As of First Importance

We've talked about it before. One of the great dangers in reading Scripture is misunderstanding the meaning of the text because we have somehow taken it out of context. And one of the verses in our reading this morning has frequently been misunderstood. So misunderstood, in fact, that the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) have constructed much of their theology around it.

The verse in question is 1 Corinthians 15:29: "What will those do who are baptized for the dead?"

The LDS and many others have taken this to mean that in the early church it was a common practice for people to be baptized on behalf of others who have already died. Thus the Mormon interest in genealogy and their practice of baptizing on behalf of dead family members.

But if we look at the whole of Paul's discussion in 1 Corinthians 15, we discover that this is not the point that he is making. Understanding verse 29 requires context. It requires a running start. It cannot be pulled out by itself. It belongs within the flow of Paul's entire argument.

At the beginning of the chapter, Paul states very plainly what is "of first importance" in the gospel message. He tells us that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried and that he rose again according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, the Twelve, 500 brethren at one time, James, all the apostles, and then to Paul. This is the foundation of the entire gospel. (15:3 - 8)

After laying the foundation, Paul addresses a particular concern within the Corinthian church: "How do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?" (15:14) He goes on: "if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain." (15:13 - 14)

In other words, without the resurrection of Jesus, there is no gospel. There is no good news. There is no forgiveness of sin or hope of eternal life. The resurrection is an essential piece. Remove this one piece, and the whole message of salvation collapses. Yet this is precisely what some in the Corinthian church believe - that there is no such thing as the resurrection. Paul is attempting to show how wrong and dangerous this idea is. Everything, and I mean everything, hinges upon the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

So, carrying this thought forward, Paul mentions baptism in verse 29. The church then, as now, understood that baptism was an act of patterning one's life after Christ. It was a statement about unity with Christ - his death, his burial, his resurrection, and his eternal life. We are, as our baptismal formula says, "buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in the newness of life." (see Romans 6:4 - 7 and Colossians 2:12).

Following Paul's logic here - what happens if Christ has not been raised from the dead? What picture, what statement did you make in baptism? If you were baptized for the dead (but not raised with Jesus), then what have you done? The picture is imperfect. "If the dead are not raised at all [if not even Jesus has been raised!], why then have they [the unbelievers in resurrection] baptized for them?" (15:29b amplification mine)

Paul is not indicating that the church was baptizing on behalf of other people who had died. He is reminding the church that they are baptized because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. But if they don't believe in the resurrection, then they are just being baptized into a dead Jesus. And a dead Jesus is worse than useless. A dead Jesus means there is no forgiveness of sins. A dead Jesus means there is no advocate with the Father. A dead Jesus means that all our hopes of eternal life are worthless, and even worse, we are now found to be lying about the work of God in Christ - if Christ has not been raised.

But now Christ has been raised! (15:20) And this makes all the difference. We serve a living Lord! We are baptized into his death and his resurrection. We are not baptized for the dead. We are baptized for the resurrected! And if Jesus has been raised and has conquered death, then we have hope of our own resurrection and a share in his victory (again, see Romans 6:4 - 7). This is the good news! This is the gospel! This is what we believe!

So this morning, I am reminding myself of that which is most important, most fundamental, most basic in our faith. Christ died, was buried, rose again, and is alive and well today. I serve a risen Savior!

How about you?

A Post about Nothing

Back in the early 90's or so, the television show Seinfeld poked fun at itself with a continuing joke about "a show about nothing." Perhaps they borrowed the idea from the Apostle Paul (I doubt it!).

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but I do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Cor 13:2)

 Paul follows that sobering assessment up with

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. (1 Cor 13:3)

These two verses give us deep insight into what it means to "be something" and "do something" in God's eyes. Love is the key. An unrelenting, uncompromising, unwavering commitment for the good of others. The same attitude that is in Christ (Phil 2). The same activity as God's.

I once read a devotional that instructed me to rewrite these two verses to better fit my life. I would encourage you to do the same this morning. The first verse is about having. The second verse is about doing. List what you have - those things that you have that give you standing, that make you successful, of which you are proud - list what you have alongside love. Then do the same with what you do.

If I have the respect of people and a huge amount of followers on my blog or my Facebook or my Twitter account, but I do not have love, I am nothing.

If I teach a Bible study class every Sunday, sing in the choir, and never miss church, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

If I have a nice house, a nice yard, a nice car, a nice family, and a successful business but do not have love, I am nothing.

And if create a cure for cancer, win the Nobel Prize, lecture around the world, and get elected to the highest office in the nation but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

If I have ________________, but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I ____________________ (do), but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Give it a try.


Nothing.

Let it sink in for a moment. Nothing.

The only possession, the only activity, the only quality that is eternally profitable is love. Everything else will be lost unless love has redeemed it. This is why, at the end of the chapter, Paul will say that love is the greatest. Faith and hope are good too - especially now. But one day, the need for faith will be over. We will see him and know him and be complete in him, and there will only be love. One day, there will be nothing more to hope for, for a hope that is seen is not hope. But love will remain. Love will last. Love will show its enduring power, and only those who are united to love and in love will be something.

The Starting Word

As we finish our reading of 1 Corinthians this week, we come to this brief but powerful verse in the last chapter:

Let all that you do be done in love. (16:14)

Can there be a better challenge for the week? Let all that we do be done in love.

The best definition of agape love in the Bible is found in Philippians 2 where the Apostle Paul describes the "attitude" of Christ Jesus. He says:

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own interests, but also for the interests of others. (Philippians 2:3 - 4) 

To live and work and play in the spirit of love that Jesus modeled is to do precisely this - not merely look out for our own interests but also for the interests of others and to regard one another as more important than ourselves. This should be true in the church. It should be true in our families. It should be true wherever we go and in all that we do.

The challenge is straightforward and deceptively simple, isn't it? Knowing what to do and how to act is not really a question here. The question before us is not "what shall we do?" but "will we do it?" Will we look out for the best interests of others? And will we do it in "all that [we] do?" In many ways, this takes us back to "The Golden Rule," doesn't it? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (KJV) or Treat others the same way you want them to treat you (NASB). That's love in action. This is how Christ calls us to live. The idea is simple. The application will challenge us.

As the Apostle Paul concludes his letter to Corinthian Christians, this is his final word to the church as a whole. (Note that the remaining verses are directed toward certain individuals or contain shared greetings from others.) Let all that you do be done in love. I pray that we may take Paul's final word in this letter and make it our starting word this week.

Let all that you do be done in love.

Spiritual Gifts

This week my focal passage is 1 Corinthians 9 to 12. In my usual, slow-reading habit of reading all four chapters on the first day and then going back and reading one chapter per day for the next four days, I naturally finished this morning's reading with chapter 12. In this chapter, Paul writes about "spiritual gifts." As he is defining what he means by spiritual gifts, he describes these gifts as manifestations of the Spirit (vs. 7). What a glorious phrase!

The real gift here is God's presence - the Holy Spirit of God showing up and showing out in our lives! And the Spirit may choose to do this in a wide variety of ways. Whichever way the Spirit chooses, however, will be "for the common good" (vs. 7). The Spirit is working to build the Kingdom, the church, the community of faith.

I have long thought that we in the Western expression of church often get our thinking about spiritual gifts a bit mixed up. We tend to start with the gift and then speak about the challenge of finding its application. The gift becomes something that we personally possess. It provides guidance for us in our service by shaping our expectations for what we might do and what we will not do in service to Christ.

Spiritual gift inventories have been developed to help us identify our giftedness and to channel our service in appropriate and fulfilling ways. But here is a curious thing about these inventories: they do not test for the presence of God's Spirit. Any person, regardless of whether they have faith or not, regardless of whether they have responded to the grace of God in Christ, can take these inventories and receive an outcome. So, for example, an atheist can take a spiritual gift inventory and discover they have the gift of prophecy.

That doesn't seem right.

I think it indicates a weakness in these inventories. They do not, and cannot, test for the Spirit. And the Spirit is what these gifts are all about! They can, at best, reveal personality traits and preferences.

But the Spirit often works with people to bring them into opportunities and activities that cut against personal preferences. Moses didn't volunteer to lead the Hebrews out of Egyptian bondage. Indeed, he tried to get out of it! And it was Barnabas who sought out Paul and enlisted his help in serving the church in Antioch. Paul did not choose the service for which he has become so famous. The Spirit glories in showing itself strong in the places of human weakness. The gift of the Holy Spirit's presence is not about human ability. The gift of the Holy Spirit is about the activity of God in the midst of all the strengths and frailties of human life.

A better way of looking at spiritual gifts is not to begin with the gift, but to begin with the opportunity and the need that God lays upon our hearts. Be sensitive to the leadership of the Spirit. It is the Spirit that wants to show up in and through our lives. The Spirit wants to show up in such a way that the community of faith is strengthened. The Spirit, when it shows up, will also want to show off so that God receives the glory.  We must be receptive to however the Spirit may choose to show up.

Who knows how God may choose to use us today? Are we ready and receptive?

Total Defeat

The verse that glimmered to me in 1 Corinthians 6 this morning was verse 7:

In fact, then, it is already a total defeat on your part that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not instead suffer injustice? Why not instead be deprived? (David Bentley Hart's translation)

This is a heavy verse, and it cuts against the grain of so much in our society today. Indeed, I needed to chew on this one a while, and I'm sure I'll still be worrying at it when the sun goes down tonight.

At first, I discovered my mind almost rebelling at this thought - why not suffer injustice? And the idea that to do otherwise is somehow a defeat, even a total defeat, did not make sense to me. But then I started thinking more about the total defeat. Why is bringing a lawsuit against a brother or sister in Christ a total defeat? Of course it wasn't just the fact of the lawsuit that made this a defeat for the Christian community, was it? It was that a lawsuit was pursued in a Roman law court. The issue here is that a fellow Christ-follower would pursue justice from a pagan legal system rather than from within the Christian community. This is the defeat for the community of Christ - that they would prefer the judgment of pagans to the judgment of fellow Christians. If a situation comes to such an outcome, then the community of faith is hardly living up to its founding principles.

This is a profound insight into Paul's vision of the church. For him, the Christian community was not just a once-a-week, socio-religious gathering. On the contrary, the church was full-blown, alternate community. It was a different kingdom operating within a worldly empire. It was a community that recognized a different authority (Jesus rather than Caesar). It was a community that sought to live out different ideals (love rather than self-interest). It was a community that understood itself to be the living embodiment of the ideals of God. In the collection of believers at Corinth, the Kingdom of God was at hand - it was being realized on earth as it was in heaven. For them to then appeal to an authority other than a Christ-following authority was to tear this alternate community apart. Why exist at all if people's ultimate loyalties lay with Rome and with themselves? Better to suffer injustice, practice forgiveness, and preserve the Christ-community than to destroy the community by forsaking the loyalties that hold it together. Better to be deprived, forgive, and preserve the bond of love in Jesus than to break that bond for self-interest. Is this not the model of God's love revealed in Jesus?

We must be careful in drawing our present-day applications here or we may unintentionally sanction some horrible things. The lawsuits mentioned in the passage seem to be of the civil kind (legally speaking) - disputes involving money and property. These were not wrongs like murder or sexual abuse. Elsewhere (Romans) Paul speaks of the power of the (pagan) government to punish wrongdoers. This is a proper function for government - and a proper expectation from the community of faith. There was a place for the church to "hand over" wrongdoers to the adversary (Satan), but not every wrong committed required such breaking of fellowship. When it comes to matters of property and "civil" disagreements, Paul urges Christians to appeal to the authority of Christ and to the wisdom of Christ present in the Christian community. This will preserve and strengthen their bond of unity in the Lord.

In America, we are blessed with a rule of law that has been drawn (largely) from Christian principles and ideals. As such, we as the American church have been tempted to trust more in our national government than in our church communities. But we must remember that whatever its roots, the United States of America is not the Kingdom of God. As Christians, we are still citizens of an alternate kingdom. To confuse our loyalties and to give to a temporal government the love and devotion that belongs to Christ is to suffer a "total defeat."

What would Paul say of our Christian communities today?

 

Life Applications

If you are like me, you may have been a bit overwhelmed by the amount of material that the Apostle Paul covers in 1 Corinthians 5 - 8. The breadth of topics is a bit staggering when taken all together. So my first impression of this morning's devotional reading in 1 Corinthians was a sense that I needed to break this down into smaller parts. But no single smaller part presented itself to me as a focus for the day. Instead, I kept coming back to the wide array of life-situations that Paul was addressing.

And it was when I said that word to myself - "life-situations" - that a thought struck me. An important thought, I believe. Faith is meant to be applied in the midst of daily living. Faith is meant to make sense in the midst of a wide array of life-situations. Faith has meaning in the overwhelming amount of activity that is life.

Paul is helping the Corinthian Christians apply their new-found allegiance to Jesus in the midst of their cultural and sociological and economic situation. Allegiance to Jesus has something to say about morality. And it has something to say about the corporate witness of the church in its community. And it has something to say about how we treat one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, particularly when we have been wronged. And it has something to say about marriage and family and children and our responsibilities as parents. And it has something to say about idolatry and hospitality and a Christ-follower's responsibility to nudge our neighbors closer to Jesus.

In short, faith has very public consequences, and it touches every part of our lives. It challenges us and nurtures us at every turn.

We fight against this, though, don't we? We much prefer to have a little box we label faith and then some other little boxes we label fun, work, family, finances, friendships, etc. We try to keep faith separate from some things in our life. We try to keep Jesus out of some of our business.

But allegiance to Jesus means we surrender all of ourselves to him. Nothing is held back. We welcome him into every area, every aspect, every relationship of our life. All we are is his. All we do reflects him.

I pray that we would let Jesus shape every area of our life this week until all that we do honors him!

Servants and Stewards

As Paul describes himself (and Apollos and Sosthenes) in verse 1 of chapter 4, he uses these two words: servants and stewards. This is how he asks the Corinthian Christians to understand them. It is, no doubt, how Paul understood himself. These words speak to both who he is and what he does.

"Servant." One under authority. Someone who works for someone else. In the Roman world, a personal servant or family servant would have been considered a part of the household, though without the full rights of a family member. Paul sees himself as part of God's household, but not as an equal to the Father-Son-Spirit. He works for them. He works under their authority and at their direction. He belongs to them. He is a servant of Christ. This gives him an identity - it is who he is. This also gives him direction and purpose in life - it is what he does.

The same can be said for "steward." A steward was a special class of household servant. The steward was the one entrusted with some part of the family wealth and business. It might be the steward's job to ensure the smooth running of the day-to-day operations of the household. Or it might be the steward's job to conduct the master's business in the master's absence. The steward represented the master in all things, and the steward was directly accountable to the master for the way in which he handled the master's responsibilities.

Jesus liked telling stories about stewards (Matthew 25, Luke 16). Remembering the Parable of the Talents, the third slave was harshly condemned for giving his single talent back to the master. The master had not entrusted that talent to the servant just to be kept safe. The master wanted the servant to do business with that talent. This is what the servant did not do. And this is why the master was so hard on him.

Paul understands himself to be a servant in God's household and a steward of God's mysteries. By "mysteries" he means the fulfillment of the old covenant in Jesus. God has entrusted a message, a story, a truth to him. God has not given him this gift for his own personal enjoyment. Instead, God has given it to him so that he can do business with it - the Master's business.

This is Paul's identity. It is his guiding idea about himself. It gets him up in the morning and it directs his steps during the day.

And it seems to me that Paul is not unique in this self-understanding. All of us who come to Christ find ourselves as trusted servants in God's household. God has drawn us into his family, and God is entrusting us with the mysteries of his love and mercy and grace. Each of us find ourselves with stewardship responsibilities. If we will
think of our identity in Christ more often, if we would set it at the forefront of our minds, we will find it directing our steps day-by-day.

Lord, may we remember today that we are your servants and stewards!

The Foolishness of God

This week we beginning a slow reading through 1 Corinthians. With 16 chapters, it fits perfectly with our four chapters per week pace. I hope you will join me in reading slowly, prayerfully, and watchfully through Paul's first letter to the Corinthian Christians this month.

And as I read this morning, I was struck by 1:18:

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Foolishness.

Curiously - serendipitously, perhaps - an old song by artist Michael Card has been on my mind for about a week now. I even mentioned it in my Bible study class yesterday. The song is titled, God's Own Fool, and the opening stanza is:

Seems I've imagined him all of my life
As the wisest of all of mankind
But if God's holy wisdom is foolish to men
He must have seemed out of his mind.

The entire song is, of course, a reflection on the earthly ministry of Jesus. And it is a continuing challenge to those of us who would prefer that God's way and wisdom upon the earth would be "common sense," or "good business sense," or "good politics."

But God's ways are not just common sense. God often chooses the weak things of the world to showcase the Divine power. God chooses the foolish things to confound those who think themselves wise.

Quite honestly, this idea scares me a bit. It scares me all the more because this idea seems to keep cropping up in my life, and that suggests to me that God is trying to get my attention about something in particular. Or perhaps God is trying to prepare me for a bit of Divine foolishness. Or perhaps God just wants me to appreciate again how little of life and the spiritual calling I actually have "figured out." The fact is, I'm not exactly sure why this idea keeps bubbling to the surface right now, but I am eagerly watching for how our Living God and Risen Savior and Active Spirit is going to work!

What Divine foolishness is God introducing in your life this week?

Who Speaks of the Lord?

I have always thought Psalm 19 to be an especially beautiful psalm. With its two-fold emphasis on the testimony of nature and the testimony of the Law, it has a certain symmetry that is appealing to me. The imagery, also, is powerful. It speaks of majesty and power. It speaks of influence and justice and goodness. It is just a beautiful psalm.

This morning as I read it again, I suppose the question of Tuesday's blog was still on my mind - what was David thinking or feeling when he wrote this psalm? What motivation lies behind it and to what end/purpose was it written.

Almost as soon as I asked that question, I thought of the last verse, the closing phrase of the psalm. It is a powerful phrase and one that I have long had memorized. I have prayed it often, and I have led others to do the same. But this time it struck me that this phrase, of all the beautiful and powerful phrases of the psalm, is a little bit different. It doesn't quite fit the symmetry in the rest of the poem. It stands out. It stands alone.

What would account for this?

What explanation can we give?

What was David up to when he included this phrase into a song that otherwise neatly divided into two parts?

As I read the psalm again, in light of the last phrase - a prayer that he, David, might speak and think in ways that are acceptable to the Lord - I saw that in the rest of the psalm David is praising two things that speak "acceptably" of the Lord: the heavens and the Law. David is not writing a theological essay about the two-fold nature of God's revelation in the world. Instead, David is hearing the truth of the greatness of God from two very different sources. His contemplation begins with "the heavens." He is talking, here, about the sky and about the clouds and about the sun, moon, and stars. In the beauty of the sky, he hears a witness about God's power and beauty.

Thinking about a true witness concerning God's character, his attention then turns to the Law. Here God has clearly revealed his will for humanity. The Law speaks truly of God, and is therefore more desirable than gold and sweeter also than honey.

And as David contemplates the trustworthiness of these two witnesses, it leads him to a very practical consideration. He wishes to be a trustworthy witness of God as well. The heavens speak truthfully of God's power. The Law speaks truthfully of God's righteousness. And David wishes to speak truthfully about God who is his rock and his salvation.

The whole of this poem leads to David expressing his desire to be accounted among those who speak faithfully of the Lord. He wishes to stand alongside the heavens and the Law as one who speaks truthfully about the God he has come to know in his daily experiences. Looking at the example of these other faithful witnesses, David prays:

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in Your sight
O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

May we share David's passion to be numbered among the faithful witnesses of God today! May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable witnesses of God's beauty, God's mercy, and God's power!