Nathan E. Lewis

(Sermon series preached by Nathan E. Lewis at Chehalem Valley Presbyterian Church and Evergreen Presbyterian Church)

(click here for Audio Sermons)

The Fullness of God’s Grace
I Corinthians 1:1-9
As far as we can see through Paul’s letters, the Church at Corinth was messier and broken than most. None of the first century churches were perfect. Each one suffered from relational conflict. Each one was in danger of heresies and wolves in sheep’s clothing. Paul did not go to trouble-free zones to plant churches. Instead he went to the crossroads of the Roman Empire where the needs and opportunities increased. Paul instructed Titus, one of his church planters, to establish a church on the island of Crete, notorious for dishonesty, indulgence, and discord. Nevertheless, the Church at Corinth wins the prize for being the more troubled and twisted of the churches listed in the New Testament.
In light of Corinth’s tainted reputation, it is popular today to use Paul’s letters to this church as a platform for the message of brokenness. All of us are broken in some way and the Church is a place for broken people to rely on Christ Jesus and to find comfort, peace, and strength in him. Any message that merely says, “The Corinthian Church was broken and so it is OK for us to be broken,” falls short of Paul’s message. He opens his first Epistle to the Corinthian Church convincing her that she is full of God’s grace.
The establishing of the Church at Corinth was not easy. Paul’s team included Acquila and Pricilla, who were tent makers. They taught Paul their trade and the three of them funded the mission at Corinth by making tents. Eventually, Silas and Timothy would join the team. David Jackman writes, “In spite of fierce opposition and abuse, it was a mission owned by God and resulted in the conversion of the synagogue ruler, Crispus, and many of the Corinthian citizens. Indeed so fruitful was it to continue to be that the Lord personally strengthened Paul in a night vision, encouraging him to continue and promising protection from harm.” God said to Paul, “for I have many in this city who are my people.”
The Holy Spirit used the preaching of the gospel to draw these people to the Church at Corinth. They came broken, twisted, and diseased in soul and body. They came with all of their baggage, excuses, stories, and hang-ups. They soon outgrew their first church site, the house of Titius Justus, next to the synagogue. To this messy Church, Paul writes of the fullness of God’s grace upon them. He lists five aspects of grace given by God.
I. God’s grace has set us apart from the world but joined us to Christians worldwide. What makes a Christian? Paul writes that God calls us to be Christians and so we call upon the name of our Lord Jesus. This is the gracious order: God acts first and we respond. God chooses us and so we choose him. God seeks us and so we seek him. Have you called upon the name of the Lord? In the midst of your brokenness and desperation have you ever finally prayed in the name of Jesus? If so, you can be assured that you are responding to God’s calling of you.
As Christians we are part of a worldwide community of faith and practice. We are sisters and brothers in the covenant family of God. This distinguishes us from other groups in the world. We still interact, but we are marked as Christians, we behave as Christians and we are busy in the mission of Christ. This distinction is a grace from God.
II. God’s grace accompanied by peace increases within us and in our experience. My response is, “I need more grace and peace. I desire more grace and peace in my life.” Paul’s blessing is not empty but founded upon the promises and reputation of God who lavishes good gifts upon us. Nonetheless, any measure of God’s grace given to us is sufficient resulting in our gratitude. Have you received a first installment of grace and peace? Do you want more? As a child I loved to hear my Grandpa sing. His tenor voice was accompanied by perfect pitch. Often he would sing this song written by Annie Flint:

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.
His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

III. God’s grace enriches every part of us and every area of our lives. Paul does not confine spiritual experience to certain religious activities such as prayer, meditation, and worship meetings. He presents God’s grace flowing to all areas of our lives. God’s grace impacts our running of a 10k, or gardening, our designing of a chip or selling of a car. God’s grace influences our family and neighborly relationships as well as our vocational and professional relationships. God’s grace enriches every part of us.
Paul highlights speech and knowledge. David Jackman writes, “These are terms that are going to recur many times in the course of the letter. In all probability they reflect the areas of church life and experience with which the Corinthians were especially concerned and of which they may have become inordinately proud. Corinth as a city whose culture thrived on rhetoric and knowledge, and so it is hardly surprising that God would enrich his church in this way.”
Paul informs us that this enriching grace has flowed to us from our first hearing of the gospel! How long has God been enriching your life with his grace? Whether it has been 30 years or one month, God’s grace is flowing to us, a steady stream enriching our lives.
IV. God’s grace endows us with spiritual gifts so that every church has everything it needs to serve God. The Holy Spirit has assigned gifts to each of us members of the Church so that we might serve one another and the world around us. The Church is never bereft of gifts. We have the gifts needed to serve in the particular location and situation God has placed us. What are your spiritual gifts? By “spiritual” Paul means that the Holy Spirit is the source of the gift. By “gift” Paul means talents, skills, and resources we possess.
Annie Flint, the author of the song I quoted, had the gift of poetry. Her poetry captured the fire of her tragic life, converting hurtful flames into warm consolations for readers who were suffering. Annie’s mother died giving birth to her. Her father, dying of an incurable disease gave Annie and her older sister to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, who adopted the girls. Two months later, Annie’s father died. Shortly after Annie’s graduation from school, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson died. Several years later, Annie’s sister died and Annie received a letter from the Sanitarium telling her that she would soon be a life-long invalid. How did Annie respond to her situation? She began to write poems. Her biographer wrote, “With a pen pushed through bent fingers and held by swollen joints she wrote first without any thought that it might be an avenue of ministry, or that it would bring her returns that might help in her support. Her verses provided a solace for her in the long hours of suffering. Then she began making hand-lettered cards and gift books, and decorated some of her own verses.” Friends receiving her cards recognized the value for consolation in the church and soon several Christian publishers were spreading her poetry throughout America.
Each one of us possesses a spiritual gift. In the right place and the right time, God will use our gifts to encourage others. He has endowed us with these gifts so that the Church flourishes bringing the kingdom of God to every corner of this globe.
V. God’s grace sustains us ushering us into the final Day of Judgment free of guilt. Have you ever wondered whether or not you would be able to persevere in your Christian faith and practice? What if I tire of being a Christian? What if I buckle under persecution? What if my doubts and sins move me further and further away from Christ and I lose my religion? The good news of the fullness of God’s grace includes God’s sustaining us in faith.
At the end of this world when we stand before God, our Judge, we shall be found free of guilt. This is an amazing grace! At the center of the fullness of God’s grace, he has erased all of our sins and relieved us from all guilt and shame. God has done so by sending his Son, our Lord Jesus, to die on the cross and thus paying the penalty for our sin. Jesus has taken our sin, guilt, and shame upon himself. In turn he has given to us his righteousness, freedom of conscience and joyful confidence, so that we might enter into the love of God the Father. This is the fullness of God’s grace to us.
Paul concludes this opening paragraph by returning to the first of these five graces, God’s calling of us. God is faithful in this calling. This no mere formality. God’s calling of us is much more than his announcing, “Nathan, you are a Christian.” And my response is much more than my responding, “Yes, I am a Christian.” God’s faithful calling places me in a new and permanent relationship with Jesus Christ and his Church, or as Paul describes it here, “the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.” My response to this gracious calling is my participating in this lifelong fellowship. I am united to Christ and to every other Christian.
In this letter Paul must address the tangled web of problems in the Corinthian Church. But he writes first things first. Before he addresses the problems, he encourages his fellow sisters and brothers in Christ, reminding them of the fullness of God’s grace. This is the same way God addresses us. May the fullness of God’s grace rest upon you and transform your life.

The Fellowship of the Gospel
I Corinthians 1:10-17

The Corinthian Church has its share of sinful problems. If you were the Apostle Paul seeking to fix the problems, which sins would you address first? If the categories of sins were immorality, disorderly worship, and disunity, which you confront first? As we noticed this past Sunday, Paul begins by reminding the church of the fullness of God’s grace poured out upon her. Now he makes a conscious and tactic decision to address her sins of disunity before he confronts her immorality and disorderly worship. The fellowship of the church, our unity in Christ, is of primary importance.
Paul makes an appeal to the Corinthian church to agree with one another. He succinctly tells her that God has graciously given unity to the Church. He refers to them as brothers. In the church we are sisters and brothers of our elder brother Jesus Christ. This is a union Christ has worked for us and given to us. We are members of the family of God and thus we possess union with God and with fellow members of the church.
Paul says that this unity has been given by the authority of Christ. This is what he means by writing, “by the name of Jesus Christ….” Paul is establishing his appeal on the Gospel of John, which records for us the words of Jesus concerning his authority to unite us. From John 10 we read these words of Jesus:
11(H) I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd(I) lays down his life for the sheep. 12He who is(J) a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and(K) leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and(L) scatters them. 13He flees because(M) he is a hired hand and(N) cares nothing for the sheep. 14(O) I am the good shepherd.(P) I know my own and(Q) my own know me, 15(R) just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and(S) I lay down my life for the sheep. 16And(T) I have other sheep that are not of this fold.(U) I must bring them also, and(V) they will listen to my voice. So there will be(W) one flock,(X) one shepherd. 17(Y) For this reason the Father loves me,(Z) because(AA) I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18(AB) No one takes it from me, but(AC) I lay it down(AD) of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and(AE) I have authority to take it up again.(AF) This charge I have received from my Father.”
We are united into one flock by the authority of Christ. In John 17, the prayer of Jesus is recorded, including these words:
20″I do not(BG) ask for these only, but also for those(BH) who will believe in me through their word, 21(BI) that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that(BJ) they also may be in(BK) us, so that the world(BL) may believe that you have sent me. 22(BM) The glory that you have given me(BN) I have given to them,(BO) that they may be one even as we are one, 23(BP) I in them and you in me,(BQ) that they may become perfectly one,(BR) so that the world may know that you sent me and(BS) loved them even as(BT) you loved me.
God the Father has given to Christ the authority to unite the Church and Christ has done so. Jesus prays that we might enjoy this unity and that we would work together to experience this unity. Paul makes an appeal that the members of the church would be in agreement with each other. My godly parents taught me that sometimes we must agree to disagree. Without turning the Church into choir of trained rats who do not think, how can we ever become united in mind and judgment? We must distinguish between essentials and non-essentials. We must agree on the essentials and create space for disagreement and dialogue concerning the non-essentials.
Imagine a pacaderm of elephants in a line. Each elephant is an issue, a topic, or aspect of the Church. The line of elephants would be a spectrum, the head of the line being an essential and the back of the line being a non-essential. Where would the doctrine of the virgin birth fall in line? Would it be an essential? How far down the line would be one’s view of baptism and the practice of baptism in the Church? Would it be an essential or non-essential? How about the color of the sanctuary carpet? Churches have actually split over the color of carpet! It is easy to preach that we should be of one mind when it comes to essentials and that we should leave room for difference of opinion on the non-essentials. But it is a difficult and ongoing labor of the Church to do it.
If we actually believe that the Bible is the Word of God our standard for truth, then we would place it at the center of all discussions concerning essentials and non-essentials, agreeing to allow it to speak toward our agreement. As we grow older, does our list of essentials increase or decrease? Think about it.
Paul’s next sentence is shocking: he mentions a person and group of people by name – Chloe’s household. I wonder if he gained Chloe’s permission to use her name in such a public document? Part of my problem with the mentioning of someone’s name who has spoken about another person or group and the problems festering is personal and cultural. As a teenager, I was known as a “Narc.” Most of my male classmates were smoking dope and would “narc” on them. I was the Principal’s mole and so, some of my classmates were upset if not irate with me. Most of us have been taught to keep our mouths shut and so, if we have anything critical to say, we do so privately, going to someone we believe to have influence and we say, “Now what I am about to tell you I say in confidence and anonymously.” Then the person we have told reports to a larger body saying, “Several people have come to me and said, “blah, blah, blah,” and they wish to remain anonymous.” But Paul blurts out his source: “It has been reported to me by Chloe’s household….”
Chloe’s household was courageous enough to speak the truth. This group was willing to be the child in the parade route crying, “The emperor is naked!” These people faced the truth, committed to living according to it.
Paul addresses the particular division in the Corinthian Church, and to our surprise we discover that it is a division over equally good choices. These groups in the church have divided over discipleship. One group follows Paul. This is a good choice in discipleship. Paul is an Apostle, the movement leader in the first century Church. He is the evangelist par excellence. Paul is bold enough to tell the first century Church “follow me as I follow Christ.” But how do we know that this group in the Church was choosing Paul for good reasons? We must keep this spectrum in mind if we value our unity in Christ:

……Preference……………Discipleship……………..Idolatry….

Does this group merely prefer Paul, or does it truly seek to follow Paul as he follows Christ? Perhaps this group is guilty in worshipping a mere man! We must keep this spectrum in mind.
To follow Apollos as a disciple would be a good choice. He was grounded in sound doctrine, taught by Priscilla and Aquila. Apollos was a master Rhetorician. He was eloquent and cogent in his preaching. Those who followed him would say, “When Apollos preaches we clearly understand the gospel and know how to apply it.” Where was this group on the spectrum of choice? Did they merely prefer golden-tongued Apollos over stumbling, run-on sentence preaching Paul? Did they seek to truly follow Apollos as he preached the gospel or were they guilty of idolatry?
The third group follows Cephas, that is the Apostle Peter. We should all follow this passionate disciple of Jesus who could teach us from his own mistakes and sinful blunders. Peter broke the unity of the disciples by betraying Jesus three times, even though he was the first among the disciples to confess that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus gently restored him and Peter served his Lord until his martyrdom. But what if we were choosing Peter to keep alive the divisions between Peter and Paul? Are we trying to drive the wedge of custom deep into the 21st century? Can you imagine anyone idolizing Peter? Who would place such a flawed yet redeemed man on the pedestal reserved for Christ alone?
The final group mentioned by Paul makes us laugh. What else can we do when we see in this group our own condescending and factious behavior. This group says, “We follow Christ,” as if the other groups do not follow Christ! This group is saying, “We are the only ones who have chosen correctly. The rest of you have chosen mere men while we have chosen the Christ.” Have they truly chosen Christ? Paul asks the questions, “Is Christ divided?” Then he humbly uses himself as the illustration: “Was Paul crucified?”
The next words of Paul have been misinterpreted to make baptism unnecessary and insignificant. However, Paul has a high view of baptism. So high is his view that he insists that baptism is the work of God administered in the name of God. He views his part in the administration of baptism as purely instrumental. His main point is this: Through baptism God unites all of us to himself. It is his voice speaking through the sign about his work, the reality of the sign. Baptism is not Paul’s work or the work of any mere human being. It is not the work of the officiant or the one who receives the sign. It is the work of God alone.
Paul writes hurriedly at this point, even though his words are inspired by God. He begins by stating that he has not baptized any of the Corinthians. Then, he remembers that he did baptize Crispus and Gaius. Then he remembers that he baptized the entire household of Stephanas and perhaps more! Nevertheless, he did not baptize every single last one of the congregation and so, his point sticks – baptism is God’s work. Paul’s work is to preach the gospel, that is, he proclaims the work of God for us. Is it not ironic that the Church is divided over issues of baptism while this very sign points to our union to Christ?
Have you ever been in the room with the elephant? Other people are in the room with us and none of us mention the elephant. We talk about all sorts of issues and possible solutions but we never mention the elephant sitting smack dap in the middle of the room.
Perhaps you remember the story of the blind men who stumbled across an elephant. One blind man grasped the trunk and declared to his fellow blind men, “This is a snake. It is an anaconda of some sort.” Another blind man places his hands against the stout leg of the elephant and says, “No, brother, you are wrong! This is not a snake. It is an old growth tree. Give me a minute and my expert touch will identify the specific kind. It may be an alder or an oak. It is definitely not an evergreen. But it is most definitely a tree.” A third blind man stretches his hands above his head to reach the rib cage of the elephant and he says, “This is either a boulder or a tranquilized rhinoceros. My brothers are wrong. I’m not quite sure what it is, but I know for certain that they are wrong.” The final blind man grabs the tail and laughs, “This is no snake, tree, or tranquilized rhinoceros! This is a rope. It is frayed at the end.”
All of these men are blind and they are equally wrong. What they are touching is an elephant. They have been relying upon the wisdom of this world and they are in desperate need of someone apart from them to open their eyes so that they might see the elephant.
Paul does not use the eloquent wisdom of this world to preach the gospel. He states that the power that has united us in the Church is the cross of Christ. How can Paul assert that the cross, the weakest and lowest point in the personal history of Jesus is the power of our union? Herein lies the power of the cross of Christ: On the cross Jesus died for all of the sins we have committed against the unity of the Church. Jesus died to atone for my sins of division in the Church. Jesus died to forgive you of the sins you have committed to divide the Church. At the cross of Christ we stand on equal ground. Together we raise our eyes of faith to gaze upon the one who has given his life so that we might enjoy the unity he has given to us.

The Power of the Gospel
I Corinthians 1:18 -2:5
Members of the Corinthian Church are engaged in the culture of their day. David Jackman, in the introduction to his book, Let’s Study I Corinthians, identifies four “buzz words” from Corinthian culture impacting the Church. These “buzz words” were factors in the division of the Church. The first “buzz word” is “knowledge.” The second, “wisdom,” the third, “power,” and the fourth, “spiritual.” As Paul addresses the lack of unity in the Church, he addresses these four parts of the Corinthian’s cultural awareness.
Actually, these four parts of Corinthian culture are shared by our present day culture. Knowledge is highly valued by us. Our culture accumulates knowledge and dispenses it at high volume and rate. We feel the pressure to know a little bit about everything. At the same time we demand specialists in every field. Along with knowledge we value wisdom, citing experts, looking for wonks to interpret knowledge for us. It is more and more difficult for us to get pure news. Every show and report showcases talking heads, who spin the news for us, that is apply it for us, supplying us with the correct perspective. Certainly power lies at the center of our culture. At every level of our democratic society, the American way is to jockey for positions of power. A person may have his sights on the Presidency or on the chair of a local committee. Power plays even occur at social gatherings. Our culture also values spirituality. The modern view of humanity has been adjusted in the past 30 years acknowledging that we are more than flesh and blood. We have spirits. We are deeply spiritual. This part of our culture is growing and manifests itself in the hundreds of spiritual paths being blazed in our local communities.
As Christians we must engage the culture. At the same time, we must be aware of how our culture influences our fellowship in the Church. Paul usually encourages us to engage our culture for the sake of the gospel. But in our text Paul shows us how the gospel runs counter to the culture.
First of all we learn that the cross of Christ as the power of God runs counter to our culture. The wisdom of our culture is that the strong survive and succeed. Our culture is filled with published keys to success and vitality. We are a strong culture, but the power of God resides in the cross. First century Jewish culture is visual and prophetic. God communicates through signs to guide and direct his people. His prophets foretell the coming of the Messiah and the promises of God. The gospel presents a crucified Messiah running counter to Jewish expectations. The Hellenistic culture is conceptual and logical. Wisdom is gained through rational process. Write down a persuasive argument and the rest of us will read it. If it makes sense and follows the rules we have agreed upon, then we will agree to it. The gospel presents an innocent man crucified as a criminal. This is absurd failure if not a twist of fate. The gospel runs counter to Hellenistic rationalism.
Secondly we learn that God’s calling of us runs counter to our culture. Our culture chooses the best qualified. The competition is stiff. But the gospel announces that God has called Jews and Greeks, all sorts of people to himself regardless of their qualifications. In (26) Paul writes, “Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.” Thank God some who have been called are wise, powerful and noble. There is hope for the best along with the worst. But Paul’s point is that God does not consider our personal resumes before he chooses us. He chooses so that no one has reason to boast in humanity or in Self. When God chooses, it is clear to all who see the results that God alone has done the work graciously.
Think of those individuals who have influenced the Church throughout the world. One woman has impacted all of our lives, not because she is the most brilliant thinker, eloquent speaker, or cogent writer. When she was 16 she dove off the jetty and suffered a spinal injury and now the whole world knows the sufferings and faith of Joni Eareckson Tada. She paints with a brush in her mouth much better than I can do with a brush in my hand, but it is quite clear that she has been chosen by God, not because of her painting skills but because he has a special calling for her life.
Thirdly, we learn that the presentation of the gospel runs counter to our culture. Our culture values a comprehensive presentation with plenty of options and packages for every different kind of person. The most encouraging presentations in our culture have something for everybody. The more individual choices available, the better. We are also attracted to the better presentations. Form and content go together, undeniably, and so we are impressed by the better presentation. Paul and his gospel presentation run counter to our culture. He purposely presents one choice of God, confident that the gospel freely and powerfully presents one salvation for all of us. Paul did not use the rhetoric of his day or the wisdom of his world. He boldly and bluntly blurted out the gospel in whatever setting he found himself. It is true that he did engage the culture of Athens by making reference to their unknown god. But it is also true that he broached the topic of the resurrection before these erudite men, the best and most refined thinkers of Hellenistic culture.
Paul is not advocating the mediocrity of the Homer Simpson family. Paul is not against our striving for quality and excellence in our presentations in the Church. Rather, Paul is clearly saying that the gospel alone is effective. The Spirit of Christ uses the message of the gospel alone to warm our hearts and to enlighten our minds. Out of gratitude to God we adorn the gospel with excellence, but we do not rely on that excellence to save people.
Finally, we learn that God as the source of our lives and everything good sets him apart, worthy of all glory. God is our Creator and he has united our lives to Christ Jesus. This is his work alone and so we boast in him. Christ Jesus, is our representative before the justice of God. He stands before the perfect demands of God presenting his perfect wisdom. Thus, as our representative, his wisdom becomes our wisdom, acceptable to God. Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness. It is Christ’s Spirit who sanctifies us and so graciously through Christ we are made holy. It is also through Christ that we have been redeemed from sin and death and so it can be said that Christ is our redemption. Paul’s main point here is that God the Father in heaven has made Christ Jesus all of this for us. He has sent his Son to redeem and to make holy. He has executed the plan of representation, Christ’s wisdom and righteousness for all. This is God’s plan, his work, his idea, his grace. He is the source and we are the recipients. We boast in God.
The aim of David Jackman’s study on this text is “To Show that God’s message and methods must be the means we use to promote God’s work in the church.” Christ and his gospel are primary and central in the church. All too often the gospel can be lost in the message and life of the Church. Some of us have too many expectations of the Church and thus our demands compete with the pure and simple ministry of the gospel.
Outside of the Church, while we live out the gospel in every field and area of life, we are nevertheless called by God to glorify him through the excellence and depth of service in our particular field. For example, if you were a Chemistry teacher, your primary calling in glorifying God is to teach your students Chemistry. Heaven forbid that you would fill your Chemistry class with lectures against Evolution and lectures in favor of Creation. Heaven forbid that you would take every minute of class time to study the Bible and call your students to respond to the gospel. Your classroom is not the Church, but rather, it is the Chemistry classroom. The way you glorify God in the Chemistry classroom is to teach Chemistry as best you can and to effectively teach it to the level of your students. It is incumbent upon all Christian Chemistry teachers to make the gospel connections, the biblical connections, to place the course in the realm of God’s truth. But your students as citizens in the Kingdom of God need to know the Table of Elements and they need to know their formulas and what happens when one mixes one element with another.
It is equally important that the Church is not converted into a Chemistry classroom. We do not make this distinction of space and purpose to divide Science from Religion – the two are inseparable. We do this to cameo the gospel. The ministry of the Church is the ministry of the gospel. The Church is not primarily an educational institution. It is not primarily a political think tank. It is not primarily a social agency. It is primarily a ministry of the gospel.
All of us have been called by God to not only engage our culture but to contribute to it. As we do so in our respective fields, we need a central place where we come to hear the gospel, to recharge our spirits, to renew our hope and joy, to center our peace. We need to come to Church, to receive the gospel so that we can go out into the world to live according to it.

The Secret and Hidden Wisdom of God
I Corinthians 2:6-16
Corinthian culture prized wisdom. While knowledge could be obtained through academic exercises, wisdom’s source was mysterious. The ancient Hebrew understanding of wisdom is knowledge applied. The Hellenistic understanding was clouded by the mystery religions. Paul uses the popular Corinthian view of wisdom to introduce the wisdom of God. Ironically, as a follower of Christ, writing after the cross, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, Paul refers to God’s wisdom as “secret and hidden.”
First of all, Paul tells us that the wisdom of God is ancient. The Hellenistic culture was proud of its intellectual achievements. The Golden Age of Grecian philosophy had dawned long before Paul planted the church in Corinth. Socrates died in 400 B.C. Plato died in 347 B.C. and Aristotle died in 322 B.C. In light of this rich and long-standing heritage, the Corinthians thought that Greece was the cradle and sacred halls of wisdom. When Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth, the Hellenistic culture was celebrating 400 years of philosophical development. Paul tells the church that wisdom, true wisdom is older than 400 years and its source is not Greek but divine. Paul echoes the sentiments of the Corinthians referring to their day and heritage as “the ages of our glory.” But the glory of Golden Greece does not compare to the glory of the secret and hidden wisdom of God.
Today we tend to be like the Corinthians. We harbor much pride in our intellectual heritage. We may follow Jonathan Edwards, one of the brilliant American minds of the 18th century or we may follow John Dewey, one of the brilliant American minds of the 20th century. We are a literate society and a productive economy. But wisdom is older than our American heritage. God decreed his secret and hidden wisdom before the ages of our glory.
Secondly and briefly Paul says that God is selective in the impartation of his wisdom. Many of the important and powerful people of the first century did not receive this divine wisdom. Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah who announced that God would impart his wisdom to those who love him. This condition of love rankles the American intellectual. What do love and wisdom have to do with one another?
In (10-16) we arrive at Paul’s main point: the gospel of revealed wisdom. This secret and hidden wisdom of God has been revealed. The selective history traced in the Bible charts the unfolding, the flowering of God’s revelation of his redemption of humanity, his renewal of all creation. In the days of Enoch and of Job, fewer people received the wisdom of God and the presentation of it was cloudy, sufficient for faith, yet hidden in sign and symbol, poetry and prophecy. The book of Hebrews opens with these words: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” The fog has lifted and the bud of wisdom has bloomed full flower.
Paul identifies three parties: The Holy Spirit as the dispenser of divine wisdom; Those of us who receive the Holy Spirit and thus divine wisdom; and those of us who do not accept the Holy Spirit and thus adopt the wisdom of this world.
First of all, it is the Holy Spirit who reveals to us the secret and hidden wisdom of God. The Holy Spirit being equal to God the Father in power and in glory knows exhaustively the wisdom of God. To help us to understand the complexities of the Trinity, Paul uses the make-up of the human being as an example. He reminds us that each of us has a body and a spirit. It is my spirit that knows my thoughts exhaustively. I may think that I know everything that you are thinking, but I don’t. In the human realm only your spirit knows everything you are thinking. Analogically, the same is true of God. Only the Holy Spirit knows and understands the thoughts of God exhaustively. What we know about God we have received from the Holy Spirit. Paul once again contrasts this ancient and infinite source of wisdom to the contemporary and finite source of wisdom, namely, a human reservoir of knowledge and experience, referred to by Paul as the “spirit of this world.”
Secondly, Paul describes those of us who have received the Holy Spirit and thus divine wisdom. There is usually a price attached to the accumulation of the wisdom of this world. But God has freely given to us this more excellent wisdom. Paul says that those of us who receive this wisdom talk about it. Christians receive divine wisdom freely passing it along, discussing it, proclaiming it. In the mystery religions of the Hellenistic first century, including the Gnostic movements, wisdom was so mysterious that no intelligent person could articulate it. The secret Gnostic wisdom remained locked within a person, usually a classified holy person, a priest, priestess, or guru of some sort. Surprisingly, Paul describes the secret and hidden wisdom of God freely revealed by the Holy Spirit and then widely dispensed in the conversations of members of the Church. We can actually understand what we have received! We can actually talk about it cogently! We can actually apply the wisdom of God to our lives!
Paul pushes his point that we have received divine wisdom to a surprising degree. He writes in (15), “The spiritual person judges all things.” All truth is God’s truth and this truth is discovered, understood, and applied by human beings who are controlled by the Holy Spirit and by those who do not accept the things of the Holy Spirit. What advantage, if any, does a Spirit-filled person have over the person apart from the Holy Spirit? The wisdom of God has been given to the Spirit-filled person. This wisdom is God’s view, his message, his application of truth in every field of life. Therefore, it is possible for the person who possesses this divine wisdom to discern the view, message and application of God in every field of study. I do not think that Paul means that each of us who have received the Holy Spirit will become experts in all fields of study. But rather, we may perform wisely in all fields to which God calls us. Indeed there is no field bereft of spiritual persons applying God’s wisdom to his honor and glory.
David Jackman explains this better than anyone else I have read: “As God provides discernment for understanding his revelation, Christians are able to come to right and good judgments about all things. Because we have divinely revealed principles and standards, we can know right from wrong, wisdom from folly – and all from God’s perspective. Clearly, this does not make Christians infallible, but it is a promise of God’s direction and guidance if we are dependent on his revealed wisdom in Scripture, and on the Holy Spirit as our teacher. A Christian is not therefore to be gullible or naïve, nor is he to switch off his mind and pretend that rationality is the enemy of spirituality.”
Paul continues to write, “But this spiritual person himself is to be judged by no one.” Jackman writes, “The truth of the gospel liberates us from living under the judgment of other people’s opinions of us.” No person or school of thought applying the wisdom of this world may judge the person to whom the Holy Spirit has revealed the wisdom of God. For example, in the field of medicine numerous doctors are spiritual persons who refuse to euthanize a patient and their reason for restraint is that they possess the wisdom of God, namely his view of the human being as highly prized, made in the divine image. As a spiritual person such doctors actually communicate God’s message, which, in the medical field is essentially the Hippocratic Oath. These doctors thus apply in the name of God every measure available to preserve life. Many skilled doctors, who do not accept the things of the Spirit, are not in a position to judge these spiritual persons.
Paul also describes the natural person who does not accept the things of the Spirit. Such a person considers the wisdom of God dispensed by the Holy Spirit to be folly – superstition, folk tales, contradictions, and control games. He is unable to understand them because he has not received the Holy Spirit who would impart to him discernment. Have you ever met a person who says, “There is no way that I can swallow your Christian religion. It makes no sense to me.” There are many reasons why a person would say this, but the bottom line is that the Holy Spirit has not illuminated his mind. None of us would choose God without the internal work of the Holy Spirit. How many of us would embrace the cross of Christ as the one act in history performed for our salvation? None of us would do so apart from the internal work of the Holy Spirit. David Jackman writes, “The cross is emphatically the ultimate test of all ‘spirituality’, a test at which all new age, triumphalist and legalistic spiritualities alike stumble and fall.”
When we remember this gospel truth of the gracious work of the Holy Spirit within each of us, the way we assess and treat the natural person changes radically. We are able to be a friend to him ready to give an answer when he finally comes round to asking about our hope in Christ. We no longer express that he is a stupid fellow. After all, the blindness Paul is discussing here is no matter of human intelligence but rather a matter of spiritual enlightenment.
This natural person may be a fine physician. He may even take his Hippocratic Oath seriously and would never euthanize anyone. However, this fine physician may pit science against faith and say, “As a man of science, I cannot embrace the Christian faith. I have no problem with the high view of humanity put forth in the Bible. Rather, I have a problem with the connection between humanity and this divine person who I am not certain exists. If this God did exist, why are so many people in need of my medical practice? Why are so many people dying of cancer?”
What is frustrating to many of us is that we would like to say to this kind doctor: “Read the Bible and all the answers to your questions are there for you to consider and adopt.” But this doctor has read the Bible and does not find in it the answers to his particular questions. In fact, he claims that little of it makes any sense to him at all. This man is no Neanderthal. He is an expert in his field and he speaks three languages fluently. And so, we are frustrated. Why can’t he understand the Bible? He cannot do so until the Holy Spirit imparts the wisdom of God to him by illuminating his mind to understand the words of God.
As important as the Bible is to the Christian faith, it is not merely a book on the shelf, cracked open to answer all of our problems. It will do none of us any good unless it is accompanied by the Holy Spirit working upon our minds to understand it and to receive it. The Bible does not merely present to us God’s truth in encyclopedia form. Rather, it presents to us God’s truth through the grid of God’s view, message and application of his truth. The Bible is a source of knowledge, but it is more profoundly the presentation of divine wisdom. It only makes sense to us as the Holy Spirit illumines us.
Once again, we are driven back to the gospel of grace. Apart from God’s work on our behalf, we would be confused and lost. The gospel for us today is this: the Holy Spirit graciously reveals to us the wisdom of God. Once again, God has completely taken care of us. Everything we need he has freely given to us. And what precisely listed in our morning’s text has God given to us? The mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ – the secret and hidden wisdom of God.

Gospel Growth
I Corinthians 3:1-15
Paul writes his first letter to the church at Corinth to apply the gospel to three major problems. The first problem is that the church is divided and so, Paul presents our union in Christ as the gospel solution. The second problem is sexual immorality and the third is disorderly worship. Once again, I ask us the question, “If we were writing the letter, in what order would we address these problems?” Paul begins by addressing the lack of unity. Paul exposes some of the causes of the divisions in the church. The first one is the replacing of God’s wisdom with the wisdom of this world. The wisdom of God is centered upon Christ crucified. In contrast to the cross, the wisdom of the world seems rational, clean, noble.
In our morning’s text, Paul presents the second cause of division in the church at Corinth. The church is confused about church leadership, and thus they misunderstand the growth of the church. As a leader of the church, Paul begins by honestly assessing the church at Corinth. From his assessment we learn, perhaps painfully, how Paul defines spiritual immaturity.
Paul writes in (2:16 – 3:1), “We have the mind of Christ…but you are infants in Christ.” Even though we have this amazing gift from God, it is possible for us to behave, not as spiritual persons, but as natural ones, as if we never received the gift! We consider it tragic anytime a young adult endowed with gifts refuses to apply them to productive and beautiful living. Perhaps a teen is musically gifted, a brilliant pianist. Instead of using his musical gifts, he wastes his time entertaining himself toward the state of laziness with little direction in life. He not only fails to chart a vocational tract, but he gives little thought to how he might uses his musical gifts in the mission of Christ. What a personal tragedy! What a waste of God’s free and useful gifts! We would say to this young man, “It is time you grew up and started applying what you know and using what you have been given.” Paul describes for us spiritual immaturity.
First of all the spiritually immature are not ready for in-depth study and application of the Bible. Paul has kindly and enthusiastically preached the gospel to the church in chapter 2 by announcing that the Holy Spirit has revealed to us the secret and hidden wisdom of God so that we have been given the very mind of Christ. This means that we have everything we need to not only gather and comprehend God’s truth but we more profoundly have the ability to apply it to right behavior in the expanding kingdom of God. Having the mind of Christ means that we have God’s view, application and mission. Sadly, we must confess that the church in our present day does not show much interest largely in serious, in-depth Bible study.
Secondly, spiritual immaturity produces jealousy and strife in the church. Surprisingly these jealous factions in the church at Corinth are formed by following good and effective leaders of the church! To follow Paul is a good choice. To follow Apollos is also a good choice. Spiritual immaturity often lurks behind good choices and churchy matters. We are careful not to express jealousy of our sister’s brand new BMW. Instead, we mask our jealous natures by discussing how our choice of a preacher is better than some other group’s choice of a preacher. This jealousy masquerades as spiritual discernment. A spiritually immature person may tell everyone that he follows preacher Bob for biblical and theological reasons. But in truth, he follows preacher Bob for cultural and preferential reasons. Any of us who have done likewise are spiritually immature. We have divided the Church for whom Christ died. Some congregations would never divide but they are resigned to live together in strife. This is a sign of spiritual immaturity. We must work through our differences. We must keep short accounts by confessing our sins and weaknesses to each other, by quickly forgiving each other, then moving on as we serve Christ together.
Paul speaks plainly to the church at Corinth concerning her spiritual immaturity and then he begins to correct her false views of church leadership and church growth. His first correction is this: God causes the growth of the church while church leaders are servants of God. Every leader in the church is a servant. Paul has a high view of servants. To be a servant in the church is a noble calling. In (5) Paul writes that church leaders as servants are instruments of faith! How did the Corinthians come to faith? They did so as they heard the preaching of the gospel through mere human beings, servants of Christ.
Paul likens servants in the church to farmers. He describes his work to start new congregations as planting, as sowing seed. To this day we refer to the starting of new congregations as church planting. He describes the work of Apollos as watering, as nourishing the plants. To this day, when we express our gratitude for a person who teaches us the word of God, we say, “Thank you for feeding us.” Paul does not arbitrarily choose this analogy but borrows it from Jesus.
Paul’s main point is that God causes the growth of the church. Leaders in the church have chores to do. Planting and watering are equally important. But when it comes to the source, the power, the cause of growth, the planter and the one who waters are instrumental. God gives the growth. Paul gives God all of the credit and glory for the growth of the church. Nevertheless, he holds a high view of the servant. He writes in (9), “For we are God’s fellow workers.” By this description Paul is in no way places mere human servants of God on an equal plain with God. He is not saying concerning our salvation, “God does his part and we must do our part.” Rather, he is saying quite clearly that the work the servant leader of the church performs is the very work of God. As God’s human instruments, we do the very work of God. We enter into his work.
Paul writes of the Church, “You are God’s field.” God owns us and he is working upon us to produce a beautiful and useful harvest. God has given to the Church servant-leaders who work diligently toward God’s good purpose of producing a harvest. Church leaders are part of the gathering and uniting work of God. Therefore, we should not use church leaders and our devotion to them as a means of dividing the church. Church leaders are not rock stars and we are not groupies. The Church glorifies God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God grows the church to increase his own glory. Let us lend our voices, our lives, our congregation and all her servant-leaders to the glory of God.
Paul employs a second analogy, comparing the Church to a building. He does so to explain his second correction of the church at Corinth. His second correction is this: We must be careful to build on the foundation of Christ only that which belongs to Christ. Once again, Paul is not making up new analogies, but he is using the analogies Jesus used. Jesus took this analogy from the prophets of the Old Covenant. In (10) Paul once again describes his high view of the servant leader in the church by writing, “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder, I laid a foundation.” Paul acknowledges that he has been able to do his good and excellent work by the grace of God. This means that God has given to him all of his skills, talents, resources, even his desire and drive to do the work of building the church. And thus, Paul has performed his work with excellence. Paul is an instrument of “gospel growth.” The foundation he has laid is Christ. This is gospel growth. The church is united to God by faith through Christ alone. We worship God alone as we stand upon the foundation of Christ. We follow Christ doing his work in this world and thus he is the foundation of the Church. This gospel growth is the only growth, which concerns the Church. Gospel growth is numerical growth and it is the spiritual growth within each and every one in the Church. It is growth, which establishes a wide variety of endeavors to expand the kingdom of God on earth. It is growth in the unity of the Church.
In (10-11) Paul tells us that the foundation of the Church is Christ and he expresses concern, “Let each one take care how he builds upon it.” How many times in the history of the Church has a person built a temple to his own personal legacy upon the foundation of Christ! How many times has a person led the congregation astray, robbing the devotions of Christ, distracting the congregation with alternative missions in this world other than the mission of Christ? How many individual members of the Church have joined with ulterior motives? After all, the Church is a great fishing hole for many a venture. The Church is a fine place to takes one’s children so that they might learn how to be good little boys and girls. Where else in our community can we find free entertainment? That preacher is better than Comedy Central and I can enjoy good music in a smoke free environment. In Paul’s analogy all of this would be wood, hay, and straw. All of this will be exposed by Judgment Day fire as worthless abuse of the Church.
“Let each one take care how he builds upon the foundation of Christ.” If we desire to build on the foundation of Christ anything that will survive, then we must be instruments of gospel growth. In Psalm 127, Solomon, the builder of the glorious temple of God wrote, “Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers work in vain.” The foundation is Christ and God causes the growth. He builds his church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. And so, what are the gold, silver, and precious stones, our work that survives the fire of Judgment Day? It is our adorning of Christ, our glorifying the holy name of God. From heaven, our ascended Lord Jesus commands us to follow him, to be his representatives, his mission headquarters upon earth. Our virtues, our good deeds, our evangelism and our worship are the gold, silver, and precious stones. We decorate the building of God. We gold leaf the dome so that the sunshine of his glory might bounce off into every direction, into every heart and home. We encrust the doorposts with jewels so that everyone who enters knows how grateful we are for so great a salvation and everlasting love. We set apart the building of God so that it cannot be mistaken for a common dwelling, a natural work, just another house in a suburban development of 1,000.
Paul says that the servant leaders of God’s Church will be paid for their labors. Then, in (14) he says that those of us who build with gold, silver and precious stones will receive a reward. What reward could God possibly give to us beyond salvation from sin and death? He gives to us the satisfaction of participating in the greatest enterprise ever to unfold in this world. He gives to us the meaning and purpose of life in serving the work and glory of God. In the end we are able to rejoice that we participated in gospel growth.
Paul applies the gospel to an even greater degree than to tell us that we will receive a most gratifying result from serving Christ. In (15) he writes, “If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” After all, our salvation is completely God’s work and it is not based at all in our personal works. On the final Day of Judgment this will be all the more clear to all of us as we see the worthless and vain parts of our lives burned. What shall remain is the work of God – his creating of us in his image; his redeeming of us in Christ. For some of us, glorious tributes unto God will also survive the flame. In the end, all of the glory shall be given to God. When the flame of Judgment burns low, the wild fire of divine glory shall blaze for an eternity and we shall feed its flames with our praises, our thanksgiving, and our testimonies to God’s grace. Gospel growth does not end with the darkening of this world but continues as we enter into the heavenly realm of unending worship and work to the glory of God.

The Temple
I Corinthians 3:16 – 4:5

The Old Testament temple was the house of God where his Holy Spirit would descend to fellowship with the people of God. It was at the center of the community, a place where God would dwell in the midst of his people. It was the center of worship where the people of God would express their utter devotion to the one, true God of the covenant. Paul tells the New Testament Church that she is the very temple of God.
Today we hear all too often the worn-out lesson that the church is not a building but a people. This is true and I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t understand this lesson. The missing lesson today is that the temple of God is the Church. Jesus Christ claimed to be the temple of God. In him the fellowship between God and humanity is perfect and ultimate. He perfectly houses the Holy Spirit. The apostles of Jesus claimed that the church was the temple of God. Jesus is the cornerstone of the building. The prophets and the apostles are the foundation and all of us members are the living stones of the building. The Holy Spirit dwells in our midst, teaching us, comforting us and empowering us to do God’s will. The church is the temple of God.
Do not confuse these words in (3:16-18) with Paul’s words later in the epistle at (6:19) where Paul likens each of us individuals to the temple of the Holy Spirit. At this early point in his epistle, Paul is teaching us that the church as a whole is the dwelling place of God’s Spirit.
Paul is still addressing the problem of division in the church at Corinth and he particularly identifies a wrong understanding of leadership and church growth. He issues a strong warning to anyone who would destroy God’s temple, that is destroy the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The destruction Paul has in mind is the division of the peace and purity of the Church, the disunity of those who are united to Christ. In the end, God will destroy the disrupter of Church unity. In this context, the holiness of the Church is the blessed unity we enjoy in Christ. This is the glory of the Holy Spirit, the brilliant display of God’s divine presence. As we enter the house of God, this glorious display unites our focus upon God alone. All of our differences, preferences, squabble, and agendas pale in comparison to the blinding light of God’s glory. The peace and purity of the Church is our common goal and enjoyment and thus we participate in the holiness of the temple of God. In other words, the Holy Spirit unites us to God and to one another. This is God dwelling in our midst. This is the holy temple of God.
What were the destroyers of this holy union in the church at Corinth? The destroyers of this union are the individual members of the church who live according to the wisdom of this world. Paul describes this worldly wisdom as folly. He uses scripture to connect this worldly wisdom to the wisdom of the serpent, who deceived Eve in the garden of Eden. Worldly wisdom has in mind the deception of God’s children, the twisting of the truth with the purpose of destroying our fellowship with God. That’s what the serpent achieved in the garden and this is the result of all worldly wisdom. Paul uses more scripture to describe it as futile. It is not productive but instead it destroys the unity of the church.
What is the solution to this destructive problem? Paul’s solution is not the circling of wagons, the closing of doors, the policing of the mind, and the censoring of literature. Instead, Paul’s solution is one of great freedom. We are free in this world because God alone owns us. The church, filled with the Holy Spirit is able to use all truth and fields in this world to the glory of God. We are not splintered into factions by holding to the truth but rather, we are united by our gathering truth from the four corners of the world. We are not bound to follow one man and his school of thought but as the church we may glean from every field in the world – from science, from fictional literature, from personal experience and from various religious traditions. This is what Paul means as he writes in (21-23), “For all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world or life or death or the present or the future – all are yours, and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.” We can learn from history and we can chart the future by making plans to serve Christ throughout the world. What is the source of such freedom? We belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God. This entire world belongs to God and he has made it for his own glory. We belong to God and to his glory. Therefore, we use all things to his glory. This is the mission of the church.
The Church needs trustworthy leaders who will assure that we work together to the glory of God. These leaders are first of all, “servants of Christ.” Christ is the head of the Church and so all leaders appointed in the Church serve Christ. Christ’s guidance for the Church is founded upon the divine writ of the Old Testament. Christ’s guidance for the Church is expounded and applied by the apostles of Christ preserved in the divine writ of the New Testament. And so, Church leaders serve Christ by attending to this teaching of the Holy Scriptures. Thus, they are also “stewards of the mysteries of God.” While a leader ought to be as clear as the teaching of Jesus, he must also present to the Church the infinite God who dwells in unapproachable light. This God cannot be completely comprehended. He has clearly revealed to us that which is necessary for our salvation and faithful living before him, but he is mysterious in his character and in his actions. The Church leader as a “servant of Christ,” presents the teaching of Christ in its powerful clarity, and so the Church knows what to do and where to go. The Church leader as a “steward of the mysteries of God,” presents God as the Holy Scriptures present him, thus moving the Church to worship him as God alone.
These Church leaders keep the final Day of Judgment ever before them remembering that God is the final judge of their labors. The individual whose mind is devoted to worldly wisdom divides the church by often assessing the church leaders according to worldly wisdom. Many church leaders bow to this pressure and begin to do that which worldly wisdom requires of them. Paul tells the Church at Corinth that he is not swayed much by their opinions and expectations. In Paul’s mind, the opinions and expectations of any human being pale in comparison to the judgments of God. This divine Judge knows the motives of the heart and the purposes of the mind. He is able to judge “the servant of Christ, the steward of the mysteries of God.” On the last Day of Judgment, those of us who have served God will be commended for the work we have accomplished to his honor and glory.
When each individual member of the Church sees himself as the judge of others, especially of the leaders, the unity of the Church is destroyed. Nothing in the Holy Scriptures instruct us to exercise ourselves as independent judges, but instead we are taught to make judgments together, to hear cases together, to reconcile one to another, and to seek the counsel of the whole. Individual opinions held against the whole of the church community do not win commendation from the apostle Paul. He warns that such maverick wisdom destroys the Church for whom Christ died.
The temple of God is a place where we behold the glory of God. It is a place where the divine voice is heard clearly through the special revelation given to us in God’s Holy Word. The temple of God is a place where we enjoy the fellowship of the Spirit, dwelling with God, resting in him, nourished by him, living at peace with him and with one another. The temple of God is a place where the servants of God lead by offering to the people the very words of God, to aid in the blessed union between God and his people. The individual voice heard in the temple is the very voice of God. The collective voice belongs to the people, the temple itself. Our corporate voice is one of response to the clarion voice of God. When we hear God say, “Follow me,” we respond, “We will follow you.” When God says, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, listen to him!” the Church responds, “We will listen to your Son, our Lord.”
The gospel of the temple is the one voice proclaiming to the people that Christ Jesus, the foundation and head has sufficiently built the house of God and has filled it with his very own Spirit so that God might dwell in the midst of his people. The people respond in faith and gratefulness. Our prayers, our songs, all of our offerings rehearse the loving kindness of God, especially the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, who is the Wisdom of God, the Servant and the Steward. To him be the glory both now and forevermore. Amen.

Fathers through the Gospel - I Corinthians 4:6-21
What is at the heart of the Corinthian problem? Why is their view of church leadership and spiritual growth in the church skewed? In this section of his letter, Paul exposes the root of pride. While the Corinthians have divided themselves according to certain leaders in the church, Paul lets them know that he and Apollos are on the same page, working together for the peace and purity of the church. These divisions according to personal preference have a nasty, feathery root, called pride, as difficult to pluck from the heart of humanity as pulling a dandelion root out of Oregon clay.
Corinthian pride manifests itself in at least two different ways. The first manifestation is going beyond what is written in the inspired text of God’s Word. In (6) Paul tells the Corinthians to learn from the Apostles, “not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.” Corinthian pride moved some people in the church to promote favoritism. This favoritism was formed by people considering themselves to be more spiritually enlightened and mature than others. This supposed spiritual enlightenment and maturity was achieved by going beyond the written Word of God.
One of the designs and benefits of a closed canon, that is a definitive and written Holy Bible, is that all of us in the Church submit to and use the very same words of God. Extra-biblical revelation given to one individual allows that person to elevate himself above his fellow members in the church, to prophet status, giving him an exclusive corner on God’s message for us all. Corinthian pride was elevating certain individuals in the church based upon claims of revelation beyond what is written. One of Paul’s main lessons in this letter is that the office and authority of any church leader flows directly from Christ, the only head of the Church, rendering all leaders servants of Christ, ministers of the written Word of God.
The second manifestation of Corinthian pride is found in (7), namely, the forgetting of our great need of divine grace. Paul tells the Corinthian Church that all of the spiritual enlightenment she possesses she has received from God. But Corinthian pride has caused people in the church to boast about their spiritual maturity and possession of divine revelation as if they had personally accomplished it all. Paul presents the gospel of the cross once again to destroy this insidious pride robbing the church of divine grace.
Paul describes in colorful language the over-realized position of the Corinthians as self-made, self-sufficient sovereigns. In contrast, he describes himself among the apostles in terms of the gospel of the cross. The apostles, the leaders of the church, stand between heaven and earth sentenced to death. For the glory of Christ, they have become fools, that is, they have given all of the credit and honor to Christ for what they know and possess.
In contrast to the proud Corinthians, the apostles have taken the path of Christ, that is, the path of suffering in this life for the glory of God. Like Christ, they have put the business of the kingdom first before personal needs, comforts, and desires. They have counted all things for loss but for Christ. The apostles have taken the teaching of Jesus to heart and so, they return good for evil. Paul makes the contrast as stark as possible by calling the Corinthians “kings,” and then by calling the apostles, “scum and sewage.” Paul’s point is that the Corinthians have used their connection with Christ to promote and elevate themselves. In contrast the apostles have used their connection to Christ to glorify Christ and not themselves. The gospel of the cross moves us to follow Christ so that Christ is glorified. Paul offers this gospel of the cross as the antidote for pride.
Paul loves the Corinthians and so, he adds to these strong words, pastoral reasoning for writing to them in this manner. Paul tells them that his purpose is not to shame them. Indeed, many people think that Christianity is a shame-based religion. Today, people often describe the God of the Bible as an over-bearing parent who constantly makes his children feel guilty and ashamed for their behavior. Christianity as it is described in the Bible is based upon the gospel, the message of how we are freed from guilt and shame. The gospel of the cross tells us about Jesus Christ, who bore our guilt and shame in his crucifixion and death. And so Paul applies this gospel to his relationship with the Corinthian church. He does not intend to shame them but to correct them. They are worth his attempts to correct and to improve. This correction unto improvement is not sourced in Paul’s personal opinion, but rather his correction comes from the word of God and thus it is admonition.
Paul now offers a specific solution to rid the Corinthians of their pride. If they are to live according to the gospel of the cross, then they will need fathers who live according to this gospel. We would all do well to take Paul’s advice to find fathers who live according to the gospel of the cross. In our world, we are being told to find mentors or to be mentors. Year ago, Harry Reeder, who is now Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, would say to PCA church planters, “You need more dead mentors.” Paul uses the term “father” rather than mentor and by doing so, he adds a familial, loving component to the relationship. He describes the Corinthians as “his beloved children.” Then he describes himself as their “father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
In between these two loving descriptions, he writes a sentence that is piercing to the core: “For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers.” The Corinthians were gathering knowledge about God’s word from good sources, “guides in Christ.” They were well educated theologically and biblically. What did they lack? They were missing the context and purpose of the acquiring of knowledge. They were proud because they knew so much. Indeed one of the idols of the larger Corinthian culture was knowledge. To accumulate knowledge was an act of worship. Paul was not anti-intellectual or anti-knowledge, nor are we in our church. However, even the good gifts of God can be made idols by us as we elevate them above God himself. The gospel of the cross prevents us from elevating anything, including ourselves, above Christ.
What is the difference between a “guide in Christ” and a “father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”? For Paul the difference is this: a guide in Christ will supply us with knowledge about God. A father in Christ Jesus through the gospel will supply us with knowledge about God, then live according to it as we observe and learn to do the same. A guide can be kept at a comfortable, non-relational distance. A father is a member of the family with authority to make a difference in our lives. With a guide, we can close his book and forget about him, but a father is present daily, interacting with us, loving us, keeping us accountable, asking us, “How are you applying the knowledge you have accumulated today from your dead mentors?”
We need “fathers in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” We need men further along in their walk with Christ to show us the way, to encourage us, to advise us and to support us. We need men who are related to us by our common faith in Christ, who are living according to the gospel of the cross. Do you have a “father in Christ Jesus through the gospel”? The Church is the context supplied by God to provide such fathers for us. Who are the fathers in our congregation? Are you sitting at their feet? A father is not here defined by his age but by his experience in Christ and the gospel. Young children need “fathers in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Teens need these fathers. Adults need “fathers in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
The replacing of guides with fathers in the church will destroy our pride by causing us to rely upon each other and ultimately upon Christ alone. The relational aspect is key. The authority and accountability aspect is key. With a guide, you are “The Man.” With a father, you are the child. You may hire a guide but you must submit to a father. But Paul counsels us to find fathers in Christ Jesus through the gospel. In such a relationship pride is deflated completely for Christ is the one and only Man and his gospel of the cross is our one and only Way.

Let Judgment Begin in the Church
I Corinthians 5:1-13

Paul addresses three main problems in the Corinthian Church as he writes his letter. The first problem is disunity of the church. The second is sexual immorality within the church. The third problem is disorderly worship. Along the way he addresses other related problems as he pastorally instructs and corrects the church to live according to the gospel of the cross. In Chapters 5-7 Paul addresses the problem of sexual immorality within the church. He briefly addresses other related problems like lawsuits between Christians. Paul’s main message as he tackles these problems, especially sexual immorality, is that we Christians experience true freedom as we behave like Christ and not through libertine lifestyles, or as David Jackman writes, through “pagan license.”
Paul broaches this sensitive issue with a bomb. The Corinthians’ sexual immorality is not even tolerated among pagans! Supposed sexual freedom was not invented in the 1960’s. Sexual promiscuity is an ancient problem, a rampant one. One of the pillars of paganism in any form and in any era is sexual immorality. Paul’s first concern is Corinthian toleration of sexual immorality within the church. The Corinthian Church is tolerating sexual deviancy that Corinthain pagans would never allow or practice! The Corinthian Church was tolerating a man having sex with his father’s wife.
We may think, “Wow! The Corinthian Church was tweaked and twisted! This first century church is a rarity. Sexual immorality is mostly a pagan problem, not a church problem. That’s why we have come to the church where we are safe and free from these sexual deviancies.” We may think this way but it is not close to reality. Statistics report that sexual promiscuity is equally present in the church community as it is in the non-church community. And so we think, “Yes, that’s true because so much of the church does not hold to the Bible and truly apply it.” We may be shocked to discover that sexual immorality is most rampant in fundamentalist churches in America. But the next part of the story is sobering. Though sexual immorality has plagued American fundamentalist churches it has so only slightly more than other parts of the American Church. Altogether we are sexually sick and paralyzed.
I am not picking on my fundamentalist past but rather I am facing the music and reflecting upon the ironic and insidious nature of a church that rails against sexual immorality in the world yet is herself riddled with twisted, sexual behavior. The fundamentalism of my childhood was kind, biblical, and helpful in many aspects. Perhaps your experiences have been as positive as mine. However, not all fundamentalism has been good. One of the bastions of fundamentalism in my childhood was Hyles Anderson College in Hammond, Indiana and First Baptist Church, Hammond, whose late Pastor was the Reverend Hyles. He built this independent church to be the largest congregation in the state of Indiana. In 1993, Moody Monthly Magazine, a publication of Moody Bible Institute, one of the centers of fundamentalism, broke the sad story of sexual immorality within the leadership of this church. Deacons were having sex with wives of other deacons and pastors. One deacon was convicted of sexual molestation. It is important that a fundamentalist magazine reported this story, not the quote “liberal media who hates the church.” Paul writes, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you.” Who reported to Paul? Other Christians, members of the church. I hold Moody in high regard for covering the story rather than covering up to keep its fundamentalism appearing squeaky clean.
When John Steinbeck creates the character of the preacher in The Grapes of Wrath, who baptizes little girls and then takes them into the tall grass behind the church building, he is not merely attacking the church with sensational lies and fantasies. Sinclair Lewis did not invent Elmer Gantry out of thin air in 1927. Fundamentalism has been a hothouse for sexual sin from the very beginning. Let me speak frankly from my personal, pastoral experience: When I meet a minister, who rails continually about the sexual sins of the world around him, in almost every case, I am speaking to a fundamentalist pastor, who has some deep sexual problems. One such pastor told me years ago that his missionary Baptist Church would no longer allow its men to wear ties because the very fashion design of the tie points to the problem. I was talking to a sexually sick man. For years, Ted Haggard, as pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs and as leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, railed against homosexuality and sexual promiscuity. In 2006 Mike Jones, a prostitute told the national media about his relationship with Ted Haggard, leading to Haggard’s resignation and unfolding confessions. Many Christians are upset with the film “Jesus Camp” that exposes the idiosyncrasies of Pentecostal fundamentalism. In this film, the director inserts an actual clip of Haggard preaching at New Life Church. You can see this clip on Youtube. Haggard’s preaching is grievious once you know the rest of his story. He rails on how clear the Bible is against homosexuality. Then he jokes with the audience saying, “I think I know what you did last night. If you send me $1,000.00 I won’t tell your wife.” The whole church erupts in laughter. Has anyone read I Corinthians 5 lately?
Paul has much to say to fix the problem. First of all he calls us to the first step of repentance: mourning our sin. With grief and hatred we turn from our sin. The Corinthians were arrogant! Perhaps they believed themselves to be free and above rules for sexual conduct. Paul calls the entire church to mourn, to repent. It is not only the deviant man and woman caught in adultery who has sinned, but the entire church has sinned through toleration. The second step Paul commands is the removal of the man who is openly connected to his father’s wife. Paul commands this with apostolic authority. As an apostle, he has found this man to be guilty and so he tells the church that as they remove this man from the communion of the church, they do so in the name of Jesus, with apostolic authority. This unrepentant man is not allowed to pretend that he is OK, to pose as if he is following Christ and living in the freedom of Christ. Rather, he is to be delivered to Satan, to live in the realm, which is governed by pagan license rather than Christ-like behavior. The purpose of delivering this man to Satan is so that he might wake up, match his bodily sins with the realm that gives license to such sins and then repent and run back to the Church begging for restoration. The removing of a person from the communion of the church is only to be done for the purpose of restoration, for the good of that person’s spirit on the coming day of judgment.
Paul mentions the Corinthian pride and arrogance again. Apparently, Corinthian pride allowed the church to reason, “We are strong enough, we are gracious enough to tolerate a little bit of sin among us. It won’t affect us.” Paul says that even a little pinch of yeast makes the entire lump of dough rise. The church must attend to the sexual immorality of her members. Of course, in many churches today, there is no communion. In an auditorium, individuals sit next to each other but they are not connected to one another in any spiritual way. They certainly are not accountable to these strangers on either side of them listening to a preacher joke, “I think I know what you did last night. If you pay me $1,000.00 I won’t tell your wife.”
As Paul uses the analogy of yeast and dough to command us to deal with the individual sins of church members, he preaches the gospel is a powerful way. The reason we can face our sins and confront the sins of one another is that Jesus Christ as the Passover Lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, we can celebrate our freedom from our sins. We no longer are slaves to those sins. We no longer have to fear the exposure and correction of our sins. Christ’s death has paid the penalty for our sins and removed the guilt and shame of our sins and so, we can face our past, our sinful records, and yet rejoice. This is what Paul means by stretching the analogy by saying, “Let us celebrate the festival with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” The gospel allows us to own and confess our sins, admitting openly what we have done against a holy God. The gospel of the cross declares the end of our sins and so they pose no threat to us.
One of the greatest problems preventing discipline in the Church is that we do not truly believe and apply this gospel and so the church is not a safe place for sinners. When a member’s sin is exposed, the gasps of shocked members can be heard 500 miles away and reports run the self-righteous gossip circuit quicker than fiber-optics could ever deliver an email. The sinful member is never offered the gospel of the cross but instead placed in a vulnerable position to answer for himself. Today, much of the church is wholly unsafe for sinners. Until we can assure our members that the church is safely governed by the gospel of the cross, we have no business pretending to hold court. The removal of a person with the purpose of restoration comes hand in glove with our application of the gospel of the cross.
Paul’s third step is for us to stop associating with church members who are unabashedly sexually immoral. Listen carefully to Paul at this point. He says that he has commanded the church to not associate with sexually immoral people who are members of the church. He makes it clear that he has never commanded the church to separate herself from sexually immoral, or otherwise sinful people outside of the church. Paul’s command has nothing to do with a fear that we might be influenced to behave immorally if we associate with immoral people. Christians are called to live in the midst of immorality and to stand in Christ pure and holy. Paul’s command has everything to do with spiritual identity and unity. The reason we expel a sexually immoral person from church membership is so that person does not think that his behavior need not reflect his identity and union to Christ. We do not expel him to protect ourselves from his deviancy. The Holy Spirit makes us strong to withstand the influence of sexual immorality. The reason we expel a sexually immoral person is so that he might wake up and embrace the true freedom that comes from living like Christ rather than living according to pagan license. Some people think that they can enjoy all of the benefits of the communion of Christ within the church yet live according to pagan license. The apostle Paul did not tolerate such a duality. If we desire the benefits of true freedom in Christ, then we must live like Christ. The Church is to help people live like Christ. The church gives people 70 times 7 opportunities to reform. The person removed is the person who defiantly faces loving confrontation to say, “I don’t care what you guys say, I am going to live this way and you have no authority to stop me.” Authority and community are inseparable, not only in the church but in any grouping of human beings.
Paul’s fourth step for us in putting an end to sexual immorality is for us to stop judging the world around the church and to start judging the church. Paul says that as an apostle he does not judge those outside the church. God alone judges them. The Church is to judge her own members concerning holy behavior, to aid us all in living like Christ. When the can of worms is pried open, to the demonic glee and giggles of Satan’s minions, the Church is found to be sordid beyond pagan escapades. The world arises with one voice and calls us hypocrites who tolerate incest and bestiality. In the fray we complain that the world hates God and us, that we are being persecuted by a sexually deviant world. We sit for decades arguing within the four walls of the church against judging one another and refusing to discipline according to the apostles’ teaching. Instead, we make scapegoats out of members who commit crimes on our list rather than confronting the sins on God’s list. The gospel of the cross puts an end to the deviancy of toleration. The gospel of the cross declares to us that Christ Jesus, the Passover Lamb has destroyed the threat and penalty of our sins and so we can face the truth, live sincerely without fear of our past haunting us. We can confront the sins of one another with the purpose of restoration and true freedom in Christ.

Keeping Clear of Court
I Corinthians 6:1-11

Nearly seven years ago, a Christian general contractor sued Evergreen Presbyterian Church three times in Washington County Court. By Oregon State law he had the right to sue for breach of a written contract, then for breach of a verbal contract, and finally for breach of an implied contract. For each hearing of these suits, the marquee in the courthouse read, Grace Construction vs. Evergreen Presbyterian Church. Clearly both names identify the parties to be Christian and thus Paul’s admonition to the Church at Corinth applied to us.
While the second suit was pending, both parties agreed to organize mediation by ministers of the church at large. Evergreen was to choose one minister and Grace Construction was to choose one minister. Those two ministers were to choose a third minister. These three churchmen were to consider the alleged breach of contract and render an opinion. Their conclusion was that Evergreen should pay Grace Construction $7,000.00. When our elders asked these ministers for a reason, they replied, “The Holy Spirit has told us that you owe Grace Construction $7,000.00.” We replied, “Grace Construction has sued us twice for $110,000.00 and she can sue us one more time for that amount according to Oregon State law.” The churchmen responded, “We have not considered the suits pending in court. The scripture commands you to stay out of civil court and to resolve these matters within the church” We replied, “Have you considered that Grace Construction has sued us and that we have no recourse?” The churchmen said, “You should settle with Grace Construction outside of court.” We humbly asked, “Would this scripture instruct Grace Construction to withdraw her suits so that we could settle outside of court?” The churchmen replied, “Since you are a church, you must follow this scripture. We believe that the Holy Spirit has commanded you to pay Grace Construction $7,000.00.”
Evergreen did not pay this amount and Grace Construction sued us a third time for $110,000.00. Judge Stevens, who heard the case and found no written, verbal or implied contract took a point of privilege to address both the parties in court. He said, “I am a Roman Catholic, and I must say that it is grievous to me to see Christians suing Christians in my courtroom. Grace Construction never submitted a bid to do work for Evergreen Presbyterian Church and I have found no evidence of any semblance of a contract between the two parties.” Judge Stevens then ordered Grace Construction to pay the sum total of Evergreen’s legal fees.
During this ordeal, Evergreen elders and members prayed over the text before us considering our obedience of it. Consider these points I have gleaned from the text. First of all, Paul says that the Church is competent to judge matters between brothers in Christ. In (2) he asks, “Are you incompetent to try trivial cases?” The answer is “No. The church is competent to do try cases of weight and relevance.” In (5) he says, “Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between brothers?” Again, the answer is “No. There are sufficiently wise members of the church who can settle disputes.” In saying so, Paul is not making light of serious matters recommending that we casually without due thought and organization attempt to settle matters between members of the church. For example, it would be foolish not to consult attorneys who know Oregon State law when it applies to two Christian parties. Elders of the church should not pretend to know the civil law and they should refrain from ruling in matters that are clearly given under civil law. Such prudence can be achieved short of public court hearings.
John Knox, leader of the Scottish Reformation in the mid-1500’s structured church government to provide courts of appeal. The session of elders of each local congregation was the first court of appeals to hear cases between two or more brothers who already attempted to reconcile privately on their own. Either party in the congregation, could appeal the case heard by the Session to a higher court, that of the presbytery. The presbytery would either uphold the session’s ruling or overturn it. The parties involved could then appeal to the higher court of the General Assembly. Through such an appeal system, justice could be better served within the Church. Knox’s good organization became the model for the courts of appeal we now enjoy in our American judicial system. It is also retained in our present-day Presbyterian polity. Had Evergreen been able to use our Presbyterian courts of appeal to settle the dispute between Grace Construction and Evergreen, we may have been successful in stopping short of Judge Steven’s piercing and public admonition. Instead we foolishly agreed to a selection of ministers who had no accountability to the church they served and who did not agree on biblical principles of church authority. They knew nothing of Oregon State law nor did they care to. We should have contacted Peacemaker’s Ministries, a group of Christian attorneys who mediate between Christian parties and paid them $150.00 per hour to assist us privately. Peacemakers would have applied the scripture and civil law to both Christian parties.
Secondly, Paul says that it is better to be wronged, even defrauded, than to go to civil court to fight for your rights and innocence. In (7) he writes, “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?” Evergreen elders took these questions to heart and we were troubled in conscience for an extended length of agonizing consideration. However, without passing the buck, we resolutely believed that these questions are addressed to the aggressive Christian party who files the suit. If Grace Construction truly believed that Evergreen had wronged her by breach of contract, then Grace Construction should have been willing to be wronged, even defrauded rather than filing suit in civil court.
Should Evergreen have refused to represent herself in court? Should she have refrained from appearing and thus give in to Grace Construction? We elders wrestled with this very action and concluded that we were already summoned to court by Grace Construction’s suit. The names were already on the marquee. The apostle’s reason for staying out of court would not be served. Jesus instructs brothers to settle on the way to court. Once Grace Construction filed a suit, the walk to the court had come to an end. Paul says that it is wrong for us to file suit against another Christian party. In (8) Paul writes, “But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!” By God’s grace, Evergreen did no wrong nor commit fraud against Grace Construction.
Where is the gospel in all of this? The gospel is certainly not Evergreen defending her past actions according to I Corinthians 6. We have sought to obey the word of God in a most difficult situation and so now, we are in need of the soothing gospel. The gospel is not only refreshing for sinners, but it is also soothing for those who have been sinned against. If we have been wronged in any way, the gospel frees us to do the right, to care less about money and reputation and more about the peace and purity of Christ’s Church.
Paul preaches the gospel in conjunction with his instruction against sexual immorality and the filing of suits against Christians. He assures us that those who behave this way without repentance are not children of God, heirs of the kingdom of God. Such behavior is unrighteous and so, those who behave in these ways are unrighteous. Paul supplies a list that is provocative yet incomplete. He must have had in mind particular sins that were plaguing the Corinthian Church. Taking Christian brothers to court is in the same category as everything Paul lists in (9-10). Any kind of idolatry is as wrong as sexual immorality. Adultery is as wrong as sodomy. Greedy people are as wrong as thieves. Revilers, those who make abusive verbal attacks on others are as sinful as drunks who disturb the peace. If this behavior is your identity and regular, unchecked mode of operation, then you will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Indeed, many of us members of the church have pasts littered with these sins. But a gracious work of God has made us righteous inheritors of the kingdom of God. After listing these equally disturbing sins, Paul writes in (11) “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Paul does not list this gracious work of God in the order of most of our good systematic theologies. He is not building the Ordo Salutis, that is the order of salvation, that logical order of the parts and actions of salvation, which would most certainly present justification first followed by sanctification. John Calvin is most likely correct to note that there is no logical order in this triplet, but rather, a thematic presentation of our great and complete salvation. Paul assigns these three gracious works to Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God.
Paul writes in (11), “But you were washed,” referring to the blood of Christ washing away our sin and to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. To Titus, Paul writes, “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” The Holy Spirit washes us in his work of regeneration. This renewal, this regeneration logically occurs in the Ordo Salutis prior to justification and sanctification, yet Paul uses the less clear term, “washing” that may refer to the work of Christ as well as the work of the Holy Spirit. He has no logical order in mind, but instead he is describing God’s amazing grace for us.
Paul then writes, “you were sanctified,” referring to the work of the Holy Spirit graciously making us holy. In our confessional, systematic order, we describe sanctification as the gracious yet ongoing work of God. But here, Paul speaks of sanctification definitively. He speaks as if God has completed his work of making us holy! For more details about definitive sanctification, read John Murray’s classic essay titled, “Definitive Sanctification.” Paul is advising Corinthians to make a clean break with their past. He presents the saving work of God as powerfully as it is. While sanctification is a progressive work of God in our lives, nevertheless, we are strong enough in Christ right now to make clean breaks. We are the holy ones of God. We are the righteous inheritors of the kingdom of God. When we sue fellow Christians or sin in any way, we are acting inconsistently with who we are in Christ. Therefore, we repent of our sin rather than reason, “God’s sanctification is a progressive work and so, he has not equipped me yet to keep clear of court. Perhaps ten years from now I will have progressed to a Christian maturity that would allow me to trust the courts of the church.” We can keep clear of court now by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Finally, Paul writes, “you were justified,” referring to the work of Christ satisfying God’s wrath for sin in his death upon the cross and the heavenly Father declaring us to be righteous in Christ. This legal and permanent declaration of God about us is the gospel of the cross. “There is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus!” Those of us who have put our faith in Christ alone have received graciously from God this permanently binding declaration that our unrighteousness has been imputed to Christ and that his righteousness has been imputed to us. Thanks be to God!

Epilogue: About two months ago I entered the Evergreen office where Frank handed me two pieces of mail. The forms appeared to be insurance forms protecting the work of Grace Construction up to 2 million dollars. Evergreen Presbyterian Church was listed on the forms. My heart dropped into my stomach and I immediately called the General Contractor working on our phase two building. He said, “Yes, I have sub-contracted Grace Construction to complete a portion of the work.” I informed him of our past with Grace Construction and he said, “I knew that Grace Construction has a bad reputation and I thought to myself that as a Christian I ought to give them a second chance. What better work site for a second chance than a church? I had no idea that Grace’s bad reputation was connected to you!”
God has more than a sense of humor. He applies a crazy grace. Who would have orchestrated such a crazy grace? To my knowledge, Grace Construction has completed its work on our site. No words have been exchanged between us. In the silence but for the sounds of diligent and expert work, God is working out his grace for us. It is a small beginning, but who knows where it will end.

The Temple: Part Two
I Corinthians 6:12-20

After his excursus on Christians refraining from taking Christians to court, Paul returns to his addressing of sexual immorality in the church. He offers three checks on personal liberty. He does no violence to personal liberty but rather helps us to discover genuine freedom. The first check is to ask the question, “Is my present exercising of liberty helpful?” I may not be breaking the law. I may be exercising my rights and enjoying my liberties. But is my behavior helpful to me or to anyone else? If the honest answer is “No, my behavior is not helpful but it is harmful,” then I should not do it.
The second check is to ask the question, “Is my present behavior enslaving?” If the answer is, “Yes,” then I should refrain from it. My behavior may enslave others and it may enslave myself. As a connected member of the church, I would do well to ask a brother or a band of brothers to answer the question for me. This would be a helpful check on my ability to see my behavior for what it truly is.
The third check is to ask the question, “Does my behavior agree with the natural design and purpose of my body?” Paul writes, “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food.” Therefore, eating agrees with the natural design and purpose of the body. To starve myself so that I can be skinny does violence to the natural design and purpose of my body. But is there a greater design and purpose for my body than eating? Yes, the greater design and purpose for my body is to glorify God through the use of it. This is the greatest design and purpose of our bodies: To glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Does sexual immorality serve this greatest of designs and purpose? No, it does not and so sexual immorality is not genuine freedom. The more a person glorifies God and enjoys him, the freer that person is.
Paul presents the gospel of the resurrection in (14) as the key and starting point for ridding the church of sexual immorality. God has raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. All of us who are united to the Lord Jesus shall also be resurrected on the last day by divine power. The gospel of the resurrection communicates how precious we are in the eyes of God. The gospel of the resurrection announces a great measure of true freedom for all of us who have been crucified with Christ. In Christ’s resurrection, we have already been raised to new life. On the final Day of Judgment, we shall be raised body and soul to that eternal and glorified state prepared for us by Jesus Christ, our Lord.
With this gospel clearly fixed in our minds, we begin to consider what God’s word says about any given topic including sexual immorality in the church. In (14) Paul presents the gospel of the resurrection and then writes three times, “Do you not know?” Each one of these statements introduces another biblical consideration moving us to rid the church of sexual immorality. These biblical considerations flow from the gospel. They are applications of the gospel to our behavior.
First of all in (15) Paul writes, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!” We are being asked by the apostle Paul to apply the biblical truth of our union to Christ. As members of Christ should not our behavior reflect the purity of Christ? If Christ has set us free, why would we use our freedom to enslave a woman?
Secondly in (16) Paul writes, “Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’” This may be the clearest statement in the Bible reserving sexual activity for the marital relationship. Paul quotes Moses describing the marital union: “The two will become one flesh.” Marriage is partially defined by sexual union. That is what Moses means by these words. “One flesh” is not as mystical as we make it out to be. I have heard Christian married couples say, “After 30 years of marriage we know how each other thinks. In fact, we think the same about nearly everything.” Others say, “Have you noticed how both spouses after 50 years of marriage look like identical twins!” Other Christians say, “This marital oneness is shared mission. In our marriage we have the same purpose of life and we share the same goals.” While all of this may be true, Moses and Paul in our text for today simply describe the oneness of marriage as sexual union.
Paul argues that this sexual union is exclusive; it is reserved for a particular marital union and so it should not be shared with a third party. Have you bought the lie that sexual exclusivity of marriage has robbed you of personal freedom? A prostitute comes with payments, rules, and risks. How is it that any of us could call such an arrangement “sexual liberation”? An extra-marital affair comes with secretive rules, hurts, complications and limitations. Can someone explain to me how an extra-marital affair is a benefit of personal freedom? Enter: casual sex. This is a further development of the lie that sexual promiscuity is true personal freedom. The term “casual” does not describe the quality of the act but the lack of relationship between the two who engage in the act. “I don’t want a relationship; I simply want to engage in an act of intensity.” By God’s design, the sexual act is intense matching the depth of relationship. The intensity of the act promotes the bond of marital relationship and makes sense within that relationship.
Paul reminds us that we are joined to Christ and we have become one spirit with him. This is quite interesting. Paul is discussing our bodies, primarily, and then he inserts this statement about our spirits, the spiritual bond between Christ and us. In life our bodies and spirits are inseparable. What we do with our bodies has a profound impact upon our spirits. The condition of our spirits has a profound impact upon what we do with our bodies. And so, Paul commands us in (18) to “flee sexual immorality.” I am confident that Paul has in mind Joseph, who was tempted by Potiphar’s wife. She clutched his robe; he wriggled free and fled the scene. This is excellent advice. We cannot consistently avoid situations of temptation, but we should do our best. When we find ourselves in a situation of temptation we should flee from it.
Surprisingly, Paul does not conclude this section by arguing that I should consider the harm my sin inflicts upon my spouse or some other member of the church. Rather, in (18) he reminds me that my sexual immorality is a sin against my own body. I hurt myself. The gospel is good for me personally. All of the biblical commands that flow from the gospel are good for me personally.
In light of this personal application of the gospel, Paul’s third statement concerns an application for individuals. In (19) he writes, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” We are now asked to apply the biblical truth of the indwelling Holy Spirit to each of us getting rid of our sexual immorality. Earlier in this letter, Paul teaches us that the church as a whole is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now, in today’s text, he teaches us that each of us as individuals is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Through out my childhood, this verse was ripped out of its context and used as the biblical warrant prohibiting my smoking of cigarettes. I was told, “Don’t smoke because your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.” I am not standing today to make a statement about smoking cigarettes. I will let the Surgeon General have the floor on this issue. I am not saying that this verse cannot be applied to such actions. But I must say that in light of the context of sexual immorality infiltrating the church, the application of this most important verse to the prohibiting of smoking seems to be trite, off-target, and dangerously misapplied.
Paul is commanding us to rid our individual lives of sexual immorality as we remember that the very Spirit of Christ dwells in us. The temple of the Old Covenant was most holy space. Those who entered offered proper sacrifices for cleansing. The powerful and glorious presence of God would descend to shake the temple foundations and to fill its courts with fire and smoke. Christ Jesus claimed to be the temple of God. As the Righteous One of God, perfectly pure and holy in all his thoughts, words, and deeds, Jesus was the holiest space imaginable on earth for the descending Holy Spirit. As Jesus died on the cross bearing our sins, even becoming sin for us, he became the temple defiled. The wrath of God destroyed that temple only to raise it to new and eternal glory on the first day. The risen Lord Jesus joined by all of his followers, members of the church, endowed with the gospel of the resurrection, becomes the temple of God. Each of us individual members of Christ are living stones of the temple and each of us are individual temples housing the glory of God, the very Holy Spirit of God.
As we consider all of this glory, can we ever justify personal and private sexual immorality? The temple is the house of God, owned by God. True freedom is not void of ownership. As the temple of God, each of us is owned by God. From this ownership flows genuine freedom. I am finally free to glorify God in my body. You are free to glorify God in your body. Each of us are finally freed from our rebellion against God, able to rest in him, to live as he has designed and commanded us to live. This is true freedom, to be a temple of God.

The Gospel and Marriage
I Corinthians 7: 1-16

The Church at Corinth had written a letter to Paul asking his advice on issues related to sex and marriage. He had been informed about the sexual immorality tolerated within the church. The members of the church undoubtedly held differing opinions and were advocating a number of solutions to their predicaments. They desired to know what the apostle Paul had to say about their problems. Paul does not present in his first letter to the Corinthians, a comprehensive manual on marriage. Instead, he addresses the particular questions and problems of the Corinthian Church. While our text this morning is not comprehensive teaching, it is instruction concerning marriage flowing from the gospel and from a worldview governed by the gospel.
First of all, the gospel tells us that there is more to life than sex. In (1) Paul writes, “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: ‘It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.’” Paul is talking here about a non-marital relationship. Sexual activity does not define a significant relationship between a man and woman but rather it defines a marital relationship. Outside of marriage, sexual activity does not define the relationship between men and women. In other words, there is more to life and relationships between the genders than sex. Some people are so enslaved to sexual drives that they cannot interact with a member of the opposite gender without thinking about sex. This is a problem. Normal and fruitful relationships between the genders are not about sex.
The same is true of our marital relationships. There’s more to our marital relationships than sex. Paul says that a spouse should put the conjugal rights of the other spouse before his own. And so, sex is an important part of marriage. I am commanded by God to put the rights of my spouse before my own. Nevertheless, there is more to the marital relationship than sex.
Paul offers instruction about authority in marriage (4). When it comes to sex in marriage both spouses exercise authority – the wife exercises authority over her husband’s body and the husband exercises authority over his wife’s body. What on earth is Paul saying? He is teaching what John Calvin titled the “doctrine of mutual benevolence.” The Bible rarely refers to authority in marriage and this is one of the few references. When it comes to the sexual activity of a marriage, the husband must submit to his wife and the wife must submit to her husband. This equitably shared authority assures that sex is enjoyed and is productive rather than it becoming a selfish or abusive act. But at the end of the day, Paul’s main point rules all of his sub-points. There’s more to marriage than sex.
Consider (5): Sex is important but prayer is a priority. The Christian life is not a denial of the physical in order to pursue the spiritual. Paul is well aware that God has created us as sexual beings. Our bodies are designed for sex and so it is normal and appropriate for married people to engage in sex. Nevertheless, prayer is a priority. At times, a married couple may set the normal, regular activity of sex aside in order to concentrate on prayer. Paul is carefully balanced in his writing and he makes it clear that self-control, not deprivation is the virtue. There is no virtue in depriving oneself or a marriage of sex or any good gift from God. The virtue is self-control enabling a married couple to make prayer a priority. There’s more to marriage than sex.
Thirdly Paul tells us that there’s more to life than marriage. Singleness is good. In our text today and the one directly following, Paul will present singleness as a preferred status in life, ideally suited to the service of God’s kingdom and church. Not every person is able to attain this single status. It may be a gift from God, a virtuous strength and maturity he grants to certain individuals. In (9) Paul says that some people should marry if they lack the virtues needed for single life.
There’s more to life than marriage even for the married person. A wife should not separate from her husband to pursue another marital relationship. If she does separate, she should pursue a single status life or pursue reconciliation with her husband. The Christian husband should not divorce his Christian wife. The lack of Christian faith in a wife is not grounds for divorce. However, an unbelieving wife is not bound to stay in the marriage to a Christian husband. There’s more to life than marriage. Divorce is not the end of life or legitimate standing for a particular individual. The Bible not only gives grounds for divorce but it also makes allowances for divorce. That is what Paul is writing in these words. He is making allowances for divorce. The lack of Christian faith in a husband is not grounds for divorce. However, an unbelieving husband is not bound to stay in the marriage to a Christian wife.
Paul is concerned to preserve the existing marriages in the Corinthian Church. He does not give instruction at this point about what a young man and a young woman ought to consider in choosing to marry a person. In his second letter to the Corinthian Church, in (6:14) he does instruct, “Do not be yoked with unbelievers for there is no agreement between Christ and Belial.” But in his first letter, he chooses to deal with the present situation in the Corinthian Church, which includes marriages in which one spouse is a Christian and the other is a non-Christian.
Paul’s instruction may be offensive to those of us who think that God’s law and gospel make everything in our lives black and white, demanding immediate change toward the ideal. In (14) Paul writes, “For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.”
John Calvin’s commentary at this point is helpful. He writes, “While this sanctification is taken in various senses, I refer it simply to marriage, in this sense — It might seem (judging from appearance) as if a believing wife contracted infection from an unbelieving husband, so as to make the connection unlawful; but it is otherwise, for the piety of the one has more effect in sanctifying marriage than the impiety of the other in polluting it. Hence a believer may, with a pure conscience, live with an unbeliever, for in respect of the use and intercourse of the marriage bed, and of life generally, he is sanctified, so as not to infect the believing party with his impurity. Meanwhile this sanctification is of no benefit to the unbelieving party; it only serves thus far, that the believing party is not contaminated by intercourse with him, and marriage itself is not profaned.” Paul insists that even the children are kept safe and pure within this family, even though one of their parents is an unbeliever. There’s more to life than marriage and so, God’s gracious protection, provision, and love flows to all of us through rightly ordered marriages, through less than ideal marriages, and apart from marriage.
In (15) Paul tells us that marriage is designed for freedom not bondage. He writes, “But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved.” Imagine a married Corinthian couple invited to a neighbor’s home in which they hear the gospel. The wife responds in faith but the husband is not ready to do so. He is willing, even eager to enjoy the fellowship of the church, but he has doubts about the veracity of the gospel. Such a marriage could continue in peace. But let us imagine that this husband initially rejects the gospel with some vehemence and takes offense to it. His wife’s conversion troubles him to the point that he no longer believes that he can sustain their marriage and so he sues for divorce. His Christian wife is free to go through with the divorce. She is not damaged goods but a free woman. Paul writes in (15) “God has called you to peace.” The gospel applies the laws of God to our relationships and situations in a most gracious way, the end being peace, not bondage.
Finally, Paul teaches us that there is more to life than a Christian marriage! Is there any hope for any of us who are married to a non-Christian? Yes. Be patient, kind, and loving. Don’t be preachy, condescending, and spiritually arrogant. As the apostle Peter instructs wives married to non-Christian men, be quiet and let your loving deeds, your virtuous behavior win over your husbands. Some of us have been taught to demand everything in black and white terms. “Either you have a Christian marriage or you don’t.” But Paul has a third category full of hope. You may not enjoy a Christian marriage, but you may be in a marriage of redemption. “For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?” The gospel is good for those of us who are not in ideal marriages. It is just as good for us as it is for those who are in ideal marriages. There is hope for every married couple who is not equally yoked in matters of faith. Every Christian who is married to a non-Christian must remember that there is more to life than a Christian marriage. The Church must also remember this application of the gospel and prayerfully support the man or woman who is presently in a marriage of redemption.

The Gospel and Singleness
I Corinthians 7: 17-40

God assigns to each of us our lot in life. God has called each of us to glorify him in particular stations, roles, and chapters of life. These may change according to the will of God. Meanwhile we must live as David did, content with the lot God had given to him. Paul is not suggesting that we would not work to change the wrong or less than ideal in our lives. Rather he is reminding us that in each moment, God has called us to glorify him. Even in an imperfect state, even in an oppressive situation, we can glorify God. While we would work toward improvement, some of our efforts must be dedicated to serving God in our present situations and roles. God’s sovereign control allows us to serve right now.
Paul applies this sovereign control of God to a decision as private as circumcision and as public as slavery. Is slavery wrong? Yes, but even in such a station, we can serve God’s will and contribute in some meaningful way. While some of us should fight to end such oppression, we must use some of our energy to serve God as a slave as long as we are bound. The reason any of us would live in this manner flows from the gospel. Paul writes in (23-24), “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.” God has purchased us at the price of his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, who has given up his life for us. Therefore, whatever our state or conditions, we serve God alone.
Paul applies this gospel to his main concern at hand, namely the marital and single statuses of the Corinthian church members. Paul is aware of his apostolic authority and he is concerned about how the church views his writing in relationship to it. In this entire section, he laces his writing with comments about his opinion versus the words of the Lord, reminding the church that he is speaking more than his opinion, delivering the very words of God. I think that he makes these comments in this section because of the intimate nature of familial relationships and the sensitive topic of single status. He is aware that his delivery of God’s instruction intrudes deeply into the private lives of the church. In (25-40) Paul clarifies that he is not applying explicit commands from God’s holy law to the Church. Rather, he is offering his personal instruction. His words at this point have persuaded some Christians that there are differing levels of inspiration and authority in the words of Scripture. The law of God explicitly stated must have greater weight of inspiration and authority than Paul’s thoughtful instruction. However, as Paul writes about himself, he writes as an Apostle, and so we receive his words just as we would receive the words of the prophets, including Moses and the Greatest of Prophets, our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus.
Paul’s first instruction in this section is governed by his eschatological concern. In other words, Paul was aware that he along with the Church was living in the last days, the end times. From the ascension of Jesus until the Final Day of Judgment is described by the Apostles as the last days. In this final epoch of redemptive history, the second coming of Christ seems imminent at every turn. In Paul’s day, the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of Titus was just around the corner. This significant eschatological event brought horrific destruction and human upheaval. For many it was as if the end of the world had dawned. But it was merely the first eschatological cycle of the last days. Many more would follow so that every generation might hear rumors of wars, feel the ground shake, suffer famine, and the oppression of anti-Christ tyrants. How should we live in such a tenuous world?
Paul’s first instruction for living in such a tenuous world is to remain faithful in our relationships. If you are married, then stay married. If you are single, remain so. Paul makes it clear that making a change of relational status is not a sin but it could prove to be problematic. These words of Paul in this section have contributed to the opinions of some that Paul is overly critical of the marital relationship. Others gloss over these words and so it never sinks in that Paul has a most positive view of the single status.
Paul’s second instruction for living in such a tenuous world is for us to be free from worldly cares preventing us from serving Christ’s mission. The problem Paul sees in marriage is that such a relationship brings “worldly troubles,” that is, more responsibilities, more considerations, more raising of revenue and consumption of goods, especially if the marriage results in the raising of children. Paul knows that children are a blessing from God, but he is also realistically facing the additional challenges that flow from marriage. The married person must think about food, shelter, and clothing for not only himself, but for the other members of his family. In our world, health, liability, car, and life insurance is merely one cluster of worldly troubles for a marriage.
Paul wishes to spare a person of these worldly troubles. As a single person he was able to move faster, freer, cheaper, and thus more efficiently. What does Paul mean in (29) “let those who have wives live as though they had none.” He means that we married people ought to find as many ways to live as simply and efficiently as possible so that we are as free as possible to serve the expanding kingdom of heaven. Two spouses who share the goal of kingdom productivity can alleviate most of the worldly troubles that come with marriage. Indeed, I know some highly efficient and productive servants of God who are married and together they are dream teams glorifying God. As children come along, they must also be raised to share the goal of kingdom work first and foremost. As they lend their energies and gifts to the service of Christ, then the worldly troubles of marriage begin to disappear.
We think that we could achieve such freedom by dissolving our relationships, even our marital relationships. But this does not deliver the freedom we desire. If we are married, then we are to stay married. As a married couple we must learn to remove worldly cares from our lives. If you are single, then you are most fortunate. With fewer responsibilities, you can move carefree yet purposefully in the mission of Christ.
Those of us who have lost a loved one or have suffered a tragedy could become spiritually paralyzed. Our world has stopped and we lose our vision and direction in life. Paul says that we can be relieved of such cares to serve the mission of Christ. Those of us who are rejoicing in a happy life are tempted to party away our lives – to eat, drink, and be merry – to live frivolously in our happy state. Paul says that we should live as “if we were not rejoicing,” meaning that we would set a more seriously fruitful course for our lives. Those of us who buy goods and property may take on debt, risks, and fiscal responsibilities. We may be tempted to say, “We are not in a position to contribute in any way to the mission of Christ.” Paul says that we should find a way to continue our business yet be free of such constraints. Finally Paul says that we should seek to be free of all the encumbrances of this world. He is not advocating escapism but profoundly, efficient mission work in this world, navigating freely around every roadblock.
Paul is not anti-marriage when he simply points out the advantage a single person possesses in this aspect of Christian service. We should have Paul’s high view of singleness and we should instruct our children accordingly. A single person is complete. A woman does not become complete and reach her ideal only when she weds. If God has called her to single status, then she is complete and ideal in that status. There is not something wrong with the man who never marries. Perhaps he is called to the more desirable status of singleness. This is how Paul thinks. How do you think about it?
Paul’s third instruction for living in such a tenuous world is for us to be free of anxiety. Once again Paul says that the single person has the advantage. The married man suffers anxiety in trying to please his wife as well as pleasing the Lord. The wife worries about pleasing her husband. The single man has no wife to please and so he is free of this anxiety. The single woman is free from marital worries. Paul believes that married people can also be free of this anxiety with a little more thought and work. Every married couple must address this problem of divided pleasures and work together to please the Lord. Every husband and every wife must learn to adjust expectations, demands, and desires so that God is served first in the marriage.
How would a single person be free from anxiety? Paul writes that the single man’s only worry is to please the Lord. Paul says that the single or engaged woman’s only worry is how to live a holy life. This is the gospel for single people. You are free to please the Lord who has given his life for you. You are free to live holy lives because Christ Jesus has made you holy and released you from sin and death. In (35) Paul powerfully suggests that this gospel is good for all of us regardless of our status! “I say this for your own benefit,(V) not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.” Even married people can learn to live in good order, wholly devoted to the Lord.
Finally, Paul’s instruction for living in a tenuous world is for us to choose single status if we are free to do so. In (36-38) Paul addresses those engaged to be married. Paul says that it is no sin to marry. But even the engaged person is free to choose singleness. Paul recommends the choice of remaining single. There is no rush to marry. If the engaged man is self-controlled, then he might lengthen the engagement period and he may choose not to marry at all.
If a woman’s husband dies, she is free to remarry if she wishes. Paul’s only rule is that she would remarry a Christian man. But Paul says that the better choice would be to remain single. Once again, Paul is not forcing these decisions. He makes it clear that we are free to go either way with our choices. Nevertheless, he recommends singleness. Paul’s passion is Christ and his life purpose is the mission of Christ. He strongly believes that a single person is freer to pursue this passion and purpose in life. He ends on a personal note: “I think that I too have the Spirit of God.” This is the gospel for the single person. You have the Spirit of God. Undoubtedly, Paul felt slighted by a church community filled with married couples. As a single man, he must have felt out of place, often defending his singleness to older ladies who prayed for his finding of a nice, eligible girl. He must have thought that his instruction in this section of his letter would raise some eyebrows and roll of few eyeballs. And so, he sarcastically writes, “I think that I too have the Spirit of God.”
Do you have the Spirit of God? Whether you are single or married, you are a temple of the Spirit of God. He will fill you toward the single focus of pleasing the Lord in all that you do.

The Gospel of the One God: Freedom from Idols
I Corinthians 8:1-13

In David Jackman’s book, Let’s Study I Corinthians, he isolates particular buzzwords used by Paul to address the particular problems facing the Church at Corinth. He writes, “The first buzzword is ‘knowledge,’ which the Corinthians wanted to elevate to the primary position, but which Paul wants to reduce in its importance compared with love.” Apparently, the Corinthians have asked Paul another question: Should we eat food that has been offered to idols? We may think, “Good! Paul is addressing an issue that does not factor into my present life, and so I am off the hook this Sunday.”
As Paul answers the question, “Should we eat food that has been offered to idols?” we discover how different the mindset and practice of Christianity is from other world religions. Judaism and Islam offer kosher and Halal rules so that certain foods are consumed and others are avoided. For Jews and Muslims, dietary issues are black and white, governed by a list of rules and procedures. Why can’t Paul make a rule – “Don’t under any circumstances eat food offered to idols”? Why does he have to launch into a complicated discussion about knowledge, love and freedom? Hindus have hundreds of traditional health rules, most of them regarding food and the preparation of meals. The Dharmaśātras, one of the holy books of Hinduism, provides detailed rules for the preparation and consumption of food. This detailed law is attractive to many people who desire religion to order their lives. In such systems, adherents know precisely what to do and what not to do. From time to time in the history of Christianity, a movement or a group will ignore Paul’s instructions to the first century churches and return to the details of dietary and ceremonial laws in the Books of Moses. They will begin to order their lives accordingly, searching for a more meaningful religious daily practice.
How does Paul answer the question, “Should we eat food offered to idols?” Firstly, he analyzes the Corinthians’ flawed answer. The Corinthians had concluded that knowledge would lead to right behavior. We know the truth and so, based on that truth, we can choose the right applications. But Paul thinks that they have skipped one important step between knowledge and practice. Once we know the truth, we must take a second step, which is to consider how to apply that truth for the good of others. This is a relational step that must be taken. Paul writes, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
Some of you know that I have enjoyed reading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. All of her writing, including her best-known work, Atlas Shrugged, poignantly presents an extreme individual freedom founded upon knowledge and power. The weak care about other people. Don’t let others get between you and your dreams. The strong use other people. Be strong. Through the means of pure rationalism, Rand completely reverses Christian definitions including the meaning of “love.” Rand believed that love was the perfect act of selfishness. In The Fountainhead, Rand concisely presents her view: “To say ‘I love you,’ one must know first how to say the ‘I.’” Rand would say as strongly as she could in all of her intellectual and artistic brilliance, “Paul is dead wrong. Don’t add the second step about considering the good of others. Act on what you know for your own good and leave the others in the dust of your decisions.” But Paul instructs us to add love to knowledge before deciding what to do.
Paul makes a second point in (2-3): More important than our knowledge of anything in this world is for each of us to know that God knows us. Do you see how different Paul’s answer to the question at hand is when compared to the list of rules offered in this world? Why doesn’t Paul say, “Yes! You should eat food offered to idols” and be done with it. Then we could return to our homes knowing how to shop, how to eat, how to entertain, never having to think about the knowledge of God and the love of our brother.
Having corrected the Corinthians, adding love to their knowledge, Paul now walks them through the process of answering, “Should we eat food offered to idols?” In (4), Paul starts with the existence of the one and only God. Idols are fabricated gods. Do you know the fundamental truth of the gospel? “There is no God but one.” There is one God, the Father and one Lord, Jesus Christ. Paul assigns to both the Father and the Son, two statements of divine equity. The first: “from whom are all things,” spoken of the Father and “through whom are all things,” spoken about Jesus Christ. Both Father and Son equally have created the world. The second statement: “for whom we exist,” spoken of the Father and “through whom we exist,” spoken of Jesus Christ. Both Father and Son equally sustain their creation for the purpose of divine glory. Why does Paul change the prepositions to the instrumental “through” when he writes about Jesus Christ? In creation, the Son, the Word of God, is the primary instrument through which God creates all things. Also, the Son took on human flesh to become the primary instrument of our salvation. While the Father and Son occupy different roles in creation and salvation, nevertheless, they are truly one God and Paul’s carefully balanced language communicates this truth.
Paul establishes the truth of the one and only God and thus the non-existence of idols. With such a firm truth established, why don’t we get on with this process and write the rule: Therefore, we may eat food offered to idols. This makes pure, rational sense. But Paul says that we have an additional consideration. Not everyone knows this firm truth. Read (7) “However, not all possess this knowledge.” Wait a minute! Who in the Church would not possess such a foundational knowledge as “there is but one God”? Paul tells us that some brothers in the Church are still conflicted by their past involvement in idolatry. His description of them is dismal: their past is idolatrous; their consciences are weak and thus defiled. In other words, they are not in a frame of heart and mind to take the truth of the existence of one, true God and directly apply it to liberty in eating food offered to idols. They have too much religious baggage. They have yet to be strengthened beyond guilt and shame. They need more time for the gospel to work its way down into their hearts and minds. Perhaps these brothers have come to a point where they know that there is only one, true God and that this one God has saved them from death and hell. But they are not quite ready to apply this gospel of the one God and Savior to their present and mundane behaviors. They can’t quite see the connection between the gospel of the one, true God and the liberties of the dinner table.
What should we think about these weak sisters and brothers? Read (8): “Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.” No big deal! Is it true that there is one God alone? Yes, it is true. Is it true, then, that we are free to eat food offered to idols, since those idols do not actually exist? Yes, it is true. The gospel of the one, true God frees us to the extent that we may eat such food. Must we then make this a rule- All of us must eat food offered to idols to prove that there is one, true God? No, absolutely not! It’s not that big of a deal. The big deals are covered in the Ten Commandments. What we eat is not a big deal and so we are not going to make one set of rules for all of us.
What is a big deal? Our brother, our weak brother. He is a big deal. To our knowledge of the one, true God, we add the love of our loving God, who deeply loves the weak and carries them in his arms. To those of us who have our share of idolatrous baggage, Jesus says, “Come unto me all of you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”
In (4), Paul starts with the existence of the one and only God, and to it he adds in (9) our loving consideration of the weak among us. Take a close look at (9). Paul does not say, “Since we have weak brothers among us, therefore, we must all abstain from certain foods.” Paul is no teetotaler. Look at what he says. First of all he says, “Take care that this right of yours….” We have the right to eat freely. The gospel of the one, true God frees us from idols thus giving us the right to eat what has been offered to them. “Take care that this right of yours….does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.”
Paul specifically describes how a strong brother may cause his weak brother to stumble. A weak brother may pass by an idol’s temple and see one of his brothers eating. The brother liberated by the knowledge of the one, true God enjoying his food may encourage the weaker brother to do the same against his conscience. If the issue of eating is trivial in Paul’s mind, then why would not this violation of conscience also be trivial? No matter how small the issue, the violation of human conscience is never trivial. The weaker brother is unable to separate the matter of eating food sacrificed to idols from the actual worshipping of idols. For him to eat is for him to worship. If he re-enters the temple to eat the food, he may easily slip back into the cultic rites he abandoned to follow Christ. Paul illustrates how a trivial matter, like eating, is connected to a weighty matter, like worship.
The weaker brother described by Paul would say, “I can not enter that temple with you to enjoy lunch. When I was a Hindu, I would enter a similar temple regularly to worship, which included feasting. For you, this site is the best lunch deal in town. For me this is an idolatrous temple.” Do you know of anyone who lives with such religious associations? Our community is changing as the world moves to the Pacific Northwest. Many of us will in the near future welcome into our homes and into our congregations people who have formerly devoted themselves to the Hindu pantheon and a myriad of other gods.
Finally, Paul says that sinning against our brothers, wounding their consciences while they are weak is our sinning against Christ! Paul could not put the issue any stronger! His conclusion in (13) also seems to be overstated. He does not say, “Therefore, when my brother is present I will abstain.” Instead he says, “I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” Is Paul overstating? No. But perhaps some of us are guilty of confusing preference with conscience. Paul would not make such strong statements, like, “You sin against Christ,” or “I will never ever eat meat again,” were he confronting matters of preference. His strong statements match the violation of conscience.
How much do we love each other? Do we love our brother more than a spicy bowl of inexpensive lentil stew? Do we love our personal liberties more than we love our brother, whom we hope some day will be as free as we are? Are we guilty of causing our brother to stumble in the dust of our Ayn Rand selfish love? Do we agree with Jesus that love is essentially self-sacrifice for the good of others? Whom is our one, true God? Do we worship the God of the Bible or do we worship our bellies? “Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

“I Have Become All Things to All People for the Sake of the Gospel”
I Corinthians 9: 1-23

I Corinthians 9 is Paul’s personal illustration of how his life and ministry have conformed to his instruction in Chapter 8: 9, “But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” He begins with a long list of rhetorical questions. As David Jackman says, “a veritable avalanche of rhetorical questions.” There are 16 questions in these first 12 verses. What are the answers? We can actually answer them quickly:
1) Am I not free? Yes, Paul is free.
2) Am I not an apostle? Yes, Paul is an apostle.
3) Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Yes, in the blinding light on the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to him and spoke to him, calling him to be an apostle.
4) Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? Yes. Paul planted the church in Corinth with the help of Priscilla and Aquila.
5) Do we not have the right to eat and drink? Yes.
6) Do we have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Yes.
7) Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? No.
8) Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? No one.
9) Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? No one. (I am sure that we can all list an exception; but the answer to this rhetorical question is “no one.”)
10) Who tends a flock without getting some of the milk? No one.
11) Do I say these things on human authority? No. As an apostle writing a divinely inspired letter, Paul says these things on divine authority.
12) Does not the Law say the same? Yes. Paul’s teaching agrees with the Law of Moses.
13) Is it for oxen that God is concerned? God is concerned for oxen but this law clearly applies to human beings who work diligently.
14) Does he speak entirely for our sake? Yes.
15) If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? No, it is not too much. Paul is deserving of compensation for his work as an apostle.
(Interestingly, it was in Corinth with Priscilla and Aquila that Paul financially supported himself in a business making tents.)
16) If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Yes. As the founding church planter and as the apostle, Paul is most deserving of his needs met by this church in Corinth.
All of these questions and their answers, even if we get one or two wrong, support the freedom and personal rights of Paul. Have you ever stood up for yourself? Have you defended your rights? What is the conclusion of such a defense? “Therefore: Give me my money; give me my food; restore my privileges; make it right.” What is Paul’s conclusion? Read (12) “Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.” More important than personal freedom and rights is the gospel of Christ freely dispensed as widely as possible.
This is the first lesson of Chapter 9: The preaching of the gospel is of vast more importance than our claiming of personal rights. For sake of illustration, Paul returns to his personal rights to compensation for his work as a preacher of the gospel. He makes a connection between the Old Covenant and New Covenant systems. The Priests and the Levites were compensated for their work in the temple and so also are the Ministers of the Gospel. However, Paul makes it clear that he has never demanded these personal rights and he is not writing this letter to persuade the Corinthians to financially compensate him. In (15) Paul is able to boast that his preaching is free. He has not received any compensation from the Corinthian Church. He was a tentmaker when he lived in Corinth, sewing tents by day and planting the church by night. In (16) Paul clarifies that his boasting in not in his ability to preach or even in his privilege to preach, but simply he is boasting in the freeness of his preaching, free of any obligation to tickle the ears of patrons. Paul would rather die than be the puppet of patrons. For Paul, preaching the gospel is paramount. “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” This call and privilege of preaching the gospel is more important to Paul than his personal right to be compensated for preaching the gospel.
Paul’s second lesson is this: As a servant of all men, we might win more to the gospel than if we assert our personal freedoms. In (19) Paul writes, “for though I am free from all I have made myself the servant of all.” Where did Paul get such an idea? The Lord Jesus said, “If you want to be great in the kingdom of God, learn to be the servant of all.” The Gospels attest to Jesus coming to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. The Apostles witness that Jesus, though “he was rich beyond all splendor all for love’s sake becamest poor.” As a follower of Christ Jesus, Paul chooses to serve all men with the purpose of dispensing the gospel rather than asserting his personal rights thus confusing his gospel message. The gospel message announces to us the self-sacrificial love of Christ who gave himself to make us right with God. How then, can any of us who have embraced this gospel live primarily defending our personal rights?
The third lesson I offer is one of clarification: Paul advocates our being servants rather than our being compromising, cultural chameleons. Paul seeks to win all groups of people in his life to Christ by preaching the gospel to them. The first group he mentions in (20) is his fellow Jews: “To the Jews I became a Jew in order to win more of them.” Paul was a Jew and so he was able to think like a Jew, talk like a Jew, to preach the gospel with the Jewish perspective in mind. Culturally, he was able to act like a Jew. He made sure that he did not offend his fellow Jews by ignoring certain customs and matters of etiquette. When he entered the synagogue, he did so appropriately. Paul in no way compromises his Christian faith and practice by his cultural accommodation of his fellow Jews. How important are certain cultural conventions to us? Are we willing to conform our preferences of style, fashion, music, cuisine, and language to a group of people who need to hear the gospel?
Paul’s second example is his interaction with Christian Jews who were still following all of the ceremonial and civil laws of the Mosaic Law. “To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) to win those under the law.) These Christians may have been ignorant of or misunder-standing the fulfillment of these laws in Christ. Paul does not pretend to hold to their incorrect views of law and grace and their ignorance of Christ’s fulfillment. But he is careful not to offend them. He desires more than anything else to have the opportunity to preach the gospel to them in a setting where they would be open to receive it and thus discover a proper view and use of the Law. To do this, Paul conforms politely to his cultural context. He is going to leave law observance issues alone until he has won the opportunity to preach the gospel.
Paul’s third example is his winning of those outside of the Law. “To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.” These are Christians we would call “antinomians,” that is those who believe that they need not obey any divine law since Christ has done away with it all. Paul makes it clear that his Christian faith and practice include divine law and his obedience of it. He will not compromise the important, necessary role of God’s law in our lives. However, in order to gain the opportunity of preaching the gospel to this group of antinomians, he will tactfully set aside certain conversations and practices. Paul is convinced that the Gospel is the starting point for all groups and that it is the paramount point that will lead in the end to right thinking and living. If Paul can preach the gospel to this group of antinomians, then he will have brought them to a spiritual location in which they can consider the holy Law of God. The fourth group Paul seeks to win is comprised of weak Christians. “To the weak I became weak that I may win the weak.” The weak, as a matter of conscience, will not eat food sacrificed to idols, and so Paul will never eat meat again lest he make his weak brother stumble. His mouth may water for a juicy steak, but his heart pines for his weak brother to embrace the gospel and apply it to the whole of his life and experience.
Paul concludes, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” Paul is not trying to be hip with each new wave of pop culture. He is not looking for some spiritual excuse for his personal preferences of music, fashion, style, and language. He is doing just the opposite: he is giving up his personal preferences pursuing a greater passion, the dispersion of the gospel to all people groups. Francis Schaeffer wrote, “Each generation of the church in each setting has the responsibility of communicating the gospel in understandable terms, considering the language and thought-forms of that setting.”
What prevents us following Paul in saying, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” Are there some means that we believe to be off limits? Paul says, “I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some.” Are we driven by personal preference, societal trends and thus committed to only that which we consider to be “in style”? If so, we must change and be willing to participate in whatever would be best to communicate the gospel to a particular group of people. Perhaps we care little about the cutting edge and we may even believe that if something is popular then we should have nothing to do with it. We must also change and be willing to participate in whatever would best dispense the gospel to a particular group in need of Christ.
Paul is not syncretistic, adding to the gospel cultural and religious aspects of people groups so that they will comfortably convert. Paul would never add anything to the gospel. Nevertheless, he is willing to enter a community and participate in such a way that his preaching of the gospel would fall upon open ears and hearts. We should not be syncretistic. But we should care less about music style, food choice, clothing fashion, and language expression than we care about the dispensing of the gospel.
Hudson Taylor at 21 years old sailed for China. By the time he died at 73, he had completed 11 trips to China, baptizing over 18,000 Chinese and founding the largest Christian agency in China: The China Inland Mission. He was one of the first Protestant missionaries in China to adopt native dress, diet and social habits. China Inland Mission insisted on its missionaries learning the language of the Chinese groups they were serving. Taylor became controversial in his day for saying that his work was to convert Chinese people to Christianity rather than to make them ‘western’ or ‘British.’ Whether we are at home or abroad we should do the same. By doing so we would not become compromising cultural chameleons but rather, we would become servants of all for the sake of the gospel.

“Ready to Run in the New Year”
I Corinthians 9: 24 – 10:5

In this section of his letter, Paul warns the church at Corinth against squandering God’s gifts. God has given to all of us everything we need to live to his glory but we can easily slip into idolatry, apathy, and presumptuous living. Some Christians think, “God has graciously saved me and so I don’t have to do anything but coast along in this life. Any holy improvement in my life is also a gracious work of God and so I don’t have to invest any work in my behavior. I don’t have to do anything.” Paul corrects this loose thinking and presumptuous lifestyle of many Christians. His correction comes in two illustrations. The first illustration is of an athlete training to win an event at the Grecian Olympic Games.
He compares the arduous training and performance of a runner to the Christian life. He compares the purposeful running and boxing of two Olympians to the purposeful Christian life. He contrasts the perishable laurel crown of the Olympic champion to the imperishable crown of the Christian.
One of my childhood heroes was born in Coos Bay, Oregon in 1951. Steve Prefontaine at one point held the American record in every running event from the 2000 meters to the 10,000 meters. His popularity was rooted in his starting every race hard, setting a challenging pace. He told the press, “Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.” Anyone who won a race against Pre would confess that it was the most difficult race he had ever run. Pre did not medal in the Olympics, but he worked daily to win the prize. His typical training began on Mondays with a morning run of 4-6 miles at a 5:40 pace. In the evening he would run 5-10 miles at the same pace. On Tuesday mornings he would again run 4-6 miles at a 6:00 pace. In the evening he would run intervals. On Wednesdays he would repeat his Monday running, and on Thursdays, he would repeat the Tuesday schedule. On Saturday he only ran intervals and on Sunday he would run 12-15 miles at a 7:00 pace.
Paul uses the illustration of a runner to make us consider whether or not we work as hard as an Olympic athlete at our Christian lifestyle. Think of Prefontaine’s regimen and ask yourself, “Have I ever worked as hard on my following after Christ?” So often we say, “I have tried everything to break my habitual sins. I have tried to make more time for holy behavior. I have done everything I know how to do to be Christ-like in my relationships.” But have I truly tried as hard in my personal life as Pre trained to break world records?
Pre had one passion in life – to run! He ran daily. He lived to run. His coach at UO, Bill Bowerman helped him to develop the critical element of resting between runs. Instead of taking one day a week off, they developed mid-day breaks just long enough to allow Pre’s body to recuperate before he would start running again. Anyone who saw Prefontaine run a race was impressed by his purpose and passion. Paul observes that a runner invests all his purpose and passion to win a perishable prize. God has set before every Christian an imperishable prize, an inheritance that shall never perish, spoil or fade. Do we pursue this prize of eternal life and divine favor with a greater passion, as the single greatest purpose of our lives?
Paul’s second illustration is of Israel following Moses into the wilderness towards the Promised Land. Paul lists some of the benefits bestowed upon the covenant community of God. The first benefit Israel enjoyed is being “under the cloud.” God directed Israel during daylight hours by the cloud and during the night by the pillar of fire. Most likely these were not two phenomenons, but one and the same. This cloud and fire was nothing less than the glory cloud that would descend upon the tabernacle, filling the center of the camp with God’s glory. In other words, this divine guidance and presence of God was the Holy Spirit! Israel had the benefit of the Holy Spirit guiding them in the wilderness! The second benefit Paul mentions is Israel’s passing through the sea. This is God’s protection of Israel against her enemies. How did God make a path through the sea for Israel’s escape? He caused a wind to blow all night, piling up the water into a great wall. God is the blessed controller of his creation. The natural order and elements are at his command. Israel not only received spiritual benefits of guidance, but also physical benefits of protection.
Paul describes a third benefit writing, “all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” This third benefit is identification with God. What is Israel’s identity? Israel is God’s people! God has protected her and guided her. Egypt, Moab, and all Fertile Crescent nations discovered that Israel belonged to God. Notice Paul’s repetition and emphasis of “all.” These benefits have come to all of Israel. As one covenant community, each member enjoyed the spiritual and material blessings from God’s hand.
The third and fourth benefits are also one and the same, namely Christ! Paul makes allusion to the manna falling from heaven to feed Israel and the water gushing from the rock to sustain them in the desert. For Paul the material and spiritual blessings of God are not distinct but are inseparable, pointing ultimately to Christ. How real is this connection between manna, water, and Christ? Paul speaks of Christ present with Israel during her wilderness wanderings! This is an amazing statement. Israel was baptized into Moses, the mediator and prophet of Israel. He certainly and physically occupied the offices of Christ for Israel in the wilderness. Nevertheless, Christ himself was present with Israel working through his servant shepherd, Moses, and through his very own Spirit in the cloud and fire. The covenant community has never been bereft of the presence of Christ!
After the listing of these covenantal blessings, Paul writes in (5) a most disappointing result: “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” Most of Israel did not run to win the race in the wilderness. Most of them did not believe that they would reach the Promised Land. Most did not pursue the holiness of God outlined in his law given at Sinai, but instead reprised the idolatry of the golden calf. Most did not make the connection between the manna, the water from the rock and Christ, but instead grumbled and complained, pining for the leeks of the Nile. One might ask, “How is it that such a community as Israel, enjoying all the blessings of the covenant, could fail to follow God?” The writer of the book, Hebrews, writes a similar statement saying that there are some in the covenant community who fall away even though they have tasted of the Holy Spirit! Israel certainly tasted of the Holy Spirit of Christ in the wilderness and yet they were overthrown in the wilderness by unbelief and idolatry.
Paul warns the church at Corinth and all of us who are members of the Church in these last days. He warns us that we can be members of the covenant community enjoying the benefits of the very presence of God and yet not truly be united to Christ persevering in faith until the end. We may be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit but not truly united to Christ. We may be a member of the organized Church but not truly a member of Christ’s body. We may regularly hear the words of God and weekly see the signs of Christ, but be spiritually blind.
The gospel proclaims to us a true union to Christ and an enduring perseverance in our faith until Judgment Day ushering us into the new heavens and the new earth. Christ Jesus on the cross died to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and to free us from idolatry. He rose from the dead to open for us the door to a new life in holiness before God. He ascended into heaven to rule us from the throne of God. Jesus did none of us his work to land us in a stagnant pool of presumption. He did not descend then ascend to leave us in our desperate state of bondage, selfishness, and apathy.
For five years, no American runner could beat Prefontaine at any distance over a mile. Then in May 1975 Pre drank four to five beers at a party, drove his car and rolled it. He died that night. For the first time in years, he had lost his focus, his passion, his purpose and we lost The American Distance Runner.
How many times have you crashed and burned in your pursuit of holiness? The gospel tells us that in life and death we belong to the Lord and that Christ has removed the penalty of sin and the sting of death from us who have put our faith in him. The gospel also promotes a purposeful life glorifying God. When a Christian falls into a downward spiral of habitual sin with all of its paralyzing and destructive consequences, other Christians begin to question the genuineness of that person’s faith and practice. Sometimes we are like pecking hens, clucking and pecking the ones who have fallen. The gospel reminds us that the work of Christ alone is sufficient to win God’s favor of us. However, we are not to conclude that the gospel does not also give to us a beautiful and rich life of holiness. Christ Jesus not only removes from us the penalty of our sins, but he also frees us to a new and holy life.
Have you ever been to a high school track meet? Two of the events are the high hurdles and the low hurdles. The gospel does not tell us that Christ runs the high hurdles, then lowers them for us to run the low hurdles. God does not lower the bar for us. His just demand for perfection stands. The gospel tells us that Christ has met that perfect demand and that he strengthens us to run the race, the high hurdles. Along the way, as runners stumble, may we be among those who would stop, pick them up and help them finish the race, keeping their eyes upon the prize in the hands of Christ standing at the finish line, his eyes upon us.
We have arrived at that arbitrary line drawn between one year and a new one. Annually we pause at this line to consider our lives and to resolve to improve. What resolution will you make this year? If you have not regularly run five miles throughout 2007, then I caution you from resolving to run five miles on January 1, 2008. You may want to start by running one mile. I do encourage you to run the race set before you, to keep your eyes on the prize, the imperishable crown of life. Remind yourself daily, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Listen to the prophet Isaiah: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God,
 the Creator of the ends of the earth.
 He does not faint or grow weary;
 his understanding is unsearchable.
 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
 and young men shall fall exhausted;
 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
 they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
 they shall run and not be weary;
 they shall walk and not faint.”

“The Way of Escape”
I Corinthians 10: 6-22

Paul commands us twice to rid our lives of idolatry. Elsewhere in our studies of the Bible we have learned that idolatry is the worship of anything but God. We can devote ourselves to a good gift of God, worshipping it instead of God. Money is good, but when it is elevated above God as the greatest pursuit of my life, then it becomes Mammon, perhaps the greatest of all idols in our world. In our modern world, potential idols are innumerable and thus we are often tempted to privately worship human achievements along with all of its amazing results. In our postmodern world we have returned to the ancient world dominated by paganism, the outright establishment of idolatrous worship.
Paul tells us to use Israel’s idolatry as examples to instruct us. Paul briefly reminds us of Israel’s feasting and dancing in worship of the golden calf while Moses met God on the mountain to receive the law written in stone. The second example is recorded in Numbers 25 where Moses describes the details of Israel’s orgy with the Moabite women. Moses records 24,000 struck down by plague as punishment for this idolatry. Paul records 23,000. This has become in the modern world a prize proof of the Bible contradicting itself and thus a fallible text rather than the inerrant Word of God. In the ancient world of Moses and in the first century world of Paul, the difference in number would not be considered to be a discrepancy let alone a mistake. In our world, scientific accuracy includes precise measurement and calculation and rightly so. Both numbers stand sufficiently as testimony to God’s displeasure with idolatry and his wholesale punishment of it. I suppose we must have the discussion about whether or not God’s inspiration of his divine words includes the preservation of mistakes made by the human authors. But we should not allow such a discussion to distract us from the main lesson of the text, which commands us to flee idolatry. Can you imagine a member of the Church at Corinth, who knew the details of the Books of Moses from ardent study, correcting Paul as the letter was publicly read? “Paul doesn’t know what he’s talking about! The number is 24,000 not 23,000!” What would Paul say in response, “Thank you for correcting me, but you are making my main point all the more clearer: God does not tolerate idolatry, and so I am warning you to flee from it.”
The third example is recorded in Numbers 21 where Moses describes the details of Israel’s grumbling about the food God provided for them – the manna. They loathed it. God sent poisonous vipers to kill the grumbling people. But God also instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent affixing it to a pole. Any of the inflicted people would be healed as they looked in faith toward the bronze serpent. Paul once again shows that he believed Christ to be present with Israel in the wilderness. Christ is the manna, the bread of heaven! Christ was present as the rock from which the water flowed to save Israel from death. Christ was present as the bronze serpent. Anyone who looks by faith toward Christ is saved from death. Paul seems to assign the role of Lord to Christ in the wilderness as well as Savior. Christ was present not only as the bronze serpent, the Savior of Israel, but as the Judge of Israel’s hearts, the Lord who sent the vipers to strike the grumblers. This Lord Jesus, who is Judge is also Jesus our Redeemer, who has saved us from death. Jesus referred to his death upon the cross saying, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man shall be lifted up.” The Lord who does not tolerate idolatry or grumbling has saved us from ourselves and his punishment of our sin.
The fourth example is recorded in Numbers 16. (Why does Paul list these examples in a backwards order?) Paul borrows the language from this narrative of Korah’s rebellion. The Destroyer is the angel of the Lord sent by God to open the earth to swallow the rebels. These examples are designed to instruct those of us who live in these last days as members of the Church, followers of Christ. We are warned to flee from idolatry.
In (12-13) Paul offers his help to us as we rid our lives of idolatry. Firstly he tells us not to think that we are safe from falling into idolatry. “Let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” Sometimes our weakness is that we assume that we are strong in ourselves and in our spiritual location. We may think that our level of spiritual maturity protects us from ever stooping to crass idolatry. We may think that our many years in the faith have moved us beyond the baseness of idolatry. Twenty years ago I would have fallen, but not today. Paul warns all of us regardless of the amount of gracious work God has completed in our lives. All of us are in danger of reverting to idolatry. Secondly, he tells us that our personal temptations are not unique but common experience. Often, a person who becomes entangled in a habitual sin, which is nothing more than idolatry, thinks that his experience and case are unique. No one can help him. No one has ever seen this particular case before in the history of Christendom. A certain pride arises from this person’s idolatry. “I am the only one who has ever worshipped at this particular altar.” A little history lesson will uncover a long list of names for your particular god, every culture and each epoch assigning a new name to the same old idol. See how smooth is the stone of your altar? Millions of hands have polished it over centuries of idolatrous devotion. “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.”
Thirdly, Paul tells us that God is devoted to us, working on our behalf so that we might be devoted to him alone. Paul writes, “God is faithful.” While we forsake God devoting ourselves to idols, God never leaves us nor forsakes us. He stands while we fall. He is ready to save, to restore, to strengthen, and to guide. How does he show his faithfulness to us? “He does not allow us to be tempted beyond your ability.” Any temptation I have ever faced, though powerfully alluring, is not as strong as the spiritual empowerment of my soul, mind, heart, will, and body. God has strengthened me and equipped me to say “No,” to whatever temptation comes my way. And so, when I fall to temptation, it is my own fault. God is faithful in strengthening us to withstand temptation. God is also faithful by providing for us a way of escape in every temptation. God gave Joseph two feet and Joseph used his two feet to sprint out of the grasp of Potiphar’s wife. God has given to many of us a Mother, who has told us that she will knock us into the middle of next week if we even think about breaking curfew. With Woody Allen we see and hear our mothers hovering in the clouds above us in our times of temptation and we do the right. God has given to us the church for accountability not only through her officers and courts, but also through member-to-member relationships. The greatest gifts God has given to us for our escape of idolatry are faith and repentance. We believe in the one, true God and return regularly in our minds and corporate worship to the creedal recitations of what we believe. We turn away from our idolatry with grief and hatred, running to the one true God to confess our sins and desires to do the right. Paul’s entire thought is this: “He will also provide a way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” God is faithful to provide a way of escape, but that way may not be a clean break, a sprint from the temptation to a safe place where you no longer have to face the temptation let alone think about it. God’s ways of escape are often in the midst of temptation’s fire where he gives us strength to endure the flames. We should not think, “God is faithful and so he will consistently and swiftly remove me from harm’s way providing for me a pleasant and happy Christian life.” God’s faithfulness often serves us during difficult times, through fiery trials. The Trinity Hymnal includes the following hymn under the category of “The Faithfulness of God”:
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord!
Fear not I am with thee, O be not dismayed; I, I am thy God and will still give
Thee aid; I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, upheld by
thy righteous, omnipotent hand.
When through the deep waters I call thee to go, the rivers of woe shall not
thee overflow; For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless, and sanctify to
thee thy deepest distress.
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to
his foes; That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no
never forsake.
In my life I have walked through deep waters, but as a pastor of this church I know that some of you have walked through deeper waters. Jesus walks with us to comfort us. “Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.” Jesus is present with us to comfort us and to provide a way of escape for us, strengthening us to endure trials and to withstand temptation. Indeed, Christ has navigated deeper waters still. He has suffered the unimaginable, the very wrath of God so that we might escape it.
Paul moves from Old Testament examples of idolatry to a present idolatry among the members of the Church at Corinth. We may think that idolatry creeps into our private lives, on the fringe of the Church where we are less guarded. But Paul’s example of idolatry takes place at the very center of corporate worship in the church. If we partake of the Lord’s Table, then we cannot partake of the sacraments and rites of other religions. Paul quickly dismisses two issues he has already discussed: 1) Evil does not lurk in food or other material objects; it is not wrong to eat food, even food sacrificed to idols; 2) Idols have no real power and so we are not dualists believing that the god of Evil is as powerful and authoritative as the God of Good. With Isaiah, Paul agreed that an idol is nothing more than a manmade sculpture propped up with a shim so that it will not totter. When I was a child, my parents collected and read to me all of the Arch Bible Story Books. The story is told in metered rhyming lines. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego say to King Nebucadnezzer, “O King your god is not a god at all. It’s just a hunk of ugly junk outside your city wall.”
Having addressed these issues, Paul nonetheless warns against communicant members of the Church partaking in the religious rites of non-Christian worship. In the early 1990’s the mainline Presbyterian Church at its General Assembly added to its corporate celebration of the Lord’s Table, prayers to the goddess Sophia. Congregations of this denomination have welcomed Hindu priests and priestesses to officiate Hindu rites during worship meetings to celebrate the fundamental unity of all religions. This is not the modern idolatry of loving our sports cars more than God or trusting in the machine more than we trust in God. This is the postmodern return to pagan worship, to corporate observance of rites offered to the glory of demons, idols, and gods who are nothing more than human invention.
“Shall we provoke God to jealousy?” No. The gospel frees us to worship the one, true God alone. He is a jealous God. The exclusivity of our faith and practice is his design and command. “Are we stronger than he?” No. He is the Creator. We are the creatures. He is infinitely omnipotent. We are finite and weak. Our strength comes from God alone. Our escape from idolatry begins as we fall helpless before the one, true God and beg for his strengthening of us.

“Do All to the Glory of God”
I Corinthians 10: 23 – 11: 1

Eating food sacrificed to idols must have been a controversial debate in the Church at Corinth with two sides polarized, if not wounding each other. Paul returns to this problem once again and instructs in such a way that principles for all of life are supplied us. He quotes what appears to be a rule for individual liberty: “All things are lawful.” Paul agrees with the rule if it is qualified: “All things are lawful BUT not all things are helpful.” Paul rewords the qualification for emphasis and clarification: “All things are lawful but not all things build up.” As members of the Church we are not merely promoters of individual liberties. Rather, we are committed to the needs of others first, working toward the result of permanent improvement for the good of others. And so, Paul writes, “Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.” This lesson is paramount for Paul who presented it not only to the Church at Corinth but also to the Church at Philippi: “Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. He presents it to the Church at Rome: “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor…. Contribute to the needs of the saints.” To the Church at Galatia Paul wrote, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” To the Church at Ephesus, Paul wrote, “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave his life for us.”
Having presented this foundational lesson for Christian behavior, Paul applies it to the problem at hand: Should we or should we not eat food sacrificed to idols? Paul has tackled this question in Chapter 8, but for some reason, he returns to answer it again. In Chapter 8 the main point of his answer is that we must not merely act on knowledge but we must also act in love. This moves Paul to instruct us to respect the conscience of another person, even if that conscience is weak. Now in Chapter 10, Paul begins his answer with the identical emphasis on love and then he comments on individual conscience. In this second answer, Paul tells me how I might have a strong conscience before he tells me to be sensitive to my brother who has a weak conscience. He writes, “Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience.” Mark this lesson well: We are not to do violence to our brother’s conscience, but none of us are doomed to live the rest of our lives with a weak conscience. We can be strengthened in conscience. How would we strengthen in personal conscience? Paul gives to us two tips.
The first is to gain a confidence toward the eating of meat regardless of its religious associations. Today we check FDA labels and we prefer free range, hormone free, small batch, organic, mercury free, color dye free meat. Paul is not addressing issues of health and quality but narrowly he speaks to the issue of meat offered to idols. Some of the Corinthians as a matter of conscience believed meat sacrificed to idols to be spiritually tainted. They may have believed this meat to be infused with a demonic power and they may have believed that the purchasing of such meat would associate them with the idolatrous worship that preceded their purchase of it. Paul’s first tip is to forget these associations and to drop these notions of evil lurking in the flesh of animals. Is your conscience strong? Are you able to make decisions with confidence, free from the worry of whether or not what you are purchasing or eating is the right choice? In an attempt to apply God’s holy words and commands to the details of our lives, some people become paralyzed, fearful of making a wrong choice, afraid that they might swallow an ounce of evil. But Jesus said, “It’s not what goes into a man’s mouth that defiles him, but that which comes out of his heart.” Granted, there is a difference between a seared conscience and a strong one. The seared conscience would say, “The earth belongs to me and I can use it however I choose.” But a strong conscience is founded upon the word of God quoted by Paul, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”
The second tip toward a strong conscience is to be a polite guest who refrains from asking questions about the source of the meat offered at the table. Don’t publicly talk about your matters of conscience. This is good advice for many a Christian. Don’t litter conversations with your personal matters of conscience. Learn the difference between the clear commands of God objectively defining sin against holy behavior and your personal matters of conscience. If you do not take Paul’s tip, then many people, including your Christian sisters and brothers will find you to be intolerable if not an irritant. But this is no mere social dilemma. Paul is not coaching us on how to lose our social awkwardness. He is teaching us how to strengthen our consciences. Paul is not instructing us to be silent about our food allergies or other health concerns. What he is teaching us to shirk would be pious sermonettes at the dinner table attempting to steer clear of any association with idolatry or evil of any kind down to the details of what I refuse to eat. As each dish is passed my way, I would ask, “And where did you purchase this meat? In good conscience I could not eat any meat that came from a Muslim Halal shop or a Hindu temple, or an organic farm outside of Eugene run by some Hippie cultists.” Admittedly, we are left thinking, “What on earth was going on in the Church at Corinth? Were Christian sisters and brothers actually doing this? Were they actually sacrificing their blessed unity in Christ over such an issue as this?” Keep asking these questions and use them as safeguards of our blessed union in Christ, measuring every little issue and detail that confronts us today. The Bible may shed light on many a detail of our lives, but we must be careful not to go beyond the scriptures and force upon the whole of the church our matters of personal conscience.
Notice Paul writes, “If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner….” A certain kind of Christian might think that broaching certain matters of conscience at the table would be an appropriate way to “evangelize” these non-Christian hosts, illustrating for them how principled and disciplined is the Christian life. Paul thinks this to be inappropriate. Indeed such comments are ineffective attempts to proclaim the gospel to unbelievers. Paul at this point moves from instructing us on how we might strengthen our consciences to how we might strengthen the consciences of unbelievers.
Paul shows us how a comment on food and refraining from it in a social setting could serve the gospel and the strengthening of our hosts’ conscience. When unbelievers make clear to us that they are inviting us to participate in cultic rites and celebrations, then we are to politely yet firmly refrain from participation. A non-Christian host informs me that the meal he is serving me is indeed associated with his idolatrous worship. If he makes this clear, then I must refrain. By doing so, I could serve to awaken and strengthen the conscience of this unbeliever, illustrating the exclusivity of Christian devotion. Any Hindu host would respect my stand, even in a social setting. Hinduism allows for devotees to choose from the largest pantheon on gods known in human history. It would be common in Hinduism for custom and personal consciences to clash in social settings. A Muslim host would respect a Christian who took a social, moral stand. The persuasive apologetic would be the breaking down of his stereotype of Christians as people who do not take a stand on any moral ground. Any serious followers of a world religion would respect a Christian who takes a stand. The only category of unbeliever that would take offense would be an American secularist who went to Sunday School as a child and for some reason developed a bitterness toward the Christian faith having been exposed to legalism and hypocrisy. But I cannot for a moment imagine this host saying at the serving of a meal, “This salmon was prepared in honor of the Coyote to whom we now offer our prayer.” But stranger things have happened in Oregon and so if you find yourself at such a meal, you must take a stand for the sake of the gospel. You would do so, not to protect your weak conscience, but out of concern for the seared conscience of your host.
For any of us who have argued about the weak conscience versus the strong conscience, the weak brother distinguished from the strong brother, Paul offers a clarification in (29-33): Another person’s conscience is not the decider of our liberty. The weak brother pushes his matters of conscience on his brothers and sisters in Christ. The strong brother takes care not to violate the conscience of his weak sisters and brothers and any unbelievers. The strong brother puts the interests and pleasure of others before his own with the purpose of connecting someone to Christ. The message of the gospel that Christ has given himself up for us all is served by our actions to give up our personal liberties for the good of others.
Paul writes, “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” In this one sentence, he enlarges his application to all of life. We do not serve ourselves but we serve God. The more detailed and specific application becomes in the Bible, the more trivial and narrow it seems to me. But every specific command and application of the Holy Scriptures is connected to cosmic kingdom declarations and commands. These “big picture,” sweeping statements of the glory of God and his eternal kingdom put every detailed command in its place, stripping away any triviality. In this most narrow of texts committed to specific application, Paul has written two stirring and universal statements: one he borrowed from David, who borrowed it from Moses, who wrote it long after God said it to Job – “The earth belongs to the Lord! Everything in it and around it belongs to him.” The second sweeping statement applicable to all of life belongs to Paul – “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Before we ask, “What does this mean specifically, applied to the details of my life?” let us bask for a moment in the largeness of our faith and life. Let us wonder how it is that each of us is connected to the infinite God who lives in unapproachable light. Let us escape the din and tension of the dinner table, the stench of the meat market, and the blunders in our gospel presentations to ponder how we might glorify God. Let us escape the tyranny of conscience and take every thought captive to Christ. But if we are to glorify God in all that we do, then we must descend from our hot air balloon rides, put our feet on tierra firma and live every detail of our lives to his glory. How are we to do so? Paul concludes with one central source of application: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” Master the thoughts and behaviors of Paul. Learn from his mistakes, but focus on his Christ-like, gospel driven life. With the apostle Paul, master the thoughts and behaviors of Christ and live accordingly.

“Worship and Traditions”
I Corinthians 11:2-16

Paul writes his first letter to the church at Corinth to apply the gospel to three major problems. The first problem is disunity. The second problem is sexual immorality and the third is disorderly worship. We have finally arrived to Paul’s addressing of the difficulties in worship at Corinth. Paul begins by praising the Church at Corinth for remembering Paul’s formative instruction as the church planter. He praises this church for maintaining the apostolic traditions he established for them. The Church at Corinth had preserved all of the necessary elements of worship. The particular problem in this church was that these elements were disorderly. They were messy. The first worship problem concerned the ministry of the word and prayer. The second concerned the Lord’s Supper. Paul commends the Corinthian Church for including all of the right parts of corporate worship in their weekly meetings. Then he addresses their disorderly practice of these elements.
Up front Paul establishes divine and human authority as the solution to disorderly worship. Paul uses the word, “head,” according to its figurative meaning, namely “authority.” The lesson from (3) is clearly: Every one of us in under authority. Paul writes, “The head of every man is Christ.” Every man is under the authority of the one Man, Christ Jesus. He alone is the head of the church and so he is the present authority in rightly ordered worship. Paul then writes, “the head of a wife is her husband.” Paul does not mean that a woman is not under the direct authority of Christ. Every member of the church regardless of gender or age is under the direct authority of Christ. But it is also true that a wife is under the authority of her husband. All of us live under numerous authorities in this world. The intended purpose of these authorities is order resulting in peace and productivity. So many of us have difficulty with authority for two reasons: 1) our pride moves us to despise anyone one who would control or influence us; 2) authority has been abused sorely in human history and so we rightly fear it. Nevertheless, order resulting in peace and productivity only comes through properly executed authority.
Paul writes, “the head of Christ is God.” Even Christ, the Messiah, the Second Adam, is under the authority of God. “He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” He lived and accomplished his earthly mission of redemption as he submitted to God’s will. He prayed to his heavenly Father, “Not my will but your will be done.” The submission of Christ has united us to God’s infinite love.
This past week the Taliban returned to Kabul, Afghanistan, killing several people by suicide bombers. For the most part it was business as usual for the people of Kabul, accustomed to soldiers, missiles, and fire in their streets. At the moment I am reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner. These stories are set in Afghanistan. The author was born and raised in Kabul. He candidly tells the story of his people. The main story of A Thousand Splendid Suns is of the oppression of women, or more specifically, husbands oppressing and abusing their wives. Rasheed, a cobbler, is able to take two wives and to cruelly and regularly beat them, starve them, and inflict life-long wounds upon their bodies because of the war-torn disorder of his city and culture. The Taliban takes over Kabul and immediately restores order with this following list of historic rules:
Our watan is now known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. These are the laws that we will enforce and you will obey:
All citizens must pray five times a day. If it is prayer time and you are caught doing something other, you will be beaten.
All men will grow their beards. The correct length is at least one clenched fist beneath the chin. If you do not abide by this, you will be beaten.
All boys will wear turbans. Boys in grade one through six will wear black turbans, higher grades will wear white. All boys will wear Islamic clothes. Shirt collars will be buttoned.
Singing is forbidden.
Dancing is forbidden.
Playing cards, playing chess, gambling, and kite flying are forbidden.
Writing books, watching films, and painting pictures are forbidden.
If you keep parakeets, you will be beaten. Your birds will be killed.
If you steal, your hand will be cut off at the wrist. If you steal again, your foot will be cut off.
If you are not Muslim, do not worship where you can be seen my Muslims. If you do, you will be beaten and imprisoned. If you are caught trying to convert a Muslim to your faith, you will be executed.
Attention Women:
You will stay inside your homes at all times. It is not proper for women to wander aimlessly about the streets. If you go outside, you must be accompanied by a mahram, a male relative. If you are caught alone in the street, you will be beaten and sent home.
You will not, under any circumstance, show your face. You will cover with burqa when outside. If you do not, you will be severely beaten.
Cosmetics are forbidden.
Jewelry is forbidden.
You will not wear charming clothes.
You will not speak unless spoken to.
You will not make eye contact with men.
You will not laugh in public. If you do, you will be beaten.
You will not paint your nails. If you do, you will lose a finger.
Girls are forbidden from attending school. All school for girls will be closed immediately.
Women are forbidden from working.
If you are found guilty of adultery, you will be stoned to death.
Listen. Listen well. Obey. Allah-u-akbar.

And so, order is restored to Kabul, an oppressive order that allows Rasheed to do what he wills in his own house. Under this new order he treats his wives like dogs and his son like a prince. Many people today have accused Christian fundamentalists of being the same as Islamic fundamentalists. When it comes to dancing and playing cards, they might have a point. There is certainly a stark difference between the apostle Paul’s teaching regarding the value of women and the Taliban’s laws governing women. The protection we must put in place so that we never treat women as they are treated under the Taliban is not a protection void of authority. Rather, it is the practice of a pure and good authority. A husband who submits to the authority of Christ would be a husband who would protect his wife from oppression, doing everything in his power to promote her freedom and to protect her valuable contribution not only in the home, but in every sphere and field in which she contributes, including corporate worship.
Having presented his first point that authority is necessary to order worship toward peace and productivity, Paul addresses the first specific problem in the Church of Corinth, namely the disorderly nature of the ministry of the word and prayer. Paul describes the action of the ministry of the word as “prophecy,” that is, the speaking of the very words of God. A prophet of God is one who speaks the very words of God. Any member of the Church who speaks the very words of God prophesies. Paul’s lesson is this: The ministry of the word and prayer must be offered in worship by those who are under proper authority. In (4) we learn that a man who ministers the word and prays in worship must be under proper authority. In (5) we learn that a woman who ministers the word and prays in worship must also be under proper authority. These verses moved John Calvin to reconcile Paul’s instruction to the Church at Corinth with his instruction of Timothy in I Timothy 2:12, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.” (see commentary r.e. office.) Paul is consistent. His instruction to Timothy is that a woman who is not under proper authority must be silent in the church. This is precisely what Paul says to the Corinthians about men and women. Anyone who believes that Paul commanded women to be silent in corporate worship is mistaken. Any woman who is under proper authority may speak and publicly contribute to corporate worship. She may prophesy and pray publicly.
You may be thinking, “Let’s get to the interesting details about hair length. What is Paul talking about in verses 4-6?” Rest assured that he is talking about proper authority. He is talking about all of us submitting to proper authority in the context of worship traditions and present culture. Worship, tradition, and culture are inseparable. Worship is surely founded upon divine commands but these commands produce human response and expression. Humanity cannot worship without engaging culture and establishing traditions. And so, there is a cultural aspect to Paul’s instructions here. His main point is clearly presented by Matthew Henry who wrote, “We should, even in our dress and habits, avoid every thing that may dishonor Christ.” In other words, even our hairstyle can communicate in a particular culture whether or not we are under proper authority. Someone may argue, “Just because my hairstyle is spiked and multi-colored with a plastic rat perched where my grandmother would have donned a tortoise-shelled comb, doesn’t mean that I am rebellious.” True. Fair enough. God does not look at the outward appearance but at our hearts. Nevertheless, if we are interested in culture, we must admit that our visual presentations do send messages to our fellow human beings. You may be a submissive person while your hairdo barks at everyone on the street, “I am a punk.” You may say, “I look like a punk so that I might reach punks for Christ.” Go for it. In the end, to every punk who embraces the gospel, the issue of submission to authority will naturally flow and then the punk will have to ask the question, “Is my outward appearance communicating that I have submitted to
Christ and to all proper authorities he has given for peace and productivity?”
In Corinth, the temple prostitutes of several religions shaved their heads and so any woman in the church who shaved her head would be sending confusing messages to her fellow worshippers. In the 1920’s American prostitutes wore red dresses and so my grandfather, the Reverend E.E. Lewis, refused to allow his wife and daughter to wear red dresses. Some Christian groups believe that Paul is requiring that all women wear a hat, mantle, or scarf in corporate worship. I don’t believe that he is doing so. (If you go to some of our churches in the south, you will see women wearing hats in worship. I think it is a lovely custom as long as they don’t put too much fruit on their hats. Hats can be a bit of a distraction. Nevertheless, it is a lovely custom.) Paul is concerned that men and women appear in church as those who are submissive to Christ. Can a woman shave her head and yet be submissive in her heart and behavior to her husband and to Christ? Yes, this is a possibility, especially in our present day culture when a shaved head does not advertise prostitution but may announce cancer treatment or some over the top devotion to Star Trek.
In (7-15) Paul shows how worship traditions are set by applying biblical truth and general revelation as best we can. He does not cite overt commands regulating worship but arguments made in the light of God’s truth. In (7) Paul writes, “For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.” First of all Paul is not disagreeing with Moses who wrote in Genesis 1:26, “And God made Man in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.” Both genders are created in the image of God and thus display the glory of God. The difference between the two genders is that the woman not only displays the glory of God but if she is married, she also displays the glory of her husband. In doing so, a woman has the unique opportunity to display the historic flow of God’s glorious creative acts which culminated in making man from the dust and then finally making woman from the body of the man. In (8) Paul explains this little chain of glory. “For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.” By virtue of God creating the first woman from the body of the first man, the wife glorifies her husband. It has everything to do with God. After all the man was asleep. This is not a statement of the superiority of the male but it is a statement of the divine glory displayed in all of our lives and relationships. This is what corporate worship is about – the glory of God displayed in our midst. Our relationships are designed from creation to display divine glory and so the more orderly our relationships are, the better we glow with divine glory. (Actually, the men sweat divine glory and the women glow.)
In (10) Paul makes another argument from biblical revelation: “That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.” The angels who live in God’s unapproachable light cover their heads with their wings when addressing God or receiving his commands. If the angels outwardly show their submission in the presence of God, then we should all do so. Wives are not commanded to outwardly display submission because they are inferior to men or because they are wily, untrustworthy creatures as Islamic fundamentalism teaches. Women are commanded to arrange their outward appearance to reflect the glory of God just as the angels do in the heavenly courtroom.
To make this point about the equality of men and women in regard to their interdependency, Paul writes in (11-12)
“Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.” Both genders are to glorify God alone in worship.
Alongside of the biblical arguments Paul places an argument from general revelation, that which he calls, “nature.” Generally speaking he is correct is observing that most usually women are able to grow beautifully long hair, while men’s hair grows stringy and begins to fall out at middle age. The contrast between baldness and long hair can be unappealing. We have all seen a man who is able to grow long, beautiful hair and yet look manly and it is no disgrace to him. But we have also seen guys who should crop their hair short, their greasy locks clearly a liability to honor and glory. It’s a hormonal difference between the genders and Paul observed it. He uses it as an argument for outward appearance enhancing our worship of God.
Paul concludes with this statement: “If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.” Paul is referring to his arguing from scripture and nature. This is how the entire church makes decisions and develops worship traditions. In the blessed unity of the Church, we do not fight with each other putting forth personal arguments from personal preference and pop culture. Rather, we wrestle to apply the divine revelation, the special revelation of the Holy Scriptures informing the general revelation of nature, together shedding light upon our corporate worship and all of life. On the matter of the ministry of the word and prayer in corporate worship, the divine revelation presents to us proper authority flowing from God through all of our human relationships, ordering our worship toward peace and productivity. When proper authority adorns the worshippers, then the ministry of the word and prayer will reach the whole of us unimpeded. The glory of God will shine forth like the noonday sun and we shall bask in that glory praising God.

“The Equality and Exclusivity of the Lord’s Supper”
I Corinthians 11: 17-34

As Paul addresses the problem of disorderly worship in the Church at Corinth, he begins by commending the church for including all of the proper elements of worship, the ministry of the word and prayer accompanied by the sacraments. He then proceeds to address the disorder of the worship. The corporate worship is out-of-control, offered without proper authority and thus, not beneficial to everyone gathered. In (17-34) Paul addresses the problematic observance of the Lord’s Supper. He has no commendation for the Corinthians in this part of their corporate worship.
The first problem is that the Corinthian Church is using the Lord’s Table to showcase their divisions rather than remembering Christ alone. Gordon Fee calls (19) “one of the true puzzles of the letter.” Some think that Paul is instructing the Church to clearly make factions known at the Lord’s Table so that we might all know who is truly united to Christ and who is not. Others think that Paul uses satire to show how far the Church has allowed their divisions to go – straight to the center of corporate worship. Still others believe that Paul articulates in (19) what the Corinthian Church believed and practiced. This is what I believe Paul to be doing. The Lord’s Supper by its very intent and nature communicates unity in Christ. It is a time to gather all those who would remember Jesus, his life, his death, his sacrifice, his atonement, his redemption. It is a time to focus our attention upon Christ alone.
In our tradition, we “fence” the Lord’s Table, meaning that we make it clear who should partake and who should not partake. We do so because of Paul’s warnings from this very text. At times and in certain contexts the fencing of the table, in my observation, has been too much of a good thing distracting us from the gathering of the saints to celebrate Christ. While there is a place for introspection, we should think on Christ first and foremost. While there is a place for warning people against partaking in an unworthy manner, this could become the main message clouding the simple and clear signs of the person and work of Christ on the table. The main message of the table is not, “God is going to kill you for partaking in an unworthy manner.” Rather, the main message of the table is “God poured out his wrath for your sin upon Christ, our Redeemer.”
The second problem is that the Corinthians had turned the Lord’s Supper into an unwelcome and drunken feast. People were eating whenever they felt like it rather than waiting for each other, making the eating the primary purpose. They were more interested in eating the food than talking with other over the meal. The inequity of this feast in no way enhanced the unity in Christ the church enjoys. While some had plenty to eat and drink, others had nothing to eat and drink! This is unthinkable for any host or group of people serving a meal to others. One of the big concerns in any church kitchen is making sure that everyone is served some food. Some people were drunk at this ongoing feast. Remember, the Corinthian Church regularly included all of the proper elements of corporate worship. Paul was chastising them for the disorderly manner in which they practiced these elements. In the case of the Lord’s Supper, the observance had gone far beyond disorderly to rude, even destructive behavior. Fellowship was destroyed. The blessed union we enjoy is Christ was lost in the din of rabble rousing and the inequity of the service.
After addressing these two problems, Paul presents the solution: Stick to the inaugurating words of Jesus and showcase the two elements of the bread and the wine. It is true that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper in the midst of the Passover Feast. There is nothing wrong with celebrating the Lord’s Supper in the midst of a feast today, as long as the feast does not confuse, distract, or destroy the simple clarity of the Lord’s Supper. One of the reasons the Church over the centuries has removed the Lord’s Supper from its original context in the midst of a feast, is to remove the din and mirth that inevitably flows from enjoyable fellowship. In our tradition, our Book of Church Order, instructs us ministers to make sure that we don’t add too many of our own words at the Table so that the words of Christ Jesus instituting the Supper might be clearly proclaimed and heard by the congregation. Another part of our tradition preserved since Calvin’s Geneva is that coupling of the Lord’s Supper to the Preaching of the Gospel. Only after the Gospel is clearly preached and without anything between, the Lord’s Supper is to be dispensed so that those partaking remember Christ and his sufficient work on our behalf, uniting us to God’s love forever.
Listen to the inaugurating words of Christ proclaiming the Gospel at the Table. “This is my body which is for you.” The Gospel is about Christ giving himself for us. This giving is nothing less than his sacrifice of his life for us. The very purpose of the incarnation of Christ, his taking upon himself a human body, was his replacing of our first and failed father, Adam, perfectly winning God’s favor by his obedient life and then laying down that life on the cross as a perfect and acceptable sacrifice to satisfy God’s wrath for sin. “This is my body which is for you.” As we eat the bread we remember this completed work of Jesus on our behalf.
Listen to the words of Jesus as he passed the cup: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” The Old Covenant demanded the shedding of blood for atonement of sin. The New Covenant is directly related to the Old Covenant – it is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant. The New Covenant is as concerned with blood as the Old Covenant. The blessed difference is that finally, the blood of the Lamb of God is shed and it is sufficient to fulfill all of the demands of the covenant, not for merely one year, but for eternity! This is the Gospel: The blood of Christ shed upon the cross has ended the sacrificial shedding of blood forever. It is no longer our duty to provide the sacrifice. God has provided the sacrifice in his very own Son, our Lord Jesus.
Paul says, “Do this.” Do what? In (26) he tells us: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” We actually proclaim the Gospel as we partake of the Lord’s Supper! The preaching of the word is a verbal presentation of the Gospel and the observance of the Lord’s Supper is a sensual presentation of the Gospel. “Sensual” means a presentation we take in through all of our senses. We see the signs, we hear the words, we touch, we smell, we taste. The Lord’s Supper compliments the preaching of the Gospel. More and more congregations in the PCA are serving the Lord’s Supper weekly instead of monthly so that the preaching of the Gospel and the Lord’s Supper are consistently presented together. This is our duty and privilege as the Church in these last days. Until the coming of our Lord Jesus, King of the Universe, we proclaim to ourselves and to the world that at the center of history, the King of Glory laid down his life a ransom for many.
Paul issues a warning, instructing us all to prepare ourselves to partake of the Lord’s Supper. This preparation is a self-examination. Such self-examination would include a daily repentance. Paul has something more specific in mind, which does not exclude a daily repentance, but nevertheless, is more to the point of the Corinthian problem of lack of focus due to disorderly and thus confusing practice. What is the “unworthy manner,” Paul describes here? It is the failure to “discern” the body of Christ. In other words, anyone who fails to understand the gospel proclaimed, namely that Christ alone makes us right with God in heaven, through his death, is partaking in an unworthy manner. Paul’s solution is to strip away all distracting, confusing and competing words and actions so that we might remember Christ and him crucified.
To miss the Gospel, which places Christ in the center of faith and life, is a serious matter. Paul speaks of the judgment of God falling upon those who do not embrace the holy Gospel. Paul says that this judgment has delivered weakness, illness and death into our present lives. Even as he delivers this warning, Paul is preaching the Gospel. He says that he instructs us to judge ourselves – the action of self-examination, so that we will escape this divine judgment unto death. However, the Lord does add to his judgment, short of final judgment, discipline, harsh, yet loving discipline to spare us of the judgment of death. The world apart from Christ is condemned to death. But any of us who put our trust in Christ, united to him, escape this final judgment of death. God may harshly discipline us to increase our holy behavior, to produce repentance, and to maintain our perseverance in faith all toward the end of preserving us for his own glory.
Finally, in (34) Paul writes, “so that when you come together it will not be for judgment.” The purpose and activity of the Lord’s Supper is not self-examination. Our self-examination must occur prior to our partaking of the Lord’s Supper. It should start in our private contexts and it can and most likely, should end in the liturgy of corporate worship prior to the celebration. It is not a rite we enact to escape divine judgment, or more precisely to the Corinthian problem, it is not the public test determining and showing who belongs to Christ and who does not belong to him. The Lord’s Supper is a proclamation of the Gospel, a remembrance of Christ, a celebration of our blessed union with him.

“The Unity and the Diversity of the Body of Christ”
I Corinthians 12: 1-31

Paul continues to address the problem of disorderly worship in the Church at Corinth. He suggests that the Corinthians’ pagan past has molded their minds and thus influenced their practice. In paganism, gods are mute. The worship of these gods in first century Corinth would have been ecstatic. Plato, one of the founders of Greek philosophy and western thought, who established the centrality of language for meaning and powerfully used words to communicate truth, nonetheless, wrote, “We reach the highest state of good in frenzy.” And so three centuries later, Hellenistic pagan worship was founded upon emotion. Paul presents Christian worship founded upon the God who speaks and thus language communicating truth. The words we speak in worship are important; they convey meaning. Paul’s example strikes at the heart of Christian worship – Who is Jesus? Paul’s first lesson is that the Holy Spirit supplies words in worship that convey the truth of Jesus. The Holy Spirit does not bring attention to himself, but to Jesus, the Son of God, and to his heavenly Father. The gospel is the message of the person and work of God, our Savior. In his love for us, God has adopted us. We were orphans but God, on his own, apart from our contributions, completed all of the red tape to make us children of God. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The Holy Spirit makes certain that this gospel of Jesus and his heavenly Father are clearly proclaimed in worship. If a person in worship undermines Jesus, or twists the truth about Jesus, then this person is not moved by the Holy Spirit. The person and worship that clearly and simply declares Jesus to be Lord is worship led by the Holy Spirit. The Apostle John supplied the same teaching in I John 4, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
In (4-11) Paul’s main point is clearly stated: The same Holy Spirit is the giver of the variety of gifts bestowed upon the church. These gifts are not only given but they are empowered by the Holy Spirit. This common source of all gifts and empowerment produces the order lacking in the Church at Corinth. The variety of gifts produces a variety of service. The variety of service produces a variety of activities. A rightly ordered church may enjoy a variety of worship meetings, liturgies, styles, and venue. Some churches believe that they have maintained the order by reducing worship to one, prescribed, never-changing liturgy, simple in form, short in length, drab in color, solo in voice, and dry in tone. Such thinking is minimalism not Christian thought. The order comes when the Holy Spirit is clearly the source of the rich variety of worship. The order exists as the Holy Spirit empowers the worshipping community. This order flows to the many and varied ministries of the church. It is tactic to do a few things well, but it is not descriptive of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ that we must only do a few things well or poorly. Whatever we do, it must serve the ministry of the word and most certainly display Christ and him crucified.
In (7) Paul tells us that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for the common good. This is not the text that helps us to decide which gifts the Holy Spirit has given in the past but no longer would give today. What Paul does teach us in this text is that the gifts are used for the common good and they support the word-based worship of Christianity. Paul would understand the gift of wisdom to be nothing other than the proper application of the law of God. The gift of knowledge would be nothing other than a clear understanding of the Holy Scriptures as a whole. The gift of faith would be nothing other than believing the Holy Scriptures to be true. The gift of healing would be nothing other than an extension of God’s providence as recorded in the Prophets and fulfilled in the ministry of Christ. The gift of miracles would not replace the word of God but would compliment the proclamation of the coming of Christ, who worked miracles as he declared the word of God. The gift of prophecy would be nothing other than the speaking of the Holy Scriptures to guide and direct the people of God in every age and in every context. The gift of discerning between the spirits is nothing other than taking what one knows about the Word of God and using it to protect the Church from false teaching and worship. The gift of tongues is nothing other than the dispensing of God’s word into different languages so that more people may understand the Word of God. The gift of interpretation of tongues is nothing other than making sure that everyone who hears, actually hears the Word of God with understanding.
This is not the text to use to claim that any of these particular gifts have fallen away, no longer in use today. Nor is it a text that proves that all of these gifts are in use today or must be used to today or that they are the proofs of the Holy Spirit working in the Church today. The point of this text is that the Word of God is central and foundational to Christian worship. All of the gifts of the Holy Spirit compliment, support and showcase the Word of God. Orderly worship is founded upon language that conveys meaning, the very words of God. Any gift of the Holy Spirit used in worship would have this grand and focused purpose – to proclaim the Word of God to all who would hear. Where more clarity is needed, the Holy Spirit will supply more gifts so that the Word of God might be understood and applied to all areas of life.
In (12-31) Paul teaches us that the Holy Spirit makes a variety of individuals members of the one body of Christ. No matter what ethnic, economic, social, or gender labels stick to us, we are all members of the one Christ as the Holy Spirit unites us to him. The Holy Spirit baptizing us into this one body and our drinking of the Holy Spirit are beautiful and powerful pictures of our union with Christ. Being baptized into one body describes our entrance into the Church and drinking of the Holy Spirit describes our experience in the Church, in its worship and fellowship. These powerful and beautiful pictures do not describe a particular occasion and experience in which we are granted an additional gift beyond faith, necessary to unite us to God. Such ideas and practices are crudely forced upon these words of Paul, driven by sub-cultural practice.
These are not difficult words of Paul to understand. He clearly teaches us that though we have different roles in the Church, and thus receive different gifts from the Holy Spirit, we are members of one Body, and our roles and gifts are to be used for the good of the whole Body. Therefore, we should not scorn or devalue the roles and gifts of other members different from ourselves. I tend to think that my role and my gift are the most important. By virtue of the fact that your roles and gifts are different than mine, they must be less important and unnecessary. This is faulty thinking. Paul asks us to consider the importance of every physical body part. We need the eye to function as an eye and the ear to function as an ear. Both are important members and supply an important function to the whole body.
The order that Paul desires for the Church at Corinth is an order of common good and the actual experience of unity. In (25-26) Paul says that the purpose of this teaching is to end the divisions among the members of the Church. Division is replaced with true care for one another. Members of the church are to care for one another. A rightly ordered church is one in which all of the members mourn with the one or few who mourn. Collectively we rejoice with the one or few who rejoice. When someone says to me, “I don’t need to be a part of the Church to be a Christian,” I think of all the blessings and benefits this person is missing.
It would seem to some that Paul takes away from his main message by adding these final words, this seeming hierarchy of gifts and roles in the church. He concludes by telling us to “desire the higher gifts.” I thought all gifts were equally great! Paul has told us that all members and gifts are necessary and vital to the whole Body. Firstly, Paul is not instructing each of us as individuals to strive to possess the higher gifts personally. As a Church comprised of individual members, together we are to strive for the higher gifts. As the Church of these last days, of these two thousand years or more flowing from the Apostolic Age we are to strive for these higher gifts to be used by the proper members in proper roles for the good of the whole Church. In other words, I am not to strive to be an apostle myself, but with other members of the Church we strive to participate in a Church founded upon the apostles, receiving the apostles’ teaching and ordering worship and all of life accordingly. Each of us is not to strive to be a prophet, but together we should strive to be a Church who is directed by prophecy.
Secondly, with this seeming hierarchy of gifts and roles, Paul is teaching us that the “higher gifts” are those that best proclaim the Word of God in the Church. The purpose of all of these gifts is to serve the very words of God. Which gifts are most needed today? Which are most needed in our present context, in our congregation? Is it possible that in many congregations today, we have forgotten or ignored the teachings of the Apostles, replacing them with our own teachings, appointing some of our peers to be apostles and allowing them to proclaim a different gospel? Which gifts would return us to the Apostolic teaching? Which roles would be higher than others when assessed by the criteria, “What do we most need to clearly proclaim God’s Word today?”
Why is the Word of God so important? Why must we keep the Holy Scriptures at the center and foundation of the Church? The purpose of the Word of God is to proclaim Christ, the risen Lord, who has raised us to new and eternal life. The Word of God culminates in the presentation of Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith.” The Word of God served by the gifts of the Holy Spirit maintains the centrality of Christ in our worship, in the whole of life. The Church is founded upon the Prophets and the Apostles. The cornerstone is Christ. “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

“Love and the Gospel”
I Corinthians 13: 1-13

Most likely we have heard this text read and expounded at a wedding. Paul continues to write about the orderly and thus effective use of spiritual gifts in the church. The Church at Corinth is out of control including her ministry of the word and prayer and observance of the sacraments. Paul is now addressing in chapters 12 and following, the proper use of the gifts bestowed upon us by the Holy Spirit. Paul first presents love as the premium possession of the Church, of greater value and use than any of the spiritual gifts. Paul secondly describes the love of God bestowed upon us, characterizing the behavior of the Church. Thirdly, Paul presents the perpetuity of love.
First of all Paul says that this premium gift of love is key to the proper use of all spiritual gifts. All of the spiritual gifts exercised in the Church are spiritually useless if not accompanied by love. Paul employs colorful and powerful images to help us get the point. Church members speaking in tongues, any kind of tongues, yet lacking love produce obnoxious white noise. Church members, including ministers of the gospel, who are full of prophetic gifts supported with a depth of understanding and wealth of wisdom producing the faith Jesus claimed is possible for his followers are useless if they lack love. Moving mountains could be a show of faith, but it also could be a disruptive, even destructive project if love is not in the mix. Even the self-sacrifice of martyrdom offered without love is unproductive.
This past week Bob Knight, one of the greatest College Basketball coaches of all time resigned. He has been one of the most effective teachers of the game. When a journalist asked him about his infamous temper and harsh treatment of his players, Knight responded, “If a kid doesn’t want to get yelled at or can’t handle my anger, then he shouldn’t play for me.” We can deliberate with Knight whether or not it is appropriate for a Basketball coach to exercise his gifts without love expressed to his players. But this is not a deliberation that can be applied to members of the Church. We who are members of Christ’s body must possess and express love, the key to the productivity of all the spiritual gifts.
Secondly Paul describes the love of God bestowed upon the Church, characterizing our behavior. Why does Paul begin his description of love as patience? Is not love passion? Love is orderly, controlled, sustained. It is not a TNT firework that ignites and sputters for a moment then is gone. The loving person is the one who has all the time in the world for love to be expressed and to be returned.
Love is also kind. We think of love as deeper and more complicated than kindness. Kindness requires less commitment than love. Nevertheless, kindness is an aspect of love. Kindness creates the space and potential for deeper expressions of love. How many marriages would be better preserved and enjoyed if spouses were kind to each other? In the same way, how much more would the Church flourish if her members were kind to one another?
Love does not envy or boast. In other words, love puts the other person or the whole group before personal desire and possession. Envy is our resentful lusting for somebody else’s success, good fortune, qualities or possessions. A loving person celebrates all of these in the other person seeking to enhance all of these in the other person. Boasting is the vocalizing of pride. Love does not put “Self” first, but others first. Love mutes the announcement and embellishment of personal accomplishments and trumpets the dignity, value, and successes of others.
Love is not arrogant or rude. Arrogance is the attitude of pride often expressed non-verbally. An arrogant posture maintains space between persons. A loving posture extends one person to another. An arrogant gait leaves others in the dust. A loving gait ambles alongside, walking hand-in-hand. Love is not rude. Politeness is not merely etiquette, but it is an aspect of love.
Love does not insist on its own way. Love is expressed when we remember that life is about “God” and about “us,” before it is about “Me.” “It’s my way or the highway!” Such a life motto murders love. Love is not irritable. We should refrain from purposely saying and doing that which irritates our fellow church members. But “irritable” does not refer in meaning to those of us who irritate others! The irritable person is the one who is easily irritated by others’ behavior! Love allows us to put up with the quirks, foibles, and irritating behaviors of fellow Church members.
Love is not resentful. The New International Version supplies us with a fine description of resentful behavior: “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” The image of a black demerit book is conjured up in my mind. If we love each other in the Church, then we will burn these black demerit books we keep, carefully recording the sins of fellow members, memorizing them, preserving them for many years to come, and in some relationships, never allowing a person to enjoy the forgiveness of a brother and sister in Christ. Resentment occurs when someone has sinned against me. I feel aggrieved because I perceive a wrong or injustice committed against me. I refuse to follow God, who forgives those sins he has not perceived committed against his holy law, but those he has justly documented. As members of the Church we are to express the love of forgiveness in the place of human resentment.
Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Why would Church members rejoice at wrongdoing? If the wrongdoing is committed against those we hate, then we might be tempted to rejoice. But those of us who are followers of Jesus, members of his body are called to replace hate for all people with love for them. Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” But we find it difficult to love fellow Christians who hold to an ever so slightly different view than we espouse. If someone maligns this brother, who is slightly different from ourselves, we are tempted to secretly rejoice and we say, “You know, this would have never happened to him if he held the correct view of double predestination.” Instead of using truth to divide and to hate, we rejoice in the truth. We learn the truth, recite it, apply it and celebrate it! To discover the truth in any given field is a high point in human and spiritual freedom. To rejoice in truth is an act of love.
Thirdly, Paul presents the perpetuity of love. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Love is lasting. Love by definition and purpose is persevering. When a loved one is suffering, we lovingly support that person serving God’s comfort and peace. Love removes our cynicism. Love strengthens our faith! We not only believe that Jesus rose from the dead because we have completed a fact-finding mission, but also because we are united to Christ in love. Our certain hope is fixed upon the Coming Christ, not only because we have scoured the biblical prophecies and thus know it to be true, but we also know it to be true as we are united to the Coming Christ in love. When we are persecuted or treated unkindly by someone we love, our love allows us to forgive and to move on. We can choose to stop loving. But we must understand from the Bible that love is designed to last forever.
“Love never ends.” Prophecy is designed to declare the very words of God in this world. When we are ushered into the new heavens and the new earth, there will be no temple for God will be our temple. There will be no sun or moon, for Christ will be our light. There will be no prophecy for the Word of God will stand before us and speak for himself. The same is true of the gift of tongues that serves the gift of prophecy. God has given these gifts for a time and sooner or later they will cease. The gift of knowledge will cease as well. In the age to come we will know fully everything God has chosen to reveal to us. There will be no need for some to guide us in the acquisition of knowledge. This does not mean that learning will cease in heaven, for to learn is to be human and we shall certainly be human in heaven. But it does mean that this particular gift of knowledge designed to help us learn in this age of mists and fogs will cease sooner or later. This is what Paul means in (9-12) “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away….For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
Paul compares love to his list of spiritual gifts and finds love to be key to the use of all of them. Paul then quickly compares love to faith and hope. The comparison between faith, hope and love is that they all endure into the age to come. For eternity we will possess and express faith, hope, and love. The contrast between faith, hope, and love places love above the other two. Faith is vital to our union to Christ, but love is greater! This spares us from an ultra-rational religion where the human mind actually becomes god instead of the one, true God. Faith elevated above love makes “Self” god rather than the one, true God outside ourselves.
Hope is vital to our union with Christ but love is greater! Our hope in the Coming Christ must not be mixed with a hatred and scorn for our enemies. Love is greater than hope and thus informs our hope. As we certainly hope for the Final Day to dawn, our love inclines us to bring as many others into our hope as possible.
Love most centrally expresses our union to Christ in his death and resurrection. Faith and hope describe our response to the work of Christ, but nothing describes his death upon the cross more than love does. Faith and hope describe our response to the raising of Christ from the dead, but nothing describes the action of God the Father raising his Son from the dead than does love. Love is at the center of God; it is at the center of his holy nature; it is the motive and the result of his eternal decrees, his creative acts and his providence. Love is the greatest of all gifts bestowed upon members of the Church because it is profoundly God giving himself to us.

“Not the God of Confusion but of Peace”
I Corinthians 14: 1-40

The main point of I Corinthians 14 is that the Word of God must be central to orderly Christian worship spoken with clarity for the good of believers and non-believers alike. Paul begins this chapter with a re-cap of I Corinthians 13, “Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” If the spiritual gifts are not attended by love, then they are useless. If the lesser spiritual gifts do not support the greater gift of prophesy, then they are wasted.
In (2-19) Paul’s supporting point is that the gift of tongues is designed to support the gift of prophecy all with the purpose of building up the Church. Paul does not prohibit the speaking of tongues but carefully outlines how this gift ought to be used. Because the gift of tongues has not only been abused in the Church at Corinth but also in the American Church, some have argued that the gift has ceased. The text before us is not the best proof of this argument. Perhaps the best biblical support for this argument would come from Hebrews 2: 1-4, but even these words do not completely make the argument that tongues have ceased with the closing of the biblical canon. The widespread abuse of this gift in our lifetime moved Jack Hayford and Ron Mehl, Foursquare Church pastors to guard and to carefully guide their congregations in the use of this gift. Both understood that this gift served the greater gift of prophecy, the clear and faithful speaking of the very words of God. They knew that the proper use of this gift would not confuse or disrupt but clarify the Word of God resulting in peace.
In (20-25) Paul’s supporting point is that the gift of prophecy edifies the church and so, an unbeliever observing this will be convicted, moved to worship the God who clearly speaks to his people. If the gift of tongues does not help to clarify this prophecy, then it becomes a sign of judgment, just as it was in the days of the prophet Isaiah, cited by Paul in (21). Israel accused Isaiah of “dumbing down” the words of God to the level of nursery rhymes. They did so in response to his clear message of pending divine judgment. Therefore, God sent to them a sign of judgment to support Isaiah’s prophecy of judgment. This sign of judgment was the speaking of tongues. What was the point of such a sign? God was saying through the sign, “If you are not going to repent then I will not speak clearly to guide and direct you. This is what your confusion in rebellion is like, the speaking in languages you do not understand. Paul applies this to the abuse of this gift in Corinth. If an unbeliever enters the Corinthian worship meeting and hears the speaking of tongues without interpretation, disconnected from prophecy, then he will conclude that these Christians are crazy. It is a sign of judgment upon him: there is no God who speaks; there is no hope; there is no gospel but instead there are merely babbling crazies inventing their own religion. I realize that Paul’s view of the Corinthian Church speaking in tongues is difficult for any American Charismatic to accept since he has been taught that the gift of tongues is the sign proving that a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, a genuine Christian.
Finally, Paul gives instruction to the Church at Corinth toward the ordering of worship so that all the gifts are lovingly used toward the central and clear presentation of the Word of God. Paul instructs the Church to appoint some members of the Church to keep the order and to manage the proper use of the gifts. He does not prohibit individual participation in worship. Notice once again in (26) that Paul promotes the participation, even vocal participation of all members in worship. But a few are set aside, given the duty of making sure that the gifts are used properly. In (29) these who are set aside weigh the prophecy delivered in the Church. In (31) these who are set aside, maintain the order so that one voice is heard at a time. In (32) we discover that it is these who are set aside who have the authority to determine the validity of the prophecies uttered by members of the Church. In (33) the reason is given: “God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” In our church these who have been set aside are the elders of the church, ordained to guard the flock, granted the authority to oversee the Word of God going forth with clarity for the good of the people.
Paul informs the Church that women are to be silent. In this context this means that women are not to take up this job of exercising authority in the determination of prophecy. In Chapter 11 Paul has clearly taught about women participating vocally in worship, praying and prophesying. He does not contradict himself. He is speaking about the exercise of authority for the good of the whole congregation. Women have the gift of prophecy, knowledge, discernment, and tongues. Indeed women are not excluded from the exercise of any spiritual gift. This is why our church has concluded that Paul’s instruction is a matter of office.
For the first time in my preaching career I am going to field any question you may have about this text right now. Men, women, and children, Christians and non-Christians alike are allowed to ask questions. Speak your questions as loudly as you are able and I will repeat them for the sake of the audio recording. In this context of worship please ask succinct questions rather than making comments. In our sermon discussion class there is ample time for conversation and during coffee following worship we can even banter a bit.

(Emphasize main points)

Conclusion: For believers and unbelievers alike, the Word of God must be clearly dispensed in worship, all of the gifts used toward this end. The reason for this focus upon the Word of God is so that the Gospel of God dwelling and speaking in the midst of his people might be heard and experienced by us all. The Gospel of God providing this fellowship for us through the death of his Son cleansing us from all unrighteousness and his resurrection from the dead assuring us new and eternal life, must be clearly and regularly offered in true worship. God is not the God of confusion but of peace and so the Gospel of peace must be proclaimed. Jesus has made peace between God and us. We have been reconciled to God and God to us. This peace of Christ Jesus allows us to be at peace with one another in the Church and in this world. “In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility….” The Gospel of the exalted Christ, ruling over his Church and over the entire world, must be emphasized in our worship. All of the gifts of the Holy Spirit must serve this Gospel proclamation, for this is the work of the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth, to remind us of everything Jesus taught, to comfort us and to make the fruit of righteousness grow in us. In other words, the work of the Holy Spirit is to apply the gospel to our lives. I pray that he does so in our lives today.

“The Delivery and Results of the Gospel”
I Corinthians 15: 1-11
Resurrection Sunday seems to be early this year, scheduled for March 23. From today until March 30, the Sunday after Resurrection Sunday, I will be preaching the Resurrection of Jesus Christ as it is presented in I Corinthians 15. The final problem Paul addresses in the Church at Corinth is the struggle to believe in resurrection. Do you find the resurrection difficult to believe? If so, you will not be the first member or congregation of the church to do so. This particular problem returns us to Paul’s initial remarks in the letter concerning the Corinthians’ view of knowledge acquisition as a purely ultra-rational process informed by the Hellenistic philosophies. In Chapter One, Paul addresses the death of Christ writing, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The Corinthians struggled to embrace the cross of Christ. They found it difficult to fit the death of the Son of God into their system of rationalism. And so Paul writes, “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” At the opening of his letter Paul addresses the Corinthians’ problem with the death of Christ and now at the conclusion he addresses their problem with the resurrection of Christ. Both the death and the resurrection of Christ are parts of the Gospel, the central message of the Church, connecting the Church to Christ Jesus.
In Chapter Two Paul wrote, “We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages of our glory….These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything even the depths of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given to us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned….But we have the mind of Christ.” These words of Paul have the Gospel in mind, particularly the cross of Christ as he opens his letter, and particularly the resurrection of Jesus as he closes his letter.
The Corinthians’ struggle to believe in the resurrection is noted in (12) just beyond our text for this morning: “Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” The answer to Paul’s question is sadly, “Because we have embraced Hellenistic philosophies that deny anything like the resurrection on the basis of its irrational nature.” And so, Paul returns to his focus upon the Gospel reminding the Corinthians as he did at the opening of his letter, now in its conclusion, that the Gospel is central in the Word of God which places it at the center of the Church, connecting the Church to Christ.
Paul writes in (1-2) “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you – unless you believed in vain.” In this powerful and enlightening sentence Paul presents the past, present, and future of Gospel living. In the Past Paul preached the gospel and the Corinthians received it. This reception of the gospel happens as God grants faith. By faith we receive the gospel. This faith is not stuck in the past but continues through the life of the Christian. In the Present the Corinthian Church stands in the gospel. This standing is the sure position every Christian enjoys having been justified by the work of Christ in his death. Our sin has been imputed to Christ who bore it on the cross for us. His righteousness has been imputed to us making our standing before God innocent and sure. This justified standing before God is our present position in Christ and it continues through the life of the Christian, for all eternity. From the Present and through the Future we are being saved through the grace of perseverance. As the Corinthians hold fast to the Gospel they are experiencing the perseverance of the saints of God. This is a perseverance of the faith by which they received the Gospel and thus they did not exercise their faith in vain. The same is true for our Present and Future. The grace of God includes his preserving of our faith so that we persevere in it for a lifetime and forevermore.
The Gospel is of first importance to Paul. What a gracious statement this is in (3). Paul has hammered the Corinthian Church on a number of significant problems including disunity, sexual immorality, and disorderly worship. More important than all of his good instruction and correction of these problems is the Gospel, which is the key to our freedom from these problems and many more! Paul delivers this Gospel once again to the Church at Corinth but he makes it clear that he is not the author of it. He received it just as all of us have received it – graciously from God himself. In this particular presentation of the Gospel, Paul outlines the work of Christ. Notice that for Paul the parts of the Gospel are historic events. The cross, the grave, the empty tomb are not symbols to help us grasp unexplainable spiritual truth. I encourage the use of symbols today. A burnished cross around the neck or prominently placed in a house of worship aids us in remembering that in space and in time Jesus died, was buried and rose from the dead. Jesus of Nazareth, the very Son of God was actually crucified on a Roman cross where he actually died. He was truly buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea by Joseph himself along with Nicodemus, both reputable members of the two parties of rulers in Judaism. These two laid aside all of their differences at the foot of the cross to devote themselves to their one Lord Jesus. Joseph, a Sadducee and Nicodemus, a Pharisee, were not unlike an Episcopalian and a Baptist joining together before Jesus both attesting among the 120 disciples that he died, was buried in the tomb, and rose from the grave on the first day. Notice that for Paul the parts of the Gospel occur according to the revealed and preserved Word of God. Every act Jesus completed for our salvation is “according to the scriptures.” God had planned and announced this gracious work in advance. These saving acts of Christ are the end and fulfillment of all the Holy Scriptures. As we receive this Gospel standing firm in it, allowing it to preserve us for a lifetime and eternity, we are entering into the very center of redemptive history and into the very center of prophecy.
Notice that for Paul a sufficient number of witnesses have attested to this Gospel. Early on Sunday morning, the women were the first to discover the empty tomb. They told the disciples sending Peter and John running to the tomb. Peter lost the race to the younger disciple John, who records this event in his Gospel, referring to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” John won the race but he did not go into the tomb. Peter was the first to go inside and to discover that it was empty but for the burial shroud and the angels. Jesus first appeared Mary Magdalene, but of the 12 disciples, Peter was the first. The Resurrected Christ appeared not only to Peter but to all of the disciples turned apostles. Judas committed suicide and so there were only eleven disciples appointed apostles at the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. However, directly following the ascension, these 11 chose Matthias to replace Judas. Matthias did not apply for the position out of thin air. Rather, as Luke records in Acts One, he was one of the 120 disciples of Jesus, men and women, who were eyewitnesses of the work of Christ. Then, several years later, Christ appeared to Saul, persecutor of the Church, transformed him into Paul, humble servant of the Gospel, appointing him apostle. The very definition of apostle begins with being an “eye-witness of Christ.” In the blinding light on the road to Damascus, Paul, saw the very Lord Jesus Christ, with his own eyes. The second part of the definition of apostle is “the founding officers of the Church in these last days, those who join the Old Covenant prophets as the foundation of the Church of all ages.” One of the disappointing weaknesses of the present day Church is that we do not submit to the apostolic authority ordained by Christ Jesus, Head of the Church. At one extreme the Church denies all historicity of the Apostles dismissing their authority reducing their words to personal opinions offered among many in the community of saints. At another extreme the Church insists that Apostolic authority is not confined to these first twelve or thirteen men, but instead continues, passed on to more and more men as these last days unfold. These additional apostles add to the prophecy and dogma of the Church. Both these extremes meet each other as they undermine the special authority God has granted to these few men for the good of us all.
Jesus appearing to the apostles is sufficient witness to attest to his saving acts. Nevertheless, Jesus appeared to many more. He appeared to more than five hundred people at one time. These five hundred attested to the work of Christ as long as God gave them life. They did not change their story under pressure or adjust what they saw as time progressed, as they had more time to think about what actually happened. From Christ’s appearance to them until they died they stuck with their story that he died, was buried, that he rose from the dead and then appeared in their presence the risen Lord of glory! He appeared to James, the head of the Jerusalem Church. This James also happened to be the half-brother of Jesus, one of the sons of Mary, who had disbelieved the Messianic identity and mission of Jesus! After the resurrection Jesus appeared to his brother, James, and his brother acknowledged that this was indeed his brother in the flesh, raised from the dead! What a testimony! This one would stick in any court. The naysayer who is a blood relative admits against all of his beliefs and hardened positions, against his emotions and his carnal desires, against every fiber in his body, that this scorned brother of his is actually the Christ, the Son of the Living God! Paul writes that by divine grace all of these witnesses have worked together, he working harder than any of the rest, to attest to the facts of the Gospel and the result is the Church believing the Gospel. All the glory belongs to God both now and forevermore. Amen.

“The Fact of the Resurrection of Christ”
I Corinthians 15: 12-19

On Easter Sunday, April 23, 1905, Geerhardus Vos preached his sermon, “The Joy of Resurrection Life,” based on I Corinthians 15:14, in the Chapel of Princeton Theological Seminary. You may read this sermon in its entirety in a volume of Vos’ sermons published by Banner of Truth under the title, Grace and Glory. Allow me to read his opening paragraphs as they reinforce the main message of this sermon series helping us to receive the Gospel from Paul’s First Epistle to the Church at Corinth:
“Among the evils which threatened the life of the church at Corinth (and to correct which was Paul’s chief end in writing this epistle) were certain doubts and errors on the subject of the resurrection. Evidently Paul attributed very great importance to these. You can infer this from the fact that in dealing with the various abnormal conditions in the church, he reserves the treatment of this particular evil for the close of the epistle. He wanted the impression of what he had to say on this point to be the final and most lasting impression left upon the minds of the Corinthians. All the other problems concerning such matters as divisions and partisanship, the relapse into pagan modes of living, marriages between believers and unbelievers – important though they were in themselves – belonged after all to the periphery, the outcome, not the root and centre of Christianity.
But with the resurrection, it was a totally different matter. Here the heart, the core, the very foundation and substance of the Christian faith were at stake. Paul felt that if on this vital point a serious departure from the truth were allowed to develop unhindered, then sooner or later, by the inexorable law of organic disease, the whole body was doomed to destruction. This is the only way in which we can explain the intensely earnest, careful, thorough-going manner in which the apostle conducts the battle for this part of the Christian position. Paul was so profoundly impressed with the vital character of this truth that no other method of vindicating it could satisfy him than one by which it was placed in the centre of the Christian religion and all the light that streamed from its highest experiences and convictions focused upon it.”
In (12-13) Paul uses the language and structure of Hellenistic logic. He uses the “If, then” language and the “A,B,B,A,” structure. But his syllogism of sorts does not prove the resurrection of Christ by Logic, by the rules of reason. Rather, he uses it to establish the resurrection of Christ as a known, historical fact, the starting point for all conclusions.
Up front Paul reminds the Church that the apostles, have widely proclaimed the resurrection of Christ. Paul does not say, “Now IF Christ,” to suggest that there is a possibility that the resurrection of Christ has not been proclaimed clearly or centrally. Paul uses the “If” so that the Church would acknowledge that this proclamation of the resurrection has beyond a shadow of a doubt been front and center in the apostolic presentation. In writing in this way, Paul focuses the Church upon the Gospel of the resurrection so that all who read his letter in the Church would agree, “Yes! Christ has been powerfully proclaimed as raised from the dead!”
Secondly, Paul uses this clear proclamation of Christ’s resurrection to correct the Corinthian’s worldview. According to their Hellenistic philosophy, their Classic Logic, and system of reason, the Corinthians had categorically dismissed the possibility of resurrection. Their World view, one of the most beautifully crafted world views of all history, founded in the ground-breaking teaching of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, denied the possibility of a dead corpse resuscitated. We should not rashly dismiss this worldview concluding that Paul is anti-reason or anti-science. Science is a sound tool and school of thought teaching us that when a human being’s heart stops and his brain waves flatten, then he is dead. There is no medical, scientific, manipulative technique to return the corpse to vitality. As Christians we believe this to be true. This reliable science is part of our Christian worldview. However, our Christian worldview also includes our belief in miracle. We believe that God has the power and ability to do that which goes beyond the laws of Science he established to govern our world. We believe in divine miracle. The resurrection of any human being is a miracle. The fact of the resurrection is that a divine miracle has occurred in history.
Thirdly, Paul tells the Church that the resurrection of Christ is essential to the Gospel and to faith. (14) “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” Paul has most recently in the preceding paragraph presented the Gospel succinctly as Christ’s fulfillment of the Scriptures in his death and resurrection: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time…” Geerhardus Vos in his sermon said, “I am sure we shall not have meditated upon the words in vain if our meditation leads us to realize in some greater measure how entirely our holy religion stands or falls with the resurrection of Christ.”
The faith of a Christian is an informed faith. Much of what we believe is founded in the natural law and truth of God’s world. Christian faith is not anti-Science. It does not deny what can be gleaned from research and reason. Nevertheless, the focus of Christian faith is upon Christ and his historic acts of redemption. Christian faith includes an unwavering belief that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. This faith is not a result of research and reason but it is a gift from God. The source of this faith is not found within us, but flows to us from God outside of ourselves. Without this gift of faith we cannot believe in the miracle of the resurrection of Christ, without doing violence to the best of humanly acquired knowledge. Without an unwavering belief in the resurrection of Christ, we have not Christian faith.
Fourthly, Paul tells the Church that the resurrection of Christ is a revealed act of God. If we deny the resurrection of Christ, we are not merely denying the historicity of it, but we are denying a divine act revealed to us by God through his apostles. Paul says that the denial of the resurrection of Christ is a “misrepresentation” of God. We cannot have God without the resurrection of Christ. Too many good and religious people have tried to have God without the resurrection but this is not an option. Communion with the God of the Bible is communion with the God of the resurrection.
Finally, Paul lists the dire consequences of denying the resurrection of Christ. In (17) Paul says that if Christ has not been raised from the dead then we are “still in our sins.” The Gospel is the message of God liberating us from the bondage of our sins. The work of Christ Jesus has removed our guilt and our shame. The work of the God of Justice has removed the ultimate consequences of our sins. The resurrection of Christ blazes the trail of new and eternal life for those of us who have faith in Christ. But if Christ did not rise from the dead, then we are abandoned to life under the common curse and the just condemnation of God. There is no freedom from our sins apart from the resurrection of Christ.
In (18) Paul lists another consequence of denying the resurrection. All of the saints who have died before us have eternally perished. There is no hope for their resurrection if Christ has not been raised from the dead. If there is no resurrection, Adam and Eve shall not escape the grave. Noah and his family would have escaped the flood in vain. Abraham and Sarah will remain in their cave. Joseph’s bones would have been retrieved in vain. The courage of Esther and Ruth would be for naught. God’s forgiveness of Rahab and Bathsheba would fall flat. The glory of David and Solomon would darken to despair. The prophets would be proved wrong. John the Baptizer would have baptized in vain. Christ would be dead, his remains in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
In (19) Paul, who lived his earthly life to its fullest, reminds us that the Christian hope casts our eyes upon an eternal life that begins in this age, spans the chasm of death and ushers us into the heavenly presence of God forever. The resurrection of Christ is the bridge over the chasm of death. It is our path from this life to the next. Christians sing, “Jesus lives and so shall I; death thy sting is gone forever!” If Christ has not been raised from the dead then this earthly life is all that there is for us. Upon death we would cease to exist. While many world religions believe this to be the truth, this is not part of the Christian worldview informed by the Gospel of the resurrection. To be a Christian is to have the certain hope of life beyond the grave. This is the fact of the resurrection of Christ: “Death is but our entrance into glory.” Amen.

“The Gospel of the Lord”
I Corinthians 15: 20-28
Resurrection Sunday is two weeks ahead and we anticipate it by studying I Corinthians 15. Prior to his conversion, Paul was Saul the Pharisee. As a Pharisee, Saul believed in miracle, including the miracle of resurrection. The other major school in Judaism belonged to the Sadducees, who denied the possibility of resurrection. Paul and Christianity, both with deep roots in the Old Covenant of Israel, retained this belief in resurrection. As a Pharisee Paul would have defended this belief against the Sadducees. Paul also lived in the enlightened Hellenistic world of the first century, rich in philosophy and reason. The Grecian worldview considered the human body to be the prison house of the soul. The bodily resurrection of Jesus seemed absurd to the Greek, who viewed the body to be vile and the soul to be spiritually pure. If God had raised his perfect Son from the dead, then he would have raised his soul, extracting it not only from this cursed world but also from its tainted body. But then, the resurrection as first century Christians were proclaiming it would be unnecessary. At the death of Jesus, God could have snatched up his soul abandoning the fleshly body to death and to the grave. On every front Paul discovered opposition to the resurrection of Jesus and so it did not surprise him that denials of resurrection arose in the young church at Corinth.
The Church has encountered in every century opposition to the resurrection of Christ. In the second century, Justin Martyr combated those in the church who asserted that Jesus did not rise from the dead body and soul, but instead rose as a heavenly spirit, an ethereal resurrection. In the third century Tertullian combated those in the church who excluded all flesh and blood from heaven. In this third century after Christ, Origen played to the popular views of the day claiming the risen Christ to be ethereal. In the fifth century Augustine was able to freely and convincingly confess the bodily resurrection of Christ incredible though it is!
Today, many in the Church, including those who hold office deny the bodily resurrection of Christ. Bishop Spong, has written, “Resurrection is an action of God. Jesus was raised into the meaning of God. It therefore cannot be a physical resuscitation occurring inside human history.” On the fringes of the organized church, as a missionary to India, Leslie Newbigin, in his book, Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth, published in 1991, agreed with Paul against modern and postmodern sensibilities to view the resurrection as the central historical fact around which all other facts, and all other claims of truth, must be arranged. He wrote, “Indeed, the simple truth is that the resurrection cannot be accommodated in any way of understanding the world except one of which it is the starting point.” As a powerful and surprising announcement, the resurrection of Christ is the starting point of the resurrection of all who have died in the Lord. His resurrection is the break in the dam of death. Once the dam has been burst, the floodwaters of the saints gushes forth unstoppable – a flood of God’s grace, and love, his power over the final enemy death.
Paul describes the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the first event in a mass resurrection. The fact of the resurrection of Christ announces the resurrection of every child of God who has died. The fact of the resurrection is that “death is but our entrance into glory.” If you have difficulty believing in the resurrection of Christ, then you will find it all the more difficult to believe in the resurrection of every single child of God! “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of all who have fallen asleep.”
In (21-23) Paul explains why such a large number will be resurrected in Christ. The entire human race has fallen under the control of death. Our first father, Adam, made in the image of God, left to the freedom of his own will, sinned against God and so received the due consequence of death. Not only did he and his wife, Eve, who sinned alongside of him, fall into death, but all of their progeny came under the power of death. Try to calculate the total human population of all epochs of history, from Adam to the present. This is indeed a great number. How many members of the human race have been united to Christ by faith? From Adam and Eve, the first recipients of God’s grace, until the present, this number of those united to Christ must be a great number indeed. For these children of God, the promise of resurrection shall release them from the control of death and land them eternally into the new creation.
Paul instructs us concerning the order, the space and time of this resurrection promise fulfilled. Christ is the firstfruits, meaning that he is the first to be raised from the dead. The bodies of the children of God who have lived by faith prior to Christ’s resurrection remain in their graves until the final day of the Lord yet to come. The faithful ones who have lived and died after the resurrection of Christ, shall also rest secure in their graves until the final day of mass resurrection. Those of us who are presently living, shall undoubtedly die in the future and our bodies shall remain in our graves until the final day of the Lord yet to come. All of our bodies shall be raised to new and eternal life on the final day of the Lord. We shall be the great resurrection harvest of the Lord who has raised his Son, Jesus Christ, the first of many, from the dead.
Since the dawn of time until the present day, miracle, has been the exception, the rare display of God. Usually and daily, God operates and delivers his guidance, protection, and provision through the natural means of his ordered universe, all according to scientific law he has established. In such an ordered world, the resurrection of Christ is difficult for many to believe. But on the final day of the Lord yet to come, the mass resurrection of a countless number, will replace the natural order with miracle on such a massive scale that this earthly realm will be shaken to its core and set afire, giving way to God’s new heavens and earth where miracle will be as commonplace as the blessed face of our risen Lord Jesus.
Finally, Paul describes the supreme authority of the risen Lord Jesus over all worldly powers and authorities. This is truly the Gospel of the Lord. On the final day of this world as we know it, Jesus Christ, the risen Lord will deliver to God the Father the kingdom. In his preaching ministry Jesus announced the coming of the kingdom of God to earth. From his death until his return upon the final day, Christ is the active authority rolling back the kingdom of darkness and promoting the kingdom of heaven on earth. At his death Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” By this Jesus identified the kingdom of heaven as a spiritual enterprise under his control. This kingdom is distinct from the nations and empires of Humanity. It knows no boundaries and begins in the hearts of individuals who then work to establish its divine rule and fruitfulness in every sphere of this world. When Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world,” he did not mean that his kingdom would not operate in this world. Rather, he viewed it as a heavenly force and enterprise that would invade this present world, infiltrating all systems, organizations and establishments constraining in the end all powers, authorities, every living being to submit to his supreme authority.
This is the Gospel of the Lord. In these last days, Christ liberates a growing number of us from the oppressive and destructive forces of darkness. He frees us not only by cleansing us from all sin and making us strong to withstand temptation and to do good deeds, but he also frees us by destroying his and our enemies. In (24) the risen Lord Jesus destroys “every rule and every authority and power.” As the kingdom comes in my life, all competing and rogue rulers are destroyed and only Christ remains as the supreme authority. The same is true for a group of people, a community, and a nation. The kingdom of God is established as Christ, the risen Lord destroys all competing powers and authorities freeing an entire nation to submit to his rule.
In his death upon the cross Jesus fulfilled the ancient prophecy made to our mother, Eve: He crushed the head of the serpent, destroying the first arch-enemy of God and his people. In his resurrection, Jesus conquered death so that death can no longer claim any of us for an eternity. At the command of Christ, the grave must give up her dead releasing them to the pure freedom of resurrection life. “Death is but our entrance into glory!” As the ascended King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ now advances the kingdom of heaven toward the final day when death shall no longer have any power. Presently, death still sends us to our graves, but on the final day, this temporary power will also be stripped away from death.
In (27-28) Paul teaches us that God the Father has conferred this supreme authority upon his risen Son. The purpose of this supreme authority is to bring the entire world in subjection to God. Christ, the supreme authority who will free the entire creation from the curse of sin and death, is one who is also under authority. When he has completed his final work of redeeming the creation, Christ will continue in his subjection to his heavenly Father. This relationship of authority and subjection does not do violence to the equality enjoyed among the Persons of the Godhead. Rather, it defines the relationship of the Father to the Son. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal in power and glory and yet the Son is the Son by virtue of his subjection to the Father. The Father is the Father by virtue of his Son subjecting himself to his authority. God the Father has never ever subjected himself to the Son, who equally shares with him power and glory. This equality with distinction of roles is at the heart of Trinitarian theology and it becomes the starting point for all created order and relationships.
The execution of divine authority and the subjection to it both serve the purpose of proclaiming the Gospel of the Lord, “so that God may be all in all.” This means that in every relationship, in every institution, in every epoch, and in every sphere of life, God is clearly displayed as God alone. Jesus rose from the dead not to display the glory of humanity, but to proclaim the glory of God who has redeemed humanity. The risen Lord assures our resurrection, not so that humanity might be showcased as the new pantheon of the eternal age, but for the purpose of providing for God in heaven an eternal choir of praise and thanksgiving singing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive honor, and glory, riches and power!” The risen Lord Jesus wields supreme authority in these last days not as the Superman but as the God-Man. God our Savior has successfully transformed us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible the only wise God, be honor and glory forever, and ever. Amen.”

“The Resurrection Gives Purpose to Life”
I Corinthians 15: 29-34

In Chapter 15 of his letter, Paul is refuting the denial of the resurrection held by some of the members of the Church at Corinth. These members were persuaded by the rational systems and philosophies of their day and thus found it difficult to reconcile divine miracle with natural order and process. Paul’s sole purpose in this chapter is to present the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the starting point in our understanding of this world: God operates his created world according to his natural, scientific law and from time to time he works miracle to display his glory and to accomplish his redemptive purposes. Paul insists that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the break in the dam of death, causing the whole to burst open, the floodwaters nothing less than the mass resurrection of all of us who have been united to Christ in his death and resurrection.
In the paragraph before us, Paul serves his main purpose and argument by communicating that there is a significant difference in the worldview of the person who disbelieves resurrection and the person who embraces the resurrection. Our personal opinions and convictions on this issue of the divine miracle of resurrection are critical to our entire view of God and life. Of this issue none of us can say, “It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you believe something.” We cannot say concerning the resurrection, “There are a number of legitimate views you may hold,” or “There is insufficient revelation concerning the resurrection and so we must be silent where scripture is silent.” If you do not believe in the resurrection then your worldview cannot consistently include any idea or hope of life after death. If you believe in resurrection then you can consistently hold to the idea and hope of the afterlife.
Paul does not write for people who do not wish to think. When I say that Paul clearly puts forth his main purposes and points, I do not mean that he usually writes in a simple style or that his concepts are presented as a primer for beginning students. If we wish to benefit from Paul’s writing then we must think. We must be willing to ponder, to wrestle, to discuss, to make mistakes, to tenaciously pursue the truth he powerfully presents yet at many turns in a complicated manner. I make these comments today as Paul drops a bomb in (29). Like a good debater, Paul has his main argument in mind and he has written proofs for his argument on 3×5 cards. Not all of his proofs are simply and apparently helpful. Some of them for us readers separated from the immediate context are difficult to unravel. (29) is one illustrative proof Paul presents for his main argument and it is one that has caused no small amount of befuddlement in the Church at large.
As Gordon Fee has written, there are at least 40 possible explanations for Paul’s (29): “Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf?” Allow me to tell you up front what I believe Paul is saying before I assure you that Gordon Fee is correct in reminding us that this is a most difficult verse to nail down with absolute certainty. Paul, arguing for the centrality and primacy of the resurrection, shows the inconsistency of the worldview held by those church members at Corinth who denied the resurrection. In their supposed rational system, which rendered miracle absurd, they nonetheless engaged in certain rituals inconsistent with the system. This particular 3×5 debate card is not an argument from scripture but from the present and inconsistent practice of the primary audience. The bottom line of Paul’s proof card is this: “You can’t have it both ways. If you are going to continue this baptism ritual, then you must stop denying resurrection.
Paul in no way endorses being baptized on behalf of the dead. He does not mention it in any way to lead us to believe that this is a ritual commanded by God. Instead, I believe that Paul is trying to show the inconsistency of those who view resurrection as absurd yet are willing to be baptized on behalf of the dead. If there is no resurrection, then there is no afterlife and so why on earth would we baptize ourselves on behalf of the dead? I am happy to say that Chrysostom and Ambrose agree with me – or is it that I agree with them? John Calvin, one of the greatest exegetes of the Bible of all time (regardless of what you think of his views, his brilliance in undeniable) disagrees with these Church fathers, whom he holds in high regard. I encourage you to read Calvin’s commentary at this point so that you can see how one of the most brilliant exegetes of all time gets it wrong every once in a while. (Let us remember what Gordon Fee said before we start calling other positions wrong – there may be at least 40 possibilities in the sound interpretation of this verse.) What I have learned from Calvin at this point in his commentary is what steps he takes in trying to solve a complicated bit of scripture. To get into his mind, to discover how it is he thinks, or for that matter how anyone thinks, is fascinating and edifying. But I must say that I cannot swallow his conclusion, namely that there was some legitimate practice to which Paul referred. Calvin grants that this practice became abused as the church continued to practice it. He writes that the “dead” may be those “who are looked upon as already dead, and who have altogether despaired of life.” In light of the main argument for resurrection as the raising of a corpse to new life, Calvin’s thought seems implausible.
The esteemed Scottish Reverend Dr. Thomas Dick, (1774-1857) suggests that baptism on behalf of the dead refers to our regular practice of baptism as “earnest of good things to come,” and the “type of the future resurrection.” Our regular practice of baptism presents sign and seal of the reality of the resurrection of the final day. I do not disagree with his connection of sign to reality but this hardly seems to fit what Paul has written in (29). Most of us today read (29) and think of the practice of our Mormon neighbors, who trace their family trees to discover every ancestor who was not baptized into the Church of the Latter Day Saints. They are then baptized on behalf of their dead family members assuring their improved position in the afterlife. Such thought and practice goes against the Gospel Paul has clearly preached. And so, I stick to the apologetic answer viewing Paul’s engaging of his reader’s erroneous worldview, showing to them their inconsistency between belief and practice.
This fits nicely with (30-32) in which Paul hints to the Gospel. It is God’s work alone that ushers us from this life into the life to come. He asks the question, “Why are we in danger every hour?” The answer for the Christian is “We are not in danger every hour but instead we are kept safe in Christ.” The Christian belief in the resurrection destroys our fears of death sneaking up and ending our lives. This practice of baptizing on behalf of the dead is founded upon fears of death separating us and our loved ones from God and the life to come. Paul makes us think once again by complicating his language saying, “I die every day!” Once again he makes us think about the Gospel. Daily we die to self and live unto Christ.” We are able to do so as Christians who have been “crucified with Christ and also raised with him to new life.” As Paul wrote to the Church at Galatia, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me.” Therefore, why should we fear death? If we believe in the resurrection, then we welcome death to self and new life unto righteousness. “Death is but our entrance into glory!” Paul offers one additional and pithy hint to the Gospel: “What do I gain, if humanly speaking, I fought with the beasts at Ephesus?” The answer is “I would gain nothing!” As Paul wrote to the Church at Philippi, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain!” Our union with Christ is all that matters in our passage from this life to the afterlife. In this present life we belong to Christ. In death we belong to Christ. In the life to come we belong to Christ. “Death is but our entrance into glory!”
In the second part of (32) Paul insists that the resurrection changes our entire idea about the meaning and purpose of life. Without the resurrection, hedonism makes sense. But to deny the resurrection is deception. What is the source of this deception? (33) “Bad company ruins good morals.” Paul quotes not from the Holy Scriptures, but once again from the worldview these Corinthians have adopted from their enlightened world. The Hellenistic world was not only rational but it was also moral to the degree that proverbs and adages for right behavior were commonly known. Paul quotes one of these non-Christian morals. It is a very good one: “Bad company ruins good morals.” This is a direct quote from the poet Menander, a celebrated comic poet of Athens. His writings were replete with elegance, refined wit, and judicious observations. Of one hundred and eight comedies, which he wrote, nothing remains but a few fragments. He is said to have drowned himself’ in the fifty-second year of his age, B. C. 293, because the compositions of his rival Philemon obtained more applause than his own.” I am always humored when someone says to me, “Just like the Good Book says,” and then they quote a moral platitude of a pagan. “Just like the Good Book says, ‘God helps those who helps themselves.” Paul expertly quotes Menander, whom the Corinthians had latched onto as brilliant, insightful and moral, and yet without hope of the resurrection. The meaning and purpose of his life were skewed and greatly discounted by his myopic lust for popularity dashed to pieces by a better poet. Nevertheless, thanks to Common Grace, Menander got one thing right: “Bad company ruins good morals.” We rub off on each other. It is commanded of us by God to spend time with non-Christians and to present our Christian worldview in friendly apologetics, giving an answer for the hope we possess when anyone inquires. But Paul is addressing a slightly different concern: Who informs our worldview? Who reinforces for us the Gospel of the resurrection? At whose wells are we sipping?
Where do we go to recharge our faith and to re-fuel our apologetic engines? The Church at Corinth included some who had fallen into a stupor and thus had diminished in their knowledge of God. To know God is to know the powerful reality of resurrection. To be a Christian is to believe that Christ has risen from the dead and that all of us who are in Christ shall also be raised to eternal life.

“The Man of Dust and the Man of Heaven”
I Corinthians 15: 35-49
From the dawn of time a man of dust lies in his grave. He is the father of our race. “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” But at the culmination of his creative acts, God formed our first father, Adam, from the “dust of the ground and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” This man of dust bearing the image of God, by the freedom of his own will, sinned against God and thus fell into death. From the beginning death has been part of the human experience. All of us who are members of the human race, children of the man of dust, return to the dust.
Two weeks ago some of us gathered at Finley Sunset Hills Memorial Park to memorialize our mother in the faith, Harriet Beers, who slipped into death at the age of 93. At her graveside I had the privilege of speaking the beautiful words of the Book of Common Prayer, “Forasmuch as Almighty God hath taken unto Himself the soul of our sister, we therefore commit her body to the grave, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust….” From the knoll of her grave beside her husband, the Judge Beers, I was able to look across to the tree nearby the grave of Luella, Pam Golden-Collum’s mother, at whose service I had spoken the same words, “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” I turned in the opposite direction to see the place where Evergreen member, Michele McGuire is buried, her body returned to the earth from whence it came, a member of the human race, a daughter of the man of dust.
Death, a common human experience, has brought death to the entire creation. Under the common curse, death is part of the natural order. Therefore, resurrection is difficult for us to understand and to accept. The members of the Church at Corinth were struggling to embrace the resurrection. Out of curiosity and disbelieve they were asking questions we still ask today: “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” John Calvin wrote, “There is nothing that is more at variance with human reason than this article of faith. For who but God alone could persuade us that bodies, which are now liable to corruption, after having rotted away, or after they have been consumed by fire, or torn in pieces by wild beasts, will not merely be restored entire, but in a greatly better condition. Do not all our apprehensions of things straightway reject this as a thing fabulous, nay, most absurd?” Paul shows his frustration with the church at Corinth and initially responds to the unbelief of any of them by saying, “You foolish person!” He then offers some help toward a belief in the resurrection. Paul lends three illustrations that are scientific in perspective to help us to understand the miracle of resurrection.
The first illustration is given in (36-38) to make the point that in our present natural order, life springs from death. “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.” A seed planted rots in the soil and the sprout breaks open. It develops into a plant bearing a whole ear of corn, many seeds, or a whole head of wheat, many kernels, juicy, life-giving jewels. Life springs from death!
This argument from natural order is not merely offered from the Christian perspective. Olivia Judson, an evolutionary biologist, reporter for The Economist, published in The Atlantic, and Natural History, is a research fellow in biology at Imperial College London. She has written on her blog, “Yesterday, I discussed how natural selection can sometimes drive populations extinct. Today, I want to present a series of nine short meditations on the evolution of death. As you read these, you might reflect on two questions: Why do we grow old and die? And what is the role that death plays in evolution? Meditation One: Death Sustains Life. We tend to think of death as the end of life — and indeed, for every individual, it is. But it is also essential for life. Without death, there would be no evolution (or at least, it would have to proceed rather differently from the way it does today). More important still, without death, there would be little life.” And so, Paul has chosen an illustration that seems to be helpful to a wide variety of perspectives, helping a good number of us to understand the resurrection in the realm of the man of dust. Paul’s point is thus well-accepted: life springs from death.
Paul’s final two illustrations in (39-41) work together to make the one point that there is another man besides the man of dust. The other man is the Man of Heaven and his glory is brighter than the glory of the man of dust. Paul writes in (39) “For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.” Paul is more scientifically accurate here than some give him credit. At first glance we would say, “Actually all flesh is essentially the same.” From my Mexican friends I have learned to say, “Carne es Carne,” “Meat is meat.” If we were to place samples of muscle tissue underneath the microscope, we could learn to recognize muscle tissue as muscle tissue, but we could also learn to recognize the difference between human muscle tissue, rat muscle tissue and frog muscle tissue. Paul is not commenting on this micro-level. Instead, he is simply and scientifically referring to the observable differences in form between a human being, other mammals, birds, and fish. However, there is one human being who has lived among us, who is radically different. The Man of Heaven is different than the man of dust.
Paul’s second illustration from science lifts our attention into space. The glory of the sun is the light energy that it produces. The sun is the source of its light energy while the moon is not the source of its light energy. The moon reflects the light of the sun. Thus the glory of the sun is different than the glory of the moon.
The glory of the Man of Heaven has its source in the Man of Heaven. The glory of the man of dust is reflective, waxing and waning. Paul says that the stars have a different glory still and we quickly jump to correct Paul saying, “But the sun is a star and so how can its glory be different than other stars who are the sources of their own glory?” But we must read Paul’s complete thought including his final sentence, “for star differs from star in glory.” With our feet on the ground, looking upward on a starry night, the closer stars appear greater in light energy than those further away from earth. This is a sound scientific observation. While Paul is not concerned with measuring the distances of the stars at this point, he is interested in illustrating that some stars display more glory than others from our vantage point. He uses this illustration to communicate that the Man of Heaven appears with a greater glory than the man of dust.
Finally, Paul preaches the gospel out of these illustrations. In (42-49) he announces that we are not only related to the man of dust but we are also related to the Man of Heaven! This is the gospel of the resurrection. Paul writes, “What is sown is perishable.” Just like the seed buried in the ground, so we who are children of the man of dust experience death. “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.” Just like the sprout with potential to bear fruit, so we who are related to the Man of Heaven shall be resurrected to new and eternal life. Paul says, “It is sown in weakness,” describing our union to the man of dust. “It is raised in power,” refers to our union to the Man of Heaven. “It is sown a natural body,” describes the fallen, corrupt body of the man of dust and all of his children. “It is raised a spiritual body,” describes a true, fleshy body that is renewed, a result of the glorious resurrection of the Man of Heaven. The order of our relations is important. We are first related to the man of dust and thus share his experience of death first. We are secondly related to the Man of Heaven and thus in due time experience his new life. “The first man was from earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.” We are related to both of them!
The gospel of the resurrection is that the Man of Heaven is not some ethereal being that hovers just beyond our natural world. Rather, the Man of Heaven, is a true Man who has a body of dust just like we do except for one important difference. The body of dust of the Man of Heaven is free from sin. Nevertheless, his body was not free from the corruption of death. Indeed the Man of Heaven was nailed to the Roman Cross and there his actual lungs collapsed and his real blood was spilled for our salvation. The Man of Heaven experienced death, his body committed to the grave. “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Early Sunday morning God raised the Man of Heaven from the dead unto new life. The promise of the gospel of the resurrection is that all of us who are related to the Man of Heaven shall also be raised to new life on the final day. All of us who are related to the man of dust shall die, our bodies returning to the dust from which they were created. But on the final day, our bodies shall be raised to new life, and they shall be reunited to our souls that have immediately upon death passed into God’s loving presence, and we shall enjoy new and eternal life, body and soul, glorious creatures made in the image of the Man of Heaven.
Without the gospel of the resurrection, the Madi Gras poem makes sense: “Ashes to ashes/ Dust to dust/ Life is short/ So party we must.” This is precisely what Paul has written in (32) of this argument: “If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’” If there is no resurrection then hedonism makes sense. But if there is a resurrection and we are in fact, not only related to the man of dust but also to the Man of Heaven, then a life of moral purity and holy rest in the heavenly realms makes sense.
At the gravesides of Harriet, Luella, and Michelle, I was able to speak more than “earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” I was able to continue the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer: “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; looking for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our mortal body, that it may be made like unto his own glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.” This liturgy also includes the words of Jesus spoken to his dear friend Martha and to all of us who share the faith of Harriet, Luella and Michelle: “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”

“We Shall All Be Changed!”
I Corinthians 15: 50-58

In (35) Paul writes two questions: ““How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” In (50-53) he answers the second question for us: What will our resurrected bodies be like? The answer is one of continuity and discontinuity; of similarities and differences. The whole of scripture including the whole of Paul’s teaching clearly presents Jesus Christ risen and ascended body and soul, a whole person, a human being in heaven. The biblical teaching also clearly presents us united to Christ, body and soul for all eternity in heaven. The risen Lord Jesus appeared to his disciples and to more than 500 people as a whole human being, body and soul. His resurrected body had the wounds of the cross and spear. He ate fish on the shore of the lake. He had a true human body. Yet it was a body different than his pre-resurrection body. He was able to pass through a wall and immediately appear before his disciples, then disappear.
Consider Paul’s answer to the question, “What will our resurrected bodies be like?” Firstly, in (50) he tells us that our resurrected bodies will not be identical to our mortal bodies of this present age. “Flesh and blood,” describes our present bodies subject to the disease and decay of the common curse. We are mortals in need of radical transformation between this world and the world to come. Yet more profoundly Paul is saying that we are not assured a place in heaven by virtue of being human. Rather, we shall inherit the kingdom of God as we are spiritually transformed, no longer children of darkness, but children of light. All of us who are heirs of heaven have been radically changed in our bodies and souls. David Jackman reminds us of Paul’s teaching to the Church at Rome: God’s redemption of his entire creation includes the transformation of us body and soul. No mere human being graduates to heaven. Only human beings who have experienced the life changing work of the Spirit of Christ graduate to heaven. God has given to each of us members of the human race “souls that will never die,” just as the catechism echoes the Holy Scriptures for our children. At our resurrection on the final day, God shall change our mortal bodies to immortal bodies, so that our bodies will match our souls that will never die.
Secondly in (51-52) Paul tells us that our resurrected bodies will be completely free of death. Those of us who are living at the dawn of the final day will escape death altogether! “We shall not all sleep.” Some of us will immediately pass from this world to the world to come without our hearts stopping and without our brain waves going flat! At the resurrection, we shall be completely free of death! If we are among the majority group who have tasted death, on the final day, we shall be resurrected to eternal life and thus be completely free of death. This resurrection of our bodies will happen instantly, in the time it takes to blink. It will happen immediately upon the final trumpet blast. The resurrection of the final day spells the instant death of Death. On that day, we shall be completely free of death.
Thirdly, in (53-54) with the emphasis upon the radical change between our mortal bodies and our resurrected, immortal bodies, Paul tells us that we shall, nonetheless, possess our present bodies upon our resurrection and for eternity. He writes, “the perishable body shall put on the imperishable body,” speaking of our bodies. It is not that Paul thinks of the soul as imperishable and the body as perishable. Paul teaches the same as David and Christ: Upon death, our imperishable souls immediately rise to God in heaven while our perishable bodies rest in their graves until the final day. But on the final day, which Paul now addresses in our text, God shall add an imperishable feature to our perishable bodies raised from their graves. “The perishable body shall put on the imperishable body, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” It is not as if God will add to us extra appendages or some missing vital organ that will allow us to live forever. He will not infuse us with some new chemical called “eternitas,” or fine-tune our nervous systems so that we can live forever. Instead, God shall immediately end the influence of the common curse whose ultimate threat is Death and thus, immortality shall replace the mortality of our bodies. These perishable bodies shall miraculously and instantly be made suitable to live for an eternity.
Paul’s writing smoothly flows from answering the question, “What will our resurrected bodies be like?” to describing our response to our resurrection. What is the Church’s response to the resurrection? Firstly, we agree with Hosea, a prophet of the Old Covenant, adding his words to our praise in corporate worship. We sing, declaring the destruction of Death as the victorious work of God. Hosea describes Death and the grave as the destructive forces used to punish God’s disobedient children. But then this prophet of divine grace promises that God is stronger than these destructive forces ready at his appointed time to rescue his disobedient children from the clutches of death and the grave. Paul borrows the poetry of Hosea to create a hymn for the church, a new song based upon ancient words to assure the continuity of praise to the glory of the resurrected Lord.
The primary and enduring response of the Church is exuberant praise. At the center of our corporate worship is God’s victory over Death through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul has the Gospel ever on his mind and our living according to it is the end goal of all his teaching and so he explains in more detail this personified enemy Death. “The sting of death is sin.” Death in not only the consequence of our sin, but also, sin is the poison of death killing us! Death uses our own sin to destroy our very own lives! Christ’s victory over Death is thus his victory over sin. The result is our freedom from sin right now! Now our praise-filled response in worship is all the greater than before. Our worship is an anticipation of the redemption of the final day, but it is also a response to the redemption of this present day. We are free today in Christ Jesus, our Redeemer. Are you truly interested beyond curiosity to know what our resurrection bodies will be like? Stop sinning today! Living today free of sin is a preview of what it will be like to live in our resurrected bodies. Today we cannot preview the walking through walls, the transporting of our bodies immediately from one location to another as if we were members of the Starship Enterprise beaming up. But we can by the grace and strength of Christ’s Spirit know in a small and imperfect way today what it means to be free from all that entangles us in this world.
Paul continues to briefly describe this enemy Death, to enhance our praise of God who has conquered Death once for all. He writes, “The power of sin is the law.” Just as his first description, “The sting of death is sin,” points us to the Gospel of freedom, so this second sentence directs us to the Gospel of freedom. The law, with its many demands unto perfection and its many statements of God’s just punishment of sin, drives us, forces us to embrace Christ Jesus, the fulfillment of the law. The law brings death to us by condemning us. But Jesus has destroyed its power over us by perfectly obeying it on our behalf. As we realize this about Death, our praise of Christ increases and thus our worship heightens and endures. For who could ever exhaust the praise of the One who has saved us from eternal destruction? This is what keeps us from trite expressions in our worship – from trite music, trite words, trite postures, and trite venues. Why would we purposely use trite expressions to praise the Risen Lord Jesus Christ who has conquered Death so that we might rise on the final day to enjoy eternity with Almighty God?
Our second response is to faithfully continue the work of Christ in this present world. How easily we could become excited about our new resurrection bodies to the point that we would cease doing anything good in this present age, completely taken up with dreaming about walking through walls and beaming up from one planet to another. Paul says that our response to the sure promise of our resurrection bodies is to use our perishable, mortal bodies today to do the work of Christ. N.T. Wright, Bishop of Durham, writes about the connection between the resurrection of Jesus and the work of Jesus in this present world:
“The message of the resurrection is that this world matters! That the injustices and the pains of this present world must now be addressed with the news that healing, justice, and love have won…. If Easter means Jesus Christ is only raised in a spiritual sense – then it is only about me, and finding a new dimension in my personal spiritual life. But if Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead, Christianity becomes good news for the whole world – news which warms our hearts precisely because it isn’t just about warming hearts. Easter means that in a world where injustices, violence and degradation are endemic, God is not prepared to tolerate such things – and that we will work and plan, with all the energy of God, to implement the victory of Jesus over them all.”
The work we do in the name of Christ is not in vain. When we build a home as square and plumb as possible, we are displaying a bit of heaven here on earth. When we teach a child to read a few more rays of glory is revealed. When we sell goods and turn a profit, using money toward productive and wholesome ends, we are displaying the providential care of God. When we feed the hungry, we do the same. When we rescue the addict we do it all the more. When we reconcile parent to child, we taste the sweetness of heaven. When we cover the sins of our brother and sister, we offer them a foretaste of heaven. When we turn a brother from the error of his way, we share the love of heaven. When we undertake spiritual disciplines we enter into the business of heaven. When we explain to a person how it is that he/she might live in the love of God, we open the gates so that heaven might flood earth. When we enjoy the fellowship of the saints we bask for a moment in the life to come. When we speak the words of God to the encouragement of another person, we share Christ risen from the dead. When we associate with the lowly and share our food with the sinners, we do the work of Christ in this world. Paul told the Church at Galatia, “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Paul told the Church at Thessalonica, “Do not grow weary of doing good.” Paul told the Church at Colossa, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” Paul told the Church at Corinth, “abound in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.”

“Collection for the Saints” I Corinthians 16:1-24
We have spent six glorious weeks basking in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, considering the words of the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 15. In this letter, Paul has addressed problems of the Church at Corinth: the lack of unity; sexual immorality; disorderly worship; and finally disbelief in the resurrection. The gravity of these problems could have led many a person in Paul’s position to disassociate with the Church at Corinth. Why bother with this problematic group? Would it not be easier to write them off? Would you recommend the Church at Corinth to a friend of your who calls you and says, “We are moving to Corinth next year. Do you know of any good churches there? Can you recommend a good church to us?” How would you respond? “I’m sorry, friend, but there are no good churches in Corinth. I recommend that you commute to Thessalonica. How can I put this tactfully….the Church at Corinth is messy; it is fraught with problems; it borders on heresy; it is not the best environment for your children. It is going to be at least five years before the PCA arrives to plant a rightly ordered, orthodox, truly Reformed church.”
Chapter 16 is not a tack-on section of busy incidental notes less important than Chapter 15 or Chapter 11. Through these words we discover how Paul views the Church at Corinth. After addressing all her significant problems, and doing so with a certain degree of personal frustration, Paul nonetheless considers the Church at Corinth to be a true and viable Church. He does not write her off. He does not slander her. He writes this letter to her as the Church at Corinth for her good. He has applied the gospel to each of her problems convinced that the gospel is the key to correction and to further growth.
In Chapter 16 we find several indicators of Paul’s view of the Church at Corinth as a true Church worth his time and trouble: The first indicator in (1) is Paul’s treatment of the Church of Corinth on equal grounds with the Churches of Galatia. Paul has developed instructions that are not specific to any one congregation but good for all. As the primary architect of the first century church, Paul taught the Church in all her locations to do what is basic and vital. By definition and practice, churches wherever they are located and regardless of their problems, collect money. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard a person say, “The problem I have with the church is that they are always asking for my money.” Such a person has put his finger on a central activity of the Church. Through the collection of money, Paul unites the Church and encourages the spirit and practice of generosity and compassion in her ranks. We most often think of giving to the church as an individual act: I take my hard-earned money and I personally give it to the church. But Paul has a wider view. He instructs the individual members of the church to give their hard-earned money to the church so that the church can collectively give her money to the opportunities and needs of the day. Paul includes the Church at Corinth in this collection for the poor church in Jerusalem, not so much because he needs their money, but because he views this Church to be a true Church alongside the other first century churches, and so he asks them to do what churches do by definition and practice – they generously give to relieve the needs of their fellow Christians.
In (2) Paul institutes the practice of regular collection of money on Sundays during corporate worship. He quickly supplies principles for giving to the church. Firstly, he calls all members to participate. Secondly, he calls all members to dedicate and to save money on a regular basis to give to the church. Thirdly, he establishes a measure for the amount based upon personal prosperity. All three of these principles are found in the Old Covenant practice of tithing. In the writings of Jesus and Paul, the practice of tithing is expanded by the principle of generosity. In this over-arching principle of generosity the giver is prohibited from thinking of his tithe or any gift as a satisfaction of a requirement. Rather, we are to think of our tithe or any gift as the beginning of regular and increasing generosity. The Christian is one who works toward investing as much as he can in the work of the Church, which is the work of Christ Jesus, which is the work of the kingdom of God.
Paul does not wish to arrive at Corinth and be thrust into a role of fundraising. He writes, “so that there will be no collecting when I come.” He intends to maintain his call to preach the gospel and to teach toward the establishment of the Church and he insists that he not be forced into a role of raising funds. Indeed this is what rankles so many people who filter into the church to hear ministers talking about money. When a person says, “The problem I have with the church is that they are always talking about money.” I share their concern. As you may have noticed, I preach mostly through an entire book of the Bible, taking it verse-by-verse and text-by-text. If Jesus talks about money, then I must talk about it. If Paul broaches the subject of money then I must do the same. In my mind, this is a bit different than my taking time in our corporate worship meetings to present our next capital fundraising program. If we entered this house of prayer next Sunday to find the cross on the front wall replaced with a 10 foot thermometer measuring funds raised for our third-phase building, then I would be the first to the microphone to say, “Enough is enough; tear down the thermometer, the altar to Mammon and return to the pure worship of the one true God.”
Paul is careful to stay clear of handling the funds. Others in the church must be appointed to handle the money and deliver it to the Jerusalem Church. Paul is willing to accompany the entourage short of handling the money. This has been the practice in our church since the first day of our mission. In doing so, Paul expresses his view that the Church at Corinth is a true church and that he is willing to share substantial ministry and responsibility with her members.
A second indicator of Paul’s view of the Church at Corinth as a true church is that he is willing and planning to visit them! He lovingly expresses his desire of an extended visit with them – not an overnight, whirlwind whistle stop, but extended time for fellowship. In (8-9) he mentions his priority to spend time in the Church at Ephesus telling the Corinthians that his reason is two-fold: the opportunity for effective ministry; and the large number of adversaries. In saying so, Paul informs the Corinthian Church of the strategic nature of his work. Paul’s schedule is driven by gospel opportunities rather than personal preferences. It must have been encouraging to the Corinthians to hear that the darling, model-church of the first century, Ephesus, had her share of problems! In divulging this information, appropriately without details, to the Corinthians, Paul communicates that the Church at Corinth, with all her problems is nonetheless a true church, as true as the Church at Ephesus.
A third indicator of Paul’s view is his direction of Timothy to work among them and his strong urging of Apollos to do the same. Timothy was like a son to Paul, who had trained him for the ministry since Timothy was a teenager. Paul sent Timothy to a number of the first century churches as a pastor. Paul considered the Church at Corinth to be a viable church able to call Timothy as a minister.
Paul also strongly urged the greatest preacher of the first century to minister in Corinth. Paul planted the church at Corinth with the help of Pricilla and Aquila, who both taught Apollos, preparing him to be a powerful preacher. The lack of unity in the Church was in part created by one group preferring Apollos and another group preferring Paul. Both Apollos and Paul were able to rise above this immature division over preference of preaching style. Paul makes it quite clear that he and Apollos are serving the mission of Christ, proclaiming the gospel where the Spirit directs them by opportunity assessment. And so, as soon as he is able, Apollos will pay a visit to the Church at Corinth. In Chapter 16 Paul consistently positions the Church at Corinth within the larger body of the first century Church. In doing so, he not only teaches them to have a life beyond Corinth and to view the Church as larger than one congregation, but he also confirms that the Church at Corinth is indeed a true Church.
In conclusion, Paul writes even more loving words of inclusion to this true Church: (13) “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” This sounds like a loving father lecturing his son. Paul was the father of the Church at Corinth and he had earned every right to give them this little but helpful lecture in love. He graciously reminds them that membership in the Church happens through conversion. The household of Stephanas was the first group to convert from paganism to Christianity, baptized in the Church at Corinth. But membership in the Church does not end with the conversion experience. The household of Stephanas has been putting the gospel into practice. Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have practiced their faith to the extent of visiting Paul in prison. Paul commends such Christian living according to the gospel as the model for members of the Church.
The Church at Corinth is a true church greeted by all the churches in Turkey, greeted by Aquila and Pricilla church planting in Rome. These are not casual greetings but greetings flowing from love and devotion, expressing unity in Christ though these sisters and brothers are separated by land and sea. “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” Paul marks the Church as a community that expresses love. The other churches of the Roman Empire love the Church at Corinth and they wish her members well. What an encouragement this must have been to the Corinthians who may have thought that the rest of the Church knew all about their dirty laundry and thought less of them for it. Rather than gossiping about the problems in Corinth, the rest of the Church sent greetings of their devoted love and union in Christ. Even Paul expresses his love and tells us that love expressed in the Church is the love of the Lord. He actually wrote this one letter with his own hand! No doubt about it – though Corinth had her share of problems, she was nonetheless part of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, beloved of the Apostle Paul and of Christendom. Paul blessed this church with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. He extended to this Church, who frustrated him to no end, his personal love and devotion. Let us conform our view of the Church today to Paul’s view in his day.