Life Project Blog

1 Corinthians 9:1-18

Assuming that you have read these verses, I must begin by reminding you that we are still in a section about Idolatry, and food sacrificed to idols specifically, in this letter of correction and instruction to the church at Corinth.

You will no doubt recall that in chapter 8 Paul essentially set forth a proposition that food sacrificed to idols can be eaten by those who understand that an idol is nothing more than a hunk of rock, and that there is no actual significance to a sacrifice to a hunk of rock. A person with such an understanding has a right to eat the food. However, many of our brethren do not have this understanding, and as a consequence, they would have their faith severely challenged by brothers and sisters participating in eating such food. Paul ended the chapter by saying that we should forgo our right to eat such food whenever it could adversely impact our “weaker” brother or sister.

Beginning in 9:1, Paul has undertaken to prove this assertion by pointing out all of the rights he has chosen not to exercise himself, for the sake of the gospel. In doing so, I think it is fair to say that he really shames people who complain and moan about being expected to make a sacrifice for the sake of other people, for he points out a wide range of sacrifices he has made personally for their benefit− can they not undergo such a small sacrifice for their brothers and sisters?

People are funny, aren’t they? We all look around us and see everyone else having such an easy time. We struggle with finances, yet our neighbor has so many nice things. We have marriages with real challenges, but the guy next door has a beautiful wife who never complains, or an attractive husband who always finishes his “honey-do” list. Our boss has such an easy job and makes so much more than we do. The Smiths’ children are so perfectly behaved… it goes on and on.  The good folks in Corinth probably thought they’d be better apostles than Paul was. It never even crossed their minds that Paul was not only preaching and teaching day and night; he was also working to support himself.

I would like to think that anyone over the age of 40 has figured out that the grass on the other side of the hill isn’t really any greener than it is right where we are standing, that everyone has their struggles and their problems to deal with; we all win a few and lose a few.

But them, sometimes we forget…

When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Colossians 2:13-15

As we pick up from the last passage, we see right away the connection we discovered earlier. Notice the link between “dead in your sins” and “uncircumcision.”  Here they are used interchangeably, and since they are used this way, we can be certain, as we were last time, that circumcision here is not the literal procedure done in physical terms.  While we were in our sins then, God made us alive in Christ and forgave our sins.   So far, this is easy to understand, and wonderful to behold, full as it is with the love and mercy of a loving Father in heaven.  It gets even better…

God cancelled the “written code” with its “regulations” that were “against us.”  So not only have our sins been forgiven, not only have we been made alive in Christ, but the Law that condemned us has been ended; from now on it’s all about Christ!

God, in effect, nailed the old laws and rules to the cross with Christ and killed it.  Christ rose from the grave; we rose with Him from baptism (2:12) and the written code remains in the grave… and there’s still more…

In doing this, God has “disarmed” the “powers and authorities” and triumphed over them at the cross.  These “powers and authorities” are the very ones who accuse us.  Even now they may try to accuse, but they have been defeated at the cross; the ballgame is really over!  Our sins are forgiven, we are alive in Christ, and when they attempt to accuse, they are exposed for the liars they have always been, for there is no written code any more.

This is one of the great liberating facts of our Faith.  Those accusers have no audience with God, for they have been humiliated by the cross.  Who is the one who accuses?  It is Satan, his allies and those who would do his bidding on the earth.  What Jesus has done for us on the cross has rendered their accusations altogether irrelevant, and we need not be concerned with them ever again.

What a gracious and loving Heavenly Father we have− what a glorious Lord we follow!

There can be no doubt that we are indeed a blessed people.

1 Corinthians 8

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. (8”1-3)

With these verses, Paul begins the next section of the letter, which runs through 11:1. For best results, we need to keep in mind as we go through the section that it is indeed three chapters in length with three subsections; more about that as we continue. Of course, we can easily see the shift in topic in verse 1, which will remind us of Paul’s structure as we have seen in multiple times before now.

He begins this section in an interesting way, with a contrast between “knowledge” and “love”: But knowledge puffs up while love builds up (1). This is the dominant thought of the chapter and is reinforced by verses 2-3.

 Paul makes the point that an idol, representing a pagan god, is nothing other than a hunk of rock, for these are non-existent “gods”. There is only one God, the Father and one Lord, Jesus Christ. These other so-called “gods” are nothing (8:4-6).

Yet in Corinth and other cities and towns of that era, there were still new Christians for whom that fact had not yet quite sunk in, and should they eat food that had been sacrificed to an idol, they would still think of it as something significant, and for them, eating such food would be highly problematic, even though there was no actual reality to the idol or the sacrifice (8:7-8).

If a Christian is clear about this, eating such food is not a problem, but in doing so, we must be careful, for if a brother or sister who doesn’t understand this yet should see us, they might be tempted to partake it thinking they are free to participate in pagan rituals, which would be a sin against Christ. For our parts, we too would be sinning, for in doing this, we will have caused our weaker brother or sister to fall back into the old ways− and we wouldn’t want to do that, would we (8:9-13)?

At this point, Paul’s dominant though becomes crystal clear:

But knowledge puffs up while love builds up

The very idea that a hunk of rock is a god is silly, and so is the notion that there is even such a thing as a “sacrifice” to a god that doesn’t exist… Pure nonsense! I’m hungry, and that meat is perfectly good food and I’m going to eat some of it because I can, and it’s my right to do so. That is the “puffed up” part.

How often do we hear this kind of thing today: It’s my RIGHT to do this!

The way of love, however, is quite different. Love is willing to be inconvenienced for the sake of someone who understands less than we do; it’s a pity we don’t see more love in action today.

1 Corinthians 7:32-40

I think it’s fair to say that Paul makes it very clear that he is expressing his personal opinion in these verses (7:25-40). I also think that it is fair to say that if everyone had taken his advice to remain single, the human race wouldn’t be here in the 21^st century.

No one that I’ve ever heard of thinks that Paul wanted that to happen. For his part, Paul was interested primarily in the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world, and he wanted every man and woman to play a role in the building up of the Church. His reasoning is clear and simple: Married couples have a much harder time devoting themselves to this cause, since they must be concerned with many other matters of this life on earth. Single people are free to concentrate 100 % on the things of God.

While no one can argue with that logic, it is also very clear that God did not intend for everyone to remain single and celibate; that is simply not the way He created things. Some are called to forgo married life to serve God, others are called to raise godly children to serve God, others to lead the church to serve God, others to serve and help those in need… and together we make up the many members of the Body of Christ. If you are called to the mission field, then you must forsake all else and go, but if you are not called in that way, then you haven’t done anything wrong.

If we consider the totality of this section from 7:1-40, this seems to be Paul’s clear message. He put this message into a context of sexuality, celibacy, and marriage because these things, whether we like to think of it this way or not, comprise the fundamental realities of our everyday lives. They really encompass the range of choices that each person must make about his or her living situation. Each person must decide whether they will be sexually active or celibate, yet few actually make a conscious decision. Each person who decides to be sexually active must decide whether they will be married or single, and many just go with the flow, and never consider fully the consequences of their decisions. Each of these decisions set us on a path, and that path takes us to the point where we are in life at any given time.

The day comes for most people when they wake up and wonder how they got to the place they find themselves in and begin to have regrets of one sort or another, and then they say, “Gee, I wish I could go back and be 20 again, knowing all that I know at 50 or 60.”

Sadly, we cannot do that.

Now that we have come all of the way through this chapter, it seems to me that Paul is trying to encourage the people in Corinth to start making intentional decisions about where their lives are headed in the Lord, and to act accordingly.

I would add to this that we should probably all do the same. I’d love to hear your thoughts…

 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Colossians 2:9-12

Continuing on from last time, we come to a paragraph that is both full and rich in meaning, and yet often cluttered up with unnecessary doctrines.  Consider the opening sentence, Paul points out that in the Person of Jesus lives all the fullness of God:  Jesus is all God and Jesus is all man: God lived in His physical body.  Jesus has also brought you and me to fullness, but fullness of what kind? Here it is in simple terms:  All of the fullness of God resided in Jesus Christ, and in Christ the fullness of the Holy Spirit resides in you and me. Neither you nor I are the Messiah, nor are we divine, but we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and He is divine.  Kind of makes you wonder why we don’t follow His lead more often, doesn’t it?

Paul continues to state that Jesus is the head of every power; He is at the right hand of God running the universe… and we are in Him.

Not a bad place to hang out!

The next sentence goes on to say that we have received a circumcision that wasn’t performed by human hands.  This is puzzling until we recall what circumcision was in the Old Testament.  There, circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham; it was how people would recognize a man in covenant relationship with God.  That was the covenant that set God’s covenant people apart from everyone else, and circumcision was a kind of mark or seal of that covenant. Paul is talking about another kind of seal or sign of our covenant relationship with God, a sign that marks us as belonging to Him.

The last sentence in our text answers a question, and raises another; perfect!  

The first part answers a question when it identifies Christ as the one who performed this circumcision without human hands, and that tells us that this circumcision is not a physical procedure at all, but instead a spiritual procedure.  In this procedure, our natural self that lives according to the flesh is put off, and I think most of us will agree that this happens when we enter a relationship with Christ.  This would be really easy if Paul stopped right there, but he goes on…

Here’s the whole sentence again:

Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

The trouble happens when Paul followed the having been circumcised by Christ with “having been buried with Him in baptism” part.  I say that there is trouble here, because this is where Christians like to divide into camps and slug it out.  We aren’t going to do that though, are we?

It appears to me that there is some kind of a connection between this “circumcision” and baptism, but what is the connection?  If we were “buried with him in baptism” what were we buried into?  Well, when He was buried, He was dead, having died on the cross.  So, if we are “buried with him” then we must be buried into His death… right?  If this “circumcision” was the link between the old man and the new man, and it is also linked to baptism into His death, then there must be a link of some kind being established here… see it?  They are parallel. Notice that Paul also mentions that we are “raised with Him” by our “faith in the workings of God.”

OK, so here’s what we’ve got so far:

1. What an awesome thing it is to be in Christ!

2. He is the central focus of our lives, our all in all as the old hymn says.

3. In Christ, we have the fullness of the indwelling Holy Spirit: Amazing!

4. Paul has made a comparison between Old Testament circumcision, a new kind of circumcision and baptism.

5. Paul elaborates on that comparison in the next section.  We’ll leave this as a tease for now, and I’ll look forward to seeing you back here next time.

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.

1 Corinthians 7:25-28

Now, Paul turns back to his main theme and addressed the unmarried. In doing so, he is very clear about the fact that he is speaking as a trustworthy person, a man who is wise, but not for the Lord. As he gives his advice in this section, it is much like his advice in the previous text; remain as you are. If you are single, remain single. If you are engaged, remain faithful to your commitment. He gives this advice “because of the present crisis” (7:6), which begs the question: What crisis?

As you might expect, there are a great many theories about the “crisis”, and there really isn’t a way to be entirely certain about what he is intending here. We might just consider the context of the letter− Paul has written the church to correct a great many serious problems, including the presence of immorality in the congregation, so if I were going to hazard a guess, I’d be inclined to throw that one on the table. Yet the church is in the fledging stage everywhere, very vulnerable to persecution at any time, which could be described as a crisis. A bit later in this chapter Paul will mention that the whole world is messed up and this world will pass away (7:31): That could be what he means.

If Paul had written this letter to a modern-day church, I might suggest that the “crisis” is really all of the little crises we hear about every day! And that could also be what he means in the letter to Corinth.

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. (7:29-31)

This paragraph comes pretty close to advice for all time, for although he didn’t say it directly, Paul is advising the people to change their thinking away from their everyday living circumstances to a more heavenly perspective. Since we have the benefit of hindsight, we can see that people nearly 2,000 years ago were all caught up in the day-to-day things of this life: Status in the community, pleasures and delights of this world, getting everything right in doctrinal arguments, paying the bills, raising the children, having some good times, what is for dinner… and so on. As we look back across all of those centuries since then, it’s easy for us to say that none of that stuff was really so important, for they all left this earthly life so long ago; hopefully they took care to ensure their eternal futures.

While it’s easy to see that looking back 2,000 years, it is much harder to think that way in the moment, isn’t it? Paul’s message clears up as he completes this section in the remaining verses of the chapter…