Hurry not to look for application, but that when we understand the meaning and the principle, then we can apply effectively and biblicaly.
I will be picking a few verses from chapter 1-9 to show the theme of the letter and the flow of reasonings and details that Paul puts. Before we go there, any reader of Paul will know that Paul is indeed a brilliant man - If he is set to convince you of something, he will quote sources, he will structure is argument, he will demonstrate how he reaches a conclusion - along this line, we will learn about who God is, what Jesus does, what examples we ought to follow and much more
However, it is important again to remember Paul's structure, so as to put the few verses in a greater context.
The Corinthian Church is one of the early churches that Paul planted. Paul has his heart for them - and it is understandable that the church has little structure about it. The word is preached, the people are fresh to this "Christianity" religion, and they have very little idea ow to run a church. We will soon see some of the problems they face.
Chapter 1
Here, we know that the Corinthian Church is truly blessed - "enriched in every way". It is possible that they were finanically doing well, they had spiritual gifts of many sorts - as we will read of in Chapter 13. However, there are divisions in church - for some claim to be followers of Paul, some of Peter, some of Apollos. One might guess that the divisions occured due to intellectual arguments that the people cook up. Verse 26 onwards might give us a hint that the Corinthian church might have divisions as they would think of following one person ( Paul/Peter/Apollos ) was in some way superior than the other. It is also probable that they thought of themselves in superior terms compared to their counterparts based on some worldly standard which is really not God's standard. God's standard is different, God chooses the weak and demonstrates His power - God does not think a person is truly great the way the world would measure a man - i.e. intellect, wealth, etc. Christ is the one that we ought to follow, Christ is the Wisdom and Power of God (i.e. This is God's Way of saving us all, God's Perfect Solution, Our Holiness, Our Redeemer). Therefore, we ought not to boast in ourselves, but to boast about God.
Chapter 2-3
Paul continues to build on his arguments that God's type of wisdom is not only different from the world's type, but that it is superior, and it is powerful. Paul uses different terms here, Christ is God's Wisdom, Wisdom of the Spirit, God's secret wisdom - Wisdom and power that enables us to call God our Father, in short - what the Gospel is. The theme is central to promote God's Wisdom, God's standard, God's people as one - all under Christ. In Chapter 3 verse 1, Paul called them infants - their understanding has not matured. They still measured God's church/people/ideas according to human standards. Paul ends of chapter 3 ( verse 18 to 23 ) declaring supremacy of God's wisdom and the unity of the church all under Christ. In Christ - unity according to God's standard. Out of Christ, forget about it.
Chapter 4
We must not lose sight that the theme of this whole letter is centered on Christ. Christ being the standard, the wisdom, the example. In light of that, Paul argues that indeed Apollos and himself have gone very low - to be like slaves and servants to serve them - while the church is indeed rich, and has gotten herself into much worldliness, i.e. divisions, human wisdom,etc. verse 18, Paul points out the arrogance of some in the church, verse 20, big talkers...
Chapter 5 - 8
Paul now deals with the detail issues in church - Immorality, lawsuits among believers, more immorality, marriage, and food sacrifice to idols. In each of these issues, Paul explains the principle of the problem and solution - taking Christ as the example. please read at least chapter 7. For example: in chapter 7:28 onwards, Paul was discouraging them to simply think of marriage only - Paul wanted them to think of marriage and the consequences. Paul said that it is not wrong to marry, but should we get married and start to have divided interest ( between spouse and God ), we really have to examine whether or not we should proceed. Paul also says that indeed time is short, those who have spouses ought to live as though they have none. This does not imply don't love your wife, but not to be engrossed in these issues ( verse 31). Paul not only offers solution in these chapters, but the bigger picture that Paul is asking is " LOOK AT THE JESUS PERSPECTIVE" - "CONSIDER THINGS THAT WAY", this is showed also by previous verses, i.e. 6:7-8, 6:12, etc.
Transition from Chapter 8 to Chapter 9
Now towards the end of Chapter 8, I will give a little background about food sacrificed to idols. There is an understanding which is still relevant to us today: If somebody invites us to eat with them/eat their food - we are really declaring some sort of fellowship and friendship. Therefore, when some of the Christians were eating food that were sacrificed to idols ( think of eating the apple beside the jostick and inscense used to pray to the chinese gods ), some Christians felt that it was wrong, for it might have symbolized some union with the idols (devils). But Paul argues that, eating something or not eating something does not make us closer to God, i.e. more spiritual, or further from God, i.e. sinning against God and become less spiritual, etc. In the light of this, Paul said - however, for the sake of our fellow Christian brothers and sisters who have weaker faith, let us not wound their conscience - that is, let us not destroy their faith.
I will give a more modern example:
Christians are not forbidden to drink alcohol. However, the Bible does say we ought not to get drunk - stupid consequences to it. However, if we drink in front of a new Christian, they might think we are "okay" with drinking and getting drunk. They don't have proper understanding, if we continue to drink, then we destroy their faith - we confuse their understanding, we wound their conscience, their hearts.
So, Chapter 8:13 , Paul concludes, [ I will replace the words to illustrate ]
If drinking alcohol causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never drink alcohol, so that I will not cause him to fall.
Do you see the Christ pattern? It is really Christ pattern to consider for the sake of the others. This is God's perspective.
Remember when the disciples asked Jesus who is the greatest? Jesus said, "he who wants to be the greatest, has to be the servant of all" - now this is a Christ persepctive. Therefore, from Chapter 1 till Chapter 9, the theme is continuous and is centered around Christ.
Please get this...
Now opening Chapter 9...
Paul says " Am I not free?" "Am I not an apostle"?
As you read on the chapter you will find the attitude of Paul saying...
"Am I any lesser?" "Don't I have the right to do this and that?"
Paraphrased: it is something like, " Don't I have the authority and liberty to drink alcohol?"
Of course, by now we know that Paul does have the authority in the human perspective. In fact, in the human perspective, Paul could do anything.
But in verse 19, Paul says
"Though I am free and belong to no man,i.e. he has liberty - I make myself everybody elses servant to win as many as possible". Paul subjected himself to be like Jesus, to be a servant for the sake of other people, so that they might be saved!
Taking the alcohol example, Paul does not drink, so that the Christian brother will not be wounded. Think of Jesus - He could have come down from the cross - but for our sakes, Jesus hung there for our sakes, so that we can receive eternal life from His death.
Now, with that in mind, let us read 9:24-27
The picture painted in the few verses is one of striving. Is one of competing in a way of winning the prize. Let us not confused with the "one prize" picture. Paul said " Run in SUCH A WAY as to get the prize" Reread it, it means that " RUN like there is only one prize!"
When you have one prize, you run like mad. If there are many, maybe consolation prize is good enough.
Is this teaching that God is too poor to give us prizes? No! Paul is encouraging us to "run" our Christian lives that way - WHAT WAY?
verse 25 - strict training
verse 27 - being the master of our body , not letting the body be the master of us
like how some people live for the body ( live to eat, live to have sex, live to feel good ). It is alright to have sex and eat and feel good, but note that there is a difference between eating to live and living to eat.
The idea of a race in verse 26, "not aimlessly" also implies a certain focus.
Why run this way?
To obtain a prize. What prize - A crown that will last forever. What does the crown symbolize? A crown from God. God crowning you declaring that you "did it", you are a "winner". God saying "well done, good and faithful servant, come in and share the joy of your Lord!"
Paul also mentioned that when he makes his body his slave (i.e. disciplines it), after he preaches to others, he will also not be disqualified. In other words, he might be disqualified if he was not disciplined- and live whatever way he wishes.
Conclusion for these few verses,
"Do we need to be like the guy in the race and strive?"
Did Paul HAVE TO follow his strict training and not "drink alcohol"(my example)?
Well, I don't think Jesus HAD TO die on the cross - but He did. Why?
ONE APPLICATION QUESTION ONLY
How should this then relate to us?
4 comments:
Do we need to be like the guy in the race and strive?"
Striving motivates people to make improvements. It definitely is needed to give this life a better sense of direction. But I think the problem is that people fear balance in their life. Like if you're too engrossed in something, it's probable that you'd give up on the other thing. Most people would probably wonder (as I did last time) how does one balance life and God? Do I have to give up other things and obsess over God and only God? I'm sure He doesn't want that for us. God wants us to be his loyal and royal knights- healthy, happy, humble, joyful to serve and able to think rationally. So why is it so hard just to maintain a Christian life style? We are definitely incapable of being 100% holy and consistent all the time. So what exactly are we striving for? Sometimes I wish there was a step-by-step guide on how to become a proper well-balanced Christian. Like how much time to devote to QT, etc. It's like if we did 5 mins of QT and my friend did 1 hour of it, I feel the pressure that I'm not doing enough. Sometimes it's so discouraging, I end up giving up on QT.
Did Paul HAVE TO follow his strict training and not "drink alcohol"(my example)?
It was up to him. He had a choice and his own set of values. If he felt such an action was necessary, he should be firm about it. For example, a trash lying in the middle of the floor. If you think you should pick it up, you should despite of what other people/friends/parents might think of you. When did society make decisions for you? That's why we need to be strict and confident of whatever we do. By picking up rubbish:
1. You're setting a good example.
2. You earn respect in silence.
3. You learn to control your emotions (the fear of what everyone thinks of you)
4. You clean up the country and you make your Moral teacher proud.
Well, I don't think Jesus HAD TO die on the cross - but He did. Why?
I agree, Jesus didn't have too but he did it as a sacrifice for God's bigger plan. God probably made a promise to him so truly as the son of God, death was no big deal to Jesus. And to commence with this mission, Jesus had to be adamant with his decision. He had been offered by that Roman guy a chance to plead himself not guilty yet Jesus still refused everything. Something like those Jihad people, the reason why they don't mind killing themselves to kill other people is because they were promised with a great eternal reward if they die completing the mission. Although what they believe in is rather questionable and twisted but I'm sure you guys get what I mean.
I think there are tons of preachers who have used this text to promote some sort of self improvement.
Well, there is definitely nothing wrong with self improvement - However, should we say that the purpose of this text IS self improvement, then we have really neglected the whole context of which this is in.
It was consistent of Paul to emphasize on NOT measuring the Christian life simply by just WHAT we do but WHY why do.
For example, in the "If eating causes my brother to sin, then I will not eat anymore, because I don't want to make my brother fall".
What was Paul thinking? What was Jesus thinking when He died on the cross?
Was He thinking about how to earn respect?
Was He thinking of of how to be a good "Christian"?
Was He thinking of balance in Christian life?
Maybe a little bit of these, I must give the benefit of the doubt.
However, if any of us did John Stott's devotional, there was a whole week devoted to Jesus' 7 phrases while He was at the cross - ALL words were the result of His Love.
His Love for us surpassed all thoughts, so much so that it seem that all He thought about was not Himself anymore.
Taking back this example:
I think it is hard to say Paul lived a really balanced life. Paul's imagery of running a race - beating his body and disciplining it so that it may race for God's sake in God's way, is really not a "balanced" sounding idea.
Should God give us a proper step by step guide on "How to become a proper well balanced Christian", a few things occur:
1) We pursue the relationship by completing a set of chores - which is not really pursuing the relationship, but some sort of external standard. What relationship is left?
2) We measure ourselves and compare between ourselves by our ability to do such things
To a large extent Paul was arguing against this attitude in the beginning of Corinthians. The church was divided - some followed Paul, some wanted Peter, some Apollos.
Few parties are responsible for this. As the church grew richer and richer in many ways, Christians start to want to differentiate among themselves who is greater by some measure of external standard. In the case of the Corinthian church, the divisions was one of this kind. Later we would see the same case of spiritual gifts.
Jesus' disciples argued over "who is the greatest"
From Jesus reply, from Paul's reply - we can see that Jesus IS and IS NOT really answering the question.
Jesus reply of being a servant of all stresses that:
1) Greatness is measured in willing service, not our idea of "greatness depends on how many people serves me"
2) Is Jesus really asking us to compete to be greatest in the sense so that we can say to another Christian brother " I am greater than you because I serve more"? I think not.
This mindset of us is really of the world. To look things from our point of view. Holiness to a worldly mind is an increase of standard, but perhaps holiness ( in simple words, setting apart for God ) ought to mean that pleasing God becomes the priority - so much so that we cease to compare ourselves with others. It is clear from the Bible there is no such comparison, it is human pride that created such comparisons.
What we really need to do is to drop of the "my perspective", and be consumed into the "Jesus perspective". From chapter 1-9, and beyond, Paul's principle of solving the many corinthian problems is really taking the "Jesus perspective". Paul was not talking about fairness, not equality, not balance, but always pointed us to see things in the light of Jesus.
As much as personal excellence is attracive. This text, I hope to prove, is really not about self improvement of personal excellence. If it is anything, I think throughout the chapters, it is paul trying to win the church to see things Jesus' way, to measure things Jesus' way, consider the sake of others instead of self the Jesus' way - And this persuasion will reach its peak in Chapter 15 about our resurrection.
In short it talks about our current state is not the final state, and that we have a future hope of bodily resurrection like Jesus. All this persuasion is in view of this - our apparent giving does not end up in us losing many things, but that we have a good inheritance.
This being a letter, ought to be read at one go to understand the whole flow of reasonings.
Love. Having absolute love in this world is hard. :\
absolute love... is not expected of us as though it was something is intrinsic, something that we are able to cook up. We will see more of this soon.
Love, is one of the fruits of the Spirit. Love is also stated in
" But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"
The direction was clear. Even when the disciples have followed Jesus for three years, they all left him. Peter verbalized his abandonment, others did it in a quieter way.
There are at least two origins of loving God I know of, there maybe be more:
Many might simply mistake that the disciples received everything on Pentecost only, i.e. they only was able to love God after Pentecost as though loving God is purely a spiritual force being injected into us.
When we read of John, Jesus forgiving Peter - as Peter repented, and Jesus assured Peter. When Peter said, Lord, I love You. Maybe Peter was also saying sorry - but we know that Jesus accepted that.
Maybe Peter didn't have the full power to love Jesus as much as he wanted to - but we do see that our minds play a role in deciding to love God.
Of course, without God first loving us, we wouldn't even arrive at this choice in the first place.
Then at Pentecost, the Spirit is given, our Helper. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit "the Comforter, The Helper" - thus this aspect of the Holy Spirit is not something exclusive to the disciples as thought Jesus said to the disciples the Holy Spirit is "your Helper" merely. However, for this comment, I won't touch too much on the Spirit - it is quite a long discussion.
Christian love from what is shown above - has definitely the aspect of our personal responsibility to exercise it, yet we need to also know that the only love we can truly exercise is the one that we have come to understand.
Imagine a person who knows not Jesus love, and he does something loving and kind. Whatever the love is, it definitely does not stem out of the love of God. Maybe they are convinced of some noble cause, or maybe they are doing it for their own selfish sakes.
Then as Christians, if we claim that the love of God ought to rule supreme in our lives, and if we can derive no love from our understanding of God - then the inability to love is not a matter of not receiving power, but lack of understanding. However, lack of understanding is not merely a matter of intellect as we will see from Israel's example.
Israel stumbled here. Earlier in 1 Corinthians 2:7-9 "
No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, 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"
If the Pharisees knew that Jesus was Lord, they wouldn't have done what they did. Pilate would have died rather than have Jesus die if he knew.
However, Jesus words and works were compelling enough already. Yet because of hardened hearts - the minds of many became dull.
So a quick recap. When the heart is hardened, the mind is dull - there will be no understanding. When there is no understanding, A LOT OF POWER is not going to do anything. It is like having a lot of electricity but no machine. So we ought to be careful how we hear the word of God, how we study the Word of God.
The over-spiritualizing of love by many mega popular churches - is not helpful at all.
The commandment was love The Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
This commandment we would always fail without the power of the Holy Spirit which would help us in the "ALL" aspect. But the verse does not say love God with all our Spirit - for that is not our domain.
We are to love God with our minds. The Holy Spirit's function is not to make us love God without brains the way some over spiritualizing sermon's would tend to preach.
So what can be really done now is to study the Word of God well. Love, if it is a one sided initiative, it is God's side. Our response will ultimately stem out of our understanding, not our own intrinsic nobility.
intrinsic - to have it naturally within oneself
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