2 Corinthians, Chapter 1

I still have plans to complete a study of the gospels by writing on the book of John, but I will wait until I get back from a vacation I have planned for April 1st. Until then, the book of 2 Corinthians should fill the gap until I leave quite nicely. I also want to thank the anonymous commenter that suggested the black cherry juice for use with arthritis. I will have to give that a try in conjunction with a cream that my dad has given me. The Ketoprophin he makes in his pharmacy also does wonders.

2 Corinthians is exactly what it sounds like. It is a second letter to the church in Corinth by the apostle Paul. Like the previous letter, he addresses a variety of topics that the church needed to hear. The first one he touches on is the topic of God being a God of comfort.

When I think of God comfort is one of the first capacities I see him serving in. it is only natural because we often turn to god, even if we don't truly know Him in our hearts, when we are in need of comfort. It is a natural human reaction to reach out to God when we need that comfort. We are also promised that He will be there when we need that comfort.

⁵For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. ⁶If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. – 1 Cortinthians 1:5-7

Putting comfort and suffering together may seem like an odd idea, but it makes sense. Why would others take comfort in our distress? As Christians, we are expected to be leaders and examples for non-Christians. We have already signed up to be soldiers for Christ, while others have not. This is why they find comfort in our suffering. We must put for an example, just as Christ did, of serving a greater purpose in our suffering. If we show that we still find comfort in Christ while we suffer, then we are living a lesson that Christ wants others to see.

That is where patient endurance comes in. Patience is not one of my God-given virtues, but I have learned some patience as I age. To me, a lack of patience is short-sightedness. It is an inability to see a larger picture. When we are impatient it is because we want a result now. We don't see the greater picture and instead we focus on an infant-like desire to placate ourselves in a situation where we don't know an immediate answer. I often fall prey to this, and the result is often burning frustration.

If we patiently endure, however, we open our minds to what God wants us to see. We move past the suffering and frustration of a difficult situation and enter a place of comfort. Sometimes it is simple changing our self talk to, "Okay, I am unsure of where to go next, but I trust you, Father, that You will show the way." That way is not always instantly shown, but God has promised that He will show us. That promise is our comfort. That is the reason we can endure patiently and serve as an example.

1 Corinthians, chapter 16

We come to the end of our study of 1 Corinthians today. On the surface, chapter 16 looks mostly like a personal letter to the church from Paul. There are not any huge insights, but we can still take a lot from it. In that time, many of the churches were working apart from each other. They did not have the internet or instant communication that we do now. Each church kind of did their own thing in regards to the gospel, and there was no real centralized leadership as the apostles spread throughout the world.

We do see Paul trying to centralize that leadership here though. Instead of going off and following their own teachings, Paul wanted to make sure each of the churches was following as close to the original gospels as possible. That is why many of the books of the New Testament were written as Paul's personal letters. They are reminders to the different churches about things they needed to work on. They also continue to press home the centralizing point of Christ's sacrifice and how salvation can be found through His blood.

¹Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. – 1 Corinthians 16:1

This is the first verse of this chapter, but it is the most relevant. If one of the churches that Paul visited was doing something right it was important for him to tell the others. That is the only way the proper teachings were going to flourish in this era of limited communication. Paul was one of the few common messengers in the early church, so this final chapter kind of wraps up what he needed the church in Corinth to know. We later see that he reminds other churches of what the church in Corinth was doing write. It is, therefore, no wonder the New Testament flows so well even today. This collection of letters continues to serve as a unifying force in the church, just as it did when it was originally written.

1 Corinthians, chapter 15 part 2

Later this year I will turn 30. I am trying to understand that because my mind still feels fresh and young. I feel like a teenager most days mentally, and I hope I never lose that. My body, however, is just beginning to feels some of the signs of age. I have some arthritis in my big toes that occasionally causes pain. My knees and back are prone to twinges now and then from old basketball injuries. I'm not exactly ready for a can and walker yet, but the inexorable march of time is beginning to be felt as I age.

That is why today's second part of 1 Corinthians 15 is so promising. In it, Paul paints a picture of what our glorified bodies will be like once we are with Christ. Physically, we will be totally different because we will exist in a body that is fully in tune with our spiritual selves. Just as our spirits never dies, our new bodies in Christ will never die either. We will be transformed instantly into being that will no longer feel the limitations of our current human flesh.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. ⁴⁷The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. ⁴⁸As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. – 1 Corinthians 15:44-49

This is part of the natural process that must occur. Our current bodies are flawed. There is no way they can stand up to being in the glorified presence of God. It's like in the movie Dogma. In that film, if a regular human were to hear the direct voice of God, the power of that voice would cause the person's head to explode. As they said, it took them five Adams to figure that one out. While that is humorous fiction, the picture that Paul paints here is very similar. We cannot be in the Presence of God in our current state, so it is only natural that we must be transformed.

1 Corinthians, chapter 15 part 1

What would Christ's sacrifice mean if He had not been raised from the dead? That is the question that Paul answers here in 1 Corinthians 15. The actual sacrifice was very necessary. Christ was sinless, and in order to gain salvation here needed to be a perfect, sinless sacrifice. Under the old Jewish system of sacrifices, however, there was no resurrection. If the priest sacrificed a dove as a sin offering it did not miraculously come back to life. That is part of what made these spiritual cleansings impermanent.

In Christ, however, we have victory over death. That victory comes from the fact he conquered the grave. Because he was resurrected, we can gain our own resurrection through His sacrifice. In Paul's time it may have been easier to believe in the resurrection. There were still people alive that had witnessed the event first hand. We have only 2,000 years of faith to rely on.

¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. – 1 Corinthians 15:14-17

What other religion offers this kind of belief. Only Christianity offers the promise of resurrection because its central figure died and lived again. Still, it is an act of faith. Essentially, if Christ did not rise from the grave our faith is meaningless anyway. If Christ did not rise, then we have no hope. That is why we must put faith in the one little hope we have.

1 Corinthians, chapter 14

This chapter of 1 Corinthians continues to deal with the orderly running of the church. Specifically, it talks about how speaking in tongues can fit in with the greater church body, but it cannot work by itself. This goes back to spiritual gifts and how the body of the church works better when all parts are functioning in harmony. When the parts function independent of each other there is chaos. No one can understand what's going on at that point, just like when someone is speaking in a different language no one can understand. It means nothing without the translation. That is why we must each accept our spiritual gift and use it to work in harmony with others, and therefore further God's plan.

As in all the congregations of the saints, ³⁴women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. ³⁵If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. – 1 Corinthians 14:33-35

I wanted to include this passage mostly as a discussion point. If we are to believe the Bible is the Living Word of God, how does something like this fit in with today's modern world? Personally, I don't see how this can work. To me, this is a very out-dated and sexist view that diminishes the contributions of women. It does this so much, that an entire church I know of would be in violation of that. When I was in South Carolina recently for a funeral the service was officiated by a female pastor, which would be in direct violation of this. How, then, do we accept the entire Word as truth?

1 Corinthians, Chapter 13

What is love? In my opinion, it is the ultimate expression of feelings from one person to another. The greatest example of love was Christ's death on the Cross for all mankind. That one sacrifice was the expression of God's love for mankind. In the sacrifice, God showed that he intended the gift of salvation to be spread beyond the Jews to everyone. The apostle clarifies what love is in this chapter. It is a familiar passage, as I can't seem to remember a wedding I have been to where I didn't hear this passage quoted.

⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. – 1 Corinthians 12:4-7

This goes beyond romantic love between a man and a woman though. Love is the one hope we have for humanity because it is the root of our salvation. Our salvation comes from Christ's love for us, and accepting that gift is an expression f our love in return to Christ. My cynical view on life tends to not see the love and beauty in this world, but it is there. Sometimes it seems like mankind goes out of its way to taint something so beautiful, but that is when God reveals His awesome power to forgive. It is an even greater expression of love that God can love us unconditionally when we soil something that is so beautiful and pure as love.

1 Corinthians, Chapter 12

This chapter of 1 Corinthians has a lot of meaning to me. For about the past two years I have tried to focus on what my spiritual gifts are and how best to use them. One of my greatest struggles is finding a place in which I can totally focus my energies. I feel like throughout my life I have tried a number of pursuits, but I could never fully focus myself on one. One needs only to look at my high school yearbook to see that. I was, at one time or another, a member of the football and basketball teams, the band, Drama Club, chess club, Mayor's Youth Advisory Board, a DARE role model, Honor Society, and probably a few others that I have since forgotten. I was good in many of these roles, but never truly great.

That is what life can be like if we are searching for our spiritual gifts. Paul describes what those are in this chapter. When we find those spiritual gifts and dedicate ourselves to them, we fill our specific purpose that God put us on this earth for. It's is a spiritual comfort zone where everything just feels right when we are doing that role. To some it can be teaching. To others, it is serving.

¹⁴Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. ¹⁵If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body. – 1 Corinthians 12:14-20

None of us can fulfill God's purpose alone. Within the greater church everyone has a role. I find it funny that this idea was reinforced last season with my church's softball team. I had played with them for years, but I was more of a utility guy. I never had a definite position until need put me at First base. In the first game there I had a really good defensive game. I had the ability to stretch and make plays that no one else had exhibited. The position also negated my liabilities in the field (read: I can run down fly balls, but I have an awful throwing arm). By the end of the season I had found my role and I really enjoyed playing. This is what finding one's spiritual gifts is like. It is a sweet spot achieved when serving the role God intends for us.