Tag 1 Corinthians

Zap! The Best Action Figures for Christmas

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Dear fellow travelers,

A hot Christmas gift when I was a kid were G.I. Joe toys.  These “Real American Heroes” were a line of action figures, vehicles and other accessories that fought against the evil Cobra organization which was trying to take over the world (of course).  In 1982, they were even hotter, after Hasbro added “Swivel Arm Battle Grip” to the design to differentiate G.I. Joe from the also-popular Star Wars figures.

Zap looks much better in action than in the box.

The swivel in the middle of the figure’s bicep allowed 360-degree rotation.  The swivel isn’t a shoulder, elbow, or hand, but without it, bazooka soldier (Code Name: Zap) can’t pose as modeled on the package pictured here.  I had “Zap” and tried it for myself.  It took some experimentation, but eventually the way the shoulder, swivel, and elbow were made worked together and Zap looked like Zap should look.

Why so much detail about action figures in a Christian blog?  Because the Christian church is described in the Bible as the body of Christ, and in 1 Corinthians 12:14-16, the apostle Paul assures us that, without every single member of the church participating, the body of Christ is incomplete:

“For the body does not consist of one member but of many.  If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.  And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.”

Like Zap without “Swivel Arm Battle Grip,” the church will not perform as God intended unless all parts of the body participate, but sometimes it’s not clear to each of us what part of the body of Christ we are.  To some of us, others may clearly look like a shoulder, elbow, or hand, but we don’t know our part.  To some of us, others may look like the “hands and feet of Jesus” (to use a common phrase), but people don’t say the same about us.  Remember that Paul says “that would not make it any less a part of the body.”

Today, let’s return to one of this blog’s key verses, Hebrews 10:24, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.”  When we don’t clearly know the specifics of our part, maybe we are the “Swivel Arm Battle Grip” – the innovative, new part with a weird name that helps the other parts fit together and work as God intended.  But also, when we do know our part, is the objective any different?

The Way of Escape

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Reliable knowledge of good and evil is hard to come by, and the wisdom to follow it even harder.  A well-known and oft-quoted Proverb is 1:7, which says:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
            fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

This Proverb tells us that we only gain useful knowledge, wisdom and instruction when we have an attitude of reverent respect for God, and that we are fools if we do otherwise.  Fear of the Lord should be the rudder that guides us through the waves and storms that buffet us in this world.  Every decision we make should have as its foundation: does this honor God?  No other foundation is good enough for our lives to rest upon.

What’s left unsaid here in Proverbs is that we can’t expect this to come easy.  We are constantly tempted to not fear the Lord in our minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, and day-by-day decisions.  It’s hard, and not just because we aren’t perfect.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

In the account of the serpent’s confrontation with Eve in the garden in Genesis 3, the serpent’s whole objective was to get Eve to make one decision that wasn’t based on fear of the Lord.  “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?””[1]  “The serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die.’”[2]  Eventually he wore her down and she ate from the tree God told her not to eat from, all because her reverence for God had been worn down by constant criticism of God by the serpent.  He wanted her to decide for any reason other than the fear of the Lord, to become a fool, and thus bring down humanity.

When we make decisions, are we always being guided by the fear of the Lord, or do we sometimes think “He didn’t really mean that”?  If you’re like me, you find yourself constantly confronted by influences that oppose God.  Are we foolish when we follow these influences?  Yes.  Do we do it anyway?  Yes.  Could there be a hostile spiritual influence pulling us in that direction?  Sure, but it could also just be our own broken wills, prone to go our own way.

However, in 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul assures us that “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”  And if we fear the Lord, we will believe it.

If we fear the Lord, when we’re tempted, we will know that “he will also provide the way of escape.”  We need to look for it and pray for it until we find it.  When we do, God will remain in the driving seat of our decisions and knowledge and wisdom will be ours.  He can overcome any of our temptations if we let Him and we fear Him.

Let the fear of the Lord be your guide.  There is always a “way of escape.”

[1] Genesis 3:1b
[2] Genesis 3:4

Disappointed by God?

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Do you ever feel disappointed by God?  Does your experience of Him sometimes not match your expectations?  We might wonder where God is in our everyday lives.  We may wonder whether we can really trust Him, and we’re probably more likely to feel this way when bad things happen.  The Bible tells us in Romans 8:28 –

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Paul (author of Romans) says he knows this, but do we always?  Do we trust that good comes from “all things”?  And when we don’t see good come, how do we react?

We might think good things are not happening to us because we don’t “love God” enough, so we might blame ourselves.  Maybe we think that some things “just happen” and have no purpose.  Maybe over time we learn to think most things are like that?  We might think Paul didn’t really mean what he wrote about God.

It’s natural to want “good” things.  We may want more money, a better job, better relationships, more possessions, and think that when bad things happen, it’s just a matter of time before some corresponding blessing comes along, because God is supposed to work through “all things” for our good. But when it seems like He doesn’t we might feel disappointed.  What are we missing?

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash

Could it be that the problem is with our expectations of God, not with God Himself?  For example, do we misunderstand what “good” “things work together for”?  Is our definition of “good” the same as His?

Think about what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:26 “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.”

It is not necessarily God’s intention to make us “good” by “worldly standards.”  His standards are different, and He doesn’t want us to value the worldly wisdom, which tells us it is “good” to be “powerful” or to be “noble” or even “wise” in the world’s eyes.  God has more important things in mind.

So, what is the “good” that everything works towards?  Paul wrote in Romans 8:29, which comes right after the earlier verse about how “all things work together for good”:

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” – Romans 8:29

The “good” that God works for is our conformity to the image of Christ.  Not our pre-conceived definition of “good” based on our values, or the world’s.    He won’t use “all things” to give us more of what the world thinks is important.

What does it mean to be conformed to the image of Jesus?  In Jesus we see the perfect image of the love of God, described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 like this:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful”

So, God, through “all things,” works to make us more patient and kinder.  Less envious, boastful, arrogant and rude.  He makes us less insistent on our own way, and therefore less irritable and resentful.

Therefore, we might have to change what we value.  We must modify our priorities.  Anything that happens to us, whether we consider it “good” or not, God can use to make us more like Christ.  More like the person we will be in heaven.  More like the person we should want to be.  Then God will not disappoint us.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

The Scale of Our Trials

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The apostle Paul begins 2 Corinthians with the usual greeting, followed by a section on the comfort God provides us when we suffer or are afflicted for Christ’s sake.  2 Corinthians 1:5 makes this statement: “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”

On that verse, Charles Spurgeon wrote this analogy: “The Ruler of Providence bears a pair of scales—in this side He puts His people’s trials, and in that He puts their consolations. When the scale of trial is nearly empty, you will always find the scale of consolation in nearly the same condition; and when the scale of trials is full, you will find the scale of consolation just as heavy.”[1]

Therefore, when living for Christ brings trouble and opposition, remember also that our Father is ruler of all and fully intends to share His comfort with us through Christ eternally.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” – Romans 8:18

[1] From “February 12” of Spurgeon’s Morning by Morning commentary

What’s in Your Temple?

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When describing His holiness, God provided pictures like the one in Isaiah 6:1 – “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”  Because “the train of his robe filled the temple,” there is no room in the temple for anything that isn’t holy.  Or in Revelation 15:8, which says: “and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.”  Until God’s judgment was complete – both on the unrepentant and on the cross for His people – there would continue to be no room in the sanctuary for anyone but the Lord.

How do these pictures apply to us?  Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 – “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”  Therefore, we ask ourselves: does the train of the Lord’s robe fill our temples?

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

A transformative moment came in my Christian life when I understood sin in contrast to holiness, rather than as a list of “don’ts.”  It’s possible (perhaps even easy) to convince ourselves we are not sinners in need of grace by defining sin as things we don’t do.  However, much of the time, the word “sin” in the New Testament is a translation of the Greek word hamartia, which means “to miss the mark.”[1]  The word has athletic connotations, such as if an archer couldn’t hit the bullseye, they wouldn’t win the competition and the prize.  As we all know, archers are supposed to be accurate, and if they aren’t, they’ve “missed the mark.”

Therefore, when Paul writes in Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” he is not saying everybody failed to follow a list of dos and don’ts, but that we have not fully lived the life God intended us to live.  Romans 3:23 declares that while we wouldn’t set up idols in our church building, all of us tolerate some idols in our soul, which is where the Holy Spirit of God chooses to dwell.  The train of His robe does not fill our inner temple, and we too often trod on it with dirty feet.  We’ve “missed the mark” any time there’s other stuff in our temple, directing our thoughts and actions.  However, by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we have both a hope of living with God and a future where His metaphorical robe does fill us.

In Paradise, God’s people will – individually and collectively – “hit the mark” perfectly for eternity.  His perfect temple will be completed in Paradise, with the living stones of all His people.

Paul returns to holiness again in 2 Corinthians 6:16 to 7:1, quoting several Old Testament passages, since holiness of His people has been the plan from the beginning –

“What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,
             ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
                        and I will be their God,
                        and they shall be my people.
            Therefore go out from their midst,
                        and be separate from them, says the Lord,
            and touch no unclean thing;
                        then I will welcome you,
            and I will be a father to you,
                        and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
            says the Lord Almighty.’

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.”

Amen

[1] Greek Strong’s Dictionary