Tag 1 Corinthians

Only Christ Can Practice What We Preach

Todd R 1 Comment

We all know the phrase “practice what you preach.”  It’s a way to call someone a hypocrite, and at the same time tear down what the other person claims to believe in.  These beliefs may be political or moral philosophies, but they may also be religious beliefs like denominations or theological systems.  For this post, I’ll call all of these “isms.”

The history of Christianity has been a constant conflict between and competition among different “isms.”  Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism, Methodism, and others.  Even the ones that don’t use the actual letters “ism” at the end are still “isms.”  So much of being a Christian involves figuring out which “ism” we belong to, and also figuring out what’s wrong with the other “isms.”  I see this no more clearly than on social media, where the competing camps are so clearly identified, and people write others off for being in the wrong camp.

We put a lot of time and effort into being as good at our chosen “ism” as we can.  If we can go with the flow according to that “ism,” we can feel like we are pretty good Christians.  We may be able to do a decent job at following the “ism” that we preach, and in many cases following our “isms” isn’t a bad thing.  All denominations have their pros and cons, and they often attract people with similar strengths and weaknesses.

In God’s eyes there aren’t
different types of Christianity.

But as we seek to be the best at our “ism” that we can be, are we practicing Christianity?  Jesus confronts us with this in Matthew 19:17 – “And he said to him, ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.’”

We may think of our “isms” as varieties or types of Christianity, and in a cultural way they are.  However, in God’s eyes there aren’t different types of Christianity.  There is only one Christianity – the life that Christ lived is the only practice of Christianity that will ever be good enough.  Even if I perfectly practice what I preach as a Presbyterian or Baptist, for instance, I’ll still fall far short of God’s standard for “good.”

“Isms” are unavoidable in this world, and they often point us in the right direction, but they don’t get us all of the way there.  We seek to please God as we best know how, but none of our “isms” are enough.  They aren’t enough to save us, and they’re also too much for us to perfectly practice what we preach.  We can’t meet our own, lowered, standards.

This is why the apostle Paul wrote “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” in 1 Corinthians 2:2.

Preaching Christ crucified is the only thing we can preach that was ever practiced perfectly, because it wasn’t practiced by us.  It was practiced by the only One who was ever perfect, and it’s better than all of our “isms.”

“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.” – 1 Corinthians 13:12

Jesus is Patient and Kind Even When I am Not

Todd R 1 Comment

Jesus is patient and kind; Jesus does not envy or boast; Jesus is not arrogant or rude. Jesus does not insist on His own way; He is not irritable or resentful; He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Knowing the love Jesus has for us is an encouraging thought. This paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 was suggested in a devotional I read in 2021 [1] for John 13:34 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”  James Boice said that we are not to “love” in any way we see fit, but as Jesus loved, which the above describes.

Based on John 13:34, Boice says we should also be able to substitute “I” in place of “Jesus” in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and see what He commands us to be.  When I re-read the first paragraph with myself in mind, I see how much I fall short, but His love for me remains an encouragement.  He will be patient and kind with me.

Pray that we may get ever closer to living the love of Jesus.

[1] From “August 30.” James Montgomery Boice and Marion Clark. Come to the Waters: Daily Bible Devotions for Spiritual Refreshment.  (2017).

Allow Me to Demonstrate

Todd R 1 Comment

Life as a Christian in the 1st century must have been extraordinarily difficult.  Like Jesus these early disciples faced resistance both from religious leaders as well as the Roman government. Most of these early Christians had not met Jesus personally and also did not have the Bible we have today.  What did they base their faith on?  Largely on the witness of others and on the teachings and examples of the apostles. Paul, who brought many to Christ and founded many churches during his missionary journeys, knew that all of his actions would be scrutinized as to whether they reflected what he was teaching.

Paul told new Christians to keep a close watch on his life, because if Christ had not made a difference in Paul’s life, why should others believe it would make a difference in theirs?  If Paul didn’t personally have love, joy and peace[1] in his life, why should those hearing him preach expect Christ to provide them with love, joy and peace.  He knew actions speak louder than words.

To the church in Corinth Paul wrote: “my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men butin the power of God.”[2]  Paul saw his life as a “demonstration” of God’s power and knew that this demonstration would be more powerful than the competence of his “speech” and the complexity of his “message.”  It’s as if Paul had given a presentation describing God and His power, and then told his audience, “Allow me to demonstrate…”. Paul often gave thanks that the churches he wrote to were living examples of Christian faith lived out.

So, the question comes to us: what do our lives demonstrate?  Do we show love to others?  Do we have joy in all circumstances? Are we at peace with God and can we offer peace to others?  What do people notice about us?  The fruit of the Spirit, or the patterns of this world?

Pray for all of God’s people, including you and I, that we would walk with Christ, abiding in Him, so that we may bear the fruit of love, joy and peace that the world will notice.  When we proclaim Christ, with Paul we should be able to say “allow me to demonstrate…”

“People may not agree with our theology but they shouldn’t be able to argue with our lives.” – John McGowan

“Out of a hundred people, one will read the Bible, and the other ninety-nine will read the Christian.” – Dwight L. Moody

[1] Galatians 5:22
[2] 1 Corinthians 2:4-5

Dedicating Our Days to God

Todd R 1 Comment

When the Temple in Jerusalem was built under King Solomon, he dedicated it first with a lengthy prayer, followed by a massive number of sacrifices:

“King Solomon offered as a sacrifice 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.” – 2 Chronicles 7:5

There is no record of Solomon and the people considering the loss of all this livestock as a burden or an economic catastrophe.  The Bible simply records that they made the sacrifices.  In dedicating the Temple, the people were marking it as a place to be only used in the worship of their God, and in offering such a massive sacrifice they were acknowledging that they should dedicate all they have to their God as well.

What does this mean for us today?  In the middle of 1 Corinthians 6:16, Paul wrote that “we are the temple of the living God.”  Therefore, our temple – our bodies and all we have – should be dedicated to the worship of God.  We probably don’t have 22,000 oxen or 120,000 sheep to offer Him, but what do we have to offer?

In each day, there are 1,440 minutes (or 86,400 seconds).  Are we willing to sacrifice them all to God without considering it a burden?  I know I don’t, but I pray each day to get closer to the goal of complete dedication to God.  I pray each of you will grow closer to Him as well.

Amen.

The Body of Christ is Irreducibly Complex

Todd R Leave a comment

Among the various camps in the debate between creation and evolution is a set of ideas called intelligent design (ID).  A key part of ID is “irreducible complexity,” a term that comes from the book Darwin’s Black Box, by Lehigh professor Michael Behe.[1]

In short, irreducible complexity argues that evolution by chance, without an intelligent designer driving it, is unreasonable because the multiple systems in a complex organism like a human body – circulatory, digestive, endocrine, muscular, respiratory, and so on – are all interdependent on each other.  The circulatory system alone, with the heart pumping blood through an elaborate system of arteries and veins, is difficult to imagine developing by chance occurrence, but a chance evolution of that system alongside all the other parts it is dependent on is even more far-fetched.  All systems evolving together in lockstep without failing is a much more difficult problem to explain scientifically without a Creator.  The circulatory system takes what the respiratory and digestive systems take in and deliver it to the other systems that use it.  Without the other parts, it has no function and cannot survive and further evolve.

An isolated, inanimate, heart. Photo by Ali Hajiluyi on Unsplash

However, my intent here is not to prove intelligent design, but to consider the apostle Paul’s words about the church as the body of Christ.  In 1 Corinthians 12:12, he wrote: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”  He continues that no part of the body can say it is not a part of the body because it has a different function than another part (1 Cor. 12:15-16), and also that no part of the body can say it doesn’t need all of the other parts (1 Cor. 12:21).  Those who are in Christ Jesus cannot be divided.

Paul follows his description of the body with 1 Corinthians 13, a powerful statement on the supremacy of love, and in context a gentle rebuke to the idea that a body can survive as individual, unrelated units.  In a human body, any part can only survive by serving the other parts.  Even an organ as incredibly complex and important as a heart cannot survive if it decided to pump blood only for itself.  Where would it get its nutrients?  How would it flee from danger?  As Paul wrote: “If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?” (1 Cor. 12:17).  Even an organ as important as the heart is useless in isolation.  It gets its very life and purpose by what it does for the body.

As Jesus said to His disciples in John 13:34-35 – “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

As the song says, they will know we are Christians by our love, and the church Jesus came to build is irreducibly complex.  There is no appendix[2] in the church, which is the body of Christ.  All members are absolutely essential.

[1] Behe, Michael.  Darwin’s Black Box (1996).
[2] While we commonly think of this organ as useless, God as our Maker didn’t put it there by accident.