1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Do Good Works!

 1 Corinthians 8:1-13  Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.”  But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.  Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.  But whoever loves God is known by God.  So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.  But not everyone possesses this knowledge.  Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.  But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.  Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.  For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols?   So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.  When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

This is an interesting chapter because Paul is telling us as Christians who possess knowledge about the truth of the gospel, we should be careful how we deal with the weaker brethren in our fellowship of believers.  Sometimes our knowledge can be used as a cudgel to hamper or destroy people who are not as far along in their belief in Christ.  To destroy or criticize others about their ignorance of THE WAY can lead Christians away from Christ and not towards him.  We must be careful of thinking we know absolutely God’s mind about everything, for that kind of assurance in our own knowledge can do little more than puff us up.  But if we love others with a servant's heart, with sacrificial love, we can reveal the love of God to them, his everlasting, enduring love even to those who struggle with worshiping idols or other ideas about God.  The mature or maybe the knowledgeable Christian should always hold to the idea that whoever loves God is known by God.  In the Greek community the norm for a spiritual life was to believe in many “gods” and many “lords.  Idol worship was the customary way of serving their many gods.  Prominent in idol worship was the idea that you must work to please the gods; you must show your dedication to them by praying, bowing at their images, and giving them the gifts they desired, such as food and flowers.  Without these good works, you were alienated from the affections and blessings of the gods they served.  In this chapter Paul cautions Christians who know the truth not to be too harsh on the weaker brethren, for the truth is, It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.   For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:8-10)  The Christian Greeks are emerging out of a society that is burdened with the necessity of good works to please their gods.  For them to step over the idea of works to please a god to a God of mercy and grace is a difficult transition for them.  However, Christianity, for the weak or the strong is that there is one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.  And this one and only true God loves them and desires to have fellowship with them, but only faith facilitates this relationship with the one and only true God, not works.    

Paul was raised under the Mosaic law that says clearly, You shall have no other gods before me.  “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.  (Exodus 20:3-6)  Paul understood well the darkness of idol worship.  He knew the Israelites had been judged harshly by God because of falling into this darkness.  Now, we see Paul saying to the Christians to be careful about judging the weaker brethren, do not be so harsh with them that you destroy them with your better understanding of how to serve God.  What is important in these weaker brethren is their love for God.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)  Have they fallen in love with Christ, are they now the children of the living God because of their love for God?  What is essential in their lives as Christians is their love for Christ, not their understanding of some things.  Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.  But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.  Paul does not appreciate any aspect of idol worshiping, so he knows it is the devil's tool to keep people from worshiping the one and only God, but he does not want the untrained, the unlearned believer to be destroyed by your knowledge.  For Christians are not to get in the way of the Holy Spirit.  He will teach people who love the Lord a better way to know God and how to live in this world successfully.  But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.  When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.  (John 16:7-11)  Paul is telling the more mature Christian who might be puffed up with his or her knowledge of how to come to God by faith, not to get in the way of God’s work through the Holy Spirit who abides in each Christian.  Yes, teaching is necessary in the church of the living God, but condemnation and criticism are not the way to mature people in faith.  Paul is warning the Christians to encourage faith in Christ, not to crush people’s faith by explaining the reality of idol worshiping.  Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill.  He also warms himself and says,“Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.  ”From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships.  He prays to it and says, “Save me!  You are my god!”  (Isaiah 44:16-17)  Yes, idol worshiping is crazy and it has no spiritual reality, but those who had been immersed in that culture all their lives struggle with cutting themselves away from such a belief.  

       Today idol worshiping is strange to most of us.  We see clearly that worshiping idols has no spiritual reality in it.  Yet, where our affections are in life can be classified as our idols.  Where do we go to find the meaning of life?  What are we substituting for God in our lives?  The Greeks were substituting the material things of this world for God; images made out of stone, wood, precious metals.  Today we have a society based largely on material things.  We revolve around our material possessions, our electronics, our activities, giving little thought to serving the CREATOR  OF ALL THINGS.  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)   Paul says even though we Christians know God and the meaning of life, we should not be too harsh with weaker Christians who are still quite inundated with the things of this world.  For if we are too critical, we might crush them and lead them away from Christ and not into a deeper walk with Christ.  The question for all Christians: how do we live successfully in this life?  This is the question for all of us regardless of being strong or weak in knowing Christ.  Whoever loves God is known by God.  Because of that, we are known as his children.  Jesus came as a servant to mankind.  He gave his life for the world for every person great or small.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but TO SAVE THE WORLD through him.  (John 3:16)  We too are to live as Christ lived, to serve a world.  Jesus has asked us to serve everyone, not just our friends, acquaintances or those who love us, but our enemies too, doing good to those who misuse us and abuse us.  “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also.  If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.  Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.  Do to others as you would have them do to you.  (Luke 6:27-31)  Breakfast companions, we no longer serve idols, but we do have the weaker brethren in our midst.  Watch how you live before them.  Do not let your freedom do anything that would be a hindrance to their lives in Christ.   Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak.  You have been set free in Christ, but you must use your freedom wisely for the good of the body of Christ. 

  

 

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1 Corinthians 7:33-40 Be Honorable and Devoted!

1 Corinthians 7:33-40  I would like you to be free from concern.  An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord.  But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided.  An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit.  But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband.  I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.  If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if his passions are too strong and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants.  He is not sinning.  They should get married.  But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin—this man also does the right thing.  So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does better.  A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives.  But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord.  In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

In the above focus Paul is encouraging people to be of one mind: devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit.  For Paul, such an intense devotion to God is not very difficult, for he had a supernatural encounter with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.  With that experience, he knows the spiritual world is real; he knows Christ is real, not an illusion or trick of the mind.  With this encounter with Christ, he knows serving God is not just obedience to the laws given on Mount Sinai; there is much more than that to knowing God.  Paul now knew Jesus was the Messiah.  The apostles knew Jesus as the Messiah too.  They had walked with Jesus, heard his teaching and watched his miraculous deeds.  Jesus was not an illusion or hallucination: He was real flesh and blood.  For them to know Jesus as the Christ brought an urgency about fulfilling Jesus’ commission to them: to go into the world and preach the Good News, saving many from perdition.  We see Paul passing on this Good News to the Corinthians, letting them know that Jesus is real and that they should devote themselves to him.  Paul believed Jesus would be returning soon, so he desired the Corinthians to stay in whatever situation that they found themselves in at the present time.  They should live with undivided devotion to Christ.  Christ was real; He was not the product of some sort of collective hallucinations.  The apostles had walked with Jesus, had watched Jesus functioning completing as a human, with all the biological necessities of a human.  But for them to believe Jesus was someone beyond a natural man took time for them.  Peter when he experienced Jesus filling up a net with fish after he and his friends had fished all night and caught nothing said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”  (Luke 5:8)  When the disciples were in the midst of a storm on a lake, they were astonished that Jesus who was with them could control the wind and the waves.  Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat.  But Jesus was sleeping.  The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us!   We’re going to drown!”  He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.  The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this?  Even the winds and the waves obey him!”  (Matthew 8:24-27)  John the Baptist had a strong witness of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the Lamb of God, sent by God to redeem his people from their sins.  But even John had some questions about Jesus' divinity and his mission on earth.  Was this nondescript man he baptized truly God’s Messiah?  He knew Jesus was someone special, for the Holy Spirit remained on Jesus when Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan.  Nevertheless, John sent two of his disciples to check on Jesus’ ministry.  When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”  At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.  So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.  (Luke 7:20-23)  Jesus' ministry was full of miraculous deeds as Jesus revealed to John’s disciples.  He was truly God, but He also was truly the son of man, the son of every man.  Isaiah tells us how common he was, He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  (Isaiah 53:2)  But the disciples knew him as Christ; Paul knew who he was, the Son of the Living God, for he had encountered him on the road to Damascus.  Now Paul wanted his converts to realize this man, Jesus, is God’s Son, and that their lives should be given totally to serving the Christ.

For Paul, Christians should be singleminded in their lives, living for Jesus, elevating in every way the Good News embedded in their lives.  For him, no other life was worth living.  He desired the Corinthians to go beyond the daily duties and obligations of life.  He wanted their lives to be fruitful and honored by God.  To be fruitful, they should be uncoupled as much as possible of the demands of life, living their lives in the right way, in undivided devotion to the Lord.  Because marriage could impede a life for Christ, he wished the Corinthians would stay single, living entirely for the purposes of God.  He knows if marriage enters the picture of their lives, they are now bound to their mate as long as they live.  The cares and needs of the mate must be met to have a happy union.  Their focus in life naturally becomes divided between God and their companion.  To be married is not a sin but it can hamper a devotion to God only.  Paul, in his discourse with the Corinthian church about providing for him financially, mentions the marriages of prominent leaders in the Christian world, Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?  (1 Corinthians 9:5)  These leaders were spreading the Good News to the world successfully, yet they were married.  So Paul knows it is not a sin to be married and that God’s message of Good News is not necessarily hampered by the unity of two in a marriage.  If the union is secure and focused on the purposes of God, they will act as one in revealing the Good News to the world.  Paul is concerned about sexual activity in the Greek world, for much deviant sexual behavior is part of the Greek society.  Therefore, he wishes the Greek Christians to be focused on serving God and not on relationships in marriage or outside of marriage.  If they are virgins, stay as virgins.  If they need to marry, do so without guilt, for they still can serve the Lord in that unity.  But once bound to the other in marriage, it is permanent until death separates one from the other.  From the very beginning of time, God meant for a man and woman to be bound in marriage permanently.  Jesus clarifies this issue in his ministry to the people.  “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”  “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?  So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”  (Matthew 19:3-6)  Marriage is a permanent state, they are no longer two, but one flesh.  By being one flesh Christians must function for the benefit for each other.  This oneness might interfere with serving God completely for the obligation to the other are part of the necessities in life.

When Christians commit their lives to Christ, they become born again.  Their focus in life shifts in reality from living their lives for themselves to living their lives for Christ.  Paul is expressing this theme in his writing to the Corinthians about marriage.  The focus on Christ is a matter for the Corinthians to understand completely.  They are no longer citizens of this world; they are aliens and strangers in this world of sin and diversions.  Abraham and the patriarchs, even in Canaan, knew they were not citizens of Canaan: they were just moving through, living in tents, always ready to move on.  The Greeks in Corinth vicariously were abiding in tents, living lives of faith, knowing the Promised Land is in the future.  Therefore, Paul wanted them to keep this focus; he did not want them to bed down in this life, losing their purpose for living.  Paul chose not to live for himself, but for Christ.  He was called to do God’s will and not his own.  For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.  And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.  (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)  He wanted the Corinthians to no longer live for themselves, even in their marital status.  He believed their lives would be better if they lived in singleness.  Because of his own dedication to God, his view of life was skewed toward living a life untangled with marriage.  For him, a single life dedicated to God was not an aberration but a calling from God.  Peter said he left everything to follow God, but he still had a wife, still had obligations to his union with his wife.  But Jesus told him that God will honor him for his willingness to follow him.  God will honor people who are single and people who are married if they consider this world as not their home, working every day to lifting up the Good News in actions and words.  God sees the heart; he knows the deepest intentions of the heart.  He knows our prayer life; he knows our thought life.  Nothing is hidden from him.  Paul understood well that these Corinthian Greeks were coming out of a very chaotic world, one where secular norms were not the same as the Jews who were under Moses’ law.  He knew that relationships could interfere greatly in their dedication to God.  For them promiscuity should be left behind, singleness or marriage should be a stable existence in serving God.  Our friends around this breakfast table, no matter what state we find ourselves in, we should be focused on doing the will of God in our lives.  We are but aliens, this life is not our home.  Jesus puts our lives as the redeemed into focus when he said,  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.  What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?  Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?   (Matthew 16:25-26)  Married or not, let us seek the will of God in our lives.  Someday before all the angels and principalities in heaven, we will be honored for living lives dedicated to Jesus, the Christ.  Let us be sure that we honor him in all things.  

1 Corinthians 7:17-31 Be Strong in Struggles!

1 Corinthians 7:17-31  Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them.  This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.  Was a man already circumcised when he was called?  He should not become uncircumcised.  Was a man uncircumcised when he was called?  He should not be circumcised.  Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing.  Keeping God’s commands is what counts.  Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.  Were you a slave when you were called?  Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so.  For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave.  You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings.  Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.  Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.  Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is.  Are you pledged to a woman?  Do not seek to be released.  Are you free from such a commitment?  Do not look for a wife.  But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned.  But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.  What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short.  From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them.  For this world in its present form is passing away.

In the above focus we see Paul telling the Corinthians that the time was short before the return of the Lord and because of that reality, each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.  If they had been circumcised, set apart for God, they should remain in that situation.  If they were not circumcised, they should remain uncircumcised for the time is short.  If they were slaves, be satisfied to remain as slaves; if they were free, do not seek to become a slavish followers of men or women.  Stay free from such entanglements.  Remain stable in your emotional state; do not be overly involved in your emotional feelings in life: those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not.  Do not become heavily involved in the things of this world, what you buy, what you use, for all of that kind of activity and concerns will pass away soon.  For Paul and the other disciples of Jesus, a primary assumption in their lives was that Jesus would return quickly.  We see this impression of theirs in everything they did for Jesus had talked about his return a lot.  On Jesus' ascension into heaven, two men dressed in white questioned why they were just looking at Jesus disappearing into the clouds, maybe implying they should get busy for He will return someday quickly.  Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.  And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?  This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”  (Acts 1:9-11)  Jesus had given them an assignment of spreading the Good News throughout the world before He returns.  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”  (Matthew 28:18-20)  By saying that He will be WITH THEM until the very end of the age, implies that in their short lives they will see the end of the age, the soon returning of the Lord.  Jesus also warned the disciples that they would be persecuted at the end of time.  “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.  Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.  Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues.  On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.  But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it.  At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.  You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.  When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another.  Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.  (Matthew 10:16-23)  Of course Paul and the disciples experienced all of these things that Jesus talked about: imprisonments, floggings, addressing governors and kings, fleeing from town to town, hated by the people they were addressing.  They felt the urgency of getting out the message of redemption.  Their mission will not be finished before Jesus returns.  Paul is now writing to the Corinthian church who are experiencing persecution: the present crisis.  He tells them not to waste their time seeking another situation or condition in their lives, for Jesus is returning soon, so he desires that they stay as they are presently, so that they might be fully engulfed in knowing Jesus when He returns.  

Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit; he was given an assignment by Jesus to minister the Good News to the Gentiles.  He now knows that the Good News is also for the Gentiles and that they too will receive what the prophet Joel spoke about: In the last days, God says,I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days,and they will prophesy.  — And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  (Acts 2:17,18 and 21)  In the above focus he reminds the Corinthians that they were bought at a price, the precious blood of Jesus.  This price ransomed them from eternal death so they should understand as new creatures in the Kingdom of God that they are servants of the Most High now.  So it does not matter that on this earth and in their present state whether they are slaves or not.  Their concern in life should not be whether they are slaves or not, but whether they are God’s slave.  What is important is the NEW CREATURE not the condition of the old creature, the latter is assigned to eternal death.  The former is free to be in the presence of God forever.  Paul is establishing in this letter to the Corinthians that their responsibility in life should be to Christ and to the new life that Christ has won for them through the cross.  In this new life there will be opposition, a crisis to their stability and peace in the world, but their dedication to Christ should be strong regardless of their struggles or situation in life.  Paul is a good example of what a born-again life looks like, one not entangled with the affairs of men.  But whatever were gains to 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.  I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.  (Philippians 3:8-11)  Paul is asking the Corinthians to forsake some of their own desires for their lives so that they might know Jesus Christ better.  If they hold onto this life and their own desires for their lives, they will lose the victory of Christ in their lives and maybe even their spiritual existence.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.  What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?  Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?  For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.  (Matthew 16:25-27) 

Paul and the disciples believed in the soon return of the Lord.  This causes them not to be indolent, inactive, lazy.  If they would have considered that Jesus would not return for at least 2,000 years, they might have taken their time in telling the Good News to others.  Paul might have not traveled over 2,000 miles to win people for Christ.  But they expected the soon return of Christ, so they were busy fishing every day for souls to win some for the kingdom of God.  Paul was especially active, experiencing distresses of all kinds in his life, living always under the threat of death.  But Jesus conditioned the disciples to believe in his imminent return.  He told them about the last days and what to expect. “If anyone tells you, ‘There he is, out in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.  For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.  Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.  "Immediately after the distress of those days“ ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’  “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven.  And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.  And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.  (Matthew 24:26-31)  Paul and the disciples understood well that it was important to tell the message of redemption.  They wanted people not to mourn when Jesus returns, but to rejoice for they are part of the body of Christ.  They hurried from one community to the next with the words of redemption on their lips; they wanted the Good News to be trumpeted everywhere before the last trumpet call.  Paul is telling his beloved Corinthians to forsake seeking change in their lives, instead, to  focus on the new within them.  He does not want them seeking only the benefits of this life, but rather seeking the benefits of the eternal with God.  Even the slaves in this world should be focused more on their new life IN CHRIST than on gaining their freedom.  Now breakfast companions, where are your thoughts and activities in this life?  Are you praying constantly?  Are your hours spent in quiet communication with God?  Or has this life robbed you of the active presence of the Spirit of God in your life?  We all have short lives; death is always a part of our finite lives.  For all of us this world in its present form will pass away.  Therefore, how should we live as born-again, new creatures IN CHRIST?  We should await his glorious appearing and listen for that loud trumpet call.  This is what our focus for today is telling us.