Posts

For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.

  Good morning. Remember last time that Paul said he was going to find out the power of those who were arrogant. For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power. You can give all kinds of fancy “teachings”, but they are useless if there is no power in you or in what you say. The Gospel has transforming power. It can not only bring about healings and so on, but it can also bring a change in your heart and your attitude. He then goes through the thing about someone among them having his father’s wife (not talking about his mother – stepmother). Paul gets a bit “hot under the collar“. I on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, I have already judged him who has committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan (my Bible says that means to put him out of the church, so that he does not have the fellowship o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me

  Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
Post a Comment
Read more

For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast is if you had not received it?

   Good morning. Back to those who are arrogant: For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast is if you had not received it? All of that is why they are arrogant. Paul then gets sarcastic: you are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish you had become kings so that we also might reign with you. For I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. My Bible says that the word spectacle in Greek means theater. Paul is referring to the gladiatorial contests in the arena or perhaps to the triumphal procession of a victorious Roman general. He pictures all the world and even angels looking on while the apostles are brought in last to fight to the death. How would you like to live your life that way with everyone rooting for your failure or demise?...
Post a Comment
Read more

Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God.

  Good morning. Last time Paul said that it was no big deal if he were examined by them or anyone else, and that he was conscious of nothing against himself. It was the Lord who was to examine him. And so what should we do? Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God. Ultimately, God is the one who will judge. However, as the old saying goes: we are to be fruit inspectors. Is the one ministering bearing the fruit of the Spirit? If not, then their ministry is suspect. Now these things I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. Sometimes Christians who follow certain “evangelists” think that theirs is better than others’, which ...
Post a Comment
Read more

All things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.

  Good morning. So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas (not us belonging to some leader) or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God. Some ministers think that they deserve special privileges and don’t have to lift a finger. But Paul says about himself: let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. We should listen to others, because they may see something wrong in us that we do not see. However, just because they think we are doing something wrong does ...
Post a Comment
Read more

If any man among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise

  Good morning. Let no man deceive himself. Did you realize that you can deceive yourself? We do that all the time in the natural. We want something so badly that we come up with all kinds of reasons or excuses to justify obtaining it. “If we buy this or that, we can use it for God’s glory”. In the end though we are just deceiving ourselves. If any man among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. Say what? Remember that in the beginning of Corinthians we were talking about the difference between the wisdom of this world and God‘s wisdom. It is foolishness to believe in the power of the cross, but that is where true wisdom lies. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness.”; and again, “the Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.“ In the book of James, he says that the wisdom of this world cannot compare to the wisdom from above...
Post a Comment
Read more

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

 Good morning. Now we come to a couple of verses that are commonly misapplied. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. Sometimes people apply these verses to an individual’s body. However, Paul has just been talking about building the church. In chapter 6 he is talking about your own personal body. My Bible says that when it says temple of God, Paul is talking about God’s church. Paul does not mean here that each of his readers is a temple of the Holy Spirit. He says, “you yourselves (plural in Greek) are God‘s temple (singular in Greek)”. All of us together are a holy temple of God. Here he is not talking about each of us individually being God‘s temple. If you ruin God’s church, He will ruin you. Father help us to always work together to build Your church, not to tear it down. Keep the Destroyer and his allies from ev...
Post a Comment
Read more