Paul’s pastoral letter to the Corinthians covers a wide gamut of sinful behavior, theological confusion, and just being in Christian community that is other honoring instead of self-centered. These sound like familiar problems inside the church today.
In this reading I’m struck by three things. Throughout history the power of a nation’s/region’s culture to influence the churches beliefs and therefore effect how they carry themselves in the world / Christian community, the centrality of Jesus Christ in every way of our existence, and what Paul reminds Corinthians and us in today’s world. Major in LOVE that is focused on ‘others’ then he goes onto describe what that LOVE looks like.
Paul’s calling out to the Corinthians to not separate how you treat and what you do with your phyiscal body and its impact on your spiritual life is powerful. In his discourse he reminds us we were created as integrated whole. Body & Spirit are one in Christ. Moreover God has taken up residence within our phyiscal body. He ‘Tabernacles’ there. Something I need to be more aware of. Paul is echoing in his own way, Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Jesus’s comments on the greatest commandments. We come to God fully, body & spirit.
I have come to really understand and embrace the truth of ‘who I follow’ section in Chapter 3:5-9. I find this process still active today. God uses all of us to further his Kingdom on Earth.
5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. 9 For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.
Paul spends a good portion of his letter speaking to the centrality of Jesus Christ in every part of his and our spiritual journeys. There are many verses that get into this. One which is especially strong for me now is Jesus’s overcoming physical death in the last chapter, 15.
54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.
On Paul’s challenge to Corinthians and us the most convicting for me were these words and sentences that I have put in bold. From Corinthians 13, widely known as the Love Chapter.
“4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
I have read that passage so many times, heard it expressed in weddings, in song, and described in many sermons taught in its full context. Knowledge of heavenly behavior, and godly character is one thing. Embodying those characteristics on a daily bases now that is something! Lord help me in these areas.
What are your areas of weakness when it comes loving as God loves?