Medicine Hat Joe

Week 47  2 Corinthians 6

Yesterday I was thinking about Paul’s advice about not teaming-up with people who don’t like the Lord.
I figured a simple breakdown was to divide interpersonal connections into: 1) First Level Connections and 2) Second Level Connections.
It’s totally possible for me to have a personal connection with a person who disliked – maybe even hated – the Lord. But Paul said that Second Level Connections had limitations.
For instance he said that between righteousness (First Level) and lawlessness (Second Level) there couldn’t be a partnership
Between light and darkness there was no fellowship
Between Christ and Satan no harmony
Between a believer and an unbeliever no common ground.
A believer can fraternize in any number of regular & day-to-day ways with a not-believer. I’m following the Lord and at the same time having a lot of Second Level Connections with people who don’t follow the Lord.
I can have pretty decent Second Level Connections but when it comes to the fundamental level of my renewed spiritual-life connections (my First Level Connections) I don’t really have anything in common with an unbeliever. That’s just the way things are.
At some point I accept that my Second Level Connections and my First Level Connections are different. So I have to differentiate between them. It’s possible for me to have both connections. But it’s a balancing act. They don’t mix. They’re compartmentalized connections. Friendships with fences.

Note: quotes  2 Corinthians 6:14-15 (NASB)

Week 47  2 Corinthians 6

Paul told church-people in Corinth do not be yoked together with unbelievers (other versions say things like don’t be bound together or don’t team up or don’t make mismatched alliances).
So I’m wondering: “who are my real friends?”
For one thing Paul isn’t saying I have to totally isolate yourself from every person who does not believe in the Lord. Social connections with people who couldn’t care less about the Lord are normal (they’re unavoidable). I could not not have those contacts even if I wanted to. So Paul’s advice here can’t really be about connections like working at the plant or eating lunch or playing ball or helping a guy stain his deck. But it does have to do with being paired-up.
I figure the verse is telling me I have a) a bunch of First Level Connections and b) a bunch of Second Level Connections.
My First Level Connections are with people who follow the Lord. They think like he did.  Act like him. Share his values. Endorse & promote him. support me.
My Second Level Connections are people I work with & live next door to & am friends with. But they don’t follow the Lord.
In a lot of ways my First Level Connections and my Second Level Connections share common elements.
The big question – the one that makes all the difference when it comes to First & Second Level Connections – is: does this person follow the Lord?

Note: quotes from 2 Corinthians 6:14 (NIV NASB NLT & Amplified)

Week 47  2 Corinthians

When I was reading this verse I got to thinking about post-mortem outcomes: we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in our bodies.
I wondered about my after-the-end-of-living phase:
When I die is getting to heaven my reward?
Or when I die and go to heaven will I get add-on rewards for good deeds that I did when I was still on earth? (for instance: will I get rewarded for giving food to a hungry person?)
Is it #1? Or #2?
With #1 the sequence would look like this:
I’m living my life heading away from heaven
Then I meet the Lord and now he’s my master
Now I’m headed for heaven
I live the rest of my life
Then I die and get to go to heaven.
With #2 the sequence is similar but it factors-in a deliberate extra decision:
I’m heading away from heaven
Then Jesus becomes my master
I change directions. Now I’m headed for heaven
I have however much life I have left and so now I actively start making good-quality choices about trying to live like my new master since it’s all going to count in the end
Then I die and go to heaven.
Reading this verse today I think that #2 is the recommended choice.

Note: quote from 2 Corinthians 5:9 (NLT). Note 2: today I was only thinking about good deeds (not the evil things Paul also mentioned).

Week 46  1 Corinthians 11

Paul said that communion is a time of remembering & proclaiming / showing & honouring the Lord.
Then he added a couple of related issues. Advisories.
1. He gave a warning about not taking communion unworthily. The unworthiness Paul’s talking about could relate to what he’d already criticized: some of you hurry to eat without sharing with others. People in the church in Corinth needed to ask: is this worthy behaviour? (2000 years later churches might be doing different kinds of unworthinesses.)
2. Paul offered advice about dealing with communion-unworthiness: examine yourself before eating. Self-assessment that looked for unworthy actions.
3. He also (worryingly) said that unworthy behaviour at communion is a kind of magnet for divine judgment: for if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. So…not a distant-future / post-mortem judgment. Here-and-now physical weaknesses or sicknesses or maybe even death.
Paul ended with a do-able tip on taking communion the right way (and avoiding judgment): so…when you gather for the Lord’s Supper, wait for each other. If you are really hungry, eat at home.
Communion is a church-community meal. It’s not an eating free-for-all.
Communion is a church-community meal with two aims: a) to remember & demonstrate & honour the Lord and b) to enjoy a meal together.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 11:27 21 28 30 33 (NLT)

Week 46  1 Corinthians 11

The sacrament of communion was a bit different in the church in Corinth than in the church that I go to. From the look of it a Corinthian Lord’s Supper was a full church-community meal.
It’s hard to know for sure if the community meal was the actual sacramental celebration or if the meal was a pre-event – a preliminary – that was followed by a more religiously-focused gathering that emphasized the Lord’s death.
Either way one of the problems in Corinth was that what was supposed to be a share-and-share-alike meal had turned into a bit of an every-man-for-himself type of gathering where some go hungry while others get drunk.
So Paul spelled out a couple of the primary things that were part of the communion meal.
First there was a remembering function in communion: do this in remembrance of me (a kind of Remembrance Day for the Lord).
Second there was also an announcing function: for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes. Other versions say proclaiming or showing. So maybe a demonstration symbolizing a) the Lord’s death and b) his return to life and c) his coming back again.
And one other feature of communion was honoring the body of Christ.
So it looks like these basic parts of communion – remembering & proclaiming & honouring the Lord – were featured elements in Corinth’s eating & drinking free-for-all.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 11:21b 24-25 26 & 29 (NLT)

Week 44  Romans 16

Paul ends his letter to the Romans with a dense & fairly complicated passage. I counted 9 important clauses. It was an intricate mix but I figured I could make some sense out of it. And as it worked out I ended up finding a pretty helpful synopsis of the bible.
I itemized the verses like this:
1. Now to Him who has the power to establish you
2. according to my Gospel
3. and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
4. according to the revelation of the mystery
5. which was kept secret since the world began
6. but now is made manifest,
7. and by the Scriptures of the prophets,
8. according to the commandment of the everlasting God,
9. made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.
So now I had these 9 linked-statements that together are pretty tangled & complicated.
Q #1: could I uncomplicate them? A #1: I thought so.
Q #2: how would I simplify the passage? A #2: something like this: the Lord had a plan from the beginning. But he kept it quiet. It was a mystery. Even though the Lord did tip off OT prophets about the mystery and gave them some hints he didn’t comprehensively divulge the specifics of the plan. But now (in the NT) the plan is fully revealed.
Then I whittled it down even more and got this one very simple bible reader’s condensed version: the OT is fairly mysterious. But the NT demystifies things considerably.

Note: quote from Romans 16:25-26 (21st Century KJV)

 

Week 44  Acts

Miracles are big in the book of Acts: a) there are quite a few of them and b) they’re all pretty convincing & spectacular.
The apostles performed many signs and wonders
Everyone was filled with awe
A lame man is instantly healed and people were filled with wonder and amazement
Stephen performed great wonders and signs among the people
When the crowds saw Philip’s healing miracles & exorcisms they all listened to what he said
Peter told a paralyzed man Jesus Christ heals you – and he was healed. And the people who witnessed the miracle turned to the Lord
Peter called a dead woman back to life and many people believed in the Lord
Paul worked many miracles – direct & indirect: even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured.
S0 there were quite a few exceptional miracles.
I can only speak from my experience in southern Alberta. But miracles like this don’t happen in my church.
That’s not to say that a flood of spectacular miracles aren’t currently happening in other places. That’s possible.
It’s also possible that miracles come in batches (a lot of them in a short time-period followed by a break or a pause).
So maybe there’s certain times and places for miracles. If so Acts definitely sounds like one of those times and one of those places.

Note: quotes from Acts 5:12 2:43 3:11 6:8 8:6-7 9:34-35 9:42 19:11-12 (NIV) Reading report for November 1/24: 89% of reading completed in 83% of the year.

Week 44  Acts 1-8

One thing that’s happening in the church is that it’s expanding.
Luke is tracking growth between chapter one and chapter eight.
The first actual number he gives is when Peter addressed a roomful of people and 120 believers were present. Were there more than that? Maybe. But there weren’t less. 120 people is my starting point.
At a public gathering Peter spoke to big crowd and 3,000 people came to belief. So 120 + 3000 = 3120.
In spite of religious opposition more-and-more people kept joining the church so that the number of believers totaled about five thousand men, not counting women and children.
The number has got to be bigger but I decide to stand-pat at 5,000. That’s maybe just as well because after chapter 4 Luke starts ball-parking his numbers. He says things like:
More and more people believed and were brought to the Lord
The believers rapidly multiplied
The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem.
Expressions like more and more or greatly increased tell me almost exactly nothing. I decide (arbitrarily & out on a limb) to add 1,000 for these three occasions: 5,000 +1,000 + 1,000 + 1,000 = 8,000.
I figure there were more than 8,000 believers by chapter 6. But that’s beside the point because in chapter the church came into the angry crosshairs of the angry religious establishment and all the believers except the apostles fled.
And just like that the church census in Jerusalem dropped by way over 99%.

Note: quotes & facts from Acts 1:15 2:41 4:4 5:14 6:1 6:7 8:1 (NLT)

Week 44  Acts 4

I found a few more things that were going on in the church at the end of chapter four:
1. believers were one-in-heart
2. believers were one-in-mind
3. no one claimed that their possessions were private
4. people shared
5. the apostles possessed great power
6. they preached about the resurrection of Jesus
7. God was powerfully at work
8. there were no needy people in the church
9. people with property sold it to help people in need.
I decided to try tidying up Luke’s list by reorganizing it into four ideas:
1. believers were united in heart & mind
2. no one claimed personal ownership (they shared everything. Property was sold and the proceeds were redistributed by the apostles. There were no needy people in the church!)
3. the apostles’ message was the resurrection of Jesus
4. the apostles’ tremendous zip was God’s power at work.
I think my tidying-up project – compartmentalizing Luke’s elements by topic – was likely a mostly bogus way of kidding myself that I was Analyzing the Passage. My big concern about Luke’s mixed-up list probably – in real life circumstances – came together in a pretty seamless way.
Anyway…out of the four items the one about social concern stands out the most. It’s definitely talked about the most (maybe because the ominous Ananias-and-Sapphira story is coming up).
But there it is: if my church isn’t helping people who are in need then my church is acting differently than the church in Acts.

Note: the list is in Acts 4:32-35

 

Week 44  Acts 2

What was the church like in the book of Acts? That was my main question. The answer started with a five-verse summary in chapter two:
• people educated themselves about the apostles’ message
• believers fellowshipped (a not-so-common word. More-than friendship. More-like comradeship. Companionship. It’s like the church is an alliance of like-minded people who aren’t all best-friends but are on the same page and they’re pilgriming along in the same direction)
• They broke bread together (another not-so-common expression that might mean a) having a meal together or b) celebrating the communion sacrament)
• They prayed together.
Luke adds a couple of other details like getting together publicly (at the Temple) and in small-groups (in people’s homes). There’s also some serious share-and-share-alike features – people selling personal possessions to help people in need.
The big idea I get from Luke’s introduction is Togetherness.  Even though he mentions a couple of personal things – the believers had glad & sincere hearts and they praised the Lord – Luke’s focus is on Togetherness practices.
I noticed a couple of differences between the church-then and the church-now.
A) people met in the temple (a practice that got permanently cancelled)
B) there were lots of spectacular miracles (the high-volume & high-quality of miracles has tailed-off)
C) the church held things in common (I get the impression that community-minded concerns were a higher-priority then )
D) the church had good public approval ratings (less so now).
So Acts 2 was a nice starting point.

Note: quite a bit of paraphrasing from Acts 2:42-47