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.