Month: November 2021

Week 46 Corinthians

If I had to compile a list of Spiritual Gifts in the NT I’d get my first nine in 1 Corinthians 12. A handy list. And today I was wondering why Paul wrote it.
I think his point was that different gifts can differentiate. If I highlight differences then eventually things get spread out all over the place. But Paul’s idea – his recommendation so I don’t just end up with a bunch of differences – was that differences should come together under one big oneness: different spiritual gifts but the same Holy Spirit.
A normal tendency with differences is for them to centrifuge off into diversenesses. Differences have trouble locating common ground. It’s easier to differentiate.
Paul compares the church and its members to a body and its body-parts. A physical body needs lots of different parts doing their job to make for Total Body Functionality. That seems pretty obvious but Paul still added that: the hand can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you”. I guess he was admitting that individual body parts really love their individuality.
Toward the end Paul says: there should be no division in the body… He’d already admitted there were all kinds of differences in the body – so he was tipping us off about divisive differences.
Differences have a natural tendency to divide & separate & distinguish & look-for-preening-space. Differences have egos. So they really work together best when divisive-diversity isn’t king.

Note: quotes / paraphrases from 1 Corinthians 12:4, 21 (NLT), 25 (NASB)

Week 45 Corinthians

Yesterday Paul made it clear that eating meat that had at first been presented to an idol really made no difference since a) idols were lifeless entities & b) there was only one God. You could eat meat that had – in a technical-formal-religious act of devotion – been submitted to an idol since the meat – in reality – had been devoted to nothing.
Today there’s extra input and even though what Paul says sounds different I don’t think he’s changing his tune. I think he’s finessing yesterday’s cut-and-dried rule because today’s not-so-cut-and-dried complication needs finer tuning.
Today Paul asks: what am I trying to say?…That the idols to whom the pagans bring sacrifices are real gods and that these sacrifices are of some value? No, not at all… (Okay…so far so good. Yesterday Paul said pretty much the same: we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God.) But today he goes on to add: what I am saying is that these sacrifices are offered to demons. And I don’t want any of you to be partners with demons.
Yesterday Paul broke it down in two parts: Lifeless Idols & the Lord God.
Today he adds a third component: Lifeless Idols & Malevolent Demons & the Lord God.
Yesterday it looked like the Non-Meat-Eaters were completely wrong for being concerned about dead statues.
Today it looks like maybe they might have been onto something.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 10:19-20; 8:4 (NLT)

Week 45 Corinthians

Paul took some time to talk about the butcher shops in Corinth. Their practice of ceremonially offering the meat to pagan idols before it went on sale in the market had created a rift among Corinthian believers. The sides were: Meat-Eaters vs. Non-Meat-Eaters…
Meat-Eaters said ‘the idol means nothing. It’s okay to eat this meat’
Non-Meat-Eaters said ‘there’s a big problem. You can’t eat meat devoted to an idol’
Both sides couldn’t be right. And Paul solved that problem: we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God and no other… So in actual fact it was okay to eat the meat. Dilemma resolved…right?
Wrong. All we know now is who was right.
Solving half a problem doesn’t solve it all. There’s still the other half. There’s still the Non-Meat-Eaters Dilemma. Paul says: when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated.
Something that’s okay on the material consumption level is wrong on the conscience level.
In the church I go to we don’t care about meat offered to idols. But we have meat-offered-to-idols issues. So where that leaves me – according to Paul – is that I have to love the people in my church who are right and I also have to love people in my church who aren’t right but think they are.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 8:4 & 7 (NLT)

 

Week 45 Corinthians

Paul talks about Life in the Church.
Life in the Church is different from life not in the church.
Church is a kind of halfway house between Life in the Natural World and Life in the Kingdom of God. I map it out and it looks a bit like this:
Life in the Natural World (the Before)
Life in the Church (the Now)
Life in the Kingdom of God (the Eventually)
Paul spells out how I got from the Before to the Now: now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you… So that’s the technical description behind starting my Life in the Church. Things are different now. Technically speaking. At the same time – in terms of actual real-life practices – quite a few things get imported from the Before into the Now (Paul includes a list of ten examples of things that come into the church from the Before. Things that don’t fit there.)
According to Paul Life in the Church is supposed to be different from Life in the Natural World. If Life in the Church isn’t different then Life in the Church is pretty much the same as Life in the Natural World. Meaning it isn’t really Life in the Church anymore.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NLT)

Week 45 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1:18-20. I notice two things Paul says…
The first thing is: I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. Then he adds: but we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God.
I’d have thought Paul would contrast foolishness with wisdom… Foolishness (disguised as Natural Intellectual Savvy) vs. Supra-Natural Spiritual Wisdom. But he doesn’t. He sets foolishness up against power.
So I’m left wondering not only how More-Smart & Less-Smart relate to Foolishness & Wisdom…but also to Weakness & Power.
I notice a second thing…
Paul starts by asking: so where does that leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters?
And he answers: God has made them look foolish and has shown their wisdom to be useless nonsense.
I’m reading a book on the universe and black holes. The guy is a good writer and is writing fairly simply but I’m still out of my conceptual depth. So it makes me wonder…when Paul says that natural intellect is basically useless-nonsense what do I make of that?
What I figure right now is that Paul might be saying two things. That a) in the natural-intellectual domain of astrophysics (for example) guys can be super-smart. But b) when you move into the dynamic power-domain of the gospel then Natural Savvy – comparatively speaking & impressive as it is – is roughly equivalent to foolishness.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 1:18 & 20 (NLT)

Week 45 Romans

I’m thinking Paul’s advice in chapter 14 is transferrable. So even though he’s talking about vegetarian-style eating his advice can be used in other circumstances. So let’s say there’s a hypothetical Alberta Government Mandate saying we all need to take a Pink Pill. Some people in the church say: I’ll-take-the-pill. But others: I-won’t-take-it. Now the Pill-takers and the Anti-Pill-takers start fighting.
Would Paul have something to say about our Pink Pill Controversy.  I survey his chapter again:
Don’t argue with (other believers) about what they think is right and wrong
Don’t condemn other believers: they’re responsible to the Lord, so let him tell them whether they are right or wrong
Bottom line for people who believe is: to honour and please and give thanks to the Lord (not argue about Pink Pills)
Every one of us will have to give a personal account to God. So don’t condemn each other
The kingdom of God isn’t about Pink Pills it’s about: living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit
Don’t fixate on Pink Pills. Instead: let’s aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up
Don’t tear apart the work of God over (Pink Pills)
You don’t think there’s any problem with Pink Pills? Fine: but keep it between yourself and God
If someone thinks it’s wrong to eat a Pink Pill: they shouldn’t eat it.
There’s some pretty good advice here.

Note: quotes & paraphrases from Romans 14:1, 4, 6-7, 12-13, 17, 19-20, 22-23 (NLT)

Week 45 Romans

After a letter filled with some pretty theoretical religious content Paul changes gears in chapter 13 and talks to the church-people in Rome about government: what government is & what a person’s behaviour to government should be & what his responsibilities are. Paul says things like this:
Obey the government (since) God is the one who put it there
All governments have been placed in power by God
Refusing to obey the laws of the land basically means you’re refusing to obey God
If you resist the government expect to be punished
Government authorities don’t frighten people who are doing right
Government authorities do frighten people who do wrong
Do what the government says and you’ll get along okay
Government authorities are sent by God to help you
If you’re doing wrong you’ll be punished since governments are set up by God to punish wrong-doing
Obey the government to keep yourself from being punished
Obey the government to keep a clear conscience
Pay your taxes…you even owe the government respect & honour.
Hmmmmm…. I sit thinking about what I would be sitting thinking about Paul’s Paragraph on Government if I lived in a country north of Mongolia. Or in one south of Mongolia. Or north of South Korea. Like that. It’s pretty easy reading it today here in Medicine Hat Alberta Canada. Not so easy other places.

Note: quotes & mhj-paraphrases from Romans 13:1-7 (NLT)

Week 44 Romans

One of the complex-er ideas in the NT is the mechanism by which people trade-up from their normal dead-while-physically-alive life to a new life in Christ. Jesus tried simplifying the concept for Nicodemus by describing it as a new birth – a rebirth. That didn’t seem to help Nicodemus very much.
Anyway another completely different illustration that’s used is the idea of being set free from slavery. I’d map it out this way…
Life before Christ: Slavery
Life after Christ: Freedom
But when I got to Romans 6 I realized I’d need to revise that idea of freedom. Paul said: thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you have obeyed with all your heart the new teaching God has given you. Now you are free from sin, your old master, and you have becomes slaves to your new master, righteousness.
Things were going along okay until I saw the last ten words.
If what Paul says is true I need a different scheme. More like…
Life before Christ: Slavery
Life after Christ: Slavery
There’s a rule in the books of Moses that a slave had to be released after six years work. But if a slave really liked his master he could elect to remain his slave. Hard to believe but there it is…a volunteer slave…willing slave-itude. I figure that’s what Paul was driving at. The Lord’s willing slave.

Note: quote from Romans 6:17-18 (NLT). And see Exodus 21.

Week 44 Romans

Something I’m usually hoping for when I sit down to read is a decent Level of Concentration. Unfortunately Level of Concentration is something I just either have or don’t have from day-to-day. I don’t know any tricks to make sure I have a High Level of Concentration; no strategies to avoid a Low Level of Concentration. Seems to be a matter of pure chance.
Anyway I usually tend to think that I’ll be in better shape if I start with an HLC. But I’m into Romans now and I realize that even a sky-high HLC won’t solve everything because an HLC – by definition – relates to Concentration. Meaning it doesn’t relate to a critically & totally different issue: Level of Understanding.
I was reading Romans 7 today.
If I started reading Romans 7 with an LLC I would be doubly-frustrated because LLC + Low Level of Understanding = frustration (x2).
If I started reading Romans 7 with an HLC I would only be singly-frustrated  because HLC + Low Level of Understanding = frustration.
Even an extremely HLC doesn’t bail-me-out if I just don’t get it. All it does is help me concentrate in a much higher & more focused & intent mental state about something I don’t really get.

Note: Ten-months of 2021 are gone so I checked my reading progress. Even though I kind of idled through John and Acts I calculate that I’ve read about 91% of the bible as of today. So that means with 16% of the year to go I’m in pretty good shape.