I Corinthians 4:1-21
It’s amazing to me how different it is in reading these epistles in short spurts instead of reading long passages. Our RTB group has read through the entire Bible in one year probably six or seven times. When we do that our schedule has us reading multiple chapters in one day. The Chronological Study Bible that I am using to set our reading plans each month has us reading the first four chapters of I Corinthians in one day. This year we’re doing one chapter each day for these first four chapters; last year it took us seven days! It’s amazing to me how much more I/we pick up when we read in short spurts. My last year comments for each day in the links below remind me how much I picked up last year and have retained this year when I read it anew. Glory!
Verse 7 can be a bit confusing: …What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? The first half is straightforward. They received their faith in Jesus through Paul’s preaching or Apollos’ teaching. Essentially they received faith as a gift. It’s the second half that’s confusing, “If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”. Let me completely paraphrase it: “If you have found faith in Jesus, why are you acting the way you are, boasting about this or that instead of being humble and thankful for what you have?” Clearly their boasting is unspiritual!!
If I may, let me boast a bit. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (v. 15) Carol and I arrived in SC two days ago after spending three days with Mark and Tammy at their lake home in Virginia. I had already mentioned two days ago that Mark and Tammy came to the Lord through our “ministry” to them, so they were fresh in my mind as I read today’s reading. But what is absolutely touching to me is how they treated us while we were with them. You’d have thought that they were entertaining Carol and me as a royal couple. You could see the love in their eyes, in their actions, in their words. It was absolutely humbling to be in their presence – it made us wholly thankful to our Lord for having put us in their lives nearly 30 years ago! Although I often speak in these comments about us being called to share our faith, there are not many people that I can count as having come to faith directly through my sharing my faith. But when it happens, it’s glorious!! And still, years down the road… What joy…!!!
See also: April 21 / I Cor. 4:1-13; April 22 / I Cor. 4:14-21
Two items, folks…
First, I neglected to “finish” my post this morning. When I talked about how Mark and Tammy treated Carol and me this past weekend, their treatment of us was in direct contrast with how the Corinthians seemed to be treating Paul. Instead of simply honoring him for his service to them they were factious with their “I am of Paul, I am of Apollos” thinking. They frustrated him in the same opposite proportion that Mark and Tammy blessed us.
Second, for the second time on this trip, a Divine Echo… (The first was a billboard that I saw last Friday – refer to that post last week.) Today we are enjoying a family vacation in North Myrtle Beach, SC. While on the beach today I saw an African American with a tattoo that from a distance was simply the “scales of justice”. I thought this might refer to all the uproar in the USA this past year over racism in our country. So I walked over to him and saw the words above and below the tattoo icon: The Lord will judge me. Our verse 4b from today’s reading…! GLORY!!