Tag 1 Corinthians

Mountain Bullies

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It’s almost universal to human experience that big and strong people bully smaller and weaker people.  Those with position, influence and power use what they have to take advantage of those who don’t have what they have.  Centuries ago, David imagined in Psalm 68:15-16 that even the mountains do the same:

“O mountain of God, mountain of Bashan;
            O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!
Why do you look with hatred, O many-peaked mountain,
            at the mount that God desired for his abode,
            yes, where the LORD will dwell forever?” – Psalm 68:15-16

The mountains of Bashan, of which Mount Hermon is the tallest, are northeast of Israel and are much taller than Mount Zion, where God had chosen to be most fully present with His people.  In David’s picture, size is what matters: the bigger mountains hate the smaller mountains, even knowing that God is there.  The big bully the small, and perhaps they do so because they know God is there.

Photo by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash

Likewise, people who are well-off in this world often look down on Christians, God’s chosen people.  It is rare for the rich, famous, or powerful to publicly testify about Christ, and so we often get excited when athletes, celebrities, or politicians make their faith public.  We say to each other, “did you hear so-and-so is a Christian?”  It can make us feel like it’s more reasonable and accepted to follow Christ when this happens.  It feels good to identify with the rich and powerful.

But what if this rarity of seeing faith in the rich and powerful is intentional on God’s part?

Throughout Scripture God doesn’t identify with the rich and powerful; He identifies with the widow and orphan, with the lonely and outcast.  He favors the weak and the exploited.

In 1 Corinthians 1:26, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.”  The first century isn’t much different than to today: the “wise”, powerful and noble rarely testified about Christ.  Next Paul wrote: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are…”

Why?  “…so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

Back to Psalm 68, where we found the mountains of Bashan ridiculing God’s mountain of Zion, David ends with these verses:

“Ascribe power to God,
            whose majesty is over Israel,
            and whose power is in the skies.
Awesome is God from his sanctuary;
            the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.
Blessed be God!”

I’ll rejoice over a public Christian testimony wherever it comes from, but I remember that God doesn’t need the help of the movers and shakers of this world.  His power is “in the skies” – way above the mountains that bully His Mount Zion.  He is glorified more when His power enables the weak to love Him and love their neighbor.

We might sometimes feel alone and ignored, like we’re not part of the “in crowd” or successful, but that might mean we’re God’s type of person!  No celebrity endorsement required.

“Ascribe power to God”

Time to Build the Church

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What’s more important, your house or God’s?

Haggai was a prophet during the time shortly after the end of the Babylonian exile.  His main focus was encouraging the people to complete the rebuilding of the Temple, which had been destroyed at the beginning of the exile, in 586 B.C.  After returning to Israel, the people had become lazy and complacent about God’s house, the Temple, saying “the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD,”[1] and made excuses not to rebuild it.  But Haggai challenged them, in true prophetic fashion, asking “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”[2]  The problem was that the people took great care of their own houses with fancy paneling, yet weren’t concerned that the Temple was still a ruin.  “The time has not yet come,” they said.

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash

Haggai told the people: “Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.”[3]  This would involve a lot of hard work, God knows what it takes to build His Temple, and He also knows that it needs to be done and should be a priority.

Today, the equivalent of the Temple is the body of believers known as the church.  1 Peter 2:5 says, “you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  God’s goal for the church is to perfect it in Jesus’ likeness, therefore no matter what condition the church is in here, it always needs to be built up.  We may be tempted to say “the time has not yet come” because we won’t be perfected until eternity, but He says ““Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.”

Building the church (God’s house) may feel as difficult as climbing hills, gathering and transporting wood from forests to build a literal, physical Temple.  It’s not easy and we shouldn’t expect it to be.  But God will build His church and He wants our help.

When writing of our diverse spiritual gifts, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 14:12 – “So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.” Has the time come to build His church?  Yes, it has.

“Strive to excel.”

[1] Haggai 1:2
[2] Haggai 1:4
[3] Haggai 1:8

Walking Safely with God

Todd R 2 Comments

Many people, both Christian and non-Christian, think of obedience to God as a dreadful chore, something that robs us of our autonomy and joy.  Sometimes people refuse to believe in God because they reject His requirements, and sometimes people resent God because they see Him as making them labor in futility for the perfection He requires.  However, we know that salvation does not come from our obedience, but Christ’s, and through God’s grace He reveals Himself to us.  Then we learn that the rules we should follow come from a God who loves us and perfectly knows what is good and bad for us – far beyond our own knowledge.  Therefore, those rules become our freedom and joy when we follow them willingly.  He always knows the best and right choice to make.

Psalm 119 (the longest chapter in the Bible) is a meditation on the benefits of God’s laws for us, and verses 44-45 give us a picture of those benefits:

“I will keep your law continually,
            forever and ever,
and I shall walk in a wide place,
            for I have sought your precepts.”

The central idea here is that when we are obedient to God, we “shall walk in a wide place,” but what does that mean?  How does that benefit us?

Think about walking along a mountain path, or on stones crossing a river.  Does it make a difference how wide that path is, or how big and flat the stones are?  If we trip and fall on a narrow place, we may fall into a river or off a cliff.  However, if we fall in a wide place on a mountain path or on a very large rock, we may scrape a knee or our hands, but the consequences won’t be as severe as falling off a cliff!

Photo by Ante Hamersmit on Unsplash

The idea of walking in a wide place brings to mind the contrast between the consequences of following our own way versus following God’s.  Going our own way can not only have worse consequences now, in this world, but it can also have consequences in eternity.  Never repenting of going our own way at all leads to an eternity banished from God’s presence and blessings.  But even if we are saved, failure to follow God can rob others of God’s blessings for them that He intends through us and can influence our experience in heaven.  Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 that there are rewards in heaven for those who follow Him, as well as “loss” for not doing so.  So, doing whatever we please has consequences, some of which may be eternal.

In contrast, obedience to God is like walking in a safe place, where any negative consequence is temporary, or comes with a corresponding blessing.  We may get a scraped knee, but we don’t fall off a cliff, suffering permanent damage, death or other loss.  Following God’s word can’t keep all bad things from happening to you, but it can limit the worldly consequences, and eliminate the eternal consequences.

Therefore, seek God’s guidance and follow it, and we “shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts.”

It’s a better path to follow than any other.

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).