Epistle for March 3, 2024

 

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul’s “theology of the cross” is central to his understanding of the way of salvation.  It is grounded in paradox, which is a recurring theme in Scripture — death leads to life, weakness leads to strength, foolishness is true wisdom.

Paul intends to undercut any effort to establish human pride or merit or accomplishment as grounds for a solid relationship with God.  Wisdom, the law, human philosophy, and miracles are insufficient grounds for salvation.

God chooses to reveal himself through the weakness and folly of the cross because this requires complete surrender to him. Human effort is insufficient to reach God.

Paul even goes so far as to say that the cross is a stumbling block to those who cannot believe.  The Greek word here is skandalein — a scandal, an offense!  The thought of the Lord of Life crucified for sedition and heresy is indeed a scandal to those who seek to establish their own righteousness.  But as we know from the other letters of Paul, the only righteousness that endures is the righteousness of Christ.

Not only is the cross the foolishness of God, the preaching of Christ crucified is also foolishness.  Yet to those who hear and believe:

the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

APPLY:  

The cross is still the dividing line between believers and non-believers.  I once wrote a paper in seminary on this very passage. I paid to have the paper typed by a professional typist. She happened to be a non-Christian, and she suggested that this idea of “believing in foolishness” is the very problem with the Christian faith.  And another non-Christian who had watched Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ pointed out that for the non-believer it was just a long movie about some guy getting beaten up and tortured for three hours (granted, much of the violence in that film was gratuitous).

But for those who have been confronted with their own sin, and found the self-help methods of our culture insufficient; for those who have realized that human knowledge is easily perverted for immoral purposes; for those who have realized that their own attempts to be “good” fall dreadfully short of the glory of God; for those who have grown weary of the “signs” and spectacles of the modern age — for them:

 the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (emphasis mine).

What is implied in this passage about the cross, but left unsaid, is what Paul will explain elsewhere in his epistles, including 1 & 2 Corinthians.

The cross is God’s means of reconciling sinful people to a holy God by the very substitutionary nature of Christ:  

 For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21).

And Paul will clearly elaborate on the fullness of the story in 1 Corinthians 15, including the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus:

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

I venture to say that the cross for us who are being saved: 

is the power of God.

RESPOND: 

Even forty years after my first awakening to the grace of God as a 19-year-old freshman in college, when I think of the cross and the crucifixion of Jesus, tears come to my eyes.

For me, it is a solemn and yet joyful reminder of the self-emptying, dying love of my Savior.  Undeserved, unearned by me, and unselfish by him.

Although I value knowledge and books and philosophy, the cross holds a power in my spirit that transcends all human understanding.

Our Lord, all my attempts to learn all I can, to establish my own righteousness, to achieve and succeed, all fall short of your glory.  Yet in your foolishness and weakness you reveal your wisdom and strength — that you have come to me, and have taken my sin upon yourself, and have given me your righteousness in exchange! For me, you are my wisdom, and strength, and justification, and sanctification, and glory.  Thank you!  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
“Close up eye red - Jesus – Cross” by Gerardofegan is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for February 4, 2024

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage turns in the direction of autobiography.  Paul begins chapter 9 a little on the defensive:

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord?

His tone and the content of this portion of the letter suggest that he is getting criticism from some of the Corinthians. It may be that some were suggesting he wasn’t as eloquent a speaker as Apollos; some may have questioned his authority and credentials as an apostle because he wasn’t one of the original twelve disciples and didn’t encounter Jesus until after the resurrection.  But he is clear that he is an apostle — if only because he was the first to preach the Gospel to them, and because he established them as a church in Corinth.

One other important backdrop for this passage — in this chapter he has established the premise that there is nothing wrong with an apostle or preacher receiving financial remuneration for their preaching:

Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar? Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News (1 Corinthians 9:13-14).

Having established his “rights” and “authority” as an apostle, he then makes it clear that he does not cash in on those rights.  Although there is nothing wrong with receiving financial support for ministry, he preaches the Gospel and ministers in Christ’s name because he must.  He has a divine call.

His reward is simply the opportunity to preach the Gospel free of charge. He asserts he is discharging a trust from God.

Here then is the paradox. Paul is compelled to preach, yet receives no compensation for it; he is obligated to God, but he is free from human entanglements.  His only real accountability is to God.  Therefore, he is free to submit himself as a slave to all!

The purpose of this submission is that he might win others to Christ.  Since he belongs ultimately to God, he can be radically free to meet other people where they are — he can meet the Jews on their terms, those under the law as one who has been under the law, to those not under the law as one who is free from the law.  All of this is for one purpose only:

I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.

He is radically free from entanglements so that he may be radically submitted to God.

APPLY:  

This passage compels us to think through our motivation as Christians and our motivation for ministry.  Do we believe in Christ because of the abundant rewards that are promised, or because of the inherent truth of the Gospel?  Do we offer ministry for the sake of Christ or for our own sake?

If at heart our compulsion to serve Christ is for his sake and not our own, we have begun to understand where Paul is coming from.

We are reminded that if we truly belong to Christ, then we are truly free.  In our relationships with others we are therefore liberated to be completely unselfconscious.  If we don’t depend on anyone else but Christ, and if all of our affirmation comes from Christ, we are truly liberated to be his ambassadors with all whom we meet.

And, since Christ’s love for others transcends their status, class or race, we are also free to meet people where they are in order that we might win them to Christ.

RESPOND: 

This passage tugs at my conscience.  Am I a Christian because of the promises that are given in the Scripture for blessing and eternal life, or because I have truly encountered the truth of the risen Christ?  Do I preach the Gospel because I am truly compelled, and woe is to me, if I don’t preach the Good News, or because I am a paid professional minister?  What are my motivations?

And am I so thoroughly grounded in my relationship with Christ and in my convictions that I can meet other people of different beliefs, values, and lifestyles where they are and help them to move toward Christ?  Can I distinguish between what is essential to the heart of the Gospel, and offer that freely, while tolerating the values of others that do not affect the heart of faith?

How do I live out Paul’s declaration:

I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.

How do I stand firm in the faith, and yet remain flexible enough to meet people where they are?  One example — in this era of exploding social media, when I now have the means available to communicate with people all around the world in an instant, I must avoid the temptation to sarcasm and rudeness toward those who profess disbelief, and meet their sometimes scalding disbelief with loving reasonableness.  As Paul says in Ephesians 4:15 I must begin by:

 speaking truth in love.

Lord, I do feel a compulsion to share the Gospel because I believe it is true and because it has penetrated my own life.  May I be so firmly submitted to you that I am free to share with others; and may I be able to meet them where they are knowing that you accept and love them for Christ’s sake. Amen.  

Epistle for February 12, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul is very blunt with the young church at Corinth.  He tells them that they are still immature in their faith and understanding — they are babies in Christ.

He continues this metaphor, pointing out that when he taught them Christian doctrine he had to feed them milk, not meat.  Like babies, they weren’t ready to digest “solid” doctrine.

Paul then supplies evidence to prove that they were too immature for the deeper things of God, and are still too immature — they are fussing with one another!

For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?

The prime example of the factionalism at Corinth is their cliquishness and division into groups loyal to their favorite preachers — Paul and Apollos.

This gives Paul the opportunity to clarify the relationship of preachers to Christ:

 Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?

He also is able to explore the different roles of preachers and apostles in Christian ministry:

I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.

Paul is able to differentiate the stages of a vital ministry, and also anticipates the variety of spiritual gifts that he will describe later in this same letter:

There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all (1 Corinthians 12:5-7).

But ultimately, the focus is to be on God who works through his servants and who gives the increase:

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

He also makes clear that there is no superiority or subordination of planter or waterer — they both receive a reward based on their work.

Finally, Paul returns to his agricultural metaphor, and adds a metaphor from the world of construction:

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

Paul makes it clear that he labors for the church because the church belongs to God, even if its members are still immature.  He is rooting for them to grow up into the church God intends them to become.

APPLY:  

One of the goals of the Christian life is growing up.  The Apostle Peter uses language very similar to Paul’s metaphor:

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation (1 Peter 2:2).

All Christians begin as spiritual babies who need to be nurtured carefully so they can grow up in faith.  Paul’s frustration is that the Corinthians are acting immaturely — fussing and fighting with one another instead of humbly admitting what they don’t know.  Such factionalism is a symptom of spiritual immaturity.

Paul makes it clear that the source of our Christian growth and maturity is not our favorite pastor, or some extraordinary preacher — the only task of a pastor, preacher, evangelist or teacher is to serve God, whether they are planting or watering in God’s garden.  God gives the growth.

The focus, both for the preacher and the people, is to make the “main thing the main thing” — the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

RESPOND: 

Over the years as a pastor, I have noted a long succession of plans and programs that were designed to “help the church grow.”  “Church growth” was the battle cry in my denomination, and we used various metrics to measure growth.

Some of these programs were actually helpful.  But over time it has become clear to me that the role of the pastor/preacher is not to “grow” the church.  The role of the pastor/preacher is to humbly serve God, preach the Gospel, and get out of the way!

We may plant.  We may water.  But it is God who gives the increase.  One layman in my congregation said something very wise that I never forgot — “What good does it do for the church numbers to grow if the church members don’t grow with it?”

Lord, you call us to grow in grace as individuals and as a church.  Help us to focus on your Gospel, and not pick sides on issues and personalities in the church, so that we may become what you mean for us to become.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"1 Corinthians 3 verse 6" used this photo:
"rice stages, seed germination" by IRRI Photos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for February 5, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 2:1-12, 13-16
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is the Apostle Paul’s personal apologia ­— a defense of his message and character.  It would seem, from a review of 1 & 2 Corinthians, that Paul has come under fire by a faction in the Corinthian church.

In this passage, he reminds the Corinthians that he came to Corinth with no pretentions to:

excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

We are instantly reminded of two things:

• The Greeks were famous for their fascination with eloquence and philosophy.
• Apollos, a Jewish convert to Christianity from the cultured and sophisticated city of Alexandria, was well-known for his brilliant eloquence.

Paul, however, focused simply on the straightforward message of the cross:

 For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

What was central to Paul’s message were not his own words, or his own character, but only Christ.  For Paul, the message of the cross is the pivotal point of the Gospel.  The life and teaching of Jesus lead to the cross, and the resurrection occurs as the result of the cross.  He will remind them later in his letter:

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Some translations more emphatically say that this message was of first importance (1 Corinthians 15:3, NRSV). 

Of himself, Paul is self-effacing.  He is essentially saying “I am of no importance. Christ and his message are of utmost importance.”  He declares that he preached to them:

in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

Paul’s low self-image seems odd when contrasted to his boldness as described in the book of Acts, or even his personality as revealed in his letters. Some speculate that he alludes here to a possible physical affliction, his thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7) that may have flared during his tenure in Corinth.   Or perhaps he had been chastened by his recent supposed setbacks in Athens (Acts 17).

I’m not sure it is necessary to read so much into his self-deprecation.  He is making the point that the success of his preaching and ministry derives not from himself but from God:

 My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

As Paul will again insist in his second letter to the Corinthians:

For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake….But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves (2 Corinthians 4:5,7).

Having said all of this, however, Paul makes it clear that the Gospel is not naive or simplistic — rather, it is the spear-point of the mysterious wisdom of God:

We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, which none of the rulers of this world has known.

This wisdom, given only to those who are spiritually mature, transcends worldly wisdom and political power.  Paul is reiterating what he claimed in the previous passage (1 Corinthians 1:18-25), that even God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest human power, and God’s supposed foolishness is wiser than all human knowledge.

As evidence for the ignorance of the rulers of this world, Paul points out:

had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory.

The mystery of God’s wisdom, hidden from human understanding and yet woven into the very fabric of the universe, has begun to be revealed.  This is a spiritual reality that human senses and intellect are unable to perceive, but is only revealed by God.  Paul quotes Isaiah 64:4:

But as it is written,
“Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear,
which didn’t enter into the heart of man,
these God has prepared for those who love him.”

Paul begins to explore the unique work of the Spirit of God, which he has earlier said reinforced his preaching with the:

demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

And it is the Spirit who reveals God’s wisdom, and who searches both the deep things of God and the Spirit of human beings:

For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.  For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.

Part of Paul’s understanding of the work of the Spirit is that the Spirit is a kind of liaison between God and human beings.  Note that the Spirit is God — Paul uses the phrase God’s Spirit and speaks of the Spirit which is from God.  He elaborates on this in Romans 8 when he describes how the Spirit dwells in us and testifies to our own spirits that we have become children of God through faith, and even penetrates the very mind of God and our own spirits through prayer:

 He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God (Romans 8:27).

I prefer the translation from the NRSV:

And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

APPLY:  

Although Paul protests that he came to the Corinthians without excellence of speech or of wisdom, I think he protests too much!

In this passage, he explores the mystery of grace, hidden from the foundation of the ages yet now revealed fully in Christ.  In this passage we see Paul explore the work of the Trinity, without ever using the term.

The power and wisdom of God the Father are revealed in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and are declared through human preaching.  But it is not the preaching in and of itself that has power to save — it is the demonstration of the Spirit and of power that drives the message home.

God’s mysterious wisdom and power are disclosed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and then confirmed in the human spirit through the Spirit of God.  This is a wisdom not of this world, disclosed to people who respond in faith and grow into the maturity of grace.

RESPOND: 

I remember when I first stood up in a pulpit to preach the Gospel, so many years ago.  How I identified with the Apostle Paul!

I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

I confess that more than 40 years after my first sermon, which lacked all eloquence and wisdom, I still experience weakness, fear and trembling when I preach — until I remind myself that I am preaching Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 

I resolved long ago to always focus on the message of Christ and about Christ in every sermon — whether it was a sermon based on an Old Testament text or a New Testament text.  This doesn’t mean I do damage to the integrity of the text and import meaning that isn’t there.  No, what it means is that Christ is the key to understanding the entire Biblical witness, and that through the witness of the Holy Spirit, that key is placed in our hearts to open the mystery of God’s power, wisdom, grace and love.

Lord, wherever I go enable me to disappear so that you may appear.  Help me to share the Good News of Jesus Christ so that there is a demonstration of your Spirit and power. Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"Corrie Ten Boom Quote" by the Corrie Ten Boom Museum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for January 29, 2023

 

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

A NOTE FROM CELESTE LETCHWORTH:

As most of you know, Tom went to be with the Lord in June, 2018.

Since the lectionary cycles every 3 years, I am able to copy Tom’s SOAR studies from the archives and post them each week with our current year’s dates.

You’ll notice that this week’s Epistle reading is supposed to include verses 18-31. Sorry, all I could find in Tom’s archives are postings for verses 18-25.

The following is his post from January 29, 2017.

OBSERVE:

Paul’s “theology of the cross” is central to his understanding of the way of salvation.  It is grounded in paradox, which is a recurring theme in Scripture — death leads to life, weakness leads to strength, foolishness is true wisdom.

Paul intends to undercut any effort to establish human pride or merit or accomplishment as grounds for a solid relationship with God.  Wisdom, the law, human philosophy, and miracles are insufficient grounds for salvation.

God chooses to reveal himself through the weakness and folly of the cross because this requires complete surrender to him. Human effort is insufficient to reach God.

Paul even goes so far as to say that the cross is a stumbling block to those who cannot believe.  The Greek word here is skandalein — a scandal, an offense!  The thought of the Lord of Life crucified for sedition and heresy is indeed a scandal to those who seek to establish their own righteousness.  But as we know from the other letters of Paul, the only righteousness that endures is the righteousness of Christ.

Not only is the cross the foolishness of God, the preaching of Christ crucified is also foolishness.  Yet to those who hear and believe:

the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

APPLY:  

The cross is still the dividing line between believers and non-believers.  I once wrote a paper in seminary on this very passage. I paid to have the paper typed by a professional typist. She happened to be a non-Christian, and she suggested that this idea of “believing in foolishness” is the very problem with the Christian faith.

Many years later, another non-Christian who had watched Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ, commented to me that for the non-believer it was just a long movie about some guy getting beaten up and tortured for three hours (granted, much of the violence in that film was gratuitous).

But for those who have been confronted with their own sin, and found the self-help methods of our culture insufficient; for those who have realized that human knowledge is easily perverted for immoral purposes; for those who have realized that their own attempts to be “good” fall dreadfully short of the glory of God; for those who have grown weary of the “signs” and spectacles of the modern age — for them:

 the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (emphasis mine).

What is implied in this passage about the cross, but left unsaid, is what Paul will explain elsewhere in his epistles, including 1 & 2 Corinthians.

The cross is God’s means of reconciling sinful people to a holy God by the very substitutionary nature of Christ:  

 For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21).

And Paul will clearly elaborate on the fullness of the story in 1 Corinthians 15, including the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus:

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

I venture to say that the cross for us who are being saved: 

is the power of God.

RESPOND: 

Even forty years after my first awakening to the grace of God as a 19 year-old freshman in college, when I think of the cross and the crucifixion of Jesus, tears come to my eyes.

For me, it is a solemn and yet joyful reminder of the self-emptying, dying love of my Savior.  Undeserved, unearned by me, and unselfish by him.

Although I value knowledge and books and philosophy, the cross holds a power in my spirit that transcends all human understanding.

Our Lord, all my attempts to learn all I can, to establish my own righteousness, to achieve and succeed, all fall short of your glory.  Yet in your foolishness and weakness you reveal your wisdom and strength — that you have come to me, and have taken my sin upon yourself, and have given me your righteousness in exchange! For me, you are my wisdom, and strength, and justification, and sanctification, and glory.  Thank you!  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
“Close up eye red - Jesus – Cross” by Gerardofegan is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for March 7, 2021

 

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul’s “theology of the cross” is central to his understanding of the way of salvation.  It is grounded in paradox, which is a recurring theme in Scripture — death leads to life, weakness leads to strength, foolishness is true wisdom.

Paul intends to undercut any effort to establish human pride or merit or accomplishment as grounds for a solid relationship with God.  Wisdom, the law, human philosophy, and miracles are insufficient grounds for salvation.

God chooses to reveal himself through the weakness and folly of the cross because this requires complete surrender to him. Human effort is insufficient to reach God.

Paul even goes so far as to say that the cross is a stumbling block to those who cannot believe.  The Greek word here is skandalein — a scandal, an offense!  The thought of the Lord of Life crucified for sedition and heresy is indeed a scandal to those who seek to establish their own righteousness.  But as we know from the other letters of Paul, the only righteousness that endures is the righteousness of Christ.

Not only is the cross the foolishness of God, the preaching of Christ crucified is also foolishness.  Yet to those who hear and believe:

the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

APPLY:  

The cross is still the dividing line between believers and non-believers.  I once wrote a paper in seminary on this very passage. I paid to have the paper typed by a professional typist. She happened to be a non-Christian, and she suggested that this idea of “believing in foolishness” is the very problem with the Christian faith.  And another non-Christian who had watched Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ pointed out that for the non-believer it was just a long movie about some guy getting beaten up and tortured for three hours (granted, much of the violence in that film was gratuitous).

But for those who have been confronted with their own sin, and found the self-help methods of our culture insufficient; for those who have realized that human knowledge is easily perverted for immoral purposes; for those who have realized that their own attempts to be “good” fall dreadfully short of the glory of God; for those who have grown weary of the “signs” and spectacles of the modern age — for them:

 the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (emphasis mine).

What is implied in this passage about the cross, but left unsaid, is what Paul will explain elsewhere in his epistles, including 1 & 2 Corinthians.

The cross is God’s means of reconciling sinful people to a holy God by the very substitutionary nature of Christ:  

 For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21).

And Paul will clearly elaborate on the fullness of the story in 1 Corinthians 15, including the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus:

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

I venture to say that the cross for us who are being saved: 

is the power of God.

RESPOND: 

Even forty years after my first awakening to the grace of God as a 19 year-old freshman in college, when I think of the cross and the crucifixion of Jesus, tears come to my eyes.

For me, it is a solemn and yet joyful reminder of the self-emptying, dying love of my Savior.  Undeserved, unearned by me, and unselfish by him.

Although I value knowledge and books and philosophy, the cross holds a power in my spirit that transcends all human understanding.

Our Lord, all my attempts to learn all I can, to establish my own righteousness, to achieve and succeed, all fall short of your glory.  Yet in your foolishness and weakness you reveal your wisdom and strength — that you have come to me, and have taken my sin upon yourself, and have given me your righteousness in exchange! For me, you are my wisdom, and strength, and justification, and sanctification, and glory.  Thank you!  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
“Close up eye red - Jesus – Cross” by Gerardofegan is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for February 7, 2021

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This passage turns in the direction of autobiography.  Paul begins chapter 9 a little on the defensive:

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord?

His tone and the content of this portion of the letter suggest that he is getting criticism from some of the Corinthians. It may be that some were suggesting he wasn’t as eloquent a speaker as Apollos; some may have questioned his authority and credentials as an apostle because he wasn’t one of the original twelve disciples and didn’t encounter Jesus until after the resurrection.  But he is clear that he is an apostle — if only because he was the first to preach the Gospel to them, and because he established them as a church in Corinth.

One other important backdrop for this passage — in this chapter he has established the premise that there is nothing wrong with an apostle or preacher receiving financial remuneration for their preaching:

Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar? Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News (1 Corinthians 9:13-14).

Having established his “rights” and “authority” as an apostle, he then makes it clear that he does not cash in on those rights.  Although there is nothing wrong with receiving financial support for ministry, he preaches the Gospel and ministers in Christ’s name because he must.  He has a divine call.

His reward is simply the opportunity to preach the Gospel free of charge. He asserts he is discharging a trust from God.

Here then is the paradox. Paul is compelled to preach, yet receives no compensation for it; he is obligated to God, but he is free from human entanglements.  His only real accountability is to God.  Therefore, he is free to submit himself as a slave to all!

The purpose of this submission is that he might win others to Christ.  Since he belongs ultimately to God, he can be radically free to meet other people where they are — he can meet the Jews on their terms, those under the law as one who has been under the law, to those not under the law as one who is free from the law.  All of this is for one purpose only:

I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.

He is radically free from entanglements so that he may be radically submitted to God.

APPLY:  

This passage compels us to think through our motivation as Christians and our motivation for ministry.  Do we believe in Christ because of the abundant rewards that are promised, or because of the inherent truth of the Gospel?  Do we offer ministry for the sake of Christ or for our own sake?

If at heart our compulsion to serve Christ is for his sake and not our own, we have begun to understand where Paul is coming from.

We are reminded that if we truly belong to Christ, then we are truly free.  In our relationships with others we are therefore liberated to be completely unselfconscious.  If we don’t depend on any one else but Christ, and if all of our affirmation comes from Christ, we are truly liberated to be his ambassadors with all whom we meet.

And, since Christ’s love for others transcends their status, class or race, we are also free to meet people where they are in order that we might win them to Christ.

RESPOND: 

This passage tugs at my conscience.  Am I a Christian because of the promises that are given in the Scripture for blessing and eternal life, or because I have truly encountered the truth of the risen Christ?  Do I preach the Gospel because I am truly compelled, and woe is to me, if I don’t preach the Good News, or because I am a paid professional minister?  What are my motivations?

And am I so thoroughly grounded in my relationship with Christ and in my convictions that I can meet other people of different beliefs, values, and lifestyles where they are and help them to move toward Christ?  Can I distinguish between what is essential to the heart of the Gospel, and offer that freely, while tolerating the values of others that do not affect the heart of faith?

How do I live out Paul’s declaration:

I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.

How do I stand firm in the faith, and yet remain flexible enough to meet people where they are?  One example — in this era of exploding social media, when I now have the means available to communicate with people all around the world in an instant, I must avoid the temptation to sarcasm and rudeness toward those who profess disbelief, and meet their sometimes scalding disbelief with loving reasonableness.  As Paul says in Ephesians 4:15 I must begin by:

 speaking truth in love.

Lord, I do feel a compulsion to share the Gospel because I believe it is true and because it has penetrated my own life.  May I be so firmly submitted to you that I am free to share with others; and may I be able to meet them where they are knowing that you accept and love them for Christ’s sake. Amen.  

Epistle for February 16, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Paul is very blunt with the young church at Corinth.  He tells them that they are still immature in their faith and understanding — they are babies in Christ.

He continues this metaphor, pointing out that when he taught them Christian doctrine he had to feed them milk, not meat.  Like babies, they weren’t ready to digest “solid” doctrine.

Paul then supplies evidence to prove that they were too immature for the deeper things of God, and are still too immature — they are fussing with one another!

For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men?

The prime example of the factionalism at Corinth is their cliquishness and division into groups loyal to their favorite preachers — Paul and Apollos.

This gives Paul the opportunity to clarify the relationship of preachers to Christ:

 Who then is Apollos, and who is Paul, but servants through whom you believed; and each as the Lord gave to him?

He also is able to explore the different roles of preachers and apostles in Christian ministry:

I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase.

Paul is able to differentiate the stages of a vital ministry, and also anticipates the variety of spiritual gifts that he will describe later in this same letter:

There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all (1 Corinthians 12:5-7).

But ultimately, the focus is to be on God who works through his servants and who gives the increase:

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

He also makes clear that there is no superiority or subordination of planter or waterer — they both receive a reward based on their work.

Finally, Paul returns to his agricultural metaphor, and adds a metaphor from the world of construction:

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.

Paul makes it clear that he labors for the church because the church belongs to God, even if its members are still immature.  He is rooting for them to grow up into the church God intends them to become.

APPLY:  

One of the goals of the Christian life is growing up.  The Apostle Peter uses language very similar to Paul’s metaphor:

Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation—(1 Peter 2:2).

All Christians begin as spiritual babies who need to be nurtured carefully so they can grow up in faith.  Paul’s frustration is that the Corinthians are acting immaturely — fussing and fighting with one another instead of humbly admitting what they don’t know.  Such factionalism is a symptom of  spiritual immaturity.

Paul makes it clear that the source of our Christian growth and maturity is not our favorite pastor, or some extraordinary preacher — the only task of a pastor, preacher, evangelist or teacher is to serve God, whether they are planting or watering in God’s garden .  God gives the growth.

The focus, both for the preacher and the people, is to make the “main thing the main thing” — the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

RESPOND: 

Over the years as a pastor, I have noted a long succession of plans and programs that were designed to “help the church grow.”  “Church growth” was the battle cry in my denomination, and we used various metrics to measure growth.

Some of these programs were actually helpful.  But over time it has become clear to me that the role of the pastor/preacher is not to “grow” the church.  The role of the pastor/preacher is to humbly serve God, preach the Gospel, and get out of the way!

We may plant.  We may water.  But it is God who gives the increase.  One layman in my congregation said something very wise that I never forgot — “What good does it do for the church numbers to grow if the church members don’t grow with it?”

Lord, you call us to grow in grace as individuals and as a church.  Help us to focus on your Gospel, and not pick sides on issues and personalities in the church, so that we may become what you mean for us to become.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"1 Corinthians 3 verse 6" used this photo:
"rice stages, seed germination" by IRRI Photos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for February 9, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 2:1-12, 13-16
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

This is the Apostle Paul’s  personal apologia ­— a defense of his message and character.  It would seem, from a review of 1 & 2 Corinthians, that Paul has come under fire by a faction in the Corinthian church.

In this passage, he reminds the Corinthians that he came to Corinth with no pretentions to:

excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

We are instantly reminded of two things:

• The Greeks were famous for their fascination with eloquence and philosophy.
• Apollos, a Jewish convert to Christianity from the cultured and sophisticated city of Alexandria, was well-known for his brilliant eloquence.

Paul , however, focused simply on the straightforward message of the cross:

 For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

What was central to Paul’s message were not his own words, or his own character, but only Christ.  For Paul, the message of the cross is the pivotal point of the Gospel.  The life and teaching of Jesus lead to the cross, and the resurrection occurs as the result of the cross.  He will remind them later in his letter:

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Some translations more emphatically say that this message was of first importance (1 Corinthians 15:3, NRSV). 

Of himself, Paul is self-effacing.  He is essentially saying “I am of no importance. Christ and his message are of utmost importance.”  He declares that he preached to them:

in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

Paul’s low self-image seems odd when contrasted to his boldness as described in the book of Acts, or even his personality as revealed in his letters. Some speculate that he alludes here to a possible physical affliction, his thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7) that may have flared during his tenure in Corinth.   Or perhaps he had been chastened by his recent supposed setbacks in Athens (Acts 17).

I’m not sure it is necessary to read so much into his self-deprecation.  He is making the point that the success of his preaching and ministry derives not from himself but from God:

 My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

As Paul will again insist in his second letter to the Corinthians:

For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake….But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves (2 Corinthians 4:5,7).

Having said all of this, however, Paul makes it clear that the Gospel is not naive or simplistic — rather, it is the spear-point of the mysterious wisdom of God:

We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory,  which none of the rulers of this world has known.

This wisdom, given only to those who are spiritually mature, transcends worldly wisdom and political power.  Paul is reiterating what he claimed in the previous passage (1 Corinthians 1:18-25), that even God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest human power, and God’s supposed foolishness is wiser than all human knowledge.

As evidence for the ignorance of the rulers of this world, Paul points out:

had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory.

The mystery of God’s wisdom, hidden from human understanding and yet woven into the very fabric of the universe, has begun to be revealed.  This is a spiritual reality that human senses and intellect are unable to perceive, but is only revealed by God.  Paul quotes Isaiah 64:4:

But as it is written,
“Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear,
which didn’t enter into the heart of man,
these God has prepared for those who love him.”

Paul begins to explore the unique work of the Spirit of God, which he has earlier said reinforced his preaching with the:

demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

And it is the Spirit who reveals God’s wisdom, and who searches both the deep things of God and the Spirit of human beings:

For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.  For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us by God.

Part of Paul’s understanding of the work of the Spirit is that the Spirit is a kind of liaison between God and human beings.  Note that the Spirit is God — Paul uses the phrase God’s Spirit and speaks of the Spirit which is from God.  He elaborates on this in Romans 8 when he describes how the Spirit dwells in us and testifies to our own spirits that we have become children of God through faith, and even penetrates the very mind of God and our own spirits through prayer:

 He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God (Romans 8:27).

I  prefer the translation from the NRSV:

And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit  intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

APPLY:  

Although Paul protests that he came to the Corinthians without  excellence of speech or of wisdom, I think he protests too much!

In this passage, he explores the mystery of grace, hidden from the foundation of the ages yet now revealed fully in Christ.  In this passage we see Paul explore the work of the Trinity, without ever using the term.

The power and wisdom of God the Father are revealed in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and are declared through human preaching.  But it is not the preaching in and of itself that has power to save — it is the demonstration of the Spirit and of power that drives the message home.

God’s mysterious wisdom and power are disclosed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and then confirmed in the human spirit through the Spirit of God.  This is a  wisdom not of this world, disclosed to people who respond in faith and grow into the maturity of grace.

RESPOND: 

I remember when I first stood up in a pulpit to preach the Gospel, so many years ago.  How I identified with the Apostle Paul!

I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

I confess that more than 40 years after my first sermon, which lacked all eloquence and wisdom, I still  experience weakness, fear and trembling when I preach — until I remind myself that I am preaching Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 

I resolved long ago to always focus on the message of Christ and about Christ in every sermon — whether it was a sermon based on an Old Testament text or a New Testament text.  This doesn’t mean I do damage to the integrity of the text and import meaning that isn’t there.  No, what it means is that Christ is the key to understanding the entire Biblical witness, and that through the witness of the Holy Spirit, that key is placed in our hearts to open the mystery of God’s power, wisdom, grace and love.

Lord, wherever I go enable me to disappear so that you may appear.  Help me to share the Good News of Jesus Christ so that there is a demonstration of your Spirit and power. Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"Corrie Ten Boom Quote" by the Corrie Ten Boom Museum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.

Epistle for February 2, 2020

 

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

A NOTE FROM CELESTE LETCHWORTH:

As most of you know, Tom went to be with the Lord in June, 2018.

Since the lectionary cycles every 3 years, I am able to copy Tom’s SOAR studies from the archives and post them each week with our current year’s dates.

You’ll notice that this week’s Epistle reading is supposed to include verses 18-31. Sorry, all I could find in Tom’s archives are postings for verses 18-25.

The following is his post from January 29, 2017.

OBSERVE:

Paul’s “theology of the cross” is central to his understanding of the way of salvation.  It is grounded in paradox, which is a recurring theme in Scripture — death leads to life, weakness leads to strength, foolishness is true wisdom.

Paul intends to undercut any effort to establish human pride or merit or accomplishment as grounds for a solid relationship with God.  Wisdom, the law, human philosophy, and miracles are insufficient grounds for salvation.

God chooses to reveal himself through the weakness and folly of the cross because this requires complete surrender to him. Human effort is insufficient to reach God.

Paul even goes so far as to say that the cross is a stumbling block to those who cannot believe.  The Greek word here is skandalein — a scandal, an offense!  The thought of the Lord of Life crucified for sedition and heresy is indeed a scandal to those who seek to establish their own righteousness.  But as we know from the other letters of Paul, the only righteousness that endures is the righteousness of Christ.

Not only is the cross the foolishness of God, the preaching of Christ crucified is also foolishness.  Yet to those who hear and believe:

the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

APPLY:  

The cross is still the dividing line between believers and non-believers.  I once wrote a paper in seminary on this very passage. I paid to have the paper typed by a professional typist. She happened to be a non-Christian, and she suggested that this idea of “believing in foolishness” is the very problem with the Christian faith.

Many years later, another non-Christian who had watched Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ, commented to me that for the non-believer it was just a long movie about some guy getting beaten up and tortured for three hours (granted, much of the violence in that film was gratuitous).

But for those who have been confronted with their own sin, and found the self-help methods of our culture insufficient; for those who have realized that human knowledge is easily perverted for immoral purposes; for those who have realized that their own attempts to be “good” fall dreadfully short of the glory of God; for those who have grown weary of the “signs” and spectacles of the modern age — for them:

 the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (emphasis mine).

What is implied in this passage about the cross, but left unsaid, is what Paul will explain elsewhere in his epistles, including 1 & 2 Corinthians.

The cross is God’s means of reconciling sinful people to a holy God by the very substitutionary nature of Christ:  

 For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21).

And Paul will clearly elaborate on the fullness of the story in 1 Corinthians 15, including the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus:

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

I venture to say that the cross for us who are being saved: 

is the power of God.

RESPOND: 

Even forty years after my first awakening to the grace of God as a 19 year-old freshman in college, when I think of the cross and the crucifixion of Jesus, tears come to my eyes.

For me, it is a solemn and yet joyful reminder of the self-emptying, dying love of my Savior.  Undeserved, unearned by me, and unselfish by him.

Although I value knowledge and books and philosophy, the cross holds a power in my spirit that transcends all human understanding.

Our Lord, all my attempts to learn all I can, to establish my own righteousness, to achieve and succeed, all fall short of your glory.  Yet in your foolishness and weakness you reveal your wisdom and strength — that you have come to me, and have taken my sin upon yourself, and have given me your righteousness in exchange! For me, you are my wisdom, and strength, and justification, and sanctification, and glory.  Thank you!  Amen. 

 PHOTOS:
“Close up eye red - Jesus – Cross” by Gerardofegan is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.