1 Corinthians 5:1-8 Serve in Love!

1 Corinthians 5:1-8  It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.  And you are proud!  Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?  For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit.  As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this.  So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good.  Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?  Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are.  For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.  Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

In the above focus we see Paul warning about allowing sin to invade the church by accepting sinful practices within the church.  Paul has discovered that a man in the Corinthian church was living openly in sin.  He reminds the Corinthians that this kind of sinful behavior is looked upon as wrong even in a dark world full with sexual perversion: immorality of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.  Ifincestuous relationships are not welcomed in a sinful and dark world, they should not be accepted in the church of the living God.  Of course many sins are still resident in the body of Christ for the Passover does not necessarily get the spirit of Egypt out of God’s chosen.  We see that condition in the Old Testament.  The Passover frees the Israelites from slavery, a state indicating subservience to Satan or this world.  The Israelites, after passing through the Red Sea, still possessed the Egyptian lifestyle and desires.  In fact after three days from escaping Egypt, the Israelites are grumbling, wishing they were back in Egypt where at least there was good water to drink.  Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur.  For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.  When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter.  (That is why the place is called Marah.)   So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”  (Exodus 15:22-24)  A couple weeks later, we see the Israelites in total rebellion against Moses and Aaron because of the lack of food.  On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt, the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.  The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!  There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”  (Exodus 16:1-3)  They were now idealizing their 400 years of slavery in Egypt, forgetting that their baby boys were thrown into the Nile, either to be eaten by crocodiles or to decompose in the river.  They were forgetting their desperate conditions in Egypt, working hard to make Egypt beautiful while they lived in poverty.  Even though freed by the passover, Egypt was ingrained within them.  At Mount Sinai, they had Aaron make them an idol to worship when Moses was away from them for forty days on Sinai, talking to God.  When Moses came down from the mountain, he saw the Israelites in revelry, celebrating boisterously their gods, acting unrestrainedly, even sexually.  The Egyptian lifestyle surfaces completely at the base of Sinai 50 days after leaving Egypt, after their escape from the grip of the devil in their lives.  In the above focus we see this same syndrome in the Christians.  Paul is clearly upset about incest being accepted within the church of Corinth.  But the Corinthians are involved with many other things that also emulate the secular world.  They are enmeshed in envy, gossip, arrogance, boastfulness, discord and strife.  (Romans 1:29-32)  Their quarreling and fighting over who is the best leader to follow was destroying the church.

Even though Paul is disgusted about the incest within the Corinthian church, he approaches this abomination to the righteousness of God with the grace and mercy of God.  Paul knows about the mysterious plan of God that was present in the heart of God when He made men and women.  God desires that all of his creation be redeemed from the dustbin of death.  Jesus Christ, his Son, was sacrificed on the Cross for the salvation of all people from slavery to Satan.  Jesus IS THE PASSOVER LAMB.  He frees permanently those who accept his blood sacrifice for their sinful lives.  Now we see Paul saying to the church, this man who is practicing incest in his life should be handed over to Satan, allowing his sinful life to die quickly so that his soul will be saved: hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.  The sinful man is mired in deep darkness; Egypt is still possessing his soul, but he also has experienced the Passover.  His escape from darkness has already happened, but for him to not be lost in his rebellious darkness, pray that he die in the body so that his soul will be saved. The Israelites on the day they should have entered the Promised Land, they were still in rebellion to God’s authority in their lives.  They wanted to choose other leaders for their congregation, leaders who would take them back to Egypt.  God harshly judged their decision to go back into sin.  He forced them back to the wilderness where all the men and women over twenty-years-old would die.  They had rejected the Passover that delivered them from slavery.  Paul is telling the church of Corinth, pray for the death of this man so the Passover he has experienced will still be evident on the day of judgment.  And we know this man repented of his sinful lifestyle and preserved his soul while he was still living.  God was faithful to him in the end

Jesus told his disciples that their belief in him has given them eternal life at that moment.  Eternity was in them through their belief in Jesus, the Lamb of God.  How are we to restore a Christian who has fallen into sin.  Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.  But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.  Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  (Galatians 6:1-2)  We should deal with our fallen brothers and sisters with grace and mercy.  We should confess our own faults and sins so our brothers or sisters know that flesh is in all of us, letting them know that God is gracious and good to all of us.  If we repent of our misdeeds, He quickly forgives us of our sins.  This is a process of restoring a wayward Christian to Christ.  We should be careful to deal with the sinful lives of others without indulging in their way of living or thinking, watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.  As Christians in the household of God, we should bring life to the wayward Christians.  We should bring good to them, light to them, not anger and grief to them.  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  (Romans 12:21)  Our Christian brethren are not our enemies; they are just lost in the thinking of Egypt.  Therefore, let the light of the new creature be seen in your reaction to them--serve them in love.  In your interaction with someone who is dabbling in sin, let the Spirit’s attributes be seen abundantly in you: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5)   Jesus who was without sin, no waywardness in his life, associated with sinners, maybe the scum of society as the Pharisees depicted these people.  He ate with tax collectors and sinners.  Why?  They needed a doctor in their lives, a redeemer in their lives, someone who truly loved them as they were.  The man who was living in incest needed a doctor in his life.  He needed someone who would tell him the truth about his destructive life in a merciful and kind manner.  He did not need a righteous, holier-than-thou person in his life.  He needed someone without malice towards him.  He needed someone who would speak life into his life, one who would explain again the efficacious Passover in sincerity and truth.  As with the Corinthians themselves in their own waywardness of disruption and arguing with each other over leadership, they needed to regain their understanding of Jesus and the Passover.  They are no longer caught in the slavery of Egypt.  They are absolutely and forever free under the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Not dustpan people, but jewels in God’s domain of redemption.  Our breakfast friends around this table, celebrating the food of the Passover, drink and eat freely of the provisions of Jesus Christ the Lord.  Confess your sins before each other and treat each other as you want to be treated, AS HIS JEWELS.   Jesus has come to deliver you from Egypt and to establish you in the Promised Land.   

   

    

 

1 Corinthian 4:14-21 Come with a Gentle Spirit!

1 Corinthian 4:14-21  I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children.  Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.  For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord.  He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.  Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you.  But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have.  For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.  What do you prefer?  Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit.

As the the founder of the church of Corinth, Paul’s concern over the spiritual health of the Corinthian church was constantly on his mind for almost a decade.  His first visit to Corinth was somewhere around 50-52 A.D and his last visit around 57-61 A.D.  During that time, some believe he wrote four letters, the first and third letters are lost to history; the second and fourth letters are known as 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians.  In these two letters, Paul is struggling with the Corinthians' acceptance to continue their worldly lifestyle.  He keeps reminding them that they are new creatures IN CHRIST and that new life demands a change in the way they journey through life.  For him, too many of them are hanging onto their old lifestyle, justifying their unregenerate lifestyles by selecting different spiritual leaders to follow.  This disruption within the church and their lack of authenticity as born-again believers was becoming well-known throughout Corinth.  The Christian brethren in the church were bringing their disagreements with other Christians over secular matters to the courts of the Greeks.  This kind of behavior was dismantling the work of Christ in Corinth.  Paul tells them not to expose these disagreements between them to the secular community.  They should settle these disputes with each other within the church, not before the outside world. If they cannot come to a satisfactory agreement within the environment of the Christian community, then for the sake of unity they should lay aside their grievances with other brethren and just accept the wrongs they are experiencing.  Why not rather be wronged?  Why not rather be cheated?  Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.  Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And that is what some of you were.  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.  (1 Corinthians 6:7-11)  By holding onto to these wrongs, wishing to be justified, they destroy the witness of Christ in the community.  They must continue to understand that Jesus paid the price for their redemption from previous lives of darkness.  Paul reminds them that they once were cheaters, slanderers, swindlers, drunkards, thieves, greedy, abusers, sexually immoral, adulterers, and even idolaters.  Their lives were dead to God, going nowhere but to destruction.  However, Christ brought a new life to them, an eternal life with God by his work on the cross. You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.  Their desires to be right in disputations indicate they held a secular view while living an unregenerate life supposedly hidden IN CHRIST.

Paul was constantly defending his position of being an apostle in the body of Christ.  For the Corinthians, if they could discount Paul’s special position in the living church of Christ, they could lay aside some of his criticism of their spiritual lives.  Paul was sold out for Christ.  In Philippians 3:7-9,  Paul writes, whatever in my previous life was a gain for me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.  Paul recognizes in the Corinthians a desire to hang onto their old lives.  Rather than considering everything they knew and lived for in their previous lives as garbage, they were assimilating some of their old lives into the new born-again life.  By doing so they were engulfed in disputation and arguments with their fellow believers.  This kind of behavior reveals not new garments of light covering them, but the old dusty clothing of their past.  He is asking the Corinthians to imitate me.  He is sending Timothy to remind them of Paul’s life IN CHRIST JESUS.  Paul teaches a regenerated life IN CHRIST everywhere in every church.  Paul is becoming very much aware that the Corinthians are not seeking out the purity that should come from lives dedicated to Christ.  Instead, they are falling into sinful behavior, even allowing sinful activity such as incest in the midst of their church.  It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.  And you are proud!  (1 Corinthians 5:1-2)  Paul is amazed that they would allow such sin to be openly displayed within their church.  You are proud!!!!  For Paul, their disputation of who they should follow was the canary in the mine, a detection that something was wrong with the air they were breathing.  But this seemingly innocuous behavior led to something more serious, open sin in the church of the Corinthians.  Rather than holiness, they were accepting sins that even the secular community would not tolerate.  They misunderstood that their freedom IN CHRIST meant that they could be free to live as they desire, without any restrictions on how they lived in the flesh.  Paul says, that is not true: a life IN CHRIST should reflect the purity of God, not the darkness of sin.  Paul did not present the restrictions of the law, but the freedom of living IN CHRIST; he did not want the servitude to sin to guide a born-again life.  That life of unrighteousness leads to death, not to eternal life with God.

Paul is very upset about the arrogance of the Christian believers in Corinth, allowing their supposed freedom in Christ to accept sin within their community.   Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you.  But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have.  Paul’s words presuppose that there are leaders among the Corinth church who are championing the liberty of the sin of the flesh in the new believer.  He knows that kind of talk is powerless to change people into staunch followers of Christ.  Sinful behavior is powerless to change people into a right position with God.  Sin brings death.  Paul threatens them that if he comes to the Corinthian church and finds these people in charge, he will come with a rod of discipline.  But if they are repentant, he will come in love and with a gentle spirit.  Paul tells the Galatians,  Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.  But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.  Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  (Galatians 6:1-2)  People who are caught in the snares of the devil should be restored gently to the church through the law of Christ: love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.  James said,  If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right.  But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.  For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  (James 2:8-10)  Be careful how you love, do not show favoritism to some but not others.  For if you do, you too become a law breaker, violating God’s love towards all people.  Paul knows the Corinthians are high on God’s power to change people.  They are steeped into the fruit of the Spirit and exercise the Spirit’s power and gifts in the church, and as the seventy-two disciples returned from their evangelistic journey into Israel, they said to Jesus, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”  But this power is no substitute for righteous living.  Paul is now concerned that the Corinthians are not bringing the light of Christ into the Corinth community because of the way they are living: arguing, disputing, and bringing their disagreements before the courts of the Greeks.  Their lives should be exemplary of Christ.  Christ is God and God is love.  Towards the end of Jesus’ life, He was going back to Jerusalem where He will be murdered.  As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.  And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.  When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want US to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”  But Jesus turned and rebuked them.  Then he and his disciples went to another village.  (Luke 9:51-56)  We see two of his disciples who had previously experienced God’s power in them as they evangelized Israel, ready to call judgment on a Samaritan village because they did not welcome Jesus.  They were ready to use Jesus’ name to destroy, but Jesus looked at them and rebuked them.  The Corinthians displayed much power because of the Holy Spirit’s work in their community, but this power was not to destroy, but to restore people to God.  The Corinthians rejoiced in their powerful worship services and the works of God, but their lives were still much like James and John, displaying the attitude of the flesh, destroy and not restore.  Their fleshly lives were not restoring the world, but living in such a destructive manner, that their lives would never enlighten the world around them.  May we be in tune with the Holy Spirit to do the perfect will of God and restore his people.    

1 Corinthians 4:6-13 Grace is Sufficient for You!

1 Corinthians 4:6-13  Now, brothers and sisters, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.”  Then you will not be puffed up in being a follower of one of us over against the other.  For who makes you different from anyone else?  What do you have that you did not receive?  And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?  Already you have all you want!  Already you have become rich!  You have begun to reign—and that without us!  How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!  For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena.  We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings.  We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ!  We are weak, but you are strong!  You are honored, we are dishonored!  To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.  We work hard with our own hands.  When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly.  We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

In the church of Corinth, Paul is battling a very intrinsic, sinful aspect of all people: the tendency to separate themselves from others for their own purposes.  The Christian Corinthians are separating themselves based on what spiritual leader they desire to follow.  They are arguing and fighting over leadership, causing them to divide into factions, each group going its own way.  This divisive spirit reveals that the Corinthian Christians are still carnal and worldly, epitomizing Isaiah 53:6, We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.  This chaotic environment of self-will is dangerous and festers a nature rebellious to God’s authority.  The Corinthians were justifying their divisiveness by relying on their understanding of spiritual affairs.  Paul knows that IN CHRIST they have all that they need to be right with God.  IN CHRIST, they are not different from anyone else; their inheritance of a new life in the kingdom of God is their possession.  All who trust in Jesus are new creatures, born by the will of God, and not of man’s efforts.  So why should they seek special leaders and special revelations based on the knowledge of finite men or women?  For the scriptures say there is only one shepherd,  The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.  He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  (Psalm 23:1-3)  Jesus said of himself, I am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE.  God has designated him as the only shepherd of the redeemed.  He is the true shepherd who will not leave or abandon his flock.  In Paul’s introduction in this letter to the Corinthians, he emphasizes the flock’s togetherness throughout Christianity.  All Christians make up one body, one temple where God dwells.  To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, TOGETHER with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: GRACE and PEACE to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  (1 Corinthians 1:1-3)  Grace and peace will come to those who are united as one under the authority of God through his Son, Jesus Christ.  Paul emphasizes to the Corinthians that Christ is not divided.  Unity comes through the cross, trusting in Jesus’ work of salvation and in his subsequent resurrection.   As the spiritual father of the Corinth church, he implores them to unify themselves under the leadership of Christ alone, the Great Shepherd of all those who are born again.  I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.  (1 Corinthians 1:10)   His question to them, Is Christ divided? stands continually before them.  If Christ is not divided, then they should stop championing the expertise and knowledge of different men.  These men that they lift up are but servants of God.  They are serving in the vineyard of the Lord to bring forth a large harvest.  The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, to harvest men and women for the kingdom of God.  (1 Corinthians 3:8)

Paul's initial ministry to the Corinthians was focused like a laser beam on the works of Christ and not on anything else.  Paul on the road to Damascus discovered the way to be right with a holy God comes only through the works of Jesus Christ.  And so it was with me, brothers and sisters.  When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  (1 Corinthians 2:1-2)  Now, however, he is discovering that the Corinthians are adding other things on top of Jesus Christ and him crucified, ministry based on people and on words beyond what is written in scripture.  And these different factions seem to be very happy about this additional information added to the works of Christ.  Sarcastically Paul says, What do you have that you did not receive?  And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?  The Corinthians are supposedly believing that they received the new birth not only from what Paul taught, but also of what they added to his salvation message.  They are claiming Paul’s message was good, but what they have added makes it even better.  And to support their conclusion about a better message than just the cross and him crucified, they chose varied leaders to follow.  In a smug way in Paul’s estimation they claim a better existence in this world under what they have discovered from the teachings of others than just the simple doctrine that Paul presented them. You have begun to reign—and that without us!  How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!  He sarcastically says to them, how I wish to reign with you in your contentment of what you have discovered under following people.  Because this contentment of additional teaching about God’s salvation plan has not found me yet.  For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena.  For me and for other true apostles to the truth of the gospel, we are like prisoners in chains dragged along behind a victorious army marching through their cities.  We are being dragged to an arena where we will be put to death in a violent way.  We are not reigning in peace as you seem to desire.  Instead, We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings.  We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ!  We are weak, but you are strong!  You are honored, we are dishonored!  To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.  We work hard with our own hands.  When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly.  We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.  Paul knows his leader, Jesus Christ, was considered by the Sanhedrin as scum.  They chose to get rid of Christ as just some garbage, but Jesus was the light of the world, the only avenue of mankind to be made right with God.  Now we see Paul talking about the simplicity of the gospel to the Corinthian church, but being Greeks, they were adding to this simple ministry.  They were adding to this simple gospel with rational thought and wisdom.  By doing so they sought people who would better express the way they thought, but Paul knew this was a scheme of the devil to pull them away from the efficacious cross.

Paul had come to the Corinthians as not some great man of charisma and strength.  In fact as with Jesus, he did not stand out in a crowd.  He carried the bruises of persecution on his body.  Also, he had a thorn in the flesh that was evident to the people around him.   I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.   (2 Corinthians 12:7-9)  We can surmise that people were not drawn to him by his physical appearance.  Isaiah tells us the same thing about Jesus, the Messiah.  Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.  HE HAD NO BEAUTY OR MAJESTY TO ATTRACT US TO HIM, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.  Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.  (Isaiah 53:1-3)  Paul also was despised and rejected by mankind.  He always had a target on his back, as with Christ, people tried to kill him many times.  Paul’s miraculous works helped him to be received in these Greek cities.  Jesus said to the people, you might not believe in me as a person from God but believe in the works that I do before your eyes.  Miracles and wonders validated Christ’s teaching.  Also, for Paul, the healing and the driving out of demons, validated his message.  Moses was considered in like manner.  His miracles and wonders validated his position of leadership.  When Moses' leadership was questioned by Miriam and Aaron, “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this.  (Numbers 12:12)  God struck Miriam with leprosy as judgment on their arrogance.  When a small group of Israelites led a rebellion against Moses’ leadership, they were swallowed up in an opening of the earth.  God brought horrible judgment upon them and their families.  After Jesus was crucified, God’s judgment on the recalcitrant Jews came at the hands of the Romans, totally destroying the Jewish nation.  Now we see the Corinthians content in altering the simple message of Jesus crucified for the sins of the world.  Paul is disgusted with their rationalization, their arguments, their division.  He knows God will not tolerate very long this kind of discord.  For the temple of God is holy, his body is holy, his church is holy.  Judgment will follow such division.  Christ alone is the Shepard of his flock.  People are to boast only in Jesus and his work of salvation.  No other avenue to eternal life is available to men and women, other than the works of Christ.  Friends around this breakfast table, your contentment should come only through knowing Christ as Lord and Savior.  No other view of life will bring salvation to your door.  The Israelites  placed the blood of a lamb over their entryway door.  By doing this, they escaped death.  Paul wanted the Corinthians to unite in the Lamb of God’s work, not in their own rational thoughts or wisdom.  Only Christ’s blood over their lives would give them right standing with the Eternal God.  This is true of us today: our way to eternal life comes only through the blood of the Lamb of God over the entryways of our hearts.  Seek the Lord today.    

           

1 Corinthians 3:18-23—4:1-5 Live in peace, mercy, and grace!

1 Corinthians 3:18-23—4:1-5  Do not deceive yourselves.  If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age,  you should become “fools” so that you may become wise.  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.  As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness” and again,  “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”  So then, no more boasting about human leaders!  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 of Christ, and Christ is of God.  This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed.  Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.  I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.  My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent.  It is the Lord who judges me.  Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes.  He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart.  At that time each will receive their praise from God.

In this breakfast we see Paul enlarging the theme that Christians should boast in Christ alone and not in the wisdom or knowledge of men.  To know God they need nothing more than to trust in Jesus Christ and his works.  Christ alone has the power and authority to bring people into God’s eternal kingdom.  However the Corinthians were squabbling over who they should follow to enrich their personal lives and the church’s life.  They were arguing over who they should follow in their spiritual development: Paul or Apollos or Cephas or maybe someone else.  This argument had caused a great deal of damage in the church’s unity.  Paul tells them that these men are but servants of the Lord.  They serve God to help the church, but Jesus is the Lord of the ship.  Because of Christ 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 of Christ, and Christ is of God.  Because they are IN CHRIST, everything that is God’s is theirs.  Jesus told the people that He does only what the Father God tells him to do.  The wonders and miracles that Jesus does in the mantle of his flesh are done through the power of God.  All power of the Father God is in Jesus because the Father loves his Son.  “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.  (John 5:19-20)  Paul is telling the Corinthians that they are alive in Christ.  He wants them to know they are inheritors of the works and power of God through their faith in Jesus Christ.  Jesus in the flesh had power because God gave him that power to do marvelous wonders and works.  Deeds that no man could do from the beginning of time testified that Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Redeemer of all mankind.  I have testimony weightier than that of John.  For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me.  (John 5:36)  The Good News is that those who trust in Jesus also receive the power of God.  Those who are born anew in Jesus Christ receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.  (John 14:12-14)  Jesus did only what the Father showed him, because his will is not separate from the Father’s will.  Jesus is in unity with the Father.  Sadly, Paul sees the Corinthians, who possess great power because of believing in Christ, squabbling over the things of this world.  If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age,  you should become “fools” so that you may become wise.  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.  As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness” and again,  “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.  The Corinthians who through Christ possess the very mind of God are now trusting in the wisdom and knowledge of finite men and women to discover the truth of how to live. 

The Corinthians are functioning way below their pay grade.  They are functioning as if they do not even know who they really are IN CHRIST.  They ought to be living under the new covenant of grace and mercy; instead, they are dwelling in the land of judgment and pain.  Only Jesus has the right to judge, not people based on the knowledge and wisdom of men.  Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes.  Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world but to save the world.  IN CHRIST they are children of God, servants of the Most High, citizens of a heavenly kingdom.  As members of this new kingdom, they are no longer part of this human condition on earth, a condition of wickedness, manifested by violence, disagreements, and wars.  As brethren in this new kingdom, in the household of the Lord, they need not instruct others to know the Lord or direct them to different shepherds other than Jesus the Lord.  No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, Know the Lord, because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.  For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”  (Jeremiah 31:34)  This new kingdom is one of peace, mercy, and grace, not one of anger, discord, and violence.  God has forgiven the innate wickedness of people, replacing this inherited condition of mankind by God’s Spirit of peace and love.  The Corinthians divisiveness over leadership has a wicked component in it.  The Corinthians wanted their will above other people’s will and sadly God’s will.  This divisiveness was first evident in the Garden.  Eve succumbed to the devil’s temptation.  Consequently,  Adam and Eve were dismissed from the Garden.  No longer would they live in a land of peace and unity.  This wickedness within their family was first manifested by the sin of murder: Cain kills Abel.  Sin is the product of inherited wickedness, which is rebellion against God’s authority.  In Romans 7, Paul struggles with intrinsic wickedness within him.  This condition of evil causes him to sin, seeking to fulfill his wicked desires, not the righteousness of the law.  So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.  What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.  (Romans 7:21-25)  Sin is the product of the condition of the heart.  Thoughts and activity that are against God’s goodness and love come from evil.  But this reality of the nature of men and women cannot resist the efficacious blood of Jesus Christ.  The new covenant that is promised to ALL PEOPLE in and through Christ is centered in God’s grace, mercy, and love towards all He created.   For I will forgive their WICKEDNESS (intrinsic in all people) and will remember their SINS (thoughts and activities) no more.  The blood of Jesus cleanses the rebellious nature of men and women to God’s control over their lives.  As long as they are in the garment of the flesh, flesh has its temptation to sin.  Regardless of our struggles on earth with our self-willed nature, violating God’s holiness is revealed through the law.  God will forgive, and He will remember our sins no more because of the cross.  

This message of Christ the Redeemer has been taught to the Corinthians by Paul.  He reminds them to boast only in the Lord’s work, not in the knowledge and wisdom of men.  They should know the voice of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in them.  If they follow their own voice of their basic nature, they will struggle with sin.  He knows when men and women lean on the knowledge and wisdom of others, they are messing with the absolute authority of God in their lives.   Valid teaching, inspiration, knowledge always point to the works of Christ, especially the cross.  Any other teaching than the cross should be rejected even if an angel claims there is another way to God.  We see Jesus in his commission to his disciples before He leaves them for good, stating what they should teach to all people.  And of course it hinges on CHRIST ALONE AND HIS WORKS.  Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.  He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.  I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”  (Luke 24:45-49)  The cross and the resurrection should be taught, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be the center of this new covenant between God and men.  No other than this should be taught to men and women.  Over the years since this commission to the disciples, all kinds of cults and variant religions have come into being, all of them based on the beliefs of men and women.  Their followers look back to these men and women with admiration and love.  Sadly, these alternate ways to God will lead to hell, eternal judgment.  Paul is struggling with the Corinthians, for they are deciding to follow people, to place their trust in the wisdom and knowledge of finite men and women.  He knows this kind of division away from Jesus Christ will only lead people away from the new covenant that God has made through Jesus.  Men and women caught in this diversion will go around the world, lifting up men and women as the way to God, all of it leading to hell.  Only the cross has the power to save men and women from their intrinsic wickedness; only the cross will make people holy.  No other work will make God forgive the wicked nature of mankind; only the cross will cause God not to remember the sins of the people.  Jesus told the disciples to stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.  Do not go anywhere until the Spirit of God indwells you.  Then you will be capable to battle the wickedness in the world.  Then you will lift up the name of Christ even under the threat of death.  Peter and the apostles faced the threat of the Sanhedrin, who desired to kill them with these words, “We must obey God rather than human beings!  The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross.  God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.  We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”  (Acts 5:29-32)  Our friends around this breakfast table: We must obey God.  We serve not men or women and their knowledge of life: we must serve and honor God only in our lives.  

  

  

  

1 Corinthians 3:10-17 Walk in the Light

1 Corinthians 3:10-17   By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it.  But each one should build with care.  For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.  If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw,  their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light.  It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.  If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward.  If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.  Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

Paul is upset with the Corinthian Christians for they are disputing about who they should follow in their new life IN CHRIST.  As we look into this scene, this disputation between them seems rather trivial and innocuous.  Why worry about their ideas about whom they should follow in their spiritual lives?  However, Paul believes this disunity has deeper roots: sin.  Arguing and fighting over whom they should follow in their religious walk is destructive to brotherly love.  John writes that the lack of truly loving your brother or sister in Christ is an indicator of the condition of your soul.  Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.  Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.  But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness.  They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.  (1 John 2:9-11)  Disunity within the Corinthian church makes Paul believe their souls are not as pure as they should be, for quarreling and fighting with their brothers and sisters is an indication of sin abiding within their lives.  Later on in his second letter to the Corinthian church, he expresses his fear about their spiritual well-being.  I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.  I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.  (2 Corinthians 12:20-21)  The Corinthians' immaturity in knowing Christ and following him in their new lives has caused them not to understand the true nature of the church of God.  Peter writes that the church is a nation within the nations of the world.  The Christian Corinthians should know that in this world they are to act differently: they should express a born-again life that consists of unity, love, mercy, and caring for those who are still in darkness.  As the children of Israel, they were a nation within a nation, Egypt.  They were held in bondage but the Egyptians could not change their nature of being Jews.  Their freedom from the physical bondage of the Egyptians came after the shedding of blood.  They crossed over from this dark world to freedom when the passover lamb was slain.  The angel of death could not touch their lives anymore, for they had the blood of the passover lamb to protect them.  In the Christian sense, death is no longer a threat to us because of the blood of Jesus.  To be free IN CHRIST means that you do not act like the world anymore.  Peter expresses this as our condition IN CHRIST.  We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God; once we had not received mercy, but now we have received mercy.  (1 Peter 2:9-10)  Through and in Christ, we have been led out of darkness, out of bondage to this world.  Therefore, how should we live our lives?  What is the material in our lives that lifts up Christ?  The Corinthians were living their lives very carnally, still fighting and quarreling about nonessential things, putting aside brotherly love, becoming enemies of Christ by their self-interest and selfish pursuits, wanting their own way and beliefs.  

Paul is telling the Corinthians to be careful how they build their lives.  Disputation is not a sound way to build your lives for Christ.  Disunity is not part of the life IN CHRIST, for Jesus prayed that we would be one as He and his Father are one.  For the Corinthians to be in unity, their lives must be fixed on a sound foundation; of course, that foundation is Christ alone. This is what Paul taught them from the beginning and wishes passionately that they continue upon this foundation of Christ alone.  They are not to divert from this foundation, seeking others to follow.  I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it.  But each one should build with care.  For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.  The freedom of God’s chosen in Egypt came through the Passover Lamb’s sacrifice.  The church of Corinth's freedom from the world and its hold on them came through Jesus’s death on the cross.  Consequently, why are they disputing over following someone else in constructing their new life.  Why not depend on the Spirit of God to lead them, not man’s insight or knowledge.  As soon as the children of Egypt experienced their freedom from the bondage of Egypt, the Spirit of God came to them.  He was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night.  They made no move until the Spirit moved.  He led them from one destination to another, day-by-day, week-by-week, year-by-year.  When they were disobedient to the Spirit’s direction, they were disciplined.  Now Paul is afraid that the Corinthians are choosing another way rather than following Christ in their lives.  They are building with wood, hay or straw, none of which will endure God’s wrath on the judgment day.  Jesus is worthy of the best in our lives: grace, mercy and love or the gold, silver, costly stones that are embedded in our new-creature lives.  Even when Jesus was but a toddler, we see him receiving the best in the magi's lives. The magi bowed down and worshiped the Child, presenting Him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  Each of these gifts was extremely valuable.  Only on the name of Jesus should we build out lives, and we should give him the best in our lives.  Toss away the wood, hay and straw that will not withstand the inscrutable nature of God.  Instead, build with the brotherly love of all people who are known as Christ’s own.  And for the world, be loving and kind towards them; show your love of God by your grace and mercy to them, for that is what Jesus did when he died for even his enemies, to rescue them from the prince of the world, the devil.  As with Christ, our lives should be a gift of love to the world.  We might be rejected by the world as foolish, naive, and ignorant, but we are not any of those descriptions, for we are children of the living God.  We know that we are God’s creation and that God’s Spirit dwells in us.  We are a sacred people, for God himself dwells with us and in us. Together we are his temple. As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  (1 Peter 2:4-5) 

Today as the living body of Christ present on earth, how should we live?  How do we   reflect God to the world? Jesus said that He is the light of the world, and that He has come not to condemn the world, but to deliver the world out of darkness.  He also said that all have sinned, all are strangers to God and worse than that, enemies of God.  Jesus has told us to love his enemies, to care for them, to present the mercy of God to them by feeding them, clothing them, housing them, delivering them out of their bondage to sin.  Jesus was the great healer; we too should be in the business of healing.  This is what Paul is talking about when he says for us to be careful how we build on Christ.  We should be using the best in us, gold, silver, costly stones.  The magi gave the toddler Jesus the best they had.  We too are to give Jesus the best in our lives: our time, our thoughts, our activity, our prayers.  We, as the apostles, must lift up the name of Jesus.  The apostles were constantly attacked by the Sanhedrin, the leaders of the Jewish society.  The Sanhedrin not only were the administers of the Jewish society, they were also the spiritual leaders of the Israelites, so there was every reason for the apostles to bend to the Sanhedrin’s authority.  But they said no, we are a nation within a nation; we are the chosen people of God through the blood of Jesus Christ.  We will obey only the leader of this supernatural nation, headed by Jesus Christ.  We will be respectful of your earthly leadership, but we will not obey your authority in the spiritual realm, only Jesus is our Lord and Savior.  We are no longer under the bondage of Egypt, for we have been set free to obey the Spirit of God.  Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!  The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross.  God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins.  We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.  (Acts 5:29-32)  We have a new authority and it is Christ the Lord.  We have the Spirit of God as our daily leader, directing us to express the love of God to all people.  We will lift the name of Jesus up in every community.  We will express the Love of God to all people for He loves his creation.  We no longer live by spiritual laws, but by the grace and mercy of God.  God has set us free to do his will on earth.  Paul was worried that the Corinthians were not truly free from their old nature, for they were quarreling and fighting over whom they should follow.  He knew the old nature would corrupt their souls, so he reminds them to know Christ and him alone.  The apostles gave their lives to that purpose; Jesus and him alone brings salvation to all people.  Friends around this breakfast table, how are you building your lives?  Is it on eat, drink and be merry or is it on the precious blood of Jesus shed for your sins?  Today, renew your vows of love to the Lord and walk in his redeeming light.   

1 Corinthian 2:10-16; 3:1-9 Live in Grace!

1 Corinthian 2:10-16; 3:1-9  The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?  In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.  This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.  The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.  The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for,“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”  But we have the mind of Christ. --- Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ.   I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready.  You are still worldly.  For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?  Are you not acting like mere humans?  For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?  What, after all, is Apollos?  And what is Paul?  Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.  I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.  For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

In the above focus we see Paul is much troubled by a lack of spiritual growth in the Corinthians.  He knows the people are still closer to the unredeemed than they are to the new life God has given them.  His measurement of maturity is the scale of unity that they are residing in now as new creatures.  Rather than be at peace with each other because they are now brothers and sisters IN CHRIST, they are disputing about what man they should follow in their walk with Christ. This disputation is not a little thing to Paul, for the following of men and their wisdom, their perspective on the gospel, will lead to a falling away from Christ and the Spirit of God.  Rather than listening to the Spirit of God resident inside of them, they are tuned into the voices of people, some of them follow Peter as their guidance, others Paul, Apollo, and even some claim to follow only Jesus.  This is shocking to Paul because he knows that following the wisdom and knowledge of people will lead to division within the body of Christ and may even lead some people away from believing the truth.  I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all.  Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!  (Galatians 1:6-8)  The question that Paul will address in his letter to the Corinthians is that salvation comes only through faith IN CHRIST and not through any other means.  This message Paul preached to them at the beginning; their conversion to new creatures came through their trust in Christ’s work and not their own.  Now Paul sees the wisdom of the world infiltrating the church.  As in the secular world, the Corinthians are considering a different avenue to be right with God, based on the wisdom and knowledge of mere humans.   How does Paul know this?  Because they are selecting different people to be their spiritual leaders in their lives and more than that, they are fighting with others about who the church should follow: Paul, Peter, Apollo, or Christ in the flesh.  Selecting spiritual leaders and fighting over who is the best leader is a dangerous route for the church of Christ.  This kind of disputation in the secular world is very common, who the people should follow and what man or woman should be exalted as their leader.  Jesus in addressing the disciples about this characteristic of men women to squabble over leadership warns his disciples.  “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.  And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.  Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah.  The greatest among you will be your servant.  For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.  (Matthew 23:8-12)  Paul now sees in the Corinthians a desire to exalt mere humans to a place of leadership.  Paul knows this is a sign of carnality and has nothing to do with spirituality.  And as we look back into church history, we find the church of Christ being split into factions hundreds of times, and sadly people losing out in knowing Christ as their Savior.

Later on Paul tells the Corinthians that it is dangerous to judge people on their qualifications, charisma, knowledge and wisdom.  These are characteristics of the flesh, standards that are used in the world to determine who should lead men and women.  However, as new creatures in Christ, Christians' eyes should be fixed on heavenly characteristics: humility, servanthood, holiness, grace, mercy, and goodness.  So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.  Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  (2 Corinthians 5:15-17)  The new creation seeks the man or woman who is willing to wash the feet of all the parishioners, the man or woman who is a servant to all.  In the secular world, exalted leaders lord it over everyone, all people are less than they are in their perspective.  They rule in arrogance and shameful boldness.  However the nature of God is the opposite of the secular rulers.  He loves his creation and is willing to do anything for them, even die on a cross.  The prophet Jonah knew the nature of God: merciful, compassionate, slow to anger with unfailing love.  Instead of the destruction of Nineveh as Jonah broadcast for three days in the city of Nineveh, God relents and does not destroy this wicked city and its people.  This causes Jonah to pout: he is mad at God for his goodness to this wicked people.  Jonah would have toasted God’s destruction of Nineveh, but now he sees these wicked people being blessed by God.  Instead of the fiery judgment that this city deserved, God revealed his true nature of love, mercy and goodness towards those he has created.  This angered Jonah; he wished for death.  But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.  He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home?  That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish.  I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.  Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”  (Jonah 4:1-3)  Paul understands that God is a good God and that He alone should be followed as the Holy Spirit leads, not as humans lead in their own understanding of life, using their fleshly perspective, garnered through they own wisdom and knowledge.  Paul was fearful the Corinthians were willing to follow men, and their revelation of God not what he had given them that was learned directly from God through the Spirit’s gifting in him.  Paul explained this to the church at Galatia.  I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.  I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.  (Galatians 1:11-12)  The mystery of God hidden throughout the ages was given to Paul by direct revelation.  He had to be blinded by Jesus on the road to Damascus so that he would receive this mystery of God willingly.  What was this mystery: that all people everywhere could be made right with God through their faith and trust in Jesus of Nazareth and that Jesus on the cross paid the price for all men and women’s sins.  He alone satisfied God’s wrath on sin which is death, by dying on the cross to ransom men and women from the penalty of eternal death.  Paul wanted this message of God’s grace and mercy  to prosper in the Corinthian church.  As Paul said to the Galatians, the unity of Christ should abound in the lives of all Christians.  We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.  So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.  (Galatians 2:15-16)  

Sadly the knowledge and the wisdom of the flesh about spiritual redemption almost always fall in the category of doing right or wrong.  The law to control the human nature is very prominent in people’s ideas about finding God or being right with God, but his kind of attitude produces hard soil.  The law relies on people doing right, not wrong, on people being good, not bad.  The law demands that people work to be like God, to be acceptable to god. But salvation comes through Jesus’ work on the cross.  When people cannot put aside the idea of working for their salvation, the devil swoops down and takes the idea of God’s grace and mercy from them.  He snatches away what was sown in their heart.  The law does not flower into praising God; it keeps the self-willed plant, wilted and dying.  The law cannot defeat the weeds in life.  It contains no strength to defeat the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth.  The nature of life and its activities will choke the word of life, making people who depend on obedience to the law unfruitful.  Therefore, what is the life that will produce an abundant crop?   The seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it.  This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  (Matthew 23:23)  What is good soil?  Good soil Is always Christ.  He produces in us his will.  And his will is the salt of earth, the light of the world.  The good soil provides for the growth of roots, causing the plant to survive no matter how much trouble or persecution the plant experiences.  The new life will prosper no matter how strong the wind is against its survival.  Paul is concerned about the Corinthian church because they were losing good solid ground by their arguing.  He knew that if they depended on anyone’s view about the new life they were experiencing they would not survive.  Therefore, he warned them of following men.  What, after all, is Apollos?  And what is Paul?  Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task.  I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.  So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.  The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.  For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.  They are God’s field.  Because of being God’s field they should be spiritually minded, not depending on the say of men or women or the ideas of the flesh.  He tells them they need to grow up, accept completely the grace and mercy of God in their lives.  We know good soil produces a bountiful harvest.  Good soil produces those who are willing to endure no matter what the cost is in this world.  In our lives we should catch the wind of the Holy Spirit that comes from the heart of God.  Let us hear his voice, for those who hear his voice are God’s own children.  People around this breakfast table, do not follow men or women; instead, follow the mystery of God which comes through Jesus Christ the Word.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  (John 1:1-5)  Let that life live in you and that light shine in you, and death and darkness will have to flee.