Apostolic Humility

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Don Merritt

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. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

In this interesting paragraph, Paul moves his discussion of wisdom away from the Corinthian congregation, and onto himself as an example to illustrate his point about division and fragmentation. If we just take it at face value, he makes some great observations that we should take to heart. Yet his real point requires that we recall who is writing this.

Paul has called himself a Jew among Jews, a Pharisee with the very best education. In earthly terms, Paul is entitled to boast a bit, because he can back it up; he has a lot to boast about. As I mentioned earlier, Paul was the smartest and best educated man in most any room he entered, but he wasn’t running around Corinth showing it off. In modern terms, there wasn’t any swagger about him.

In spite of his accomplishments, in spite of his position as an Apostle, Paul was humble.

Yet it wasn’t always that way. Recall that as a Pharisee, he not only participated in Stephen’s murder, but he took persecution on a road trip. Yet on that famous journey of terror, he met Jesus Christ face-to-face and everything changed for him.

Apparently, the change Paul experienced in attitude had not yet taken hold in Corinth. If you or I were members of the Corinthian church and we were hearing his letter read for the first time, might we not ask ourselves whether or not such a change had taken hold of us?

As 21st century Christians, might we not ask ourselves if we have undergone such a change today?

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A Look in the Mirror

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Don Merritt

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Paul sums up his point in these verses. Let’s not forget that he is actually talking about division in the church, and he’s making the general point that training, education power and social position amount to little or nothing in God’s eyes and shouldn’t be all that important in the church; certainly, they should never be allowed to bring about the fragmentation of the Body of Christ.

It should be recognized here that from an earthly point of view, Paul’s teaching is nothing if not counter-intuitive for us. Of course, that is precisely Paul’s point.: God’s ways are not our ways.

It is for us to remember that where we are weak, God is strong. Things may seem impossible to us, but with God, all things are possible.  Does this all sound too simple, foolish… even childish? Maybe it is. Yet didn’t Jesus say that unless we become like little children we couldn’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

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Will the Real Fool Please Stand Up

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Don Merritt

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

1 Corinthians 1:20-25

Do I detect the slightest little trace of sarcasm in these words – or would you prefer I call it irony instead? Whatever we call it, Paul is boldly making the case that social and cultural distinctions were playing a big role in the divisiveness that was taking place in the congregation in Corinth. He clearly isn’t serious when he calls the simple gospel message foolishness, but in our time as well as in Paul’s the learned in society make it out to be foolish. I think it’s particularly telling in verse 22 that Jews demand signs, while Greeks look for wisdom “but we preach Christ crucified”.

Think of all of the times in the gospels when Jesus performed miracle after miracle, and then someone would say, “show us a sign”. Think of how often someone might say that the gospel just doesn’t make scientific sense. What did Jesus say about such things?

He said “let he who has to hear, hear, and let he who has eyes to see, see.” When our great wisdom, our lofty positions, our fantastic wealth become central to our lives, we might not even be able to see the noses on our faces. God is not limited by human understand, nor is He dazzled by human society or material wealth.

Those among our church communities who have great learning, or great positions or vast wealth must resist the temptation to believe that they are somehow better or more favored or superior to those less fortunate, for in God’s eye, we all are His “little ones” and none is greater than the rest. For any of us to do less will eventually bring divisiveness to the church, and our Heavenly Father tends to find division among His little ones to be less than amusing.

God has called us to repentance and grace. He has called both Jew and Gentile, black and white, rich and poor, great and small, for to God all are the same.

I enjoy reading Mark Twain, the 19th century American novelist, humorist and social commentator. Something he wrote keeps banging around in my head, so since I can’t seem to chase it away, I’ll share it. Mr. Twain once wrote that all government officials, high and low, everywhere in the world should be required to perform their duties completely naked, for without their fancy outfits and impressive uniforms, oppression would disappear from the earth. That’s how God sees all of us, and if we dare to think of ourselves the same way that God does, all of our wisdom and earthly importance seems rather silly… or so it seems to me.

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Wealth and Honor

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Don Merritt

A kindhearted woman gains honor,
but ruthless men gain only wealth.

Proverbs 11:18

What a fascinating thing to say!

When this was first written down, and for many centuries after, women were considered to be second class citizens, not taken very seriously in society in many ways; they were considered inferior to men. Solomon gives us a dual contrast: First between woman and man, and second between honor and wealth. It would have been considered better to be a man than a woman, and whether honor or wealth were to be most prized was, and still is debatable. Certainly, those who would prostitute themselves in whatever fashion to pursue wealth would put wealth ahead of honor, as would the ruthless.

The great irony in this proverb is found in the word “only”. So, you have gone after wealth with ruthlessness and have succeeded; good for you.

A kindhearted second class citizen is better off than you, for you have no honor.

Ouch!

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Sunday Sermon Notes: March 4, 2018

Posted on March 4, 2018 by Don Merritt

Title: Basics of New Testament Worship (1)

Text: John 4:21-24

Recently I became aware of some confusion regarding worship and since I had a two week hole in my preaching plan, I thought it might be a good idea to do a very brief overview of what worship is and is not relative to a New Testament worship service.

By the way, have you ever wondered why it’s called, in Protestant circles at least, a worship service?

The Biblical study of worship can be tricky. It isn’t tricky because it’s all that complicated, it’s tricky because there are several factors that come together making it very easy to become confused. For instance, the English word “worship” appears 75 times in the NIV, but three different Greek words translate as “worship” in English, and they have three different meanings.

There are many different ways for a congregation to conduct worship. Some are very formal and ritualistic, some a sort of formal, yet quite traditional, while others are more relaxed and non-traditional, and still others are contemporary and almost anti-traditional.

So, which is right?

Many people today are in the habit of using the word “worship” in place of the word “music”. Is music and worship the same thing?

There is more than one kind of worship mentioned in the New Testament, I’ll mention 3 of them: Individual private worship, family worship and corporate worship (Church worship service).  Would you be surprised if I told you that individual worship is spoken of in the New Testament a great deal more than corporate worship? Well, it most assuredly is. Can you imagine what would happen if a person took their personal worship practices and preferences and sought tom impose them on the corporate worship of the entire congregation?

There are 2 possible outcomes: 1. Unity in the church is broken and the church splits. 2. Unity in the church is broken and the congregation drifts away and the church dies.

Worship, you see, is a serious topic.

Years ago, I was asked to pick up a couple of undergrad courses on worship: Intro to Worship 1 and Intro to Worship 2. It always came as a shock to the students that almost everything they knew about worship was not from Scripture. Sadly, most of what we think we know on the subject comes from culture, tradition and custom and are entirely of human invention.

Yep, worship is a tricky subject.

As far as a worship service is concerned, it might be a good idea to look and see what the apostles did on the first day of the week when everyone came together. For that, here’s a familiar passage:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Acts 2:42

In our brotherhood, these are the basic components of Sunday worship: While we don’t have any apostles to pop in and teach, we have teaching of the Word of God, fellowship is indicative of the community of the congregation in pursuit of God’s purpose. The breaking of bread refers to communion around which our hope of eternal life rests, and of course we must never underestimate the power of prayer. While these components form the basic foundation of our worship, the list is interesting, for there is something that is conspicuous by its absence, and no, I don’t mean music: Notice that the word “worship” isn’t mentioned.

So how must we worship?

Jesus gave us some information about that:

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

John 4:21-24

 Yep, everyone is probably familiar with that one, but do we see how revolutionary it was? Notice that Jesus was speaking of something quite different from the ceremonial laws of Jewish Temple worship, with its rigid rituals and forms; this was entirely new. You see, in order for us to worship in “Spirit” we need to have access to Him, which they did yet have. We have access to the Spirit, for He indwells us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Worship for a New Testament church isn’t really a matter of outward form, but instead it is all about an inward presence in our lives. As for the “truth” aspect, I think maybe Paul had this in mind when he wrote:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1-2

As all of you know, whenever we see the word “therefore”, we are reading a passage that draws a conclusion from what has preceded it. While that is certainly true here, this one isn’t just referring to the verses just concluded, for this is the beginning of a new unit (12-15) and thus, “therefore” is drawing a conclusion from the preceding unit (1-11), which is a very important distinction. The first unit in Romans discussed grace; the second unit discusses our response to grace. Thus, Paul is telling us that in response to God’s amazing grace, we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God.

Verse 1 is, in a sense, a counterpoint to the Old Testament worship in which animals were sacrificed and rituals were observed. Notice the presence of the words “offer”, “sacrifice” and “worship”, all three of which are terms that pertain to worship in the Old Testament. The old system of worship involved symbols and ceremonies, but worship in the New Testament involves “spirit and truth”. Consequently, the proper and true manner of worship for the Christian is for us to offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices. Please understand: This is no platitude; it is an imperative. A fair question right about now would be, “OK, but just exactly how do I do that?”

You will no doubt be relieved when I tell you that Paul has provided the answer in verse 2: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. 

My goodness, how we love to quote this, but how many of us actually do it? How many of us actually believe that it is possible? Surely this is nothing more than an abstract ideal, a goal that cannot be realized in this life!

Maybe we should all pause and re-read it; look carefully at the words, the grammar…

Holy heart attack! This is no abstraction; it too is an imperative!

So, here’s another question: Would the Apostle Paul command us to do something if it is impossible? Perhaps we need to think about this some more. Do you recall what Paul told us regarding Israel’s failure to attain righteousness? Yes, that’s right: They never obtained righteousness because their faith was in their ability to conform to the Law, but what God wanted was for them to put their faith in Him… and with God, all things are possible.

Notice that in the imperative of verse 2, there is a contrast, a duality that is set up by the word “but” “Do not be conformed… but be transformed” Thus we have a choice to make: Either we live as the world does with its values, activities and ways of thinking, or we allow the Holy Spirit to transform our minds so that we have an entirely new way of thinking with different values that lead us to a different way of life; this is our choice, and to be quite candid with you, it is very much like the choice that Israel had to make.

But we are talking about corporate worship here…

If offering ourselves as living sacrifices is out true and perfect worship (or service) to God, maybe we need to look at Acts 2:42 again:

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

When we come together on the Lord’s Day, our worship is a service to God, but the service is not in our grudgingly having given God 1 hour a week of our valuable time. Instead, it is in offering ourselves, with open hearts and minds, to receive the teaching of His Word, to offer ourselves in service to the community of beliers to accomplish His purpose, in offering ourselves to proclaim Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as our hope of Salvation and eternal life, and to offer ourselves to prayer for the sake of His Kingdom. All of this is offered so that we might be transformed by the renewing of our minds by His Word and His Holy Spirit, working together in our lives to accomplish His purpose.

Here we have a foundation to build upon. We also have a number of options from which to choose, for there are many brotherhoods of the faithful around the globe, and not everyone approaches the particulars of a worship service the same way. Yet if these basics of Scripture are present, I am not willing to tell anyone that their manner of worship is right or wrong, unless they incorporate something that the Scripture explicitly forbids, for our Brotherhood has always taken the position that where the Bible speaks, we speak, but where the Bible is silent, we are silent.

Next time, we’ll take a look at the concept of worship from a different viewpoint as we consider the Greek words used in our original text and what each of them means. Perhaps we will find additional guidance in our quick review of the basics of New Testament worship.

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Christ is the Wisdom and Power of God

Posted on March 3, 2018 by Don Merritt

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

1 Corinthians 1:18-19

In verse 17 Paul began to take a turn into a discussion of the contrast between human wisdom, and the wisdom of God. Keeping context in mind, this comes as Paul’s explanation for why the division is taking place in the Corinthian church community. In this subsection, Paul appears to be making the case that wisdom in this world brings about a great social divide between the wise and the unwise; the strong and the weak. This may seem like a rather strange line of reasoning for many of us today, but let’s pause a moment and consider…

In our time in the West for instance, we live in societies heavily influenced by Progressive thinking relating to public policy. That thinking says that we must have a society that is regulated by educated and highly trained professionals who will make important decision for the benefit of the masses. The masses of people, it is reasoned, are simply not up to the task of making their own decisions in key areas of life, areas that professionals would be likely to make much better decisions than regular people.  So, this professional class begins to make laws, laws that regulate behaviors, that require this or forbit that.

The result of this is that the professionals seldom hang out with the laborers with whom they have little or nothing in common, and society itself begins to fragment. Where that happens in society, and parts of society find themselves together in the congregation, they tend not to mix together very well. In Paul’s day, there seem to have been groups in the Corinthian church who didn’t mix well together, and they sought to be identified with leaders, like those named in the previous section, and consequently, the church began to fragment. If you recall our introduction to 1 Corinthians, and the brief discussion of Corinth and its status as a Roman colony that was also a major port city, you shouldn’t have much difficulty seeing how that fragmentation could have taken place.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at the verses:

Contrary to what many have claimed over the years, Paul is not setting Christianity up to be anti-intellectual. Think about it – Paul of all people is pretty much the most educated man in any room he walked into, and his great intellect is very much on display in every paragraph of this letter. No sir, he is not advocating anything anti-intellectual here. Instead, his message here is that Christ’s work on the cross renders any social distinction irrelevant. He is teaching the people that they should forget all of their divisions as see one another as God sees them, not as this human world does. After all, brotherhood in Christ lasts for all eternity; social distinction will all perish soon enough.

Paul isn’t quite finished with this commentary just yet, for it continues through verse 25…

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Disunity and Fragmentation

Posted on March 2, 2018 by Don Merritt

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. My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”

1 Corinthians 1:10-12

As we enter the first section of the letter, we might notice that Paul hasn’t provided a thesis statement, a statement that tells us what he is going to talk about in this letter. If I were writing it, I might say it this way: “It has come to my attention that there are some serious problems in your community, and I am writing to you today in an attempt to help you to correct the situation.”

I point this out because this is the first level of context that we need to keep in mind as we continue through the letter: Paul wrote 1 Corinthians to identify and correct several major problems they were experiencing in Corinth, c. 55 AD. If we forget that, we may run into difficulty understanding Paul’s comments later on in the letter.

While Paul didn’t announce his overall reason for writing the entire letter, he does clearly mark his change from one topic to another, and here we can easily see that he has moved on from prayer and thanksgiving to a discussion of disunity among the members of the congregation beginning in v. 10: Quit fighting amongst yourselves! To add gravity to his appeal, he cites his source of information, eyewitness accounts from Corinth itself from members of Chloe’s household. According to his sources, people in the church are divided by their support for individual church leaders: Paul himself, Apollos, Cephas (Peter)… and Jesus. Ironically, Paul, Peter and Apollos are all on the side of Christ – they are not supportive of this division:

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

1 Corinthians 1:13-17

Apparently, people were being divided along the lines of who was baptized or brought to belief by whom in a sort of rivalry between leaders that was concocted by followers. Could this thinking be like we might find when several people are fans of a sports team, but then divide over who the team’s best player is? Naturally scholars divide over whose theory on this subject is the best, but whatever the reason for the division Paul is telling the people to knock it off.

Paul then goes on, in an interesting way, to say that he’s glad that he personally hadn’t baptized very many of them so that his faction isn’t a big mover in this division and goes on to point out that many came to relationship with Christ through his teaching, which hadn’t been terribly eloquent, lest his performance should in any way, overshadow the cross of Christ, which is the whole point of everything.

This is a lesson that would be important for all of us to take notice of, particularly those who are leaders in the church: We must never overshadow the real reason for everything: Christ. We must never encourage people to become followers of us, for we follow Christ, and anyone who is influenced by our leadership or teaching, must be focused on Christ, for in the end our jobs are to bring others face-to-face with Jesus Christ, and then we must get out of His way.

Much has been said this week about Billy Graham, and rightly so, for his was a simple message of salvation through Jesus Christ. His message was simple, clear and centered only on Christ, and so must ours be simple, clear and centered entirely on Christ.

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And so we begin

Posted on March 2, 2018 by Don Merritt

Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

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

Although he has followed his typical structure in beginning this letter to Corinth, we can see right away that this isn’t his typical greeting. Here he isn’t merely an apostle of Christ, he is an apostle “by the will of God.” As we have seen in the past, Paul often adjusts his greeting and thanksgiving to emphasize the message of his letters; Philemon provides a good example of that. Here, considering that Paul is writing to Corinth to correct a number of serious problems, he reminds them that God’s will stands behind him and his message.

I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge—  God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

1 Corinthians 1:4-9

Paul reminds his readers that God has confirmed his (Paul’s) testimony to them about the Lord Jesus in that He has provided them with every gift they need to prosper in the faith. They have received all of the gifts of God to sustain them (there is no Greek word for “spiritual” in the original text).

Notice that Paul wraps this up telling them that God will see them trough until the end, and they will be blameless in His sight. We might conclude that this is an important bit of encouragement before we get to everything they have messed up. Of course, Paul won’t just tell them where they’ve gone wrong, he will also tell them how to correct their problems, and the fact that he has just reminded them that God’s blessings upon them have confirmed his reliability is a nice touch as well.

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A Brief Introduction to 1 Corinthians

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Don Merritt

Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, was in Ephesus right around the year 55 AD when he began to receive news that the church in Corinth was in trouble. These two cities really weren’t all that far apart, being on opposite sides of the Aegean Sea, and both being major port cities. Travel between the two was relatively easy in those days, and it would be no surprise that people from Corinth might make the trip to report their difficulties to Paul, and that Paul might dispatch associates to go over to Corinth check things out. Upon confirming that there were indeed serious issues, he wrote his letter in an attempt to take corrective action.

Corinth had once been a proud Greek city, but in 146 BC it had been conquered and destroyed by the up and coming legions of Rome, and for the next 100 years it remained desolate and sparsely populated. All of that changed in 44 BC when Julius Caesar, shortly before his death, re-established Corinth as a Roman Colony. We know from history that the Romans established colonies for the purpose of projecting their power into the far regions of their Empire, but military force was not the only power they projected. These Roman Colonies also projected Roman culture, religion, economics and trade throughout the Empire, and provided places for their soldiers to retire. One historian of the period wrote that Roman Colonies were miniatures of Rome itself.

Corinth however, was a special case, for it had been a strategically important port city when it was established originally by the Greeks, and it quickly returned to that status under Rome. As a result of it’s location, it was populated not only by Roman colonists, but also by Greeks, Jews, Syrians, Egyptians; peoples from all around the known world. Since ships could not yet navigate in open seas, they were forced to follow the coastlines around the Mediterranean Sea, and thus every ship that sailed from Rome to a destination beyond Greece had to call in Corinth− Corinth became an economic powerhouse.

As has been the case in major seaports throughout the ages, Corinth had a dark side; the streets late at night might be populated by sailors far from home looking for good times of drinking and female companionship, sexual practices of whatever sort were… shall we say… easy and free-flowing, as was drink and violence.

It would seem from Paul’s letter, that some of these factors may have crept into the church.

Scholars often disagree about Paul’s intentions in writing to the church there, and certainly he could have been a bit more explicit in setting out the exact problems he was writing to address. Yet we must remind ourselves that he was writing to people who were there on the scene and who knew exactly what he was talking about without any special introduction. While this might make our task slightly more difficult, Paul wrote the letter in a highly structured literary style that makes his purpose clear to anyone who cares to notice it. Looking carefully at the structure of his writing, we clearly find that he addressed eight major issues facing the Corinthian church:

  1. Disunity and fragmentation of the church community (1:10-4:20).
  2. Sexual immorality (5:1-6:20).
  3. Sexuality, celibacy and marriage (7:1-40).
  4. Foods offered to idols (8:1-11:1).
  5. Problems in Worship (11:2-34).
  6. Misunderstandings about spiritual gifts (12:1-14:40).
  7. Misunderstandings about resurrection (15:1-58).
  8. Misunderstandings about giving (16:1-11).

Of course, his letter is written in the typical format, including his greeting and prayer at the beginning, and few personal comments at the closing. We will dive into the next time; see you then!

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It’s Time to Get Ready for a New Adventure

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Don Merritt

As I mentioned a few days back, since we finished our adventure in the book of Acts, I was looking at the New Testament books that I have not yet blogged about, and found that there were three: Philemon and 1 and 2 Corinthians. Since Philemon ties into the ending of Acts, we’ve covered that one first, and now we come to the next one: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.

Maybe we should just get this out of the way right now− this wasn’t really Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, since he refers to one he had written previously (1 Cor. 5:9-11).

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, there are certain books that I used to tell my students were “Big Boy” books, and this is one of them. The others I had labeled that way are Matthew, John, Romans, Hebrews and Revelation. The reason I call them Big Boy books is that even though they aren’t all that difficult to understand, they are tricky because they are written in a literary structure that contains multiple levels of context, and if you don’t keep them straight, you are likely to become confused and not even realize it.

When this happens, we might easily come up with conclusions and evidence about things Paul isn’t even talking about, and many very fine scholars have fallen into this trap with disastrous results over the centuries. Another possibility is that we might read one of these books and find ourselves making long lists of “proof texts” about a wide range of things that our text wasn’t about, which can be a little embarrassing. That is until it splits a church, and then it is considerably more than just a mistake, for we will have created our very own false teaching.

Consequently, I will be making every effort in this study, as I have in the others, to keep reminding everyone of the contexts. I hope that I can do this without being overly academic-sounding, for I have always tried to avoid that when blogging so that reading these posts will not become so academic that most of you will find it burdensome to read.

With all of that said, 1 Corinthians is a gold mine of amazing content about a wide range of issues relating to the Christian life, and no one should shy away from experiencing it My hope and prayer for this study is that it will be a fun adventure into life, an adventure that will be both inspiring and insightful, and that it will motivate all of us the draw closer to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Since Paul’s purpose for writing this letter is to address some of the issues that faced the Corinthian church of his day, I’ll begin our adventure with an overview of the conditions in which they lived and the challenges they faced; see you then!

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