Beyond the Gospels: Corinthians

Today's Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:12-20
[Be sure and read the verses before you read the rest. If you don't have your Bible with you, click the reference above to read online.]

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body,

so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body...

1 Corinthians 12:12-13

This analogy Paul gives, a physical body being a picture of Christ's body, the Church, is one worth spending some time considering.

First of all, think of your body. How often do you consider it being made up of many parts? In our mind, in our being, it's just one. We may notice one part more than another when we have an ache or pain somewhere, then we get it taken care of. But we never consider it apart from the whole. It's just part of us, our body, we are one.

Paul is asking us to think of the Church in the same way. Those in Christ Jesus, other Believers, make up one body. They are not just a group of people working toward some common good or goal. They... we... are one body.

Really. Meditate on that thought for a while and consider how you treat your brothers and sisters in Christ. Do you treat them as one? or a lot of parts you can do without? Is it important to you to take care of them when they hurt or are broken? or people to avoid?

One body. Many parts. One body.

Lord Jesus, help me to wrap my mind around the truth

that in You I am one with many. Just like the parts of my body.

One. Teach me, grow me, to love and be the part of the body

You call me to be.

Beyond the Gospels: Corinthians

Today's Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
[No Bible near? Click the link above to read online.]

Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters,

I do not want you to be uninformed.

1 Corinthians 12:1 NIV

Spiritual gifts. We are not to be ignorant or uninformed when it comes to them.

The first and most important gift we receive by the power of the Holy Spirit is the faith to say: Jesus is Lord. With this first gift additional gifts follow, given to us at His discretion for the common good --- the good of His church.

Spiritual gifts are to be used at the direction of Jesus. He is our Lord, at least He is supposed to be if we say He is. We need to seek His direction and guidance for using the gifts He's blessed us with. This is essential for us to remember. We are to honor our Lord with the gifts He's given by using them according to His will.

Do you now what your gifts are? (Name a couple now... go ahead... speak them out loud.)
Are you using the gifts He's given you?
Are you using them at His direction? for His glory? or for yours?

Do not be uninformed... ignorant... of your spiritual gifts. If you have been blessed with the gift of faith to say and to live the truth: Jesus is Lord. Then you have spiritual gifts the church needs to be all He's called us to be.

I pray you'll begin exercising your gift of faith, first. Asking Him to reveal what He's gifted to you and how to use it.

Lord Jesus, by faith I proclaim You as my Lord. Bend me to Your will for my life.

Reveal the gifts You've blessed me with and how You want me to use them.

Bless me with the boldness to use them without fear and to serve You alone.

Beyond the Gospels: Corinthians

Today's Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
[Click the reference above to read online.]

Paul describes a sad looking church. The problems identified through their treatment of the Lord's Supper: Communion.

Communion is a spiritual discipline practiced to remind us of our union with Christ and with other Believers. A time for grace, humility, love, and thanksgiving. But here in the Corinthian church this sacrament highlighted a broken community full of divisions, inequalities, and prejudices.

What does Communion reveal about our church? Do we gather with grace? humility? thanksgiving? Or do we complain? criticize? the way in which the elements are offered? Is it a time when every member makes a special effort to come together? Or is it a Sunday to avoid?

The way a church receives the Lord's Supper says a lot about the health of a church.

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup,

you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 NIV

To proclaim the Lord's death is to remember He died for us. Made the way for life. Saved us from death. A total act of grace. Undeserved. Unmerited.

As we receive and proclaim His death through bread and the fruit of the vine we remember His love for us and in turn should be moved to share His love with others. Beginning with our church family.

Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread

and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without

discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.

1 Corinthians 11:28-29 NIV

This next Sunday is a Communion Sunday. Maybe we should each take Paul's counsel and examine ourselves and our attitude toward the Lord's Supper and our brothers and sisters in Christ before we partake.

Lord, I pray First United Methodist Church - Jacksonville

will glorify You each time we gather for Communion.

Amen.

Beyond the Gospels: Corinthians

Today's Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:9-16
[Click above to read the passage online.]

Paul continues his discourse on authority and God-ordained order in the church.

Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman;

for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman.

And all things are from God.

1 Corinthians 11:11-12 ESV

Men and women inextricably linked in reflecting God's image to the world. Woman came from man, but now every man comes from a woman. However, the most important point: All things are from God.

As Creator, God established order for His purpose and His glory.

Who are we to question or turn upside down what He brought into existence?

Every time we mess with His created order, we dishonor Him and minimize who He is in the eyes of the world rather than glorifying Him as we are called to do.

The church seems to be lacking in true fear of the Lord. For this reason, I believe we take His ways and Word too lightly. We've forgotten who He is.

In chapter four of the book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar, who took Judah into exile, gives a national proclamation recounting his personal experience with the Most High God. Nebuchadnezzar's testimony reveals that God, in His grace, brought him to a right understanding of who He is and who he was before Him. 

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven,

and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High,

and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion

is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation

to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,

and he does according to his will among the host of heaven

and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand

or say to him, "What have you done?"

Daniel 4:34-35 ESV

All inhabitants of the earth account as nothing... He does according to His will... none can stay His hand... or question His actions.

This is the foundation for a proper fear of the Lord. This is an understanding that protects us from neglecting His Word and His created order.

Where do you stand when it comes to fear of the Lord?

Or do you find yourself face down on the floor before Him?

Father God, bless me with a proper fear of You.

I do not want to forget who You are or who I am before You.

For the Lord is God, and he created the heavens and earth

and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in,

not to be a place of empty chaos. "I am the Lord," he says,

"and there is no other."

Isaiah 45:18 NLT

Beyond the Gospels: Corinthians

Today's Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:1-8
[Click the reference above to read on BibleGateway.com]

The point of this passage is not whether women should cover their heads when praying or prophesying or wear their hair short or long. And likewise, it's not about men's heads remaining uncovered. The covering and uncovering of heads in the eastern countries had cultural significance. Covered heads a sign of subjection to authority, and uncovered heads signified a rank of authority (Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible).

The heart of the passage centers on authority and God-ordained order. Men are men. Women are women. God created both with specific purposes.

So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27 ESV

Paul was expressing the importance of maintaining God's order.

For man was not made from woman, but woman from man.

1 Corinthians 11:8 ESV

Our culture today is pushing to ignore gender altogether. Pushing the idea of gender neutral restrooms and locker rooms in schools and college campuses.

The blurring of gender is an affront and attack on God's order of creation and His authority as Creator. He created man as the head of the family, and woman came forth from him as a "helper." A word in the Hebrew, only used of woman and of God.

When God creates Eve, he calls her an ezer kenegdo. ...

The word ezer is used only twenty other places in the Old Testament. And in every other instance the person being described is God himself, when you need him to come through for you desperately. ...

Most of the contexts are life and death, by the way, and God is your only hope. Your ezer. If he is not there beside you... your are dead. A better translation therefore of ezer would be "lifesaver." Kenegdo means alongside, or opposite to, a counterpart.

---John & Stasi Eldredge, Captivating

God has a purpose in gender. Men are given the authority and responsibility in the church second only to Christ. Women have the awesome role of being the ones alongside, without whom they could not accomplish their call.

It takes both men and women, honoring God through their gender, to express the fullness of who God is: Created in His image, both male and female.

Honor God through the gender He created you, whether male or female. Through prayer and study of His Word, let Him define and reveal your role in glorifying Him.

Father God, thank You for making me who You created me to be.

Help me to glorify You through my gender. Teach me to honor Your order.