pack up the things in our house, preparing to move to another city. At one point during the packing period, I walked into the room that served as an office for me and my wife. What I saw appeared to be absolute chaos. There were papers everywhere as though a tornado had just gone through. I was tempted to be a bit irritated before my wife reminded me that I should not judge a job that is half done. She was in fact, doing a wonderful job of organizing papers and throwing away excess and finished her job shortly thereafter.
This is something of the message that Paul is sending to the Corinthians. They are running around judging and obsessing over things from a worldly point of view. They needed reminding that there will be a final judgment where God will put all things to rights. Yet, there is a human tendency to want to grasp for justice now, through our own resources. Throughout this short section, Paul wants his readers to understand the proper point of view through which they should be seeing things.
In the worldview of the Corinthians, it was quite proper for them to judge Paul, since this is what audiences did with the speakers and sophists. They were judging not so much whether Paul was a legitimate servant of God, but they were judging the form of his ministry in both his words and his presence.
Paul begins deconstructing this worldview by putting straight what apostles really were. They were not like the sophists and great speakers of the day. Their aim was not to become rich or gather throngs of adoring disciples around themselves. In short, they were not the show. They were mere servants. The word Paul uses for ‘servant’ was that of the steward of a household, the one entrusted to oversee and take care of the valuables of the household. Paul says that, as servants, it is part of their vocation to prove faithful to their handling of the gospel. Paul doesn’t even mention things like eloquence and wisdom as necessary traits for a servant of God. Those are the worldly traits that the other citizens of Corinth would look for. In God’s view, however, the servants of God were to be faithful. In saying this, Paul alludes to the fact that it is God who has the ultimate authority over the apostles and the entire situation. Apostles and teachers do not own the treasure, they merely do what they’re told with it.
In verse 3, Paul hits the high note in this short song of rejection of the standards of the world. To do so, he turns to language that invokes thoughts of the final day of judgment by contrasting that day of divine judgment with judgment by humans in the present age. There is no point, according to Paul, for them to get all caught up in human judgments, when there will be a day when God will judge all things perfectly. In other words, they shouldn’t waste any time judging a job that is half done.
It is not that Paul is indifferent to what other people think of him or that he is being arrogant or unconcerned. Paul’s reasoning for his attitude is nothing as worldly as that; it is because it is the Lord who will judge Paul. He is the steward of the Lord, and will have to answer to no one about the form or effectiveness of his ministry except for God alone. He will determine Paul’s faithfulness. It is this view of the end (Paul’s eschatology) that determines the value of his present ministry and activity. Because of this truth, Paul understands that no human will judge him. Once we think we understand where Paul is going with that line of thinking, though, he goes one shocking step further. He says that he is not even capable of properly evaluating his own faithfulness. Paul realizes that even his own heart is deceitful and incapable of such a judgment. Paul confirms that his own conscience is clear, but that does not make him innocent (a word that means, in essence, ‘right with God’). The human conscience is simply unable to make such a determination. It is Christ the Lord, and He alone, that can judge such matters.
Many have taken verse 5 out of context and forced it say something that Paul did not intend to say. When he says to judge nothing, this must be understood in context. To judge things before the appointed time means to judge from a human, present age point of view, rather than from God’s point of view. This did not exclude them from all evaluation. It means that they should avoid judging in the present age, things over which Christ has the final word. There is a balancing act, however, that Paul will pick up in chapter 5. There are some instances when, for the health of the Church, they must bring God’s judgment forward into the present age. When to judge and when not to, when to listen to criticism and when to dismiss it are things for which they needed wisdom from the Lord, himself, as do we in our churches.
Devotional Thought
Do you struggle between judging situations and people from the viewpoint of this present age or from God’s viewpoint? Paul says that our final standard in all matters should be the standard that God will use on the final day. This means realizing that some things must be left strictly to His judgment and other things must be carefully judged by His standard.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
1 Corinthians 3:18-23
18Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; 20and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." 21So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, 22whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.
Dig Deeper
In the Disney movie, The Lion King, the father of the main character, the lion Simba, has died. Following his father’s death, Simba ran away and found a new group of friends that taught him that the real meaning of life was to have fun, relax, and not worry about anything. He thinks that he has found true wisdom that will bring true happiness in life. Yet, in one poignant scene, a wise old monkey confronts him with the reality. The truth of the matter, says the monkey, is that Simba is more than he has become. He is like a kid sitting next to a gourmet meal but eating mud pies, because he has convinced himself that the mud is as good as it gets.
This is something of the point that Paul has been trying to make to the Corinthians and will continue to make in different ways throughout this letter. They are more than they have become. When they spiral into in-fighting, power games, and following men, they are showing that they have bought into the wisdom of the world and are judging things by man’s standards rather than God’s. They are behaving just like the world around them that believed they needed to belong to someone great and powerful in order to be someone of any worth. This is why they have descended into arguments over who baptized them and to which apostle they belong.
The reality that Paul wants them to see runs deep throughout Paul’s theology. This is nowhere more clearly demonstrated than in Romans 6, where Paul argues that at baptism a Christian actually enters into the death, burial, and resurrected life of the Messiah. This is vital to understand because Paul believes that through his death and resurrection, Christ has already entered into the life of the ‘age to come’. Because he has already entered in, those who share in his death and resurrection also enter into the ‘age to come’ while still in this present age. Christians are, in Paul’s theology, to live in a completely different reality than the world around them because we already share, in some sense, what we will have fully when Christ returns to make all things new, namely, the life of the ‘age to come’.
To understand all of that begins, then, to make sense of Paul’s point in this passage. He adamantly tells the Corinthians that they should reject any notion of being wise by human standards. When one has really embraced the life and mind set of the ‘age to come’ they will seem foolish to the world around them. By the world’s standards they will seem foolish. The great reversal of the Christian life, however, is that what seems foolish to everyone else is actually true wisdom. It is in fact, the very things that the world values as wisdom that God sees as foolish. It would make more sense for two ants to stand at the feet of a human and argue over which ant is wiser, than it does for humans to value human wisdom to the point where they are creating factions and putting others down based on their own human standards.
In making his point, Paul quotes loosely from Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11 to present a cosmic irony. When people act with craftiness and worldly wisdom to try to avoid God’s will, He uses their very craftiness to capture them. The more they try to exalt their own wisdom and posture themselves before God and humanity as wise, the more they are really demonstrating their foolishness. What is particularly disturbing to Paul is that the Corinthians were falling into this web of foolishness. Their so-called wisdom was causing them to ignore the wisdom of God that was revealed in the Cross of Christ. They were gripping tightly to the values and life of the present age rather than taking hold of the life and values of the ‘age to come’.
Paul wants them to stop settling when they should have so much more than they have. In fact, he utters some shocking words to help them see that point. He says that all things are yours. This, of course, applies only when they are of Christ. How silly it is to engage in personality cults when everything in the cosmos belongs to them. How can this be true? He is, again, speaking of the ‘age to come’, when God will rule the entire cosmos and His people will rule with them (see Matthew 5:5; 1 Corinthians 6:2; Revelation 1:6 for more on this idea). When he says that they are of Christ and Christ is of God, his point is that the Messiah was serving God’s will so he was functionally subordinate to the Father but not inferior in nature, type, or essence. It is the same way for the apostles. They are the servants of the Church, as all leaders are (but not inferior in nature, type, or essence). This is, of course, yet another area that is quite the opposite from the wisdom espoused by the world.
Devotional Thought
Don’t deceive yourself. We all fall prey to the thinking and mindset of the world at times. Take some time this week to carefully examine your life. Ask some who know you well if need be. In what areas does your life and thinking more resemble human wisdom than Godly wisdom? How would your life look differently if you truly embraced God’s wisdom and the life of the ‘age to come’ and rejected the standards of human wisdom?
Dig Deeper
In the Disney movie, The Lion King, the father of the main character, the lion Simba, has died. Following his father’s death, Simba ran away and found a new group of friends that taught him that the real meaning of life was to have fun, relax, and not worry about anything. He thinks that he has found true wisdom that will bring true happiness in life. Yet, in one poignant scene, a wise old monkey confronts him with the reality. The truth of the matter, says the monkey, is that Simba is more than he has become. He is like a kid sitting next to a gourmet meal but eating mud pies, because he has convinced himself that the mud is as good as it gets.
This is something of the point that Paul has been trying to make to the Corinthians and will continue to make in different ways throughout this letter. They are more than they have become. When they spiral into in-fighting, power games, and following men, they are showing that they have bought into the wisdom of the world and are judging things by man’s standards rather than God’s. They are behaving just like the world around them that believed they needed to belong to someone great and powerful in order to be someone of any worth. This is why they have descended into arguments over who baptized them and to which apostle they belong.
The reality that Paul wants them to see runs deep throughout Paul’s theology. This is nowhere more clearly demonstrated than in Romans 6, where Paul argues that at baptism a Christian actually enters into the death, burial, and resurrected life of the Messiah. This is vital to understand because Paul believes that through his death and resurrection, Christ has already entered into the life of the ‘age to come’. Because he has already entered in, those who share in his death and resurrection also enter into the ‘age to come’ while still in this present age. Christians are, in Paul’s theology, to live in a completely different reality than the world around them because we already share, in some sense, what we will have fully when Christ returns to make all things new, namely, the life of the ‘age to come’.
To understand all of that begins, then, to make sense of Paul’s point in this passage. He adamantly tells the Corinthians that they should reject any notion of being wise by human standards. When one has really embraced the life and mind set of the ‘age to come’ they will seem foolish to the world around them. By the world’s standards they will seem foolish. The great reversal of the Christian life, however, is that what seems foolish to everyone else is actually true wisdom. It is in fact, the very things that the world values as wisdom that God sees as foolish. It would make more sense for two ants to stand at the feet of a human and argue over which ant is wiser, than it does for humans to value human wisdom to the point where they are creating factions and putting others down based on their own human standards.
In making his point, Paul quotes loosely from Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11 to present a cosmic irony. When people act with craftiness and worldly wisdom to try to avoid God’s will, He uses their very craftiness to capture them. The more they try to exalt their own wisdom and posture themselves before God and humanity as wise, the more they are really demonstrating their foolishness. What is particularly disturbing to Paul is that the Corinthians were falling into this web of foolishness. Their so-called wisdom was causing them to ignore the wisdom of God that was revealed in the Cross of Christ. They were gripping tightly to the values and life of the present age rather than taking hold of the life and values of the ‘age to come’.
Paul wants them to stop settling when they should have so much more than they have. In fact, he utters some shocking words to help them see that point. He says that all things are yours. This, of course, applies only when they are of Christ. How silly it is to engage in personality cults when everything in the cosmos belongs to them. How can this be true? He is, again, speaking of the ‘age to come’, when God will rule the entire cosmos and His people will rule with them (see Matthew 5:5; 1 Corinthians 6:2; Revelation 1:6 for more on this idea). When he says that they are of Christ and Christ is of God, his point is that the Messiah was serving God’s will so he was functionally subordinate to the Father but not inferior in nature, type, or essence. It is the same way for the apostles. They are the servants of the Church, as all leaders are (but not inferior in nature, type, or essence). This is, of course, yet another area that is quite the opposite from the wisdom espoused by the world.
Devotional Thought
Don’t deceive yourself. We all fall prey to the thinking and mindset of the world at times. Take some time this week to carefully examine your life. Ask some who know you well if need be. In what areas does your life and thinking more resemble human wisdom than Godly wisdom? How would your life look differently if you truly embraced God’s wisdom and the life of the ‘age to come’ and rejected the standards of human wisdom?
Monday, July 02, 2007
1 Corinthians 3:12-17
12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.
16Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
Dig Deeper
As a high school basketball coach, I learned rather quickly that the foundation to each season was laid during the months leading up to the season itself. The hard work, conditioning, and training that a team put in during those off-season months usually determined the type of season they would have. A team without a good foundation would not have a good season. The only thing worse than that was to see a team that did all of the hard work and laid a solid foundation, to turn around during the season and squander it all with laziness and dissension. It’s foolish to try to build on a poor foundation; it is irresponsible to build an improper structure on a strong foundation.
In the preceding verses, Paul makes it clear to the Corinthian community that there is no other foundation than that of Jesus Christ. His concern now is that they are building a suspect structure on that rock solid foundation. Paul has already reminded them that they are part of the larger movement of the people of God, but they are also, in a sense, responsible for the building of their own local structure. He lays out for them that there are two sets of materials that could be metaphorically used in the building of their community in Christ. The two sets of materials are directly opposed to one another in type, in cost, and in durability. The first set of building materials, gold, silver, costly stones, are the type of materials that would be used in the building of a Temple. Although Paul doesn’t state that directly in verse 12, he will demonstrate in verse 16 that this is what he had in mind all along. The other set of materials are of the cheap sort that one would use to build a temporary structure, but not something eternal like a Temple for the holy God.
Paul’s concern here, though, is not as much with what is being built or the materials used, but rather with the builders themselves. God will achieve His desired results with someone else, if they are not willing, but Paul loves this group of people and wants them to build wisely. This is because a day is coming which will demonstrate the quality of their work. Paul alludes here to the Day of the Lord (1 Cor. 1:8) as the day when this work will be revealed by the fire of testing. In using this image, Paul uses a technique common to the Old Testament prophets. He speaks of a near future event, all the while he has the final consummating event in mind. In this case, the Day of the Lord will happen in one sense at the soon-coming (for Paul) day of judgment poured out on apostate Israel in AD 70. Yet, at the same time, Paul has an eye on, and uses imagery from the final judgment day that will occur at the glorious second coming of Christ. In a very real physical sense, the Church will be greatly persecuted during the time leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem, and a community built shabbily will clearly demonstrate that they have been built with shoddy materials. This will be a pointer, a picture of sorts, of the type of revealing process that will happen on the final day of this present age. It is at that time, that the righteous will be judged and rewarded (Matt. 5:12) for the good that they have done.
It is important to note that Paul assures the Church that even if they do make the foolish choice of building with shoddy materials, this will not disqualify them from the ‘age to come’. Paul affirms this in Romans 8:38-39 when he says: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul never argues, however, that we cannot separate ourselves from God based on our own free will decision.
In verse 16, Paul returns to the concept of the Temple, as the reason why the building materials are so important. In the Old Testament, every item used for the Tabernacle and Temple was specifically prescribed by God. The valuable materials used and the care with which they were used, pointed ahead in Paul’s thinking, to the care and precision that should be used by each body of Christ in the building of their community. He uses the word naos, for Temple, which is the word that described the inner sanctuary where the Shekinah glory of God dwelt, rather than heiron which was the word used for the structure of the Temple itself. Just as the presence of the living God dwelt in the Temple built by human hands, He now was dwelling in the inner Temple of the body of Christ.
Paul gives a warning here against anyone who would destroy God’s Temple. This is a stark warning indeed, yet the imagery should not be pressed too far. Since we know that the Kingdom of God cannot be destroyed (Matt. 16:18; Heb. 12:28), this language must be understood as Paul stressing the importance of the Temple, the people of God, not as an actual threat as though someone could completely destroy that Temple.
Devotional Thought
In this section, Paul is admonishing the community of Christ to build their section of God’s kingdom wisely and with timeless materials. In the Old Testament, Nehemiah and the men of Jerusalem completed the rebuilding of the wall around the city in less than two months by having each man focus on the section in front of his own house (Neh. 3). With what sort of materials are you building your small section of God’s kingdom? Are you and those in your Christian community building with gold, silver, and costly stones? What exactly does it mean for you to build with those materials? What are some ways in which you might build with wood, hay, or straw?
16Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
Dig Deeper
As a high school basketball coach, I learned rather quickly that the foundation to each season was laid during the months leading up to the season itself. The hard work, conditioning, and training that a team put in during those off-season months usually determined the type of season they would have. A team without a good foundation would not have a good season. The only thing worse than that was to see a team that did all of the hard work and laid a solid foundation, to turn around during the season and squander it all with laziness and dissension. It’s foolish to try to build on a poor foundation; it is irresponsible to build an improper structure on a strong foundation.
In the preceding verses, Paul makes it clear to the Corinthian community that there is no other foundation than that of Jesus Christ. His concern now is that they are building a suspect structure on that rock solid foundation. Paul has already reminded them that they are part of the larger movement of the people of God, but they are also, in a sense, responsible for the building of their own local structure. He lays out for them that there are two sets of materials that could be metaphorically used in the building of their community in Christ. The two sets of materials are directly opposed to one another in type, in cost, and in durability. The first set of building materials, gold, silver, costly stones, are the type of materials that would be used in the building of a Temple. Although Paul doesn’t state that directly in verse 12, he will demonstrate in verse 16 that this is what he had in mind all along. The other set of materials are of the cheap sort that one would use to build a temporary structure, but not something eternal like a Temple for the holy God.
Paul’s concern here, though, is not as much with what is being built or the materials used, but rather with the builders themselves. God will achieve His desired results with someone else, if they are not willing, but Paul loves this group of people and wants them to build wisely. This is because a day is coming which will demonstrate the quality of their work. Paul alludes here to the Day of the Lord (1 Cor. 1:8) as the day when this work will be revealed by the fire of testing. In using this image, Paul uses a technique common to the Old Testament prophets. He speaks of a near future event, all the while he has the final consummating event in mind. In this case, the Day of the Lord will happen in one sense at the soon-coming (for Paul) day of judgment poured out on apostate Israel in AD 70. Yet, at the same time, Paul has an eye on, and uses imagery from the final judgment day that will occur at the glorious second coming of Christ. In a very real physical sense, the Church will be greatly persecuted during the time leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem, and a community built shabbily will clearly demonstrate that they have been built with shoddy materials. This will be a pointer, a picture of sorts, of the type of revealing process that will happen on the final day of this present age. It is at that time, that the righteous will be judged and rewarded (Matt. 5:12) for the good that they have done.
It is important to note that Paul assures the Church that even if they do make the foolish choice of building with shoddy materials, this will not disqualify them from the ‘age to come’. Paul affirms this in Romans 8:38-39 when he says: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul never argues, however, that we cannot separate ourselves from God based on our own free will decision.
In verse 16, Paul returns to the concept of the Temple, as the reason why the building materials are so important. In the Old Testament, every item used for the Tabernacle and Temple was specifically prescribed by God. The valuable materials used and the care with which they were used, pointed ahead in Paul’s thinking, to the care and precision that should be used by each body of Christ in the building of their community. He uses the word naos, for Temple, which is the word that described the inner sanctuary where the Shekinah glory of God dwelt, rather than heiron which was the word used for the structure of the Temple itself. Just as the presence of the living God dwelt in the Temple built by human hands, He now was dwelling in the inner Temple of the body of Christ.
Paul gives a warning here against anyone who would destroy God’s Temple. This is a stark warning indeed, yet the imagery should not be pressed too far. Since we know that the Kingdom of God cannot be destroyed (Matt. 16:18; Heb. 12:28), this language must be understood as Paul stressing the importance of the Temple, the people of God, not as an actual threat as though someone could completely destroy that Temple.
Devotional Thought
In this section, Paul is admonishing the community of Christ to build their section of God’s kingdom wisely and with timeless materials. In the Old Testament, Nehemiah and the men of Jerusalem completed the rebuilding of the wall around the city in less than two months by having each man focus on the section in front of his own house (Neh. 3). With what sort of materials are you building your small section of God’s kingdom? Are you and those in your Christian community building with gold, silver, and costly stones? What exactly does it mean for you to build with those materials? What are some ways in which you might build with wood, hay, or straw?
Friday, June 29, 2007
1 Corinthians 3:5-11
5What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building.
10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Dig Deeper
Many critics of the Bible have, over the years, argued that Paul is actually the founder of Christianity. They claim that Paul founded a religion that was quite different from what Jesus taught, and that he created a movement of which Jesus would not have approved. There is a sense in which Paul did found churches, in fact in his words he says, I laid a foundation as an expert builder. What is vital information in understanding Paul, however, is that he built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid. Paul certainly didn’t invent Christianity, and he wasn’t the only one teaching the same message. When any of them built churches, including Paul, they were doing so on the only foundation that any true church could ever be built, the Messiah. Truly, in Paul’s mind, the Church was built on the foundation of the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ.
Paul’s primary point here, though, isn’t the relationship between himself and Jesus. He is mostly concerned between the relationship between he and the other teachers, including Apollos. He uses the image of a garden here to make his point. He may have planted the seed, Apollos came in and watered the seed, but all of the true work of growing, and all of the glory belongs to God alone. The work of any of the teachers and apostles is inconsequential when compared with God’s role in it all. Paul says that he and Apollos are but servants, a word which literally means ‘the one who waits at table’. At a restaurant there is a cook who selects and cooks the food you have ordered, then there are different waiters and servers who bring it to you. Which waiter brings your food is really of no importance. This is Paul’s point. God has selected and cooked the meal, he, Apollos, and the other teachers are little more than waiters. There should be no special pride or significance attached to the one who brought the meal.
This should stand out as a word of caution for us today. There is always a temptation to give special praise, honor, or significance to ministers, teachers, or those who have played a certain role in someone being baptized or a church growing. All of the real work and growth comes from God, not the servant. We should avoid any temptation to take any pride in the work that God has chosen to do through us. The glory is always due to God. The Corinthians, argues Paul, have become so worldly that they cannot see beyond the human ministers. They don’t realize that if there are any differences between them, they are differences that God has assigned each one, but there is no reason to esteem one of God’s servant more than another. They are after all fellow workers that belong to God. They are his field, his building.
In verses 8 and 10, Paul hints at the subject of whether or not the servants have done a good job in building on the foundation or Christ, but that is something that he will address directly in the next passage. Each one, he says, will be rewarded according to his own labor, and that each one should be careful how he builds.
Paul here has no no personal quarrel with Apollos. In fact, he has no problem singling out false teachers, so he is in no way implying that Apollos falls into that category. The assumption here is not that Apollos or Cephas are laying another foundation or building a shoddy building. Paul’s issue is with people who are attempting to play him and Apollos against one another as if there is a contest between them that is based on human standards of wisdom and rhetoric. We can assume that Apollos might come out on top based on those standards, but that isn’t Paul’s problem. He would have just as much of an issue with someone exalting him according to human standards. In fact, it is safe to assume that no one would agree with Paul here more than Apollos and Cephas. The only one that should hold any place of honor in the kingdom of God is Jesus Christ.
Devotional Thought
If Paul were to come to your church would he have to make the same point? Are you tempted to put certain people on a pedestal? It is one thing to recognize people for their hard work but quite another to begin to think of them as more important or better than others because of that work. Are you willing to be God’s servant, giving him all the glory, or do you seek out honor and attention when you have done some work for God?
10By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Dig Deeper
Many critics of the Bible have, over the years, argued that Paul is actually the founder of Christianity. They claim that Paul founded a religion that was quite different from what Jesus taught, and that he created a movement of which Jesus would not have approved. There is a sense in which Paul did found churches, in fact in his words he says, I laid a foundation as an expert builder. What is vital information in understanding Paul, however, is that he built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, for no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid. Paul certainly didn’t invent Christianity, and he wasn’t the only one teaching the same message. When any of them built churches, including Paul, they were doing so on the only foundation that any true church could ever be built, the Messiah. Truly, in Paul’s mind, the Church was built on the foundation of the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ.
Paul’s primary point here, though, isn’t the relationship between himself and Jesus. He is mostly concerned between the relationship between he and the other teachers, including Apollos. He uses the image of a garden here to make his point. He may have planted the seed, Apollos came in and watered the seed, but all of the true work of growing, and all of the glory belongs to God alone. The work of any of the teachers and apostles is inconsequential when compared with God’s role in it all. Paul says that he and Apollos are but servants, a word which literally means ‘the one who waits at table’. At a restaurant there is a cook who selects and cooks the food you have ordered, then there are different waiters and servers who bring it to you. Which waiter brings your food is really of no importance. This is Paul’s point. God has selected and cooked the meal, he, Apollos, and the other teachers are little more than waiters. There should be no special pride or significance attached to the one who brought the meal.
This should stand out as a word of caution for us today. There is always a temptation to give special praise, honor, or significance to ministers, teachers, or those who have played a certain role in someone being baptized or a church growing. All of the real work and growth comes from God, not the servant. We should avoid any temptation to take any pride in the work that God has chosen to do through us. The glory is always due to God. The Corinthians, argues Paul, have become so worldly that they cannot see beyond the human ministers. They don’t realize that if there are any differences between them, they are differences that God has assigned each one, but there is no reason to esteem one of God’s servant more than another. They are after all fellow workers that belong to God. They are his field, his building.
In verses 8 and 10, Paul hints at the subject of whether or not the servants have done a good job in building on the foundation or Christ, but that is something that he will address directly in the next passage. Each one, he says, will be rewarded according to his own labor, and that each one should be careful how he builds.
Paul here has no no personal quarrel with Apollos. In fact, he has no problem singling out false teachers, so he is in no way implying that Apollos falls into that category. The assumption here is not that Apollos or Cephas are laying another foundation or building a shoddy building. Paul’s issue is with people who are attempting to play him and Apollos against one another as if there is a contest between them that is based on human standards of wisdom and rhetoric. We can assume that Apollos might come out on top based on those standards, but that isn’t Paul’s problem. He would have just as much of an issue with someone exalting him according to human standards. In fact, it is safe to assume that no one would agree with Paul here more than Apollos and Cephas. The only one that should hold any place of honor in the kingdom of God is Jesus Christ.
Devotional Thought
If Paul were to come to your church would he have to make the same point? Are you tempted to put certain people on a pedestal? It is one thing to recognize people for their hard work but quite another to begin to think of them as more important or better than others because of that work. Are you willing to be God’s servant, giving him all the glory, or do you seek out honor and attention when you have done some work for God?
Thursday, June 28, 2007
1 Corinthians 2:14-3:4
14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
16"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
On Divisions in the Church
1Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?
Dig Deeper
As a high school teacher at an inner-city school, it was not completely uncommon to have students come to class high, especially after lunch. Of course, we sent them to the office to be suspended, but I always wondered why they thought that was okay to do. When asked, nearly every one of them came up with the same reason. They all felt that the drugs made them better students and sharper mentally. The effect was quite the opposite, really. They thought the drugs were making them better and more attuned to what was going on, but they actually made them noticeably worse.
When the Corinthians were giving into the mind set of the world around them, this is exactly what they were doing. They were accepting that the wisdom of the sophists and philosophers, with all of its accompanying arrogance and arguments, made them more spiritual. The reality was, however, that it made them less spiritual. It, in fact, made them incapable of discerning the true spiritual wisdom for which they should be craving. They evidently believed that a bit of Christian truth mixed with the flash and belief system of the sophists might make them even better Christians; yet the truth was it did nothing but expose their immaturity and lack of spiritual discernment. The evidence of this immaturity was their in-fighting over who followed who.
In making his argument, Paul sets up a distinction between two types of people. He refers to those who are driven and led by the Spirit of God as spiritual. The other group is translated as ‘worldly’ here but could also be rendered ‘merely human’ or better yet, ‘soul-ish’. The meaning that Paul wants to convey is worldly as opposed to spiritual. The spiritual person is controlled and led by the Spirit, but the worldly person is controlled and led by their own soul or nature, the normal human way of thinking and acting. The spiritual person lives in a different realm of understanding than does the worldly individual. It would be like listening to a speech in Russian, which you understand, in a room full of people who only understand English. The spiritual person will see and understand things that are foolish babblings to the worldly man.
This is not to say that Paul believes that this should puff up the spiritual person in any way. The fact is, however, that the spiritual person lives and operates on a different plane. He makes judgments from a spiritual perspective rather than a mere natural perspective. The judgments that worldly men make, and their opinions, should have no effect on the man who is operating in the spiritual perspective. Paul uses the words of Isaiah 40:13, "For who has known the mind of the LORD, that he may instruct him," to make this point. The expected answer would be that no human can know the mind of the LORD, but Paul answers that the spiritual person has the mind of Christ. Paul has already said that the Messiah has "become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). It is not a big leap, then, for Paul to argue that we also have access to the mind of the Messiah. That means that there is no limit, if we have the Spirit within us, to the depth of wisdom that we can explore.
The Corinthians may have been supposing that Paul was including them as part of the spiritual people. When he came to them, he could only teach them basic things, because they were not yet ready for the deeper teaching. This may also answer a charge leveled against Paul, that he only taught them basic things while the other teachers that came later were much deeper and more exciting. The deeper teaching of the other teachers had only appealed to their eagerness for social and spiritual status. It had appealed to their pride not strengthened their spirits, which of course, was a charge against them, not the teachers. This was a demonstration they were still not ready. Their behavior was putting on display the fact that they were still thinking as natural, worldly humans, not a spiritual people with the mind of Christ. In fact, Paul subtly shifts in this passage from them behaving as mere humans (2:14), to being so human that anyone would notice (3:1), to making a conscious decision to resist the spirit rather than showing no evidence of it (3:3). When the church engaged in the cult of personality, they were demonstrating that they were unspiritual and not ready for the deeper wisdom and teaching that he deeply desired to give to them. The real irony of this situation is that the more they argued about who they followed, and who was more spiritual, they more they displayed that they were not spiritual at all.
Devotional Thought
Are there any areas of your life that you have switched things around like the Corinthians did? Some times the things we do, which we think makes us look spiritual, actually demonstrate our lack of spiritual discernment and maturity. Think of one specific area in your life in which you have been operating on the merely human level and need more spiritual maturity. What do you need to do to develop a deeper spiritual maturity in that area?
16"For who has known the mind of the Lord
that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
On Divisions in the Church
1Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? 4For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?
Dig Deeper
As a high school teacher at an inner-city school, it was not completely uncommon to have students come to class high, especially after lunch. Of course, we sent them to the office to be suspended, but I always wondered why they thought that was okay to do. When asked, nearly every one of them came up with the same reason. They all felt that the drugs made them better students and sharper mentally. The effect was quite the opposite, really. They thought the drugs were making them better and more attuned to what was going on, but they actually made them noticeably worse.
When the Corinthians were giving into the mind set of the world around them, this is exactly what they were doing. They were accepting that the wisdom of the sophists and philosophers, with all of its accompanying arrogance and arguments, made them more spiritual. The reality was, however, that it made them less spiritual. It, in fact, made them incapable of discerning the true spiritual wisdom for which they should be craving. They evidently believed that a bit of Christian truth mixed with the flash and belief system of the sophists might make them even better Christians; yet the truth was it did nothing but expose their immaturity and lack of spiritual discernment. The evidence of this immaturity was their in-fighting over who followed who.
In making his argument, Paul sets up a distinction between two types of people. He refers to those who are driven and led by the Spirit of God as spiritual. The other group is translated as ‘worldly’ here but could also be rendered ‘merely human’ or better yet, ‘soul-ish’. The meaning that Paul wants to convey is worldly as opposed to spiritual. The spiritual person is controlled and led by the Spirit, but the worldly person is controlled and led by their own soul or nature, the normal human way of thinking and acting. The spiritual person lives in a different realm of understanding than does the worldly individual. It would be like listening to a speech in Russian, which you understand, in a room full of people who only understand English. The spiritual person will see and understand things that are foolish babblings to the worldly man.
This is not to say that Paul believes that this should puff up the spiritual person in any way. The fact is, however, that the spiritual person lives and operates on a different plane. He makes judgments from a spiritual perspective rather than a mere natural perspective. The judgments that worldly men make, and their opinions, should have no effect on the man who is operating in the spiritual perspective. Paul uses the words of Isaiah 40:13, "For who has known the mind of the LORD, that he may instruct him," to make this point. The expected answer would be that no human can know the mind of the LORD, but Paul answers that the spiritual person has the mind of Christ. Paul has already said that the Messiah has "become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). It is not a big leap, then, for Paul to argue that we also have access to the mind of the Messiah. That means that there is no limit, if we have the Spirit within us, to the depth of wisdom that we can explore.
The Corinthians may have been supposing that Paul was including them as part of the spiritual people. When he came to them, he could only teach them basic things, because they were not yet ready for the deeper teaching. This may also answer a charge leveled against Paul, that he only taught them basic things while the other teachers that came later were much deeper and more exciting. The deeper teaching of the other teachers had only appealed to their eagerness for social and spiritual status. It had appealed to their pride not strengthened their spirits, which of course, was a charge against them, not the teachers. This was a demonstration they were still not ready. Their behavior was putting on display the fact that they were still thinking as natural, worldly humans, not a spiritual people with the mind of Christ. In fact, Paul subtly shifts in this passage from them behaving as mere humans (2:14), to being so human that anyone would notice (3:1), to making a conscious decision to resist the spirit rather than showing no evidence of it (3:3). When the church engaged in the cult of personality, they were demonstrating that they were unspiritual and not ready for the deeper wisdom and teaching that he deeply desired to give to them. The real irony of this situation is that the more they argued about who they followed, and who was more spiritual, they more they displayed that they were not spiritual at all.
Devotional Thought
Are there any areas of your life that you have switched things around like the Corinthians did? Some times the things we do, which we think makes us look spiritual, actually demonstrate our lack of spiritual discernment and maturity. Think of one specific area in your life in which you have been operating on the merely human level and need more spiritual maturity. What do you need to do to develop a deeper spiritual maturity in that area?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
1 Corinthians 2:6-13
Wisdom From the Spirit
6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"— 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
Dig Deeper
When I coached high school basketball, we would begin each season with two weeks of strenuous running and conditioning before we ever got to the actual basketball stuff. The conditioning seemed foolish to many of the players, and many quit as a result. Running and conditioning wasn’t all that there was to our preparation, however. It was the stuff that the players had to really want to get through before we could get the basketball training that was both challenging and fun. This is something of what Paul is telling the Corinthians here. His message seemed foolish to the Greeks and scandalous to the Jews, but this isn’t all Paul has to offer. He has deep and profound wisdom for them, but it is only for those who have fought through the challenges of faith. It is for the spiritually mature that can handle and appreciate it.
Yet, he wants them to know, this is still not the same kind of wisdom that the sophists and philosophers of the present age offer. The wisdom that Paul is offering comes from the ‘age to come’ not the present age. This is wisdom that will only make sense to people who have already entered the ‘age to come’ during the present age, the people who believe in the resurrected son of God. Trying to give this wisdom to people who have not grasped the power and truth of the Resurrection is like trying to describe what blue is to someone who has been blind from birth.
This introduces one of the main concepts that Paul wants the Corinthians to understand. The world can be divided into two main epochs: the present age and the ‘age to come’. The present age is the current age of the world that is marked by rebellion against God. The ‘age to come’, though, is the time when God’s will shall be done on earth perfectly. It is the time when God will rule his creation definitively and bring an end to all the forces that would oppose him. Paul believes that this ‘age to come’ has broken through into the present age in Jesus. With his death and resurrection, Christians actually have the ‘age to come’ inside of them even though we still live in the present age.
Thus, Paul argues that none of the rulers of this age can understand this wisdom because it is a wisdom of the ‘age to come’. It would be like sticking a round peg in a square hole. Wisdom from the ‘age to come’ won’t fit into the understanding of those who only know of the present age. What does Paul mean, though, when he says that rulers of this age proved that they didn’t understand this wisdom or they wouldn’t have crucified Jesus? He is referring to the political powers of Rome, the religious powers of Judaism, and the spiritual powers of the kingdom of Satan. They all combined to work together for what they thought would be a rousing victory, but was actually the very thing that sealed their defeat. This is what happens when forces operating on the wisdom of this present age try to come against the wisdom of God and the ‘age to come’. In killing Jesus, they signed their own death certificates. Paul describes this moment of victory as taking place both at the Cross when it was implemented (Colossians 2:15) and at Jesus’ final appearing when it will be achieved fully (1 Corinthians 15:23-28).
Paul reveals another theme of the letter of Corinthians here as he references the work of the Spirit. God has prepared incredible things for those who love him, an Old Testament way of saying God’s people. He has revealed the wisdom of the ‘age to come’ through the work of his own Holy Spirit, not some lesser being. The Holy Spirit, the very presence of God, is given to all of God’s people in the Messiah.
This doesn’t mean that Christians have all the knowledge about God that is available. What it does mean is that Christians have access to the mind or wisdom of God. The people of God may explore and learn, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom of God. But, in order to understand and appreciate this, they must have spiritual maturity. They must be ‘spiritual’, a concept that Paul will go on to explain.
This is a wonderful reminder that the Christian life has a veritable potpourri of wealth and knowledge in store for us to explore and uncover. It is far more than a set of beliefs or a study series that we can go through a couple of times and memorize. It is a quest of a lifetime that requires dedication and discipline. The second reminder for us in this passage is that this gospel message necessarily challenges the social, religious, and political power of the world. It is not a set of religious beliefs that can be tucked away into a corner of our life, that doesn’t effect any other part of our life. It is the very realization that we are the citizens of a different age and we need to act like it.
Devotional Thought
Does your Christian life reflect a disciplined and dedicated quest to learn the knowledge of wisdom of the Spirit? Develop a plan that will open up your life to consistently learning from the Spirit. Remember, your holiness will always be limited by your depth of knowledge of God’s word.
6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him"— 10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
Dig Deeper
When I coached high school basketball, we would begin each season with two weeks of strenuous running and conditioning before we ever got to the actual basketball stuff. The conditioning seemed foolish to many of the players, and many quit as a result. Running and conditioning wasn’t all that there was to our preparation, however. It was the stuff that the players had to really want to get through before we could get the basketball training that was both challenging and fun. This is something of what Paul is telling the Corinthians here. His message seemed foolish to the Greeks and scandalous to the Jews, but this isn’t all Paul has to offer. He has deep and profound wisdom for them, but it is only for those who have fought through the challenges of faith. It is for the spiritually mature that can handle and appreciate it.
Yet, he wants them to know, this is still not the same kind of wisdom that the sophists and philosophers of the present age offer. The wisdom that Paul is offering comes from the ‘age to come’ not the present age. This is wisdom that will only make sense to people who have already entered the ‘age to come’ during the present age, the people who believe in the resurrected son of God. Trying to give this wisdom to people who have not grasped the power and truth of the Resurrection is like trying to describe what blue is to someone who has been blind from birth.
This introduces one of the main concepts that Paul wants the Corinthians to understand. The world can be divided into two main epochs: the present age and the ‘age to come’. The present age is the current age of the world that is marked by rebellion against God. The ‘age to come’, though, is the time when God’s will shall be done on earth perfectly. It is the time when God will rule his creation definitively and bring an end to all the forces that would oppose him. Paul believes that this ‘age to come’ has broken through into the present age in Jesus. With his death and resurrection, Christians actually have the ‘age to come’ inside of them even though we still live in the present age.
Thus, Paul argues that none of the rulers of this age can understand this wisdom because it is a wisdom of the ‘age to come’. It would be like sticking a round peg in a square hole. Wisdom from the ‘age to come’ won’t fit into the understanding of those who only know of the present age. What does Paul mean, though, when he says that rulers of this age proved that they didn’t understand this wisdom or they wouldn’t have crucified Jesus? He is referring to the political powers of Rome, the religious powers of Judaism, and the spiritual powers of the kingdom of Satan. They all combined to work together for what they thought would be a rousing victory, but was actually the very thing that sealed their defeat. This is what happens when forces operating on the wisdom of this present age try to come against the wisdom of God and the ‘age to come’. In killing Jesus, they signed their own death certificates. Paul describes this moment of victory as taking place both at the Cross when it was implemented (Colossians 2:15) and at Jesus’ final appearing when it will be achieved fully (1 Corinthians 15:23-28).
Paul reveals another theme of the letter of Corinthians here as he references the work of the Spirit. God has prepared incredible things for those who love him, an Old Testament way of saying God’s people. He has revealed the wisdom of the ‘age to come’ through the work of his own Holy Spirit, not some lesser being. The Holy Spirit, the very presence of God, is given to all of God’s people in the Messiah.
This doesn’t mean that Christians have all the knowledge about God that is available. What it does mean is that Christians have access to the mind or wisdom of God. The people of God may explore and learn, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom of God. But, in order to understand and appreciate this, they must have spiritual maturity. They must be ‘spiritual’, a concept that Paul will go on to explain.
This is a wonderful reminder that the Christian life has a veritable potpourri of wealth and knowledge in store for us to explore and uncover. It is far more than a set of beliefs or a study series that we can go through a couple of times and memorize. It is a quest of a lifetime that requires dedication and discipline. The second reminder for us in this passage is that this gospel message necessarily challenges the social, religious, and political power of the world. It is not a set of religious beliefs that can be tucked away into a corner of our life, that doesn’t effect any other part of our life. It is the very realization that we are the citizens of a different age and we need to act like it.
Devotional Thought
Does your Christian life reflect a disciplined and dedicated quest to learn the knowledge of wisdom of the Spirit? Develop a plan that will open up your life to consistently learning from the Spirit. Remember, your holiness will always be limited by your depth of knowledge of God’s word.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
Dig Deeper
One of the great mysteries of life is trying to determine why we are here, how we got here, in short, what is the meaning of life. The Jews believed that they knew the answers to those questions. They were God’s people, here for God’s purposes. This doesn’t mean that the Jewish worldview wasn’t still full of mysteries though. Although they knew that God had called them to be his people for his purposes, there was still a profound mystery for the Jew when it came to knowing what that exact purpose was and what God was going to do with them and through them in the future. Much of the Old Testament consists of people trying to penetrate that truth and determine what God’s purpose was and where his people would fit into that purpose.
What the Jews were still contemplating, Paul declares clearly. He says that all of history, all of God’s purposes, past, present, and future had been revealed in Jesus the Messiah. Paul had first come to them around 50 AD, about five years before this letter was written. He spoke, he reminds them, a message that although foolish to the world, in fact contained all the mysteries of God and his purposes.
One of the reasons that Paul would classify the gospel as a mystery, still, was the fact that the last place anyone would look for the answer to the secrets of life was on a cross of execution in a small, rebellious outpost of the Roman Empire. God chooses the weak and seemingly insignificant things of the world. The message of the gospel seemed weak and unlikely, which was exactly the condition of the Corinthian Christians when they were called, and the same condition of Paul when he came to speak to them for the first time.
Imagine Paul’s situation. He was going to speak before some of the most intellectually impressive people of his time, in a city that valued and prized intellectual excellence. Yet he did not have any impressive or superior worldly message or technique with which to argue his message. He had nothing but a few stammering words about a strange event that had taken place twenty years previous in a city that few of them cared much about. This message would make no sense and the most likely reaction of the majority would be one of derision and ridicule.
His words were not wise and persuasive, but they had some sort of power all their own. Where that power came from is clear. It came from the Holy Spirit. In what form it came from, we can only speculate. Perhaps Paul is referring to the accompaniment of special healing miracles, but he may just be referencing the inner moving of the Holy Spirit in the spirit of each individual. Whatever form it came in, it was clear that although seemingly foolish and unlikely, for those that were open to it, it had a power that could not be explained. It was the power to change people’s hearts, lives, and minds.
What separated those who responded to this power from those who rejected it? Paul is clear that it all comes down to faith. He doesn’t describe explicitly what he means by faith in this verse but in Romans 10:9, Paul says that faith consists of declaring that Jesus is Lord and believing that God raised him from the dead. In chapter 15, when Paul summarizes the basic gospel message that he announced to them, he speaks of Christ’s death and resurrection. But here, he says he spoke of nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Why would he do that? Does Paul mean that he spoke of only the death of Jesus and never mentioned his resurrection? No, what Paul means is that he emphasized the crucifixion, he didn’t try to cover it over, or candy-coat it. No decent person would speak of crucifixion in the ancient world. It was horrible, revolting, and degrading. It would be like going to a fancy restaurant, standing up, and announcing to everyone that you once saw a bunch of rats gnawing at the corpse of dead homeless person in an alley behind a restaurant. Paul wanted to be clear that by emphasizing the crucifixion, he wasn’t trying to pull any impressive rhetorical tricks. He wasn’t blowing into town and glossing over certain details to try to please the crowd. No self-respecting sophist would do what Paul did. He spoke plainly of the embarrassing and weak things. He let the power and mystery of the gospel speak for itself. The testimony and new-found faith of the Corinthian Church was a testament to the true power of his message.
Devotional Thought
When Paul announced the gospel, he was clear that its life-changing power came from the Holy Spirit, not from any fancy techniques or up-to-date methods. The trendy message in the religious world today is that we must use market-driven and popular techniques to attract people to the gospel. Do you believe that or do you believe that the raw power of the gospel is enough? When we preach nothing but the raw Word of God, the Spirit will move. Try it and see what happens.
Dig Deeper
One of the great mysteries of life is trying to determine why we are here, how we got here, in short, what is the meaning of life. The Jews believed that they knew the answers to those questions. They were God’s people, here for God’s purposes. This doesn’t mean that the Jewish worldview wasn’t still full of mysteries though. Although they knew that God had called them to be his people for his purposes, there was still a profound mystery for the Jew when it came to knowing what that exact purpose was and what God was going to do with them and through them in the future. Much of the Old Testament consists of people trying to penetrate that truth and determine what God’s purpose was and where his people would fit into that purpose.
What the Jews were still contemplating, Paul declares clearly. He says that all of history, all of God’s purposes, past, present, and future had been revealed in Jesus the Messiah. Paul had first come to them around 50 AD, about five years before this letter was written. He spoke, he reminds them, a message that although foolish to the world, in fact contained all the mysteries of God and his purposes.
One of the reasons that Paul would classify the gospel as a mystery, still, was the fact that the last place anyone would look for the answer to the secrets of life was on a cross of execution in a small, rebellious outpost of the Roman Empire. God chooses the weak and seemingly insignificant things of the world. The message of the gospel seemed weak and unlikely, which was exactly the condition of the Corinthian Christians when they were called, and the same condition of Paul when he came to speak to them for the first time.
Imagine Paul’s situation. He was going to speak before some of the most intellectually impressive people of his time, in a city that valued and prized intellectual excellence. Yet he did not have any impressive or superior worldly message or technique with which to argue his message. He had nothing but a few stammering words about a strange event that had taken place twenty years previous in a city that few of them cared much about. This message would make no sense and the most likely reaction of the majority would be one of derision and ridicule.
His words were not wise and persuasive, but they had some sort of power all their own. Where that power came from is clear. It came from the Holy Spirit. In what form it came from, we can only speculate. Perhaps Paul is referring to the accompaniment of special healing miracles, but he may just be referencing the inner moving of the Holy Spirit in the spirit of each individual. Whatever form it came in, it was clear that although seemingly foolish and unlikely, for those that were open to it, it had a power that could not be explained. It was the power to change people’s hearts, lives, and minds.
What separated those who responded to this power from those who rejected it? Paul is clear that it all comes down to faith. He doesn’t describe explicitly what he means by faith in this verse but in Romans 10:9, Paul says that faith consists of declaring that Jesus is Lord and believing that God raised him from the dead. In chapter 15, when Paul summarizes the basic gospel message that he announced to them, he speaks of Christ’s death and resurrection. But here, he says he spoke of nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Why would he do that? Does Paul mean that he spoke of only the death of Jesus and never mentioned his resurrection? No, what Paul means is that he emphasized the crucifixion, he didn’t try to cover it over, or candy-coat it. No decent person would speak of crucifixion in the ancient world. It was horrible, revolting, and degrading. It would be like going to a fancy restaurant, standing up, and announcing to everyone that you once saw a bunch of rats gnawing at the corpse of dead homeless person in an alley behind a restaurant. Paul wanted to be clear that by emphasizing the crucifixion, he wasn’t trying to pull any impressive rhetorical tricks. He wasn’t blowing into town and glossing over certain details to try to please the crowd. No self-respecting sophist would do what Paul did. He spoke plainly of the embarrassing and weak things. He let the power and mystery of the gospel speak for itself. The testimony and new-found faith of the Corinthian Church was a testament to the true power of his message.
Devotional Thought
When Paul announced the gospel, he was clear that its life-changing power came from the Holy Spirit, not from any fancy techniques or up-to-date methods. The trendy message in the religious world today is that we must use market-driven and popular techniques to attract people to the gospel. Do you believe that or do you believe that the raw power of the gospel is enough? When we preach nothing but the raw Word of God, the Spirit will move. Try it and see what happens.
Monday, June 25, 2007
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him. 30It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."
Dig Deeper
Our society has perfected a cult of fame like no other time in the history of the world. We have created entire industries that are built around this cult of fame. In the American, western society, we have spent a great deal of time separating the important people from the nobodies. Most people spend a great deal of their time either trying to become a somebody, or stay a somebody. Very few Americans actually choose to be a nobody or want to voluntarily stay that way.
Corinth was a city that was not all that different from modern America in many ways. They, like many in our society, had an obsession with being somebodies. There were the typical ways of becoming a somebody such as being born into a wealthy or powerful family. In Corinth, though, they also gave special attention to those who could speak well, reason, well, and argue well. They idolized intellect and rhetorical skills. They were the people who became the somebodies in Corinth, those who were wise by human standards.
Paul calls his original readers to remember that before they became Christians, most of them would have been counted in the nobody category. Most of them weren’t from wealthy, powerful, or influentially political backgrounds. Probably none of them were famous or intellectual speakers. They were not wise, influential, or of noble birth, in words that echo Jeremiah’s from Jeremiah 9:23, "This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches’".
Paul has laid out the human situation, but God, he says has turned things upside down. He has changed things dramatically in making the nobodies of the world, somebodies. God took the foolish to shame the wise of the world. He chose the weak to shame the strong. He chose the lowly and despised to shame the important things of the world. God has a way of using the weak and incapable so that everyone can understand that things are happening because of His power and strength, not our own abilities. The important thing for them to realize was that God took the initiative in all of this. He came and chose them, he called them, he justified them. It is only because of God’s gift that God has given them the same status in his eyes that Jesus Christ holds (this is part of what Paul means by saying you are in Christ Jesus).
When the Corinthians began to argue about who they followed, the underlying motivation was to exalt themselves. When we argue about the supremacy of our position or group or whatever it may be, it is usually really a way of puffing our self up. Paul reminds the Corinthians, in no uncertain terms, that any status they may have is solely at the discretion, mercy, and grace of God. By human standards, they were nothing. Why would they then, begin to think that what they are matters. That’s worldly thinking. That’s the sure sign of someone who is no longer viewing the world from a Godly perspective. They have, in fact, got nothing to boast about. Everything they have is a gift from God (Paul will state this again in 4:7), a gift they did not deserve. You can’t rightly brag about anything that you didn’t earn or do on your own.
Paul’s point is that anyone in Christ, has no ground on which to stand and boast. This was common in their culture. Someone who wanted to make themselves appear as a somebody, would boast about how important or talented they were, or at the very least about how important they were because of the importance of the one they followed. No Christian, however, should boast or even worry about their status, because they, more than anyone, should realize that everything they have is a gift from God.
Paul, in bringing up this topic, is alluding to two Old Testament passages. The first is Deuteronomy 7, where God reminds Israel that they are what they are, only because God has chosen them. Paul also quotes from Jeremiah 9:23-24, where Jeremiah speaks out against the exact type of boasting that Paul is warning against. Anyone who would boast, says Jeremiah, should boast that they know and understand the Lord. Throughout this whole line of reasoning, Paul is drawing upon the theme of wisdom from Proverbs 1-9, in which wisdom is depicted as a human. In Paul’s thinking, Jesus Christ, is the true wisdom. Being in Christ means being, at last, a genuine human being, called and chosen to live by God’s wisdom rather than the world’s.
Devotional Thought
In what areas of your life are you still trying to be somebody in the eyes of the world? What do you need to do or give up to realize that the only boasting you need to do is the kind of boasting that talks about what God has done for you?
Dig Deeper
Our society has perfected a cult of fame like no other time in the history of the world. We have created entire industries that are built around this cult of fame. In the American, western society, we have spent a great deal of time separating the important people from the nobodies. Most people spend a great deal of their time either trying to become a somebody, or stay a somebody. Very few Americans actually choose to be a nobody or want to voluntarily stay that way.
Corinth was a city that was not all that different from modern America in many ways. They, like many in our society, had an obsession with being somebodies. There were the typical ways of becoming a somebody such as being born into a wealthy or powerful family. In Corinth, though, they also gave special attention to those who could speak well, reason, well, and argue well. They idolized intellect and rhetorical skills. They were the people who became the somebodies in Corinth, those who were wise by human standards.
Paul calls his original readers to remember that before they became Christians, most of them would have been counted in the nobody category. Most of them weren’t from wealthy, powerful, or influentially political backgrounds. Probably none of them were famous or intellectual speakers. They were not wise, influential, or of noble birth, in words that echo Jeremiah’s from Jeremiah 9:23, "This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches’".
Paul has laid out the human situation, but God, he says has turned things upside down. He has changed things dramatically in making the nobodies of the world, somebodies. God took the foolish to shame the wise of the world. He chose the weak to shame the strong. He chose the lowly and despised to shame the important things of the world. God has a way of using the weak and incapable so that everyone can understand that things are happening because of His power and strength, not our own abilities. The important thing for them to realize was that God took the initiative in all of this. He came and chose them, he called them, he justified them. It is only because of God’s gift that God has given them the same status in his eyes that Jesus Christ holds (this is part of what Paul means by saying you are in Christ Jesus).
When the Corinthians began to argue about who they followed, the underlying motivation was to exalt themselves. When we argue about the supremacy of our position or group or whatever it may be, it is usually really a way of puffing our self up. Paul reminds the Corinthians, in no uncertain terms, that any status they may have is solely at the discretion, mercy, and grace of God. By human standards, they were nothing. Why would they then, begin to think that what they are matters. That’s worldly thinking. That’s the sure sign of someone who is no longer viewing the world from a Godly perspective. They have, in fact, got nothing to boast about. Everything they have is a gift from God (Paul will state this again in 4:7), a gift they did not deserve. You can’t rightly brag about anything that you didn’t earn or do on your own.
Paul’s point is that anyone in Christ, has no ground on which to stand and boast. This was common in their culture. Someone who wanted to make themselves appear as a somebody, would boast about how important or talented they were, or at the very least about how important they were because of the importance of the one they followed. No Christian, however, should boast or even worry about their status, because they, more than anyone, should realize that everything they have is a gift from God.
Paul, in bringing up this topic, is alluding to two Old Testament passages. The first is Deuteronomy 7, where God reminds Israel that they are what they are, only because God has chosen them. Paul also quotes from Jeremiah 9:23-24, where Jeremiah speaks out against the exact type of boasting that Paul is warning against. Anyone who would boast, says Jeremiah, should boast that they know and understand the Lord. Throughout this whole line of reasoning, Paul is drawing upon the theme of wisdom from Proverbs 1-9, in which wisdom is depicted as a human. In Paul’s thinking, Jesus Christ, is the true wisdom. Being in Christ means being, at last, a genuine human being, called and chosen to live by God’s wisdom rather than the world’s.
Devotional Thought
In what areas of your life are you still trying to be somebody in the eyes of the world? What do you need to do or give up to realize that the only boasting you need to do is the kind of boasting that talks about what God has done for you?
Friday, June 22, 2007
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Christ the Wisdom and Power of God
18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Dig Deeper
Many people look back now and realize that Abraham Lincoln was one of the great public speakers in American history. Yet, Lincoln himself often poked fun at his own speaking abilities. He made great hay with the technique of pointing out how learned and eloquent his debating or political opponent was, while he, as he often pointed out, was not nearly as eloquent. He spoke a simple message and did not try to sway anyone with flash and dash. The irony of all that, however, was that he could turn out a beautifully eloquent and timeless speech better than nearly anyone. Perhaps the big difference was that, although he was capable of doing that, this is not what he put his trust in. What was important to Lincoln was the truth and sincerity of his message.
This is precisely what Paul is doing here. Paul sets about to contrast the wisdom of the world, wisdom that was so admired in Corinth, with the wisdom of God. In doing so, he perhaps has a bit of fun. In denouncing worldly wisdom and fancy speaking techniques, Paul demonstrates that he is every bit as capable as any sophist of delivering a finely crafted phrase. Truly, Paul is capable of producing a wonderful work of flowing and balanced rhetoric, but that is not where he hangs his hat. For Paul, the message of Christ and the Cross is what it’s all about.
This passage may be flowing and beautiful, but his original message when he first came to the Corinthians was not. His message was the simple, unadulterated message of the gospel. The Corinthians would have quickly realized, though, that this wasn’t a brilliant new philosophy. This was madness. He wasn’t speaking about something that would stimulate the intellect, Paul was preaching about an executed criminal from a race that everyone despised. This is not a message that would appeal to the Gentiles, but it didn’t do much for the Jews either. The word translated ‘stumbling block’ here, means something that would entrap them in sin, a scandal. Paul’s point was that this was not a message that was going to impress anyone who was listening from a worldly point of view. It was foolishness to Gentiles, and scandalous blasphemy to the Jews.
Notice that Paul says, in verse 18, those who are being saved. The New Testament picture of salvation is not a moment of new birth that happens in a once-for-all instance. It is a process that will continue through our lives and only end at the glorious resurrection of the saints. The hope of the resurrection is key for Paul as it distinguished the Christian faith from the pagan religions whose hope in their religion lied solely in this life in the form of health, wealth, prosperity, and rescue from peril.
When Paul got up to speak the message of the Cross, he let it do his own work. He didn’t try to trick or manipulate anyone into listening to his message by using fancy words or the latest speaking techniques. He spoke the simple story of Jesus and let the truth of it stand on its own. Sure, he can spin a few fancy sentences together like any of the great speakers, and he does so now to make a bit of a teasing point. He didn’t do that when he first came to them, though. He spoke nothing but the raw message of Christ crucified. Preaching that message released a different kind of power than the one the world was familiar with. It was the power of God. It may have seemed like ridiculous scandal through the eyes of the world, but it was the very power of God to those that would hear with spiritual ears.
Paul could have made the point that God’s wisdom and power would blow away that of the world, but he doesn’t. He makes his point even stronger by saying that God’s foolishness is wiser than any human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than any human power or strength. Paul wasn’t speaking an appealing announcement of some mighty king that was establishing an impressive kingdom, although in a sense that is exactly what he was doing. He was speaking the absurd message of God dying at the hands of the Romans in a backwater, insignificant part of the world. This crucified criminal was supposedly beginning a kingdom that did not derive its power from anything that could be perceived in this world. It was a kingdom in which the weak and foolish were just as welcome, if not more so, than the wise, powerful, and impressive.
As he said in Romans 1:16, this is a message of which Paul was not ashamed. He would preach this sort of foolishness because he knew that this kingdom had the power to change the world. When people listened to this message it changed things. It changed people, it changed their perceptions, it changed their priorities, it created new communities and a new reality.
Devotional Thought
Paul says that "to us who are being saved," the message of the cross is "the power of God." Have you truly unleashed the power of God in your life. Have you completely surrendered and turned over every aspect of your life to God, or have you tried to cling to the wisdom of the world? The problem is that when we try to hang on to worldly wisdom, it limits the ability to truly unleash the power of God in our lives. What piece of worldly ‘wisdom’ do you need to let go of in order to fully realize the power of the message of the cross in your life?
18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Dig Deeper
Many people look back now and realize that Abraham Lincoln was one of the great public speakers in American history. Yet, Lincoln himself often poked fun at his own speaking abilities. He made great hay with the technique of pointing out how learned and eloquent his debating or political opponent was, while he, as he often pointed out, was not nearly as eloquent. He spoke a simple message and did not try to sway anyone with flash and dash. The irony of all that, however, was that he could turn out a beautifully eloquent and timeless speech better than nearly anyone. Perhaps the big difference was that, although he was capable of doing that, this is not what he put his trust in. What was important to Lincoln was the truth and sincerity of his message.
This is precisely what Paul is doing here. Paul sets about to contrast the wisdom of the world, wisdom that was so admired in Corinth, with the wisdom of God. In doing so, he perhaps has a bit of fun. In denouncing worldly wisdom and fancy speaking techniques, Paul demonstrates that he is every bit as capable as any sophist of delivering a finely crafted phrase. Truly, Paul is capable of producing a wonderful work of flowing and balanced rhetoric, but that is not where he hangs his hat. For Paul, the message of Christ and the Cross is what it’s all about.
This passage may be flowing and beautiful, but his original message when he first came to the Corinthians was not. His message was the simple, unadulterated message of the gospel. The Corinthians would have quickly realized, though, that this wasn’t a brilliant new philosophy. This was madness. He wasn’t speaking about something that would stimulate the intellect, Paul was preaching about an executed criminal from a race that everyone despised. This is not a message that would appeal to the Gentiles, but it didn’t do much for the Jews either. The word translated ‘stumbling block’ here, means something that would entrap them in sin, a scandal. Paul’s point was that this was not a message that was going to impress anyone who was listening from a worldly point of view. It was foolishness to Gentiles, and scandalous blasphemy to the Jews.
Notice that Paul says, in verse 18, those who are being saved. The New Testament picture of salvation is not a moment of new birth that happens in a once-for-all instance. It is a process that will continue through our lives and only end at the glorious resurrection of the saints. The hope of the resurrection is key for Paul as it distinguished the Christian faith from the pagan religions whose hope in their religion lied solely in this life in the form of health, wealth, prosperity, and rescue from peril.
When Paul got up to speak the message of the Cross, he let it do his own work. He didn’t try to trick or manipulate anyone into listening to his message by using fancy words or the latest speaking techniques. He spoke the simple story of Jesus and let the truth of it stand on its own. Sure, he can spin a few fancy sentences together like any of the great speakers, and he does so now to make a bit of a teasing point. He didn’t do that when he first came to them, though. He spoke nothing but the raw message of Christ crucified. Preaching that message released a different kind of power than the one the world was familiar with. It was the power of God. It may have seemed like ridiculous scandal through the eyes of the world, but it was the very power of God to those that would hear with spiritual ears.
Paul could have made the point that God’s wisdom and power would blow away that of the world, but he doesn’t. He makes his point even stronger by saying that God’s foolishness is wiser than any human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than any human power or strength. Paul wasn’t speaking an appealing announcement of some mighty king that was establishing an impressive kingdom, although in a sense that is exactly what he was doing. He was speaking the absurd message of God dying at the hands of the Romans in a backwater, insignificant part of the world. This crucified criminal was supposedly beginning a kingdom that did not derive its power from anything that could be perceived in this world. It was a kingdom in which the weak and foolish were just as welcome, if not more so, than the wise, powerful, and impressive.
As he said in Romans 1:16, this is a message of which Paul was not ashamed. He would preach this sort of foolishness because he knew that this kingdom had the power to change the world. When people listened to this message it changed things. It changed people, it changed their perceptions, it changed their priorities, it created new communities and a new reality.
Devotional Thought
Paul says that "to us who are being saved," the message of the cross is "the power of God." Have you truly unleashed the power of God in your life. Have you completely surrendered and turned over every aspect of your life to God, or have you tried to cling to the wisdom of the world? The problem is that when we try to hang on to worldly wisdom, it limits the ability to truly unleash the power of God in our lives. What piece of worldly ‘wisdom’ do you need to let go of in order to fully realize the power of the message of the cross in your life?
Thursday, June 21, 2007
1 Corinthians 1:10-17
Divisions in the Church
10I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ."
13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 14I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. 16(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Dig Deeper
Many churches have suffered through the sort of thing that Paul is dealing with here. Members of the church being to split off into factions, following one man or another, or splitting over a belief of doing things a certain way. Issues like this usually don’t arise over serious doctrinal issues, but rather over issues of faction and preference. Nearly all of these type of splits have one thing in common, they have lost sit of the centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If not dealt with, these factions will get more pronounced and tear a church apart. This is the type of thing that Paul was facing here in Corinth. Paul had been the first one there in Corinth, telling them about Jesus Christ, and many were bent on following Paul and his brand of teaching. After being converted in Ephesus, Apollos had come to teach for a time in Corinth. Apollos was learned in the Scriptures, and was a powerful and effective teacher. Many people obviously preferred Apollos and the way that he taught, and began to identify themselves as Apollos’ disciples. To add to that, many began to identify themselves as followers of Cephas (Peter). It is not clear whether or not Peter ever actually went to Corinth, but many felt that they were his followers. Then there was the group that said they followed Jesus. Everyone else was with this leader or that leader, but they were just following Jesus. This is an-all-too-common power play in situations like this: "Thanks for your little opinions, now let me tell you what the Lord’s opinion is, that’s what I’m going to follow."
Many people think of the early church in overly romantic terms. They have a picture of a church that is a near-perfect community, happily carrying out Jesus’ words to love one another. The reality is not that simple. Right from the start, it’s clear that the churches had to struggle to become the type of people Jesus called them to be. In verse, 10, however, Paul states his entire purpose for writing this letter, and lets us know what the primary problem had been: divisions were arising in the congregation over issues that Christians shouldn’t be dividing over. Paul had, evidently heard oral reports which let him know that the situation was a bit more serious than the Corinthians may have let on in their letter to him.
In verse 13, Paul confronts them squarely with how silly it is, if their factional arguments were carried to the full extent of their logic. Can the Christ be split up into little pieces? His obvious point is that the Church is the Messiah, they are the body of Christ, and cannot be split into pieces anymore than the person of Christ could have been. Then he asks them if he was crucified for them. Again, the answer is obvious because the statement is absurd (Note that Paul wisely does not mention Peter or Apollos here, although he easily could have, so that it does not appear that he is attacking them in any way). Nor, he points out, were they baptized into the name of Paul. They have forgotten that the central, unifying theme of their community was Jesus Christ. They are the body of Christ not a bunch of little bodies following other teachers.
Corinth had been destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC and rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 BC. They were quite proud of being a very Roman city on Greek soil, and were equally proud of their reputation as a city with a lively and superior intellectual life. Particularly popular in Corinth were a group of traveling teachers called sophists. Sophists would come into a town and teach their philosophy, gathering disciples for themselves in each town. Once they left, the disciples of various sophists would argue with one another over whose teacher was the greatest.
The Corinthians had clearly allowed themselves to fall into this worldly way of thinking. They were not thinking as a new community of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were behaving like the culture around them. They had been caught up in their world of eloquent oratory and zealous followings of those great speakers. Paul will quickly address the value of this sort of wisdom. He is going to explain to them that they must choose between the wisdom of the world and the power of the Messiah.
Paul completes this passage by downplaying who baptized them. This is not, as some groups have argued, proof that baptism is unnecessary. Quite to the contrary. It was Paul who said that we are clothed with Christ at baptism (Gal. 3:27). Paul assumes that they have all been baptized and understand the significance of it (see 1 Cor. 1:13 and Acts 18:8). Paul actually shows in this passage that two things are necessary for a person to call himself a follower, in the Christian sense, of another person. First, Paul would have to die for that person; and second, they would have to be baptized into the name of Paul. This parallels quite perfectly with the Christian teaching that Christ died for us, and we clothe ourselves with him at baptism. Baptism is a vital part of the Christian gospel and community as the point where our faith and God’s grace intersect, but Paul was called to preach. There is no special significance in who actually does the baptizing. Paul is not speaking about baptism here, but about their attitudes about who baptized them.
Finally, it is common in the NT language where "not" doesn’t negate one of the two items but prioritizes them. For example, Paul tells Ananias that he has not "lied to men, but to God. He had, of course, lied to men, but lying to God was the most important thing. Paul, then is arguing that preaching and baptism are both important, but that faith and repentance that accompanies preaching is a prerequisite for baptism.
Devotional Thought
What is your attitude when it comes to the leaders of your church? Do you view them as fellow servants of King Jesus? Sometimes we have the tendency to base our experience in our Christian community heavily dependent on our positive or negative feelings about the leaders in our church. When we do this, we are guilty of the same thing that Paul is bringing up concerning the Corinthian church. It means that we have lost site of the centrality of Jesus. In what ways do you tend to put too much praise or too much criticism on the shoulders of the leaders in your church? What do you need to do to put Jesus back at the center rather than men?
10I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ."
13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? 14I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. 16(Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Dig Deeper
Many churches have suffered through the sort of thing that Paul is dealing with here. Members of the church being to split off into factions, following one man or another, or splitting over a belief of doing things a certain way. Issues like this usually don’t arise over serious doctrinal issues, but rather over issues of faction and preference. Nearly all of these type of splits have one thing in common, they have lost sit of the centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If not dealt with, these factions will get more pronounced and tear a church apart. This is the type of thing that Paul was facing here in Corinth. Paul had been the first one there in Corinth, telling them about Jesus Christ, and many were bent on following Paul and his brand of teaching. After being converted in Ephesus, Apollos had come to teach for a time in Corinth. Apollos was learned in the Scriptures, and was a powerful and effective teacher. Many people obviously preferred Apollos and the way that he taught, and began to identify themselves as Apollos’ disciples. To add to that, many began to identify themselves as followers of Cephas (Peter). It is not clear whether or not Peter ever actually went to Corinth, but many felt that they were his followers. Then there was the group that said they followed Jesus. Everyone else was with this leader or that leader, but they were just following Jesus. This is an-all-too-common power play in situations like this: "Thanks for your little opinions, now let me tell you what the Lord’s opinion is, that’s what I’m going to follow."
Many people think of the early church in overly romantic terms. They have a picture of a church that is a near-perfect community, happily carrying out Jesus’ words to love one another. The reality is not that simple. Right from the start, it’s clear that the churches had to struggle to become the type of people Jesus called them to be. In verse, 10, however, Paul states his entire purpose for writing this letter, and lets us know what the primary problem had been: divisions were arising in the congregation over issues that Christians shouldn’t be dividing over. Paul had, evidently heard oral reports which let him know that the situation was a bit more serious than the Corinthians may have let on in their letter to him.
In verse 13, Paul confronts them squarely with how silly it is, if their factional arguments were carried to the full extent of their logic. Can the Christ be split up into little pieces? His obvious point is that the Church is the Messiah, they are the body of Christ, and cannot be split into pieces anymore than the person of Christ could have been. Then he asks them if he was crucified for them. Again, the answer is obvious because the statement is absurd (Note that Paul wisely does not mention Peter or Apollos here, although he easily could have, so that it does not appear that he is attacking them in any way). Nor, he points out, were they baptized into the name of Paul. They have forgotten that the central, unifying theme of their community was Jesus Christ. They are the body of Christ not a bunch of little bodies following other teachers.
Corinth had been destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC and rebuilt by Julius Caesar in 44 BC. They were quite proud of being a very Roman city on Greek soil, and were equally proud of their reputation as a city with a lively and superior intellectual life. Particularly popular in Corinth were a group of traveling teachers called sophists. Sophists would come into a town and teach their philosophy, gathering disciples for themselves in each town. Once they left, the disciples of various sophists would argue with one another over whose teacher was the greatest.
The Corinthians had clearly allowed themselves to fall into this worldly way of thinking. They were not thinking as a new community of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were behaving like the culture around them. They had been caught up in their world of eloquent oratory and zealous followings of those great speakers. Paul will quickly address the value of this sort of wisdom. He is going to explain to them that they must choose between the wisdom of the world and the power of the Messiah.
Paul completes this passage by downplaying who baptized them. This is not, as some groups have argued, proof that baptism is unnecessary. Quite to the contrary. It was Paul who said that we are clothed with Christ at baptism (Gal. 3:27). Paul assumes that they have all been baptized and understand the significance of it (see 1 Cor. 1:13 and Acts 18:8). Paul actually shows in this passage that two things are necessary for a person to call himself a follower, in the Christian sense, of another person. First, Paul would have to die for that person; and second, they would have to be baptized into the name of Paul. This parallels quite perfectly with the Christian teaching that Christ died for us, and we clothe ourselves with him at baptism. Baptism is a vital part of the Christian gospel and community as the point where our faith and God’s grace intersect, but Paul was called to preach. There is no special significance in who actually does the baptizing. Paul is not speaking about baptism here, but about their attitudes about who baptized them.
Finally, it is common in the NT language where "not" doesn’t negate one of the two items but prioritizes them. For example, Paul tells Ananias that he has not "lied to men, but to God. He had, of course, lied to men, but lying to God was the most important thing. Paul, then is arguing that preaching and baptism are both important, but that faith and repentance that accompanies preaching is a prerequisite for baptism.
Devotional Thought
What is your attitude when it comes to the leaders of your church? Do you view them as fellow servants of King Jesus? Sometimes we have the tendency to base our experience in our Christian community heavily dependent on our positive or negative feelings about the leaders in our church. When we do this, we are guilty of the same thing that Paul is bringing up concerning the Corinthian church. It means that we have lost site of the centrality of Jesus. In what ways do you tend to put too much praise or too much criticism on the shoulders of the leaders in your church? What do you need to do to put Jesus back at the center rather than men?
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Introduction
1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving
4I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— 6because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
Dig Deeper
A friend of mine recently became engaged. Everyone who knew him, knew that it was coming. Why? Because you couldn't have a conversation with him without hearing the name of his now-wife several times. She was at the center of his thoughts all of the time. This is the sort of thing going on with Paul here. In the first nine verses of his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul mentions Jesus Christ nine separate times. He is at the center of everything that Paul does. This is a good thing to keep in mind, because without that understanding, this letter can come across rather argumentative or bossy. The fact is, though, that Paul was motivated by Jesus Christ in every thought, word, and action, and he wants the Corinthians to be that way too.
Most of the Corinthians were not Jews, they were Gentiles. They did not understand what it meant to have God as the very center of every area of their lives. They were living a different story without the understanding that they were being swept up into the new narrative of what God was doing in the world through his new assembly of 'called out ones' (which is what is meant by ekklesia or the word 'church' in v. 2). He calls them the church of God rather than the church of Corinth, reminding them to whom the assembly belongs. Paul wants the Corinthians to understand that Jesus is shaping them into a new sort of community, a new sort of people, and in order to become that new type of people, they must learn to have Jesus at the very center of their life and thinking, the way Paul does. From the onset, then, Paul stresses two important things about being a Christian: it involves being set apart and it involves being a part of a group created by God that extends beyond their local congregation. It is worth noting that we must understand this as a letter from Paul to them, first and foremost. It is not a letter directly written to us. When we have that proper understanding, then we can begin to learn the timeless truths for ourselves that Paul was teaching the Corinthians.
Paul sets all this up in verse 1 by reminding the readers that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. Apostle means 'one who is sent'. Everything that he wants for them is a result of his being sent directly by Jesus. This calling did not come from his own will or sense of vocation, but from the will of God. He has been sent to help them to learn how to put Jesus at the center of their lives. He tells them in verse 2 that they are called to be holy, literally 'set apart'. They have become part of God's new story. He also wants them to see that they are but one part of that grand story. They are being joined together with God's children everywhere to take part in this incredible new work of God, that of crafting a holy and sanctified people that will represent Him to the world. The only thing necessary for entry into this people is to call upon the name of the Lord, a typical early Christian phrase denoting God's grace given out at the time of their baptism, which for Paul, was the time when one entered into the life of Christ, an extremely important concept for Paul to which he will appeal time and again in calling on them to conform their behavior.
Paul begins his letter (most ancient letters began with a greeting and a thanksgiving) by thanking God for the work he has already done in them. He also reminds them that the grace they have experienced is only available as a result of Jesus Christ coming into the world. One cannot separate the grace of God, shown to man, from the work and person of Jesus Christ. The practical result of this grace was that they had become a community that was growing in their speech and their knowledge. They had become a community of learners and had been confirmed as such by the fact that they had been given every sort of spiritual gift. So much so, as we will see, that the possession of these gifts had come to cause a problem.
That discussion will come in due time. For now Paul reminds them that Jesus will keep them strong to the end. He had called them in the past, would sustain them in the present, and will complete his work in the future. The present sign of that future promise is the incredible fellowship that they now share with other believers in Jesus Christ.
Devotional Thought
In writing this letter, Paul realized that what he would be telling the Corinthians would become a part of the work that God was doing in sustaining them, bringing the work he had begun in them to completion. The letter itself was a part of the process. In reading this letter now, we must realize that this letter will become part of the process through which God shapes and molds us into his people of 'called out ones'. The key to allowing Scripture have its full effect on us is to become what we read, not just to read it. We must let the words of God transform us as we meditate on it. Make a determination that you will read this letter with such a goal. Pray each day that God will use the words of this letter to transform you into the type of person and a part of the type of community that he desires.
1Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
2To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving
4I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— 6because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.
Dig Deeper
A friend of mine recently became engaged. Everyone who knew him, knew that it was coming. Why? Because you couldn't have a conversation with him without hearing the name of his now-wife several times. She was at the center of his thoughts all of the time. This is the sort of thing going on with Paul here. In the first nine verses of his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul mentions Jesus Christ nine separate times. He is at the center of everything that Paul does. This is a good thing to keep in mind, because without that understanding, this letter can come across rather argumentative or bossy. The fact is, though, that Paul was motivated by Jesus Christ in every thought, word, and action, and he wants the Corinthians to be that way too.
Most of the Corinthians were not Jews, they were Gentiles. They did not understand what it meant to have God as the very center of every area of their lives. They were living a different story without the understanding that they were being swept up into the new narrative of what God was doing in the world through his new assembly of 'called out ones' (which is what is meant by ekklesia or the word 'church' in v. 2). He calls them the church of God rather than the church of Corinth, reminding them to whom the assembly belongs. Paul wants the Corinthians to understand that Jesus is shaping them into a new sort of community, a new sort of people, and in order to become that new type of people, they must learn to have Jesus at the very center of their life and thinking, the way Paul does. From the onset, then, Paul stresses two important things about being a Christian: it involves being set apart and it involves being a part of a group created by God that extends beyond their local congregation. It is worth noting that we must understand this as a letter from Paul to them, first and foremost. It is not a letter directly written to us. When we have that proper understanding, then we can begin to learn the timeless truths for ourselves that Paul was teaching the Corinthians.
Paul sets all this up in verse 1 by reminding the readers that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. Apostle means 'one who is sent'. Everything that he wants for them is a result of his being sent directly by Jesus. This calling did not come from his own will or sense of vocation, but from the will of God. He has been sent to help them to learn how to put Jesus at the center of their lives. He tells them in verse 2 that they are called to be holy, literally 'set apart'. They have become part of God's new story. He also wants them to see that they are but one part of that grand story. They are being joined together with God's children everywhere to take part in this incredible new work of God, that of crafting a holy and sanctified people that will represent Him to the world. The only thing necessary for entry into this people is to call upon the name of the Lord, a typical early Christian phrase denoting God's grace given out at the time of their baptism, which for Paul, was the time when one entered into the life of Christ, an extremely important concept for Paul to which he will appeal time and again in calling on them to conform their behavior.
Paul begins his letter (most ancient letters began with a greeting and a thanksgiving) by thanking God for the work he has already done in them. He also reminds them that the grace they have experienced is only available as a result of Jesus Christ coming into the world. One cannot separate the grace of God, shown to man, from the work and person of Jesus Christ. The practical result of this grace was that they had become a community that was growing in their speech and their knowledge. They had become a community of learners and had been confirmed as such by the fact that they had been given every sort of spiritual gift. So much so, as we will see, that the possession of these gifts had come to cause a problem.
That discussion will come in due time. For now Paul reminds them that Jesus will keep them strong to the end. He had called them in the past, would sustain them in the present, and will complete his work in the future. The present sign of that future promise is the incredible fellowship that they now share with other believers in Jesus Christ.
Devotional Thought
In writing this letter, Paul realized that what he would be telling the Corinthians would become a part of the work that God was doing in sustaining them, bringing the work he had begun in them to completion. The letter itself was a part of the process. In reading this letter now, we must realize that this letter will become part of the process through which God shapes and molds us into his people of 'called out ones'. The key to allowing Scripture have its full effect on us is to become what we read, not just to read it. We must let the words of God transform us as we meditate on it. Make a determination that you will read this letter with such a goal. Pray each day that God will use the words of this letter to transform you into the type of person and a part of the type of community that he desires.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Genesis 11:1-32
The Tower of Babel
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, [a] they found a plain in Shinar [b] and settled there.
3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel [c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
From Shem to Abram
10 This is the account of Shem.
Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father [d] of Arphaxad. 11 And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. 13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. [e]
14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. 15 And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. 17 And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. 19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. 21 And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. 23 And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. 25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
27 This is the account of Terah.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. 29 Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.
Dig Deeper
We learned in Genesis 10:25 that the earth (or nations) was divided at the Tower of Babel over 100 years after the flood. How do we know that? It tells us that this event happened during Peleg’s life, and he was born about 100 years after the flood.
But what happened exactly during this time? Were these people so ignorant that they really thought they could make a tower that reached into heaven?
If we look at what the Hebrew text says literally, we find it says "let us build for ourselves a city and tower, and its head is the heavens." (Young’s Literal Translation). This is precisely the purpose of ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats. The top room represented heaven. Biblical expert John Whitcomb says "The inner walls, in all probability, were decorated with blue glazed tile, with the sun, the moon, and the five known planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) lined up along the plane of the zodiac. In the centre of the room would be their ‘god’ seated upon a throne. . . The pyramids of Egypt and, much later, the great Mayan temples of Central America, reflected the design of the original Tower of Babel."
This passage does not describe a bunch of backwards hillbillies who thought they could build a tower that reached heaven. Rather this was a brilliant but blasphemous engineering endeavor intended to ignore the one true God. Instead of honoring him, they decided to disobey his command to spread out. Satan nearly succeeded in dominating mankind just as he had done in the Garden of Eden and before the Flood. God caused each family clan to miraculously speak different languages so that this enterprise would be ended. God, once again, protected mankind from themselves.
Devotional Thought
Have you ever seen a group of people get together and act a whole lot worse than they probably would have if they were alone? Oftentimes groups that are up to no good will try to get more people in on their behavior. It is usually best to have a plan for what you would do if a group of your friends or co-workers tried to get you to do something you know is wrong (It might be lying, gossiping, going somewhere you shouldn’t, looking at something you shouldn’t, etc.). Spend some time today thinking about or getting some advice from a spiritually wise person about how you might handle such a situation.
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, [a] they found a plain in Shinar [b] and settled there.
3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel [c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
From Shem to Abram
10 This is the account of Shem.
Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father [d] of Arphaxad. 11 And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.
12 When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. 13 And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. [e]
14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. 15 And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
16 When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. 17 And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
18 When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. 19 And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
20 When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. 21 And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
22 When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. 23 And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
24 When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. 25 And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.
27 This is the account of Terah.
Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. 28 While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. 29 Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there.
32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.
Dig Deeper
We learned in Genesis 10:25 that the earth (or nations) was divided at the Tower of Babel over 100 years after the flood. How do we know that? It tells us that this event happened during Peleg’s life, and he was born about 100 years after the flood.
But what happened exactly during this time? Were these people so ignorant that they really thought they could make a tower that reached into heaven?
If we look at what the Hebrew text says literally, we find it says "let us build for ourselves a city and tower, and its head is the heavens." (Young’s Literal Translation). This is precisely the purpose of ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats. The top room represented heaven. Biblical expert John Whitcomb says "The inner walls, in all probability, were decorated with blue glazed tile, with the sun, the moon, and the five known planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) lined up along the plane of the zodiac. In the centre of the room would be their ‘god’ seated upon a throne. . . The pyramids of Egypt and, much later, the great Mayan temples of Central America, reflected the design of the original Tower of Babel."
This passage does not describe a bunch of backwards hillbillies who thought they could build a tower that reached heaven. Rather this was a brilliant but blasphemous engineering endeavor intended to ignore the one true God. Instead of honoring him, they decided to disobey his command to spread out. Satan nearly succeeded in dominating mankind just as he had done in the Garden of Eden and before the Flood. God caused each family clan to miraculously speak different languages so that this enterprise would be ended. God, once again, protected mankind from themselves.
Devotional Thought
Have you ever seen a group of people get together and act a whole lot worse than they probably would have if they were alone? Oftentimes groups that are up to no good will try to get more people in on their behavior. It is usually best to have a plan for what you would do if a group of your friends or co-workers tried to get you to do something you know is wrong (It might be lying, gossiping, going somewhere you shouldn’t, looking at something you shouldn’t, etc.). Spend some time today thinking about or getting some advice from a spiritually wise person about how you might handle such a situation.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Genesis 10:2-32
Descendants of Japheth
2The descendants of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
3The descendants of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
4The descendants of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.[a] 5Their descendants became the seafaring peoples in various lands, each tribe with its own language.
Descendants of Ham
6The descendants of Ham were Cush, Mizraim,[b] Put, and Canaan.
7The descendants of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
8One of Cush's descendants was Nimrod, who became a heroic warrior. 9He was a mighty hunter in the LORD's sight.[c] His name became proverbial, and people would speak of someone as being "like Nimrod, a mighty hunter in the LORD's sight." 10He built the foundation for his empire in the land of Babylonia,[d] with the cities of Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh. 11From there he extended his reign to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, 12and Resen--the main city of the empire, located between Nineveh and Calah.
13Mizraim was the ancestor of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, 14Pathrusites, Casluhites, and the Caphtorites, from whom the Philistines came.[e]
15Canaan's oldest son was Sidon, the ancestor of the Sidonians. Canaan was also the ancestor of the Hittites, 16Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, 18Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. 19Eventually the territory of Canaan spread from Sidon to Gerar, near Gaza, and to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha.
20These were the descendants of Ham, identified according to their tribes, languages, territories, and nations.
Descendants of Shem
21Sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth.[f] Shem was the ancestor of all the descendants of Eber. 22The descendants of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.
23The descendants of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.
24Arphaxad was the father of Shelah,[g] and Shelah was the father of Eber. 25Eber had two sons. The first was named Peleg--"division"--for during his lifetime the people of the world were divided into different language groups and dispersed. His brother's name was Joktan.
26Joktan was the ancestor of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. 30The descendants of Joktan lived in the area extending from Mesha toward the eastern hills of Sephar.
31These were the descendants of Shem, identified according to their tribes, languages, territories, and nations.
32These are the families that came from Noah's sons, listed nation by nation according to their lines of descent. The earth was populated with the people of these nations after the Flood.
Dig Deeper
In giving us the descendants of Noah’s sons we can learn much about the ancient history of the world. The 16 grandsons of Noah were the heads of their family clans. These clans became the large populations in their areas where several interesting things happened. People tended to identify themselves as a clan named after their common ancestor. They would call their land, and quite often their primary city and major river by his name. Occasionally these groups engaged in ancestor worship and named one of their gods after them or claimed them to be god (this was probably encouraged by the fact that many of these men lived for a long time after the flood, much longer than following generations). Here are three examples of the sixteen:
Meshech, mentioned in verse 2, is the ancient name for Moscow. Moscow is both the capital of Russia, and the region that surrounds the city. To this day, one section, the Meschera Lowland, still carries the name of Meshech, virtually unchanged by the ages.
Noah’s grandson mentioned in verse 13 was Mizraim. Mizraim is the Hebrew word for Egypt. The name Egypt appears hundreds of times in the Old Testament and is virtually always a translation of the word Mizraim.
Asshur is the Hebrew word for Assyria. Assyria was one of the great ancient empires. Every time the words Assyria or Assyrian appear in the Old Testament, they are translated from the word Asshur. He was worshipped by his descendants as a god.
Even in a section of the Bible that is easy to overlook, we find some incredible proof that the bible is true and accurate!
For a complete look at Noah’s grandsons:http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i4/noah.asp
Devotional Thought
One Important thing for Christians to remember is that all humans on earth, no matter our differences, are all descendants of Noah. We are all related. Is this something that you believe or are there people of different cultures or skin shades that you consider different from yourself? Make an effort to look at all people as your relatives and treat them that way.
2The descendants of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
3The descendants of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
4The descendants of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Rodanim.[a] 5Their descendants became the seafaring peoples in various lands, each tribe with its own language.
Descendants of Ham
6The descendants of Ham were Cush, Mizraim,[b] Put, and Canaan.
7The descendants of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
8One of Cush's descendants was Nimrod, who became a heroic warrior. 9He was a mighty hunter in the LORD's sight.[c] His name became proverbial, and people would speak of someone as being "like Nimrod, a mighty hunter in the LORD's sight." 10He built the foundation for his empire in the land of Babylonia,[d] with the cities of Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh. 11From there he extended his reign to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, 12and Resen--the main city of the empire, located between Nineveh and Calah.
13Mizraim was the ancestor of the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, 14Pathrusites, Casluhites, and the Caphtorites, from whom the Philistines came.[e]
15Canaan's oldest son was Sidon, the ancestor of the Sidonians. Canaan was also the ancestor of the Hittites, 16Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, 18Arvadites, Zemarites, and Hamathites. 19Eventually the territory of Canaan spread from Sidon to Gerar, near Gaza, and to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha.
20These were the descendants of Ham, identified according to their tribes, languages, territories, and nations.
Descendants of Shem
21Sons were also born to Shem, the older brother of Japheth.[f] Shem was the ancestor of all the descendants of Eber. 22The descendants of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.
23The descendants of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.
24Arphaxad was the father of Shelah,[g] and Shelah was the father of Eber. 25Eber had two sons. The first was named Peleg--"division"--for during his lifetime the people of the world were divided into different language groups and dispersed. His brother's name was Joktan.
26Joktan was the ancestor of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. 30The descendants of Joktan lived in the area extending from Mesha toward the eastern hills of Sephar.
31These were the descendants of Shem, identified according to their tribes, languages, territories, and nations.
32These are the families that came from Noah's sons, listed nation by nation according to their lines of descent. The earth was populated with the people of these nations after the Flood.
Dig Deeper
In giving us the descendants of Noah’s sons we can learn much about the ancient history of the world. The 16 grandsons of Noah were the heads of their family clans. These clans became the large populations in their areas where several interesting things happened. People tended to identify themselves as a clan named after their common ancestor. They would call their land, and quite often their primary city and major river by his name. Occasionally these groups engaged in ancestor worship and named one of their gods after them or claimed them to be god (this was probably encouraged by the fact that many of these men lived for a long time after the flood, much longer than following generations). Here are three examples of the sixteen:
Meshech, mentioned in verse 2, is the ancient name for Moscow. Moscow is both the capital of Russia, and the region that surrounds the city. To this day, one section, the Meschera Lowland, still carries the name of Meshech, virtually unchanged by the ages.
Noah’s grandson mentioned in verse 13 was Mizraim. Mizraim is the Hebrew word for Egypt. The name Egypt appears hundreds of times in the Old Testament and is virtually always a translation of the word Mizraim.
Asshur is the Hebrew word for Assyria. Assyria was one of the great ancient empires. Every time the words Assyria or Assyrian appear in the Old Testament, they are translated from the word Asshur. He was worshipped by his descendants as a god.
Even in a section of the Bible that is easy to overlook, we find some incredible proof that the bible is true and accurate!
For a complete look at Noah’s grandsons:http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i4/noah.asp
Devotional Thought
One Important thing for Christians to remember is that all humans on earth, no matter our differences, are all descendants of Noah. We are all related. Is this something that you believe or are there people of different cultures or skin shades that you consider different from yourself? Make an effort to look at all people as your relatives and treat them that way.
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