Christ in 2 Corinthians -- Our Hope

Last week we saw in the book of 1 Corinthians how Paul was reprimanding the church in Corinth for many issues that were causing divisions within the church.  Apparently that letter did not bring about the result that Paul had hoped, so he followed it up with what he called “a painful visit” to the church:

So I decided that I would not bring you grief with another painful visit (2 Corinthians 2:1).

Now I am coming to you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you (2 Corinthians 12:14a).

Even that “painful visit” did not accomplish what he had hoped, so he followed up with a harsh letter – a letter referred to in 2 Corinthians, but one that has been lost to us.  We can only imagine by what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians and his follow-up letter of 2 Corinthians that he was again warning the church about all the actions and attitudes that were causing division within the church:

That is why I wrote to you as I did, so that when I do come, I won’t be grieved by the very ones who ought to give me the greatest joy. Surely you all know that my joy comes from your being joyful. I wrote that letter in great anguish, with a troubled heart and many tears. I didn’t want to grieve you, but I wanted to let you know how much love I have for you (2 Corinthians 2:3-4).

This painful letter was delivered by Titus.  Apparently, the letter, though harsh, caused a change in the church.  The person who was stirring up trouble had been reprimanded by the church leaders and had been punished.  As a result, we read in 2 Corinthians that Paul was now encouraging the church to extend grace and mercy to that person, since he had repented:

I am not overstating it when I say that the man who caused all the trouble hurt all of you more than he hurt me. Most of you opposed him, and that was punishment enough. Now, however, it is time to forgive and comfort him. Otherwise he may be overcome by discouragement. So I urge you now to reaffirm your love for him (2 Corinthians 2:5-8).

In the letter we know as 2 Corinthians, Paul poured his heart out to the church.  It is the most personal of all of Paul’s letters.  If you will read it all in one sitting, especially if you read a newer translation (I am using the New Living Translation here), you will see how Paul’s heart was broken for this immature church.  They were being swayed by false teachers, causing them to doubt Paul’s authority and what he was teaching.  They tried to convince the church that Paul was wishy-washy in his devotion to them, since he had cancelled a visit he had planned and which they were anxiously expecting.  But Paul’s love for them was like that of a father of a rebellious child.  His heart was aching for them.  He used plain language, along with sound logic, to show this young, undisciplined church that he was telling them the truth.  He was not asking for their financial support as some of the false teachers were.  He was not trying to trick them or give them false promises.  He compared himself to a simple clay pot, rather than a fancy vessel.  He didn’t try to make himself look better by bragging about his qualifications, but simply and honestly preached the Good News of Jesus Christ:

You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves (2 Corinthians 4:5-7).

It seems as if the false teachers of Paul’s day were no different from those false teachers we see today – those who would try to convince people that if they will give so much money to their church, all will be rosy -- no more sickness, no more poverty, and no more sadness.  This is called “Prosperity Gospel” and is not biblical.  God is not a magic genie or a fairy godmother, obligated to grant our every wish!  Paul, probably the greatest preacher of the gospel who ever lived, tells us in this letter that if we are following Christ, especially if we are sharing the gospel with others, we will all suffer, just as he suffered.  But no matter how bad it gets, even if our suffering leads to death, we have a hope in Jesus Christ that is far better than anything we could dream of.  God will never leave us, and we will spend eternity with Him:

For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands (2 Corinthians 5:1).

So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8).

Christ’s love controls us.  Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun (2 Corinthians 5:17)!

So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

I hope that you have come back to God.  I hope that you have accepted His offering for your sin, and that you have been made right with God through Christ.  If you have not, please don’t delay.  Not one of us is promised a tomorrow.  Tomorrow may be too late.  I hope that you will come to Him today, because without Him you have no hope:

For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).

My prayer for you and for me this week is from the closing verses of this book, 2 Corinthians 13:11, 14:

(Heavenly Father, Cause us to) be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with (us). . . May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with (us) all.

Christ in 1 Corinthians -- Our Unifier

The book of 1 Corinthians was written by Paul in about 55 A.D. from the city of Ephesus, near the end of his three-year ministry there.  It was not actually the first letter he had written to them (see 1 Cor. 5:9), but it is the first of the two letters to the Corinthian church that are included in the Bible.  The second letter was written later in the same year.

The city of Corinth was a large, multicultural city in Greece.  It was (and is still) located on an isthmus less than 5 miles wide, about 51 miles due west of Athens.  It has a seacoast on its northwest and on its southeast.  Because it was a large seaport, it was an international trading center, bustling with activity and commerce from all over the known world.  The Greeks were famous for their curiosity about spiritual things, and because of that they tolerated and even encouraged the worship of many gods, brought from all over the world.  Their curiosity extended to the One True Living God, so it was not surprising that when Paul preached in Corinth, many accepted the Good News of Jesus Christ.  But Paul was a missionary, or one we might today call a “church planter.”  After he established the church in Corinth, he did not stay on to be its pastor.  So now, a few years later he was hearing troubling news about the church.  This letter addressed some of the many disturbing problems that Paul was hearing about:  divisions within the church; tolerance of sin within the church; quarrels and lawsuits between church members; disagreements over marriage and celibacy; abuse of Christian freedom; disorder during public worship; irreverence in the taking of communion; pride; absence of cooperation; false teaching.
 

As I mentioned almost a year ago when I began this study, tracing the thread of Jesus Christ through every book of the Bible, I must again warn that every verse of every book of the Bible must be read in context – it is important to know who it was written to, who it was written by, and why it was written.  Some people may read the book of 1 Corinthians and get hung up on some things that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth that do not necessarily apply to you or to me today.  For example, a great deal of space is given to instruction about whether it is okay to eat meat that had been sacrificed to idols (see chapter 8).  That, in itself, it not an issue today – at least I am not aware of it.  But we can learn from the general lesson that was being taught.  The same principles apply to us today, even if the details are different.  Just because something is legal, that does not mean it is beneficial.  We must not do anything that would cause another person to fall into temptation:

But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.  For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble. (1 Corinthians 8:9-13)

To put this principle into a lesson to which I can relate:  If I profess to my neighbors that I am a Christian, but I routinely do not go to church on Sunday, but instead I spend my Sundays on the golf course or on the lake, or at a ball game, my neighbors will believe that church attendance is not important.  I will cause my neighbor to stumble.  Yes, I can pray to God on the golf course, and I can praise Him on the lake, and I can even share His word with someone at the ball park, but if I continually disregard His commandment to worship with the church, I will cause my neighbor to stumble.

Another part of this book that may cause some to get hung up is Paul’s admonitions to women to cover their heads and to be quiet in worship:

But a woman dishonors her head if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head, for this is the same as shaving her head. Yes, if she refuses to wear a head covering, she should cut off all her hair! But since it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or her head shaved, she should wear a covering. (1 Corinthians 11:5-6)

Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says. If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings. (1Corinthians 14:34-35)

We must remember who this letter was written to and why it was written.  The church in Corinth existed alongside temples to false gods, including Aphrodite, the goddess of love.  Her temple was nothing more than a brothel.  As a matter of fact, if a woman was referred to as a Corinthian woman, it was like calling her a prostitute.  It can be safely assumed that some of the members of the church in Corinth had come out of these pagan religions.  Also, it was customary for married women to wear a veil.  As a matter of fact, their veils were a sign that they were married, much like today’s women wear a wedding ring as a symbol of their marriage.  When the people in Corinth learned about the freedom that Christ gives, how He sees us all the same, some women thought that meant that they no longer had to wear a veil.  Paul’s admonitions about a head covering addressed the societal problems caused by removing the veil.  His instruction for women to be quiet in church was to prevent the church services from being equated with the debauchery of the pagan rituals.  

It is vitally important to remember why Paul wrote this letter.  The issues he addressed in it were causing divisions and irreverent behavior within the church.  His goal was to bring the people together, in one body, loving each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, not to further divide them.  Many of the same issues still exist in our churches today, so we must learn the lessons Paul taught and apply them to our hearts today.  We must look at the entirety of scripture where we see we are all equal in the sight of God:

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus . . . There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26, 28)

Paul was addressing specific issues in a specific church.  We must not try to impose his instructions where they were not intended.  HOWEVER, we MUST acknowledge the underlying reason for his instructions – unity, reverence in the church and the purity of the gospel.  Those things never change.

I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose. (1 Corinthians 1:10)

God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31)

For you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? (1 Corinthians 3:3)

It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:12-13)

When one of you has a dispute with another believer, how dare you file a lawsuit and ask a secular court to decide the matter instead of taking it to other believers! . . . If you have legal disputes about such matters, why go to outside judges who are not respected by the church? (1 Corinthians 6:1, 4)

Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. (1 Corinthians 8:2-3)
 

When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.  (1 Corinthians 9:22-23)

So, my dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. You are reasonable people. Decide for yourselves if what I am saying is true. When we bless the cup at the Lord’s Table, aren’t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren’t we sharing in the body of Christ? And though we are many, we all eat from one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body. Think about the people of Israel. Weren’t they united by eating the sacrifices at the altar? (1 Corinthians 10:14-18)

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. (1 Corinthians 12:4-6)

So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. (1 Corinthians 12:24b-27)

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. . . Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7, 13)

My prayer for you and for me this week is from 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, just as Paul wrote to his friends in Corinth:

Dear Jesus,
(Help us to) be on guard.  (Help us to) stand firm in the faith.  (Help us to) be courageous. (Help us to) be strong.  And (above all, help us to) do everything with love.

All scripture references are from the Good News Translation.

Christ in Romans -- Our Righteousness

The book of Romans is the first of the many epistles, or letters, contained in the Bible.  Paul wrote this letter to the members of the church in Rome, most probably in the spring of 57 A.D. while Paul was on his third missionary journey.  He may have still been in the city of Corinth, or he may have just left there on his way to Jerusalem to take offerings he had received for the poverty-stricken church members there.  The recipients of this letter were predominantly Gentile, but there were also some Jewish members of the Roman church, just as Paul was a Jewish convert to Christianity.  The membership consisted of many people who were converts from paganism, some free, and some slaves. There were several churches in Rome, and Paul’s letter was circulated among those many churches.  Most of the churches met in homes, and some were led by women.  This letter was entrusted to a woman, Pheobe, who carried it to Rome and helped to circulate it there.  (Read the last chapter, 16, for a list of individuals that Paul and his cleric, Tertius, greeted and commended personally.)

 
Unlike many of the other churches to whom Paul wrote, the church in Rome seems to have been thriving.  Paul had very few issues or controversies that he needed to address, so his letter to the Romans was more a study in doctrine than a letter of reproof or correction.  In my study, preparing for this (hopefully) short overview, I found many different themes that stand out in the book of Romans:  righteousness from God, justification by faith, the gospel of Christ, daily living, and many others.  So in my attempt to keep this short, I will focus on the theme of righteousness, but I will encourage you to study the book in depth, digging deeper, finding for yourself the wealth of riches that God has placed here for our spiritual growth and maturity.
 

So what is righteousness, and why is it so important?  Merriam-Webster.com defines it as follows:

1    :  acting in accord with divine or moral law :  free from guilt or sin
2 a :  morally right or justifiable

   b :  arising from an outraged sense of justice or morality

God is righteous.  He reveals His righteousness in the Gospel.  We can receive righteousness by faith.

For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17).

When we reject God, when we stubbornly ignore what He has plainly and clearly made evident to us, we deserve His wrath and punishment.  We have no excuse:

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse (Romans 1:18-20).

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed (Romans 2:5).

Even the “best” of us has sinned.  No one is perfectly righteous.  We may try hard to always do the right thing, but none of us has ever been able to live a perfect life, no one except Jesus Christ has ever escaped the trap of sin:

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12)

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:20)

But God made a provision for us.  Because He knows that we are unable to be righteous by trying to live a good live, He provides us righteousness through faith in Jesus! 

 

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:21-24).

We deserve God’s wrath because of our sinfulness, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we receive His righteousness.  The righteousness that is given to us through faith in Jesus Christ gives us peace with God – it satisfies His wrath:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 5:1).

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! (Romans 5:9-10).

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2).

Since He has made us righteous, we can now have fellowship with Him!  He wants to have an intimate relationship with each of us!  Through Jesus Christ, we have become children of God.  We can call to Him, and He will answer.  The word “Abba” is a term of intimate endearment, something like “Daddy.”

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14-17a).

God does not tell us that life will be rosy when we become His children, when we are made righteous.  We will continue to sin, but we can rely on His promise that all our sins -- past, present, and future sins – have been forgiven.  He knows we are weak, and He sends to us His Holy Spirit who prays for us when we don’t even know what we need or how to pray:

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God (Romans 8:26-27).

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us (Romans 8:33-34).

Once we have been adopted into God’s family, nothing can ever separate us from Him and His love:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8:35a, 37-38).

So, what about you?  Have you been made righteous by grace through faith in Jesus Christ?  If not, you can be made righteous in the eyes of God right now:

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved (Romans 10:9-10).

For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

If you have called on Him now, for the very first time, I would encourage you to continue to grow in your knowledge of Him by reading His Word daily, and by joining a Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church, where you can be taught all that He has for you.  Although it is not necessary for your salvation, I would also encourage you to be obedient by following Him in believer’s baptism.  Even if you were baptized when you were a baby, He teaches that you should be obedient to Him in this outward declaration of your acceptance of His death on your behalf, a picture of your death and burial to a sinful life and your resurrection to a life obedient to Him.

My prayer for you and for me this week is from Romans 12:13.

May the God of hope fill (us) with all joy and peace as (we) trust in him, so that (we) may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All scripture references are from the New International Version.