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

I Corinthians 3:1-23

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. (v. 10) I like Scriptural verses that relate to building. Carol and I even had “building” in mind when we chose readings for our wedding – Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus’ parable of building on foundations of rock or sand. In a prior life I was a concrete contractor, building basements using poured concrete instead of concrete blocks. I learned the trade from my younger brother, who was very exacting in his work. If one of his (and later my) foundations was more than a half-inch “out of square”, he would shift the building forms to get it right before he poured the concrete. Building contractors loved to build on his foundations – they could count on having right angles at each corner – the frame walls would go up nicely and the roof would fit perfectly. Now that’s assuming that the building contractor is using good material, lumber that is solid and straight, not warped and twisted.

So I’m thinking about Paul’s “foundations”. Yesterday I quoted 2:2, For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus is our foundation. It is Jesus that needs to be preached. Most of us are not “master builders” like Paul. As I note in my comment in that first link below, we hire rectors like David who regularly said, “You bring the people and I’ll preach the Gospel.” We can count on preachers like David speaking to us every Sunday at St. Andrew’s. We know Jesus will be preached.

But let me back up a minute. Before my brother ever sets the building forms there is a lot of work to be done – digging the hole, laying down rock, planning for plumbing and electrical fixtures, and finally setting and pouring the footings. The wall forms go on those footings only after all this other work has been done. Making sure the forms are “square” is the last step in the process prior to pouring the concrete walls. Likewise there needs to be preparations made before David or another speaker can “preach the Gospel”. We are the ones who invite people to our church. We share about our pastor or our sermons or our worship or our youth programs, but in the end it’s Jesus and His gospel that will be preached from the pulpit. We have work to do to bring people to that point where they can hear that Gospel being preached.

See also: April 19 / I Cor. 3:1-15; April 20 / I Cor. 3:16-23

I Corinthians 2:1-16

For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. (v. 2) Carol and I were on the road in North Carolina when I wrote this, but I am just now able to post it. Sorry for that megadelay! We just left some very dear friends, deeply committed Christians. We had been important in their coming to the Lord so they continue to look to us for guidance. The wife, Tammy comes from a Catholic background, and the rest of the members of her extended family remain very Catholic. They constantly want to talk to her about details of their Catholic faith, items which she no longer embraces. It easily becomes argumentative. She was asking for my advice as to how to respond to those issues. My advice to her was the verse I copied above. Focus on what’s important, what we believe in common. That other stuff, really, just doesn’t matter!!

See also: April 18 / I Cor. 2:1-16

I Corinthians 1:1-31

I love Paul’s section on wisdom and foolishness beginning with verse 20. I spent my working life among the wise – college professors who were all experts in one thing or another. But their worldly wisdom doesn’t get them anywhere with God: For since … the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. (v. 21) The Gospel is a simple message – we have forgiveness of our sins and eternal life through Jesus’ death and resurrection. But something that simple can’t be enough for those who are “uber-intelligent” – it’s got to be harder than that; it’s got to be something we need to work for, to study longer, something more challenging! But God turns it upside-down on those who want to make the Gospel more difficult: For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (v. 25) It’s a simple message that God wants us to take to simple people. Go!

See also: April 16 / I Corinthians 1:1-17; April 17 / I Cor. 1:18-31

Acts 19:1-22

We got away from our chronology a bit when we read all of chapter 18 in one reading. Actually it was while Paul was in Corinth that he wrote both Thessalonian letters. His time in Corinth (his first visit there) is recorded in the first 18 verses of Acts 18. The remaining 10+ verses record his first visit to Ephesus; sailing and landing in Caesarea; going up to meet the church in Jerusalem; returning to his home base, Antioch; departing for his third missionary journey – traveling and revisiting the churches he had established on his first missionary journey; then his arrival in Ephesus that we pick up in today’s first verse.

Paul ministering to the Ephesian Christians: On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. (vv. 5-6) I have mentioned that our Men’s Group has been studying references to the Holy Spirit in Acts. One item of interest to us has been the gift of tongues being poured out on the disciples. We saw this first in Acts 2 at Pentecost, then in Acts 10 when Peter was preaching/teaching at Cornelius’ house, now here a third time in Ephesus. And each of these occasions had a different context. At Pentecost the disciples were simply “all together in one place” (Acts 2:1) when the Holy Spirit appeared and the disciples began speaking in tongues. At Cornelius’ house Peter was simply preaching/teaching and the Holy Spirit fell on his listeners (Acts 10:44). Now here in Acts 19 Paul lays his hands on the Christian believers and they receive the Holy Spirit (v. 6). Our Holy Spirit study has been fascinating. The Holy Spirit, Himself is a worthy study!!

See also: April 14 / Acts 19:1-10; April 15 / Acts 19:11-22

II Thessalonians 3:1-18

But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. (v. 3) A footnote in my Study Bible says that “evil one” could also be translated “evil”. Either translation works well, since the “evil one” is the source of all evil. But the front end of that statement is what’s really important – the Lord’s faithfulness! In this same verse, another translation item – the NASB translates “establish you and guard you” with “strengthen and protect you”. All of those verbs work well together and actually fit nicely in sequence: establish, strengthen, guard, protect. We are first established in Jesus, then strengthened for the work ahead of us. Then while we are working the Lord is also watching over us, guarding us, and when necessary, protecting us from evil. We are always being protected, even when we are not seeking the Lord’s help – and the more we seek Him, the more strengthened we are and the more protection He affords us. The Lord is faithful!!

See also: April 13 / II Thess. 3:1-18

II Thessalonians 2:1-17

I am intrigued by “the restrainer”. In verse 6 Paul tells the Thessalonians that they know who or what the restrainer is: And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. So evidently Paul made it clear when he was with them in person as to who or what that restrainer might be. In my comments from last year in the link below I mention that my Study Bible had suggested the restrainer’s identity as “the Roman state with its emperor, Paul’s missionary work, the Jewish state, the principle of law and government embodied in the state, the Holy Spirit or the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church, or others.” As I continue to read verses 7b and 8a I convince myself that the restrainer is not the Holy Spirit: Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed… To me the Holy Spirit will never be out of the way. Jesus had said “I will be with you always,even until the end of the world.”(Matthew 28:20) Whether Jesus Himself or God the Holy Spirit, He will never be out of the way. So something or someone in Paul’s time is restraining sin and unrighteousness, but will in time fall by the wayside, thereby revealing the “lawless one”. Could it be our God-given moral standards – which seem to be collapsing in our own time? Watch today’s television and movies, where American society seems to get its guidance as to how to behave. I truly fear for our kids and grandkids and the world of their future. The coming of that “lawless one” could be soon: And then the lawless one will be revealed… (v. 8a) Come Lord Jesus, come!

See also: April 12 / II Thess. 2:1-17

II Thessalonians 1:1-12

Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. (v. 4) As the Thessalonians read or heard the words that Paul wrote they must have enjoyed a certain amount of personal pride (which is not a bad thing) in being so highly commended by him. Paul had written of them in similar fashion in his first letter to them: …so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere… (I Thess.:7-8a) He also lauded them in another letter: We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means… (II Corinthians 8:1-3).

As I ponder these words from Paul written nearly 2,000 years ago, I connect his words to our own church. A few weeks ago we had a “supply priest” from Chattanooga come to give the homily. He had been standing by to serve us as Interim Rector when the Bishop saw a greater need in a church in Missouri and sent him there. He spoke of us as being “in transition, not in crisis” – by way of comparison to the Missouri church. Clearly the Bishop had spoken highly of us to him. Also our earlier candidate, Father Joe spoke highly of us at his “exit interview” with Brian, describing us as “rich” – referring not to money (which we have) but to spirit, to maturity, to leadership. Again, high praise…! These praises certainly make us feel good about ourselves – and that’s a good thing. The important point here, however, is to accept those words with deep humility, knowing that the Lord has been working in our midst and that we are where we are because He is the One guiding and strengthening us! GLORY!!

See also: April 11 / II Thess. 1:1-12

I Thessalonians 5:1-28

Do not quench the Spirit. (v. 19) First David, then Michael encouraged us to become a “Three Streams” church – sacramental, scriptural, Spirit-filled. It’s not hard to buy into those first two streams; it’s easy to see that St. Andrew’s is both sacramental and scriptural. But I fear that there are too many who do not have a good sense of what it means to be Spirit-filled, do not have a good grasp of who the Holy Spirit is, what He does, how He fills us. Our Men’s Group has been looking at this third stream, first in John 14-16, then in other references to the Holy Spirt in the rest of the Gospels, then in Acts of the Apostles, and finally in the Epistles. And we have found a treasure trove of characteristics and activities in which the Spirit is engaged. We have listed 56 references to the Spirit in the book of Acts alone and next week will be our third session looking just at those references. Even something as (seemingly) simple as “being filled with the Holy Spirit” or “full of the Holy Spirit” can have different meanings or different manifestations depending on the context in which these phrases are stated. We have learned that we can’t put the Holy Spirit in a box, that we can’t know Him to be this or that – He is who He is, and He is constantly at work in and among us. Rather than quenching the Spirit we need to be asking to be filled with the Spirit each and every day – and that’s not me speaking, that’s Archbishop Beach’s challenge, his encouragement to us. Be filled with the Holy Spirit each and every day!

See also: April 9 / I Thess. 5:1-11; April 10 / I Thess. 5:12-28

I Thessalonians 4:1-18

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven … And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (vv. 16-17) We Christians have hope, we have confidence that when we die we will be with the Lord. Paul makes it clear here that our hope is well-founded. Look at all of what he says: The Lord will descend from heaven; the dead in Christ will rise; those who are alive will join the dead in Christ to meet the Lord; and we will always be with the Lord. What hope, what glory! We often talk about seeing those loved ones who have died when we ourselves die. Again, Paul makes it clear – both those believers who have died and those believers who are living will join together to meet Jesus. We will see them: Mary Ann Duddy, Millie Rodes, our friends and family members. Because Jesus died and rose, we too will die and rise. We are eternal beings. Let’s live in the reality of that eternity!!

See also: April 7 / I Thess. 4:1-12; April 8 / I Thess. 4:13-18