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

I am always amused by Paul writing about not baptizing anyone in Corinth, except for a couple of people.  I imagine him dictating the letter to someone in a room with several other people and one of them interjecting about someone else he baptized and Paul going, “Oh yeah, them too, better say that I don’t remember baptizing anyone else in case someone comes back with, ‘what about so-and-so, didn’t you baptize them?'”  It is not really important. It just amuses me.  However, the point which Paul was making is important.  Paul did not baptize anyone in his own name, and would have objected to anyone else baptizing someone in his name.  His point was that we should follow Jesus in unity.  We should not allow ourselves to become divided by differences between the ways in which different people preach the Gospel.

Paul points out that he was not sent out to baptize, but rather to preach the Gospel.  Further he writes that he did not preach the Gospel with wisdom or eloquence because doing so might have diminished the power of the cross.  Paul explains that the cross is foolishness to those wise in the ways which humans call wisdom and common sense.  I recently heard Tom Holland (the historian, not the actor) expound on what Paul meant by what he writes here.  I want to note that Tom Holland is an atheist, but I think he got it pretty close.  Mr. Holland explained that to the Romans and Greeks, the strong ruled over and dominated the weak and did what they pleased.  Not only did they view that as “the way things are”, but the “way things ought to be”.  In behaving in that manner, the Greeks and Romans (and for that matter, Tom Holland says, so do all other non-Christian belief systems) felt that the strong were merely imitating the gods.  Paul said that, yes indeed we should imitate God, but that’s not how God behaves.  Rather, Paul tells us that God came down and served the poor and powerless, allowing Himself to be killed in order to model the behavior He wishes us to follow.  So, Paul teaches that the strong should serve the weak, not the other way around.  Paul tells us that this is the point of Jesus’ life.  This idea that individuals had value and that the purpose of being strong, of having power, was to serve those who were weak and powerless transformed the world, and that is at least part of the power to which Paul is referring when he writes about the power of the cross.

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

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

As Paul wraps up his letter to the Corinthians, he gives us the basic which everyone must believe about Jesus in order to be a Christian.

1. Jesus died for our sins
2. He was buried
3. He was raised from the dead on the third day as foretold by the Scriptures

Paul makes the explicit point that both he and all of the other Apostles (and apostles) taught these three things.  From there he goes on to emphasize one of those, one with which the Believers in Corinth were apparently struggling: that Jesus was raised from the dead.  Paul points out that if Jesus did not truly rise from the dead that all of those who preached about what he taught were liars.  If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then everything Christianity teaches is a falsehood and has no value.  Further, Paul writes that if one does not believe in the resurrection of the dead, one should not follow Jesus’ moral teachings, that without the resurrection of the dead Jesus’ teachings are bad advice.

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

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

Paul covers several different topics in today’s passage, but one theme runs through his advice on dealing with each of those topics.  Early in the passage, while he was writing about paying those who preach the Gospel, Paul says, “we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.”  Then later, he writes, “No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.”  Throughout today’s passage I see Paul referencing that idea repeatedly.  Paul applies this them of seeking the good of others to each of the issues he addresses in today’s passage.  Paul writes that we have been freed by Christ so that we could, theoretically, do anything, but we should do only that which is beneficial.  How do we know what is beneficial?  That which promotes the good of others.   Paul subtly makes the point that seeking the good of others is beneficial to us.  As we discipline ourselves to seek the good of others we learn the ways which God gives us to resist temptation.

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

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

The focus for most of today’s passage is on human sexuality.  Paul makes the point that when we have sex with someone we become physically and spiritually united with them.  Therefore if we become sexually promiscuous the constant connect and disconnect that entails damages us both physically and spiritually.  In fact, Paul suggests that the optimal answer is to avoid sexual entanglements altogether, but acknowledges that not everyone has the physical and spiritual makeup to do so.  For those of us who need a partner, either because we need the spiritual support or because we need the physical release, Paul commands that we form such a bond with one other person*.  Paul makes it clear that such a relationship is marriage (with all of the commitments that entails), whether we make that official or not.  Paul expresses the opinion that the highest calling for a Christian is to be asexual.  He makes it clear that when he says this he is expressing his own opinion, not a revelation from the Holy Spirit.  He also tells us that not everyone can live up to that, and that those who cannot should get married.  After much thought I conclude that God calls some people to minister to Him by marrying and others to minister to Him by remaining single (and celibate).  The Church should encourage young people to consider whether or not they have been called to the latter (not try to convince them that they are called to such a path, merely to consider it)

*NOTE: I do not believe that Paul explicitly condemns polygamy, but the implications of what he writes about marriage and sexuality strongly favors monogamy.

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

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

In his first letter to the Corinthian Believers Paul first addresses the issue of faction within the Church.  In particular, he addresses the issue wherein we attempt to win arguments over living out our faith by appealing to the authority of one teacher or another.  Paul tells us that there should be no divisions among Believers.  As long as the teachings someone is following build upon the foundation which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ (elsewhere Paul speaks about what the “Gospel of Jesus Christ” is, so I will not write about what that is here), we should not argue with them to the point of division, to the point of unfriending them and casting them out of all of our social circles.  That does not mean that Paul is saying that all teachings are of equal value.  Paul writes that we together as a group of Believers are God’s temple.  So, we should choose carefully which teachings we use to build our temple of faith.  However, as long as our foundation is the Gospel of Christ, our temple will survive God’s judgement.  Arguing divisively in the Church destroys the temple to God which the Body of Believers is intended to be.  Those who bring about such division will be subject to God’s judgement.

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

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

This passage contains one of Paul’s best descriptions of what the good news of the Gospel is. It is right up there in importance with Romans 10:9-10 where he writes, “If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Here Paul writes that we must hold firmly to the gospel which he preached.  That gospel was, and is, that Jesus died for our sins, that He was buried, and that He was raised from the dead on the third day.  Paul expands on to make clear that he means a literal, physical raising from the dead, not a spiritual, or figurative raising from the dead.  The gospel message has no meaning or value without that part, and without the part where we who put our faith in Christ will also experience such a literal, physical raising from the dead.  The suffering and hardship of this life become pointless if our existence ends with our death.  So, let us preach to those around us and seek to draw them into faith in Christ so that they might also experience the joy that comes through oneness with Him and the eternal life which He offers.  This message was the part which was “foolishness to the Greeks.”  And all too many today want to find wisdom in the Gospel without being willing to accept the “foolishness” of the resurrection of the dead.  As Paul tells us, if Christ was not resurrected from the dead, the entire New Testament is built upon lies and has no redeeming value.

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