Bible Reading Challenge Blog

Do you believe in the resurrection?  Think about that for a moment before you answer.  Do you believe that once we die, once Jesus died, then we will, Jesus did, rise from the dead?  What is more, our creed tells us that we believe in a physical resurrection.  Again, think about the details and what exactly that means.  In this chapter we have the most thorough description of the resurrection of the dead that we will find in any other place in the Bible.  Not only do we find a thorough description of the physical resurrection, but also the theology that supports it.  Let’s start with that because that is where Paul starts.

The importance of belief in the resurrection cannot be overstated.  Look at vs. 14 that tell us that if we do not believe in the resurrection of the body that our faith is “in vain”.  There is no reason, Paul says, to even believe, there is no reason to count ourselves as a disciple of Jesus Christ if we do not believe in the resurrection.  Easter is real, it is not just a holiday that marks our Christian belief, but we are actually celebrating Jesus’ resurrection.  What impact does his resurrection have upon us?  Look at vs. 17 – it is in the resurrection where our sins are forgiven.  This is what it is all about.  If Christ has not been raised then we are still in our sins.  What more needs to be said about our faith?  The death of Jesus was a one time victory for Satan.  The resurrection of Jesus is an eternal victory for all of us because in that victory God eliminated the power of sin over us.  This is called a theory of atonement.  Break that word down: at one ment.  What God did for us on the cross, in the grave, in the empty grave made us at one with Him.  We are his children, we are his heirs, we are his bride.  This is what the resurrection allows for us.  

We then have details about  our own resurrection which serve as incredibly  useful verses for consolation and hope for those of us who want to understand what is it going to look like.  When Stacy’s mom was ill with cancer we prayed that she would be healed.  We were convinced that our prayers would be answered and that she would be healed and be able to enjoy a long life with us and her grandchildren.  It didn’t happen.  We were devastated that our prayers weren’t answered and as we made our way back to the West Coast for the funeral we were visibly upset.  Rachel, our oldest who was about 4 then, noticed that we were sad because God hadn’t answered our prayers and she started to ask us questions.  “Can nonna (that is the name we gave her) walk now?”, we answered “Yes, nonna can walk now, she can even run again.” Rachel asked “Can nonna eat anything she wants now?”, we answered “Yes, she can eat anything she wants to now.”  “Is she happy?” she wondered out loud, “Yes she is happier than she has ever been.”  Rachel then got a look of understanding on her face and said to two Princeton Seminary graduates “Well, it sounds like God did answer our prayers.”  She taught us more about the resurrection in that one exchange than we had ever learned in our three years in seminary.  Yes, the resurrection, the bodily resurrection, is real.  

Paul tells us that we will all receive glorified bodies, bodies that are not corruptible, bodies that will never fail.  This is the promise of the resurrection.  We will not inherit our frail, broken, disease ridden bodies, but rather he will give us new bodies.  This is why we do not hesitate to cremate.  We do not fear the destruction of our physical bodies because we know that God has something far better in store for us.

In some ways this is the Presbyterian  chapter.  If you look at vs. 40 you will find that it is a verse that is often repeated within the church.  We are people who like to do things decently and in order.  But, when we do things decently and in order, then they sometimes take more time than we want.  But it is time well spent.  I’ll never forget a member of our church who ran for judge, and was eventually elected, had a town hall meeting in our church and someone asked: As a Christian, how can you put up with things taking so long at the judicial level.  He answered using this verse reminding us that we are a people who like things done decently and in order.  When things are done too quickly, especially in the field of law, then people can be easily overlooked.  If mistakes are made, they could be made in a way that might sacrifice the future of an individual.  This is not acceptable.  That is why we do things decently and in order, but slowly.

This is a very long chapter, I recognize that, and Paul covers a whole bunch of different topics here.  For some reason he says some unkind words for those who speak in tongues.  It seems to me that there was a problem in the church where people would stand up and speak in tongues and there would be confusion.  He gives very specific instructions on how people were to speak in tongues.  They were to stand and speak one at a time only if there was someone there to interpret.  If there was not someone there to interpret then they were not to speak in tongues.  If there was not an interpreter then they were to stay silent and in the quiet of their house they could speak in tongues.  Okay, wait, what?  What do you mean speak in tongues?  Some are given a gift to speak in tongues which allows them to freely and without restrictions speak to God in a personal way.  Even Presbyterians are given this gift.  The key is that it is in a personal way and it does not serve to build up the community, but rather the individual.  I do not have the gift of speaking in tongues.  I have never seen someone speak in tongues in a church the way it is supposed to be done.  I have seen an individual speak in tongues in their own, in the quiet of their privacy, the way it is supposed to be.  But that was only one time.  We should never quench the Spirit (I Thessalonians 5:19), but we should not take advantage of the Spirit to put forward our own desires and wishing to puff ourselves up.  

Paul here as a foil uses prophecy as the ideal to show the differences between the two.  Prophecy, Paul states, builds up the community, tongues instead, builds up the individual.  Okay, now you are getting really weird.  What do you mean prophecy?  Have you forgotten that we are in a Presbyterian church?  We don’t speak in tongues and we certainly don’t pretend to prophesy.  What is prophesy?  Prophesy is not a prediction of what the future will hold, but rather a word of caution or advice in regards to how the Lord is going to act.  The book of Revelation does not predict the future, but rather allows us to understand that Jesus is coming, and when he does we have to be ready and the best way to be ready is to not compromise.  The prophesy in Revelation is not predictive, but rather prescriptive.  We are given everything we need to prepare ourselves for when the ends times come.  It is written to prepare us.  So Paul here states that the words that people speak within the church that prepare us for the future are words that need to be heard.

When we had our gathering of young families we heard words not of desire, not of preferences, but really words of prophecy that told us: we must allow the children to come unto us and not necessarily on our terms, but on theirs.  I love that prophetic word that was spoken as the parents were trying to bring their children to Jesus and the disciples tried to prevent it.  I never, ever, want to be in the place of the disciples who were preventing the children from getting to Jesus.  I also love the way in which Paul attributes words of prophecy, or words of warning or preparation to the church, to the mind.  Jesus came to take our sins away, not our minds.  That is a very Presbyterian statement.  We value highly the intellect, sometimes at the cost of the heart.  But at least it seems that Paul takes our side on this issue.

First let me begin by apologizing for having the wrong date on yesterday’s post.  Not sure what happened, but I corrected it so going forward we should be fine.

I Corinthians 13 is the love chapter.  I’m not sure much else has to be stated, but I will, of course, say much more.  The first three verses contain hypotheticals which lift up some exaggerated charitable acts that would be hollow, if love was not a part of the equation.  We can be well spoken even about God, but if we don’t have love, then that is useless.  We can have the type of faith that can move mountains, but if we don’t have love, then it is for no purpose.  I can be the most generous person on this earth, but if I don’t have love, then that generosity is empty.  These direct contradictions reveal to us the importance that love plays in our lives.  Loves is the gas that drives the engine.  

We know the three different types of love that exist in ancient Greek writings.  There are three types of love: Philae, eros, and agape.  Philae is in the Bible and it is a type of love that brothers and sisters and friends have for each other.  It is more than acquaintance, but it is not the type of love that is the most profound.  Eros is not in the Bible and it is directed normally to the more sexual manifestations of love between people.  The last is agape, and that is the love that is spoken of here in these verses.  Agape is the deepest of love and it is that which we have with God.  When Peter and Jesus are speaking together in John 21:15 the Savior asks Peter: “Do you love me?”  The word that he uses is Agape.  Do you love me as you love God himself?  Peter answers: “Lord, you know that I love you.” The word used in that instance is philae.   Peter responds with a lesser type of love which Jesus requires.  It takes Peter three times to be rehabilitated until he is able to say, I agape you.  

When we use the word love we should never cheapen it.  The love that we have can never be the deepest it possibly can be if we do not know Jesus as Savior.  I mean this not as an exclusion.  Not all who love Jesus have a kind of sacrificial and intensely deep love that we ought to have for Jesus and for each other.  I wish it were the case that once we have a relationship with our Savior then that love comes pouring in.  But the only way one can have that love, is with a relationship with Jesus.  This is a chapter that needs to be read many times over.  The ending gives me pause.

Faith, hope, and love, abide these three, but the greatest of these is love.  Love is greater than faith?  Love is greater than hope?  Paul says this almost as if it is a contest or that one is to the exclusion of the other.  That last statement is categorically false.  Love is not the only attribute we could have.  We really ought to strive for all three.  But we cannot have a true faith or a true hope without the love that comes from above.  This is a strong evangelical statement, but it makes sense to me.  

We will be focusing on verse 7 in this chapter which provides us with insight as to the theme of Paul’s words.  “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”  The crucial part of this sentence is that all of our gifts, all that we do, needs to be focused upon the common good.  Paul uses the example of the body to show how important each part is and that no one part is indispensable over the other parts.  This is such an important lesson in the church.  In many churches there are some who think that a church cannot run without them.  If the church is of God, then God will always raise up people to take part in His ministry.  This is true from the pastor to the elder to the member to the staff person.  Every single person contributes a part to the building up of the kingdom of God in the church.  

The listings of the spiritual gifts by Paul here can put some people in a bit of a crisis.  But what if, as vs.8 states, I don’t have the gift of wisdom, or knowledge, or faith, or healing, or miracles, or prophecy, or discernment, or tongues.  What if I’m just really good at serving meals and cleaning up after them and helping to organize them?  What we do know is that each one of us is gifted with a Spiritual gift, and the gift of hospitality, serving, cleaning up and organizing, is a strong, strong gift.  We should never downplay or discredit a gift that we or others may have just because we don’t think it is “spiritual” enough.

My Bible is stained on this page.  On the left-hand side you can see the dark spot and some discoloring on the right side as well.  There is a small rip on the bottom right as well.  You should be able to tell, just from the look of the Bible, that they are well worn pages, and one that is used often.  So why the stains on the Bible?  If you look at chapter 11:23-26 they should be familiar to you.  These are the words that we use for the Lord’s Supper.  I have had this Bible since 1999 and each time I prepare communion I read from this Bible, from these pages.  The stain is from the wine or the juice that has spilled on these pages over that time.  These pages contain a lot of meaning to me.  Paul gives us instructions on communion in these pages.  Let’s take a look

Keep in mind that communion in Paul’s day was not simply a ritual, it was a meal that was essential to keep the Christian population, especially the widows, alive.  They didn’t just have bread and wine as a memorial to Jesus’ life and death and resurrection, but rather they had an entire meal and this bread and the wine would close it off as a physical, tangible proof of the presence of our Savior.  But people were taking advantage of this meal.  Look beginning at vs.17 where Paul begins, once again, to chastise the Corinthians for how they have made this time a time of division.  

This meal was meant to be shared.  It was a pot-luck of spiritual proportions.  Paul has some of his strongest words for those who would eat this meal selfishly and finish what they had without sharing with those around them.  He tells them in vs.29 that those who misuse this time: “eat and drink judgment against themselves.”  In fact, he associates the misuse of this time as the reason for why some of the people of that church were sick and had died.  For Paul, it seems like a punishment for sin.  His primary point is found in vs.33: “When you come together to eat, wait for one another.”  What a great point.  

Now all of this should overshadow the beginning of this chapter.  Paul spends more time talking about hair in this chapter than he does spending time writing about homosexuality in all of his writing combined.  I know, I’ve talked a lot about that issue, but I’m trying to put it within a context and a reality where we understand that this is not in any way a primary issue either for Paul and even less so for Jesus.  Our stance is clear, but Paul seems to think how we wear our hair is more important than what our belief is in regards to homosexuality.  You may have wondered where the whole idea of covering your head if you are woman while you worship.  In our community we have a whole range of denominations who believe that women should cover their heads.  It is from this chapter where that belief comes.  

Paul makes statements in regards to a sense of hierarchy between men and women and that seems to fly a bit in the face of Galatians 3:28 where we read that in Christ there is no male or female.  If I have to choose, I stick with Galatians.  That isn’t enough, I know, we need to have more of a discussion on these verses.  Why does Paul say such things if we are not to take it seriously?  We are to take it seriously and Paul says some good things especially in vs.9 that there is an interdependence between men and women that cannot be denied.

The next few days are going to be a little sketchy.  I’m sitting in the Philadelphia airport getting ready to head out to Italy for a week to perform a wedding and check in on the logistics for our mission trip in 2018.  I have no idea what my internet access is going to be like.  I’m going to try to publish my articles ahead of time using a feature on this blog which posts the articles that I have submitted on the dates that I choose.  Let’s see if that works.  If not, then this just might be the last post for a week.  Let’s hope not.  

In chapter 10 we absolutely have to focus on vs.13.  You have heard it before, but probably never in this context.  Paul in this chapter is addressing from the very beginning the journey that the people of God have embarked on.  From Moses and beyond God has been with the people.  We even find an early reference to the fact that our Savior, the Christ, the Son, the third person in the Trinity was present.  If you look at vs.4 you will see that spelled out.  Often we see God the Father as being present in the Old Testament, God the Son being present in the New Testament, and God the Holy Spirit being present now.  What this Scripture supports is that our one God is present in all modes at all times.  In these verses leading up to our main verse Paul again stresses the fact that God has been present and will continue to be present even if we turn our back on him.

In fact, he goes to state in our key verse, Paul tells us that God treats everyone equally.  Everyone undergoes trials and tribulations.  Whatever testing we may go through, it is not unusual or anything that other people have not experienced.  But what is most comforting is knowing that we will never be tested beyond our capacity to withstand.  The verse doesn’t end there, but we often do.  Not only will we never be tested beyond our strength but in each testing God will provide us a way out.  Did you hear that?  In each testing, there is a way out which is provided by our Creator uniquely for each one of us and our particular experience.  We need to think about that next time we call out and ask if we will be able to take whatever challenge we are facing in our life.  We need to look for the way out at that time and in that place that God uniquely provides for each one of us.  

I don’t want to avoid vs.23 because it does speak to the freedom we have in Christ.  But these verses should sound familiar because we already saw them in chapter 6:12.  It is an exact repeat, and I feel the same way now as I did back in chapter 6.  Look at it again if you like.

For the first time we see Paul emphasizing the fact that he is an apostle as much as the other 12 who were chosen to walk alongside Jesus in his 3 years of ministry.  This will come up time and time again where he feels as if he has to defend himself because I am sure that there were some who felt that he was not a legitimate leader.  He was a Johnny come lately who had a terrible history.  But it becomes an even more acute point when we are dealing with finances.  Apparently it was no problem if the apostles were compensated for their work.  But Paul has to defend himself as to why he feels that he should be compensated for his work of sharing the Gospel.  He speaks to the Corinthians recognizing that at least they see him as an apostle.  He did, after all, plant the church in Corinth.

It is interesting that Paul in vs.5 says that apostles, disciples, workers in the field, have the right to have a wife.  Those denominations that demand celibacy of its pastors must have a hard time getting around this verse.  He spends an entire chapter on the rights and the expectations of one who works for the dissemination of the Gospel message.  I have always admired and held in high esteem tent-makers.  I have always thought that bi-vocational pastors were following Scripture in their calling much closer to what was expected and thought of from the beginning of the church movement than I am as a full-time pastor.  I think of the Mennonite pastors who are completely bi-vocational and so understand Paul’s perspective completely.  

Paul, starting in vs.19 and following, focuses on how he has made his life an attempt to be all things to all people.  We have traditionally seen this way of life as being weak and wishy washy.  He states: “To the weak, I became weak, so that I might win the weak.”  He follows that up with: “I have become all things to all people that I might by all means save some.”  Isn’t that our goal?  Aren’t we commanded to win people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ?  We are to do all in our power to win people over to Christ with all that we have and all that we are.  

Paul never wants to disqualify himself by others thinking that he sees himself is above them.  Pastor’s have to be careful that their education does not get in the way of serving people in a genuine way.  Oftentimes degrees can get in the way of empathy and real love and concern for others.  There are some who might think that a task around the church is below them.  My perspective is that I will never, ever ask anyone to do anything that I would not do myself.  When we see our roles as being over other people we have already lost the people.  This is part of Paul’s point.  We must rejoice and be glad that we are called to do even the most menial tasks for that is our calling.

A whole chapter on food offered to idols.  So is it a chapter we can skip?  Let me tell you a story.  We once had a small group in a church and at this small group a couple offered wine and beer as part of the meal.  A couple that attended was mortified and remarked how in the world could a church offer alcohol at a small group.  Out of the 15 couples that were part of this group they were the only couple that was mortified.  But as a group we decided that we would not serve alcohol again because it was offensive to that one couple.  

Now, Paul, unfortunately, calls those who are scandalized by the eating of meat offered to idols as being weak.  He states that they are weak believers and three times calls them weak.  Not a real comfortable position.  But it must be applied to those who are legalistic and who need a set of rules in order to understand whether they are doing the will of God or not.  Hear me out.  I am not in any way making a judgment call that any Christian might be weak.  That is absolutely not my call.  But Paul does it in these verses.  If we follow a legalistic faith, then we are not free in Christ.  That I do firmly believe.  

Interesting how Paul says that there is not more than one God.  Today many would see a variety of ways to God.  Some believe that all religions are just another path along the journey.  Some say that there are many ways to God, after all, who are we to say that as Christians we have the truth which is absolute?  Paul says that there is only one God, so the god which other people worship or follow, Paul’s words, simply does not exist.  That sounds rough.  That sounds pretty exclusive.  That sounds as if we are, in Paul’s words, puffing ourselves up.  But we have to end with vs.6 “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”

Do you remember that I have said repeatedly that Paul writes as if Jesus’ coming is imminent?  He fully expects the coming of Jesus Christ to be any moment.  As a result, what he writes in this chapter focuses on the importance of vs.26 where he tells the Corinthian church: “I think that, in view of the impending crisis, it is well for you to remain as you are.”  The entire chapter is written from a perspective that whatever reality in which you find yourself now, you should not change a thing because all of your focus and attention needs to be on Jesus.  Nothing else matters at this point.  Not your job, not your family, not your health.  Nothing except the time and the energy that you put into preparing yourself for the coming of the Lord.  

How many of us live in light of that perspective?  I would argue that none of us, and I would potentially even argue that it might not be the best way to live if we want to contribute to the kingdom of God.  Let me explain.  

Chapter 7 begins with some real practical advice for husbands and wives.  the primary reason for marriage, Paul describes in these verses, is to prevent each person from committing sexual immorality (vs.1).  He goes on in vs.36 to give permission for marriage if “passions are strong”.  Paul does not speak about the presence of love as the driving force for marriage.  Ironic that this is the man who wrote the love chapter in I Corinthians 13.  I can’t wait until we get to that chapter.  But until then, Paul encourages marriage as a stop-gap to immorality.  The ideal would be that a woman not touch a man and vice versa. This is not the advice or the approach that I would have.  I do believe that God prepares our spouse from even before birth and we are brought together by a love that needs to be evident and the primary factor in our marriage.  The presence of passion is important, but it is not what drives us to marriage.  It is too fleeting.

So, let’s say that a man and a woman are married.  This next piece of advice is actually quite good and can apply if Jesus comes back in an hour or not until the next century.  He describes the man’s body and the woman’s body as belonging to each other.  Please note that I am speaking in regards to spousal relationships where there is mutual love and affection and not a twisted understanding that the man has complete dominance and so skews the words of Scripture.  In a mutual relationship it can be exciting and God driven to think that each other’s bodies were made for us.  God formed and made our bodies for our spouse.  This opens up endless possibilities in the spousal relationship that some may not think possible.  There are no rules in the intimate relationship between a husband and a wife.  That might be hard to live by at first when we are used to living our lives, especially in that area, with rules of dos and donts.  Not so, says Paul.  The husband belongs to the wife and vice versa.  That should be incredibly freeing.

He deals with divorce as well in this chapter.  But here it is strictly from the perspective that Jesus is coming back today.  He shuns divorce because, frankly you probably don’t have the time to get divorced and then try to find someone to marry again.  Don’t get divorced because you don’t have the time to go through the whole process.  Jesus will be coming back by then so it isn’t even worth the aggravation.  Surely, as Paul states in vs.28 that “those who marry will experience distress”.  But that distress is far less than the distress you would experience in divorce so you might as well stay as you are.  I’m afraid that Paul’s words in this chapter might serve as good advice in the beginning of the chapter in dealing with husbands and wives and the joy that they can find in each other’s bodies, but not so good advice in dealing with marriage and divorce because it is so focused on the imminent coming of Christ.

And this is where we get to the point where it becomes obvious that Paul is not happy with the church in Corinth. He addresses the issue of a liability culture, which surprisingly, is one that is rampant in our own society.  Can you imagine our society if Christians were not allowed to take other Christians to court?  In vs.7 Paul says that it is already a defeat to us when we take other Christians to court.  The main impetus of his words deals with how will the world see us when we bicker and we fight and we take each other to court?  And then, to top it all off, we stand in front of a judge who is not a believer and who ends up deciding our fate and decides what future each of us should hold.  Paul says that when Jesus comes back it is not going to be unbelievers who have this power over us, so why would we give that power to them now?  

The distinction between Christian and non-Christian in our everyday lives no longer seems to be that much of a concern to us.  We don’t just shop at stores run by people that we know are Christians.  We don’t just take our cars to be fixed by Christian mechanics.  We don’t just go to Christians to cut our hair.  We don’t just go to doctors whom we know believe in Jesus Christ.  When did we stop making that choice and say any service that a person offers is good enough to me as long as they have the training and the goods that they and I need?  The times, they are achanging, and this is one example where Paul’s emphasis on the end times reveals itself to be impractical for the long-term, but absolutely essential for his short-term perspective.  

Then Paul, starting in vs.9 lays out a whole slew of immoralities which would prevent someone from inheriting the kingdom of God.  One of them is homosexuality, but for some reason that one has been lifted up above the others in our 21st century.  That wasn’t the case in Paul’s day.  The point is that if we continue in any of these sins then we are turning our back on God.  So, if we continue in our sin of greed, or drunkenness, then we do not have a place in the kingdom of God.  If we were to rate sins, which we don’t do by the way, greed and stockpiling wealth, is considered tantamount to a man sleeping with a man.  That should give all of us pause.  Paul makes no distinction in these verses.  

Vs.12 has become my mantra and my way of life.  I love the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus.  As Paul states: “All things are lawful, but not all things are beneficial.”  There is no one in our Christian walk who is holding up the rules to see if we are abiding by them or not.  Isn’t it ironic that just as Paul lists a long line of sins that will not be acceptable if we continue in them, he follows it with a line that reminds us that our Christian walk is one of freedom.  We can do anything and all things.  We can do anything we want.  But the key is that what we want, when we have the mind of Christ, ought to be what Jesus wants.  There should not be a part of us that wants that which Christ would not want.  If we live our lives we should not be pining for the days when we could sin and sin boldly and wish that we could move forward continuing in our sin.  Paul says no, all things are lawful, but not all things are beneficial.  We can do all things, but we must be aware of what we do and how it affects those around us and how it affects our witness.

There is a lot in this chapter.  Starting at vs.16 you have my argument on chastity before marriage.  Fortunately I am speaking from a position of strength because both Stacy and I waited to be together in that way  until we were married.  Both of us entered that relationship not having been with anyone else, either.  The argument that Paul lays out is that when you are with someone in an intimate way that leads to intercourse, that person stays with you for the rest of your life.  I’ll never forget a woman that I counseled who was in and out of failed relationships.  I told her: stay chaste until you are married again.  Every time we would see each other she would have a wry smile on her face and she would tell me that she is following what I recommended.  It isn’t the easiest advice for anyone who has been married previously, in their mid to late 30s, but it is the advice that we find in Scripture.  It simply makes life so much easier when we just abstain.  It just does.  You have far fewer ghosts in your closet and you can focus  in on the person that you have in your midst. Plus, you know that you are following God’s desires.  This probably isn’t appropriate, but at this time this song came to mind: