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Author: Jim Cantelon

February 10, 2021

Alms, Prayer, & Fasting 6:1-18

Our Father in Heaven v. 9 (Part 3)

“Your name” is a subject all of itself. I’m tempted to write an essay here, but space won’t permit. Rather I’ll make a few summary observations.

In the biblical view there is nothing more holy on this space/time spaceship we call earth than the name of the “Holy one of Israel”. His name evokes his presence. So much so that Orthodox Jews to this day will not pronounce it. One cannot pronounce YHWH and live. So, when reading the Torah aloud in synagogue, YHWH is pronounced ADONAI, which means “Lord”. If, in everyday conversation one refers to the Lord, one employs HASHEM, which means “The Name”. Even in script one writes G-D rather than GOD. The Name is everything, and it is holy. Indeed, this is why Jerusalem is called “The Holy City”. God has placed his name — “The city that bears my Name” (Je. 25:29).

Language limits us. Our descriptive efforts are stigmatized due to our “dark glasses” (1 Co. 13:12). Here, in this prayer, Jesus hints at the mystery engaged by our words. The apostle John captures that mysterious adventure with the words, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 Jo. 4:10). Our hallowed Father has our backs. Blessed be his Name!

Read 1 Corinthians 13

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Fruitfulness, as distinct from giftedness, is what this chapter is about. Generally, we tend to take the “love chapter” out of context. It is important in Bible interpretation to remember context — and in this case, chapter 13 comes right in the middle of Paul’s attempt to dispel ignorance about the “gifts of the Spirit”. Here he is bluntly declaring the ineffectual nature of giftedness when it is independent of fruitfulness.

Imagine having the supernatural ability to speak, not only every human language but the language of angels as well! Or being able lot prophecy and interpret life’s mysteries. How about the kind of fait where you were able to physically move mountains? Not impressive enough? Then try giving everything you have to the poor, ore even giving your life for some great cause. If there’s anything impressive in human experience, it’s martyrdom! The Nobel prize is in the bag! We’re impressed. And we assume God is too.

No! There’s only one thing that impresses God — Love: Love for Him, love for neighbour, love for self. Jesus said it (Mk.12:29-31), and it’s the ultimate condition of Christian service.

It’s not what appears to be, it’s what actually is. You can fool others even yourself, but you can’t fool God. He looks on the heart; He knows why you’re ministering. He knows if your motive is guild, ego, or money. He knows if your motives are mixed. He knows everything.

God is love, John tells us. The whole motive of His creating the world and us was love. Love is the oil which lubricates the universe. If we don’t love, we become a wrench in the gears — we become at cross-purpose with our Creator. Let’s examine our motives and repent. Let’s turn in love’s direction. Let’s bear fruit.

Read 1 Corinthians 12

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 12:7 “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” (NIV)

Unity in diversity: that’s the story on the body of Christ. We’re all different, and we’re all one — or, at least, we’re supposed to be.

Paul begins a three-chapter dissertation designed to dispel “ignorance” about spiritual gifts. They Corinthian church didn’t need to be motivated in this area — they were the most “charismatic” of all his congregations. But they were so keen on their individual gifting that they were forgetting the primary function of spiritual gifts: to meet the needs of a coordinated body. Instead there was confusion, wrangling, and division. Paul sets out to put spiritual gifts into perspective.

He establishes three underlying principles for any discussion or understanding of spiritual gifts:
1. Not all gifts are the same,
2. God is the same,  and
3. The gifts are given by God for the common good (vss. 4-7).

One person is an “eye”; another is a “foot”. One is visible; another is behind the scenes. And even though one member may be more visible, and thereby given greater deference (the hand, for example), the unseen member may be more vital (the liver, for example). God, however, is the “same” — He coordinates all these differing members. And the manifestation of the gifts has meaning only if their motive is “the common good”.

Spiritual giant hood doesn’t apply here. We don’t seek gifts for gifts’ sake. Nor do we seek the “honour” a gift may bring; we seek to serve our brother. Service, not achievement, is the underlying motivation for exercising one’s gift.

If we don’t stir up our gift for God and Christian brothers, then we’re wasting our time, regardless of how impressive our gift may be. The bottom line in this discussion is not giftedness at all; the litmus test is fruitfulness.

February 8, 2021

 

So how are you doing 12 months into this COVID-19 era? If the media reports are anywhere close to the heart of the matter you’re not doing well. Infections and deaths increase every day, depression is up, divorce, thoughts of suicide, alcoholism climbing, disturbing increase of abused infants at emergency wards, sorrow on sorrow…we’re suffering a global pandemic of fear and sadness.

 

This is no time for trite solutions. We’ve got to admit our lostness on a scale never before imagined. We need help.

 

I was listening to one of the most loved hymns in history being sung recently. It resonated acutely:

   Our hope for years to come,
   Our shelter from the stormy blast
   And our eternal home…”

 

Now is the time for us to reach out to our Creator and call for His intervention. Indeed, that constant cry of ancient church liturgy rings truer today than ever:” Lord have mercy”.

Read 1 Corinthians 11

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 11:29 “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”

The early Church used to meet for regular pot-luck dinners. They were called “agape” meals — “love-feasts”. Ideally they were supposed to include everyone and highlight no distinction between the well-to-do and the poorer believers. But here is what was happening:

The upper-income believers were getting to the dinners before the lower-income workers. Rather than wait for their poorer brethren, these early arrivers were going ahead with the food and drink — not only getting  the best on the “menu”, but depleting the supply for the latecomers. Some were drinking too much and becoming drunk. (v.21).

The effect, of course, was the humiliation of the poorer believers (v.22), causing socioeconomic division — discrimination of the basest kind. And, all this was happening in the name of a “love-feast”, meant to glorify and remember Jesus! Paul was angry, and rightly so.

As Paul was about to teach (chapters 12, 13, 14), the “body of Christ” was made up of many members, all with differing, yet complimentary gifts. There was to be interdependence in the body — just as the hand and the eye need each other, so, too, the various members of Christ’s body need each other.

When one member refuses to acknowledge another, he is cutting himself off from that person’s gift. And suppose that, upper-income member needs healing and the one possessing the gift of healing is a lower-income member? What happens? The rich member gets sicker and dies because he refused to “discern” or “recognize” the gift Christ had given for his healing — “For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep” (v. 30). The “Lord’s Supper” is a time to recognize our interdependence. You nee my gift and I need yours.

Read 1 Corinthians 10

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Why do you suppose Paul warns us about imminent failure just when we think we’ve got temptation beat? “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” he says. Would he prefer that we be insecure, lacking confidence and uncertain in our convictions? No. What he’s warning us agains is lack of caution — knowing oneself and one’s weakness, yet guilty of wrong thinking and being caught with our guard down. Just because we “think” we’re standing firm doesn’t necessarily mean we’re thinking correctly. It is better to be cautious — especially when everything looks good.

And when the temptation comes, we’d do well to remember that it isn’t custom-designed just for us. “Designer temptations” don’t exist. You’ve got a sexual temptation? A money temptation? A power temptation? Join the club — there are thousands facing the same thing right now.

The thing to remember  is that “God is faithful”. That is, he always responds to those who cry out to Him in the face of temptation. He never fails.

And, if you’re truly serious in your call for help, it will come. God will provide an escape route. Nine times out of ten, the escape plan will be dependent upon a choice of yours. You’ll have to grit your teeth, turn away from the potential pleasure, and step into the unfamiliar territory of self-denial. Otherwise the game of “sin, confess, sin” just goes on. And on.

Read 1 Corinthians 8 & 9

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 9:22 “… I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”

In so many ways the apostle Paul was way ahead of his time. You might even call him a “renaissance man”. He was remarkably free, and admirably mature. And he had absolutely no trace of superstition in his makeup.

For instance, he had no problem eating food that had been offered to idols. Food was food and had no intrinsic moral value (8:8). But, if he was at table with former idolaters to whom meat offered to idols brought memories of pagan ritual, he was careful not to touch it. Not for the sake of his conscience, but for theirs (8:10,11).

Then there was his view of apostles’ rights. As he saw it, an apostle had a right to have a wife (and take her with him on his travels — 9:5), to have food and drink, and to be supported financially by those to whom he ministered (9:11). “But I have not used any of these rights,” Pauls says. Why? So that “in preaching the gospel I may offer it free of charge, and so not make use of my rights in preaching it” (9:18). Paul preaches a free gospel; free of charge and free of financial obligation. That sounds definitely “renaissance”!

Essentially, Paul was committed to what we today call “cross-cultural ministry”. He recognized that there was cultural baggage in every sub-cultural group to whom he ministered. Ex-idolaters had it. Ex-emperor- worshippers had it. Gentiles, Jews, and heathens all had it. Fighting it or disdaining it would be counter-productive. So instead he was sensitive to it, and even adopted some of it from time to time if it was “helpful” (6:12)

He had one goal — to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ as free from hindrance as possible. To do this he was prepared to be a Gentile to Gentiles and a Jew to Jews. He was free to be — and free to preach a free Gospel.

Read 1 Corinthians 7

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 7:29a, 31b “…the time is short…the form of this world is passing away.”

I’d like to caution you before reacting to Paul’s apparently low view of marriage in this chapter. First of all, read 9:5, “Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas (Peter)?” Apparently, as he delineated the rights of apostles, Paul felt the need to defend his and the others’ right to take a wife along on missionary travels. Whether or not Paul actually did so remains unestablished. But there is, at least, room to believe that he was married.

Secondly, look at those key verses (29 & 31). Paul had a very-real expectation that the end was near. Jesus was coming back soon, and life for the believer should be as uncomplicated as possible — “I would like you to be free from concern”, he says. Marriage brought concern about this world’s affairs, whereas singleness brought the potential for single-mindedness in the “Lord’s affairs”. (vv.32, 34). He wanted as many believers as possible to “live in a right way in the undivided devotion to the Lord” (v.35). So it wasn’t so much a low view of marriage that fuelled Paul’s words in chapter 7, but an urgent view of the shortage of time before the Lord’s return.

Theologians call the hope of the soon return for Christ the doctrine of “imminence” — meaning that the Lord’s return could be today, so be ready. Anticipate the Day of the Lord; live in the light of it and look forward to it. Do this, and your values will be altered. Your eyes will rise from the immediate concerns to the far horizon, where the dawn of the kingdom of Heaven is about to break.

February 3, 2021

Alms, Prayer, & Fasting 6:1-18

Our Father in Heaven v. 9 (Part 2)

Jesus’ reference to God as Father would not have surprised his audience. In the Jewish scriptures God had claimed “Israel as his son…” (Ex. 4:22) and had blessed and chastened him time and again through out a tumultuous history. The use of the term was common in Jewish prayers, and even though these prayers and liturgies were usually expressed in the synagogues, the everyday Israelite had a sense that a Heavenly Father overshadowed his people with protective wings.

“In Heaven” might just as easily be read as “perfect”. In an imperfect world there was hope on the part of some in Israel that an unblemished moral order and place of rest existed beyond the grave. This was a place free of sorrow, sickness, and alienation. It was a place of perfection, a place where God dwelt.

“Hallowed” meant “let your name be held holy”, or, “glorify your name”. Holy, of course, referred to that which in its perfection was apart or separate from a fallen world. It suggest transcendence, awe, respectful fear, and even a touch of dread. God is not to be approached casually. He is the Creator of heaven and earth. He has the keys of life and death. He builds and tears down by a word from his mouth. When approaching him in prayer we are to do so with humility and caution. Our lives are in his hands.

Read 1 Corinthians 5 & 6

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”

Have you a pet sin? Once that’s been with you for years? Perhaps It’s relatively secret (apart from any “shared” sinning it may have precipitated with other secret partners). You’ve brought it to God many, many times, but it’s still there. You haven’t mastered it yet. In fact, if the truth were known, it has mastered you.

When you read Paul’s words in the second half of chapter 6, there’s a tendency to react immaturely to his hymn of freedom — “if all things are lawful for me, then lets get on with sinning!”, something inside you cries. But the very thing you think of doing is probably the very thing that has mastered you, or would if it could. Paul, on the other hand, after declaring that “all things are lawful for me,” goes on to quickly add, “but I will not be mastered by anything (v.12b NIV).

Maturity is an elusive thing. We assume a person is mature because he/she is “adult”. They’re in their 40’s or 50’s and have had time to develop — they’re refined and objective. They’ve got their act together; their judgment can be trusted. Not necessarily so.

Some of the most immature people I have known are “up in years”. All their lives they’ve demanded and got their own way. They’ve specialized in making life meet their own needs — often at the expense of the needs of those closest to them. Indeed, their needs have mastered them.

Contrast these self-absorbed ones to the truly free spirit. Here’s someone who has recognized the potential tyranny of his own needs, and has determined, rather, to meet the needs of others at the expense of his own short-term satisfaction. He’s a soul with eyes fixed on the far horizon. Under God, he is master of his own destiny. Truly free and truly God’s.

Read 1 Corinthians 4

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 4:41 “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. “ (NIV)

Paul appears a touch arrogant here. “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court,” he says. Not only does he have little regard for what people think of him, he doesn’t really care what he himself thinks of himself, “I do not even judge myself” (4:3). He refuses to succumb to false guilt.

Psychology tells us there are two kinds of guilt: false guilt and true guilt. False guilt occurs when you accept the blame for not meeting the expectation of others, or yourself. True guilt occurs when you transgress moral law. One is subjective in its orientation, the other objective.

In the final analysis, there’s only one Judge who should concern us. It’s this Judge that Paul fears — “It is the Lord who judges me.” (v.4b).

But here’s the sticky part. Why be subject to judgement at all? Why not eat, drink, be merry, and die — blissfully extinct and obliged to no one?

If you’re at all like me, you probably have had moments when you wished you weren’t constantly accountable — not just to self, family, and friends, but to God. Sometime you just want to be free to be selfish.

Well, for the Christian, that’s not how it works. The Lord is coming. That truth is our hope and our discipline. We’re going to be called to account. We’ll be facing the ultimate court. Without further appeal.

Thank God we’ve got a good lawyer — Jesus Christ Himself, ever living “to make intercession” for us (Hebrews 7:25). He knows what it’s like to be human. And He pleads a good case.

Read 1 Corinthians 3

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 3:3 “For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”

That key verse begins (in the NIV), with, “You are still worldly” (carnal). And, if it were up to some of us to complete the verse we might say, “For where there are the wrong kind of music, sexual misdemeanours, and substance abuse among you, are you not worldly and behaving like sinners?” And there would be a lot of justification for us to think in those terms; after all, sin is sin.

Paul, in fact, addresses these sins in other places. But for now, he’s talking to a congregation — a group who are by definition supposed to be following Jesus’ great command that they “have love one for another”. Here he is talking about relationship sins: sins that a church commits.

It’s too easy for you and me, when talking about the Church, to think in generic terms. The “church” becomes a general abstraction with which we specifically have little to do. We stand apart and judge.

But the church is you and me; and our relationship sins are sins we commit. We look at the other guy and covet; or fight; or separate.

It’s amazing, really, especially in terms of the magnitude of life and the triviality of our conflicts. Here we are, fighting about whether or not to pave the church parking lot, and thousands are dying in Ethiopia. Or we’re seeking to drive so-and-so off the church board, while hostages in Lebanon enter their fourth year in captivity.

Let’s call it like it is. Envy, strife, and division are characteristics of political parties. Isn’t the church above such stuff? Let me rephrase that. Aren’t you and I above trivial conflict? Let’s choose to dwarf our differences with a common commitment to the kingdom of heaven.