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Week 45  2 Corinthians 10

Paul didn’t have a completely captive audience in Corinth. One of the things his critics said was that Paul: walked according to the flesh. I checked a couple of versions and they more-or-less confirmed the language. Paul was:
living according to the flesh
living by the standards of this world
operating according to human standards
working in a worldly way.
I wondered what was behind that complaint. Paul always seemed like an extravagantly religious guy to me. How people figured he was a worldly-guy was a bit of a mystery.
I couldn’t see how people would have thought Paul was a non-religious or anti-religious guy. Paul was definitely a religious guy. Their problem seemed to be that his religion let him inch too close to the standards of this world. So apparently Paul was not putting enough distance between himself and the world.  And the only religious group that I know who would have come up with that kind of strict avoid-the-world line would be the rigorous observers of the OT (and Paul had a pretty extensive history of locking-horns with them).
Paul was usually complimentary about the OT. But his position was that the regulations of the OT was not the right hill-to-die-on. The NT gospel had made some key adjustments. For some people those modifications were life-changers. But for others they were dangerous innovations.

Note: quote from 2 Corinthians 10:2 (NASB NIV NCB NCV with slight modifications)

 

 

Week 45  2 Corinthians 8-9

I sped through chapters 8 & 9. I didn’t figure I needed the reminder since I already knew the principle: It’s Important To Give (or maybe even stronger than that: You Have To Give!)
It was a quick read-through but not so fast that I didn’t absorb anything. Paul said a couple of charity-related things that slowed me down.
First was that one of the aims of giving was equality: it is not that there should be relief for others and hardship for you, but it is a question of equality (another version says it’s a matter of fairness). Equality & fairness are pretty elastic words. Stretchy enough to be pulled in different directions. I wonder what Paul is driving-at and decide that it might just be a reminder of the Golden Rule Principle.
Then there’s a second thing: God loves a cheerful giver. Personally I tend to approach charity in a necessitarian way – I’m supposed to do it…and so I give. Most of the time I’m not feeling sunny. It makes me wonder if there’s a Charity Emotion Scale:
1. Giving (and feeling cheerful & happy about it)
2. Giving (but in a more emotionally-neutral & detached way)
3. Giving (but only because I feel forced to).
I’m in the second category but likely should be aiming at the first. Being in the second is preferable to being in the third…but not as good as being in the first. So there’s room for development.

Note: 2 Corinthians 8:13 (CSB ESV) & 9:7 (CSB)

 

Week 45  2 Corinthians 2

Paul: for we are not like the many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity… I check a couple of other versions:
we aren’t like so many people who hustle the word of God to make a profit
we are not like a lot of folks who go about huckstering God’s message for a fee
we do not market the word of God for profit like so many
we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word.
(I’m not sure who was doing this. Simon Magus the Magician of Samaria comes to mind. But he wanted to pay the apostles so he could dispense the Holy Spirit – maybe to turn a profit but it doesn’t say that.)
Anyway Paul says that many people were Gospel Marketers. Merchandisers. Traders in the good-news. Wholesalers of the good-news.
He doesn’t say that what these Gospel Profiteers were teaching was incorrect (not saying for instance that Jesus didn’t rise-from-death – that would make them heretics). So I’d be inclined to give them the benefit-of-the-doubt that they were orthodox. But they were insincere. Paul said that a genuine gospeller had to be sincere.
In the NT church the gospel was being preached in two ways: a) sincerely (not motivated by material profit) and b) insincerely (with the aim of making-a-buck). And it looks like b) was a common option.

Note: quote from 2 Corinthians 2:17 (NASB CEB CJB CSB ESV). Simon Magus is in Acts 8.

Week 45  1 Corinthians 15

Everyone will be raised to life in the right order. Christ was first to be raised. When Christ comes again, those who belong to him will be raised to life.
Paul is talking about resurrection in this chapter – about being dead and then coming back to life – and he mostly focusses on Jesus Christ. Christ was in the resurrection vanguard – the Proto-Resurrectee. But then there’ll be a big group of resurrectees – people who belong to Christ.
Paul says that’s the right order. First Christ came back to life (~2000 years ago). Second Christ’s people will be resurrected (at an undisclosed future time). Then third the end will come.
So-far-so-good. But it’s really the next couple of phrases that catch my attention. Two other events will happen: at that time Christ will destroy all rulers, authorities, and powers, and he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father.
So: a) rulers authorities & powers will be abolished and b) Christ will hand over the kingdom to the Father.
I think about this triad of Rulers Authorities & Powers. What-all or who-all they are is a bit vague and undefined. But I’ve already seen in other places that this shadowy syndicate of mysterious entities is dangerous. Their interest in the world is malignant. Bad operators cruising around doing their bad.
It’s a relief to know that at the final wrap-up they’ll be destroyed. But in the meantime they’re still on-the-prowl.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 15:23-24 (NCV)

Week 44  1 Corinthians 15

For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace. Paul brings together the two contributors to his work. First there was him working hard. Second there was the Lord working along as well. Credit me. Credit the Lord.
It’s a nice picture of collaborative action. Paul the front man doing things in the obvious & visible foreground. Then also the Lord doing things in the not-always-as-obvious background (where the Lord had the option of injecting some spectacular miracle into the mix if he wanted to). But according to Paul whatever the exact distribution of work was the general formula looked like this: me working + the Lord working = successful church life.
Trying to balance these kinds of concurring inputs is tricky. Paul – in spite of being the marquee guy – had to keep in mind that he was part of a team and couldn’t be too arrogant about his role. So even though he started out saying something  very self-congratulatory (‘I outworked all the other apostles’) he acknowledge that the Lord gave him a big boost.
Thinking back to the book of Acts it’s likely true that Paul actually did outperformed everyone else. But despite his track record Paul doubled back. Took a humbler line. Reigned-in what sounded a lot like smug self-congratulation. Gave the big credit where it was due.

Note: quote from 1 Corinthians 15:10 (NLT). End of October reading: 91% completed.

Week 44  1 Corinthians 6

I was interested in Paul’s question: do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? I checked a bunch of other versions for the word Unrighteous. The majority used the same word (the runner-up word was Wrongdoers. A couple used Unjust. Or phrases like Wicked-people. Evil-people. Bad-people. Sinful-people).
Anyway Paul then listed specific actions that described the practices of Unrighteous people:
Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
In the margin I saw a cross-reference to Romans:
Let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light…Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy…And do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh. (So Paul’s list in 1 Corinthians wasn’t comprehensive.)
And I know there are other lists. I page over to Galatians:
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like…Those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
So when it comes to getting into the kingdom it’s pretty definite that abandoning unrighteous behavioural practices is a prerequisite.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Romans 13:12-13 Galatians 5:19-21 (NIV) (with some reformatting)

Week 44  1 Corinthians 1

A couple of weeks ago I saw how Luke described the NT church: all the believers were together and had everything in common…Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts. So there’s quite a bit of harmony. Oneness.
But in Corinth there’s disharmony. Divisiveness. The conflict was between what I’d call Baptism Coalitions (today it seems like a quirky & baffling dispute but there’s no rule says arguments have to be sensible). Paul’s advice was pretty straightforward: I appeal to you…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. So three main goals are spelled out: a) agreement & b) no divisions & c) unity.
If I’m in a group with ten guys (who all believe in the Lord) then – according to Paul – there should be some evidence of concurrence & consensus & coherence.
But ten guys sitting around and we all agree? What are the chances?
One of the places to start is for the ten of us to have a bottom-line short list of fundamentals. A few essentials that don’t need to get rehashed. Meat-and-potatoes values that we agree on. No doubt our “Baptism Coalitions” remain in place. But we try not to take them too seriously.

Note: quotes from Acts 2:44-46 & 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NIV)

Week 43  Romans 6

Paul says that one of the invisible things that happens when I embrace the Lord is that I die. And once I’m dead I’m freed from sin:
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin.
There’s obviously a different kind of dying going on here. Paul can’t be meaning that I die physically. So it has to be dying in a different-than-physical way. My death is still a really-and-truly dying…but it’s not a natural death.
And then there’s a second thing. A follow-up. When I die (in this non-physical way) then I’m free from sin. Being free from sin could mean one of two things. It could mean that I don’t sin anymore. On the surface that’s how it looks. But I don’t drill down too far before I realize that in practical and real-life terms it’s likely safer to say my freedom doesn’t mean that I quit sinning.
When I accept the Lord as my master & teacher I die a mysterious & non-natural death – death-to-sin. A death that frees me from my docile devotedness-to-sin. Free at last.
Being dead-to-sin is a huge benefit – it’s a Square One Freedom. Sure…it’s still a new & untested & abstract freedom. But it’s a huge hurdle to be over.

Note: quote from Romans 6:6-7 (CSB)

 

Week 43  Romans 1

Paul says that God’s invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. Which I take to mean that if I look at what someone has produced (in this case God) then I can learn something about the producer himself (God).
For Paul the material world (and maybe the sum-total of all of time & space & matter & energy) is a gigantic deposit of trackable things that serve two purposes.
Purpose #1 is that the world does whatever physical or mechanical functions it regularly does (for instance the sun comes up in the morning).
Purpose #2 is the added value objective of tipping people off about the maker who’s in-back-of the mechanics.
Paul realizes that there are people who’ve had no exposure at all to prophecy or miracles or the bible or any authorized religious inputs. But what they do have is the universe – a big and inescapable environment that’s accessible to everyone. When it comes to rudimentary ideas I don’t need the Westminster Cathedral if I’ve got the world.
There’s likely millions of people in the modern world who think of the universe exclusively in terms of Purpose #1 – a kind of functional mish-mash of biological & non-biological materials and interactions that have developed by happenstance. But Paul is pretty clear that there’s extra intelligence to be gleaned when I observe the material world.

Note: quote from Romans 1:20 (CSB)

Week 42  Acts 2

In Peter’s first sermon he said: and it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Since the Holy Spirit had just arrived in the chapter two that meant the-last-days were happening right then-and-there.
I checked a word book looking for the phrase the-last-days. It wasn’t used often so I checked a couple of (roughly) equivalent terms – the-last-times and the-last-hour:
In these last days, (God) has spoken to us by his Son
(Jesus) was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was revealed in these last times for you
It is the last hour…You have heard that antichrist is coming…By this we know that it is the last hour.
From the look of it the-last-days (or last-times or last-hour) were current events when Acts & Hebrews & Peter & John were written. Meaning that a) the-last-days began at least 2000 years ago and b) I’m living in the-last-days (since the world is still chugging-along) and so c) the-last-days will continue until some (undetermined) future time.
I’ll try to keep that in mind when I see the phrase the-last-days. The expression covers a long time period. Maybe not as long as one of the ice ages. But long (personally I think I prefer The Last Epoch).
And another thing… I have no idea when The Last Epoch will end. But since it’s The Very Last One whenever it ends everything else does too.

Note: quotes from Acts 2:17 Hebrews 1:2 1 Peter 1:20 1 John 2:18 (CSB)