Onward to Corinth. . .

1 Corinthians 1:1-9 - From Paul, called by God’s will to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and from Sosthenes our brother.

To God’s church that is in Corinth:

To those who have been made holy to God in Christ Jesus, who are called to be God’s people.

Together with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place—he’s their Lord and ours!

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God always for you, because of God’s grace that was given to you in Christ Jesus.  That is, you were made rich through him in everything: in all your communication and every kind of knowledge,  in the same way that the testimony about Christ was confirmed with you.  The result is that you aren’t missing any spiritual gift while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.  He will also confirm your testimony about Christ until the end so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, and you were called by him to partnership with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

                We move now to 1 Corinthians which, according to most scholars is the next letter Paul wrote (54-55 AD) after Galatians.  The letters to the Corinthians were among the longest letters in the letters we have from Paul.  This may be because Paul knew this church well, for he spent over a year and a half in Corinth getting this church up and running.  After he had moved on to start other churches, Paul heard about a handful of problems the Corinthian church was having.  He wrote to them in hopes that he could offer them some help in addressing those specific problems. 

                Before we get to the problems Paul addresses, let’s notice a seemingly unimportant detail in the introduction to the letter:

“From Paul, called by God’s will to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and from Sosthenes our brother.”

Paul mentions a man named Sosthenes, who Paul calls a “brother.”  This means that Sosthenes was a fellow Christian now.  Sosthenes was not a stranger to Corinth, but at one time, he was an enemy of the church in Corinth.  We read in Acts 18 about a Sosthenes that was an appointed leader of the Jewish synagogue in Corinth.  When Paul shows up and starts converting some of the Jews in Corinth into Christians, Sosthenes has him brought up on charges in order stop the conversions.  The plan backfires, and through a stream of ambiguous details, Sosthenes ends up being beaten up. 

So it is rather significant that Paul writes to the church in Corinth and lists Sosthenes as a co-author and brother.  Through the transformative power of the gospel, a former opponent and persecutor has now become a present partner in ministry.  Sosthenes, like Paul himself, was once a enemy of Christ and now has become an ambassador for Christ with Paul, the very man Sosthenes intended to bring down. 

                This is an important detail to share as we begin our journey through this first letter to the people of Corinth, for it gives even greater power to Paul’s advice on how to address the problems in the Corinthian church. 

                But for today, we should note that possibility that people we have seen as an enemy should never be completely written off.  Today’s adversary, through the power of Christ, can become tomorrow’s partner. 

 

Question: Is there someone you have seen as an enemy in the past that, through the lens of the transforming power of Christ, might become an ally?

 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to see people as you do.  Help us let go of our own biases of the past so that we may see what you are doing now.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for some people today that you would ordinarily not choose to pray for.

 

Song:  That’s What Faith Can Do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1JBSQMkQEo

This is Toxic to Your Faith and Relationships

Galatians 6:11-18, The Message - Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is gas. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!

For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!

Quite frankly, I don’t want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.

May what our Master Jesus Christ gives freely be deeply and personally yours, my friends. Oh, yes!

 

Today, we finish Galatians with Paul’s final words to these churches.  He re-emphasizes that there is no need to require non-Jews to comply with Torah law concerning circumcision.  Where Jews used circumcision and other laws to separate themselves from others as God’s chosen people, there is now no more need for that.  Christ has made us all God’s chosen people.

 

In support of this central point of Paul’s letter, he leaves us another gem:

 

For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. (vs. 14-15)

 

Instead of finding ways to play the one upmanship game that seems to come naturally to us humans, Paul encourages us to focus on what Christ has done.  The more we do that, the less tendency we will have to puff ourselves up.  We are set free from all that crap.  It reminds me of one of the great hymns of the church by Isaac Watts:

 

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died

My richest gain I count but loss

And pour contempt on all my pride

 

Comparing ourselves, finding reasons to look down on others, or putting others on a pedestal above us are all toxic to our relationships.  Paul bids us to let all that be crucified with Christ and be free to be who God made you to be – no more and no less.  When we all do that together, we become something truly divine – the Body of Christ.  This is what Paul meant earlier in the letter when he says, “I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.”  He longs for this.  I have to say that I long for it too – for you, for me. . . for us!

 

Questions:  Are there people you look down on?  What forms the basis of that “looking down?”  When you hold that justification up to the Cross, what happens?  What about the other way around – are there people you consider to be “better than” you.  How does the basis for that judgement hold up to the Cross?

 

Prayer:  God, purge toxic comparisons from our heart and mind.  We want the life you designed for us to live together – no more and no less.  Make us the true Body of Christ! Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who are struggling to find employment right now. 

 

Song:  The Wonderful Cross – Matt Redman & Chris Tomlin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylihJUH0gP4  

Next-Level Living

 

Galatians 6:1-10 - Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

Be very sure now, you who have been trained to a self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience.

Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

Forgiveness and restoration, sharing burdens, taking care of the weak, resisting arrogance and comparison, focus on making a contribution, give back, In short do all the good you can and don’t worry about the rest. It will pay off

At the end of his letter, just before he makes drives home the point about the division of over Torah law (which will talk about tomorrow), Paul gives a healthy dose of what might seem to be unrelated bits of advice.  Work at forgiving and restoring those who have made mistakes.  Take care of each other, especially the weak.  Resist arrogance and comparison; they are both toxic.  Focus instead on doing what only you can do for the community.  Whatever skills and wisdom you have gained from others, be sure to pass it on to others.  Do good and trust that it will pay off.  This collection of prescriptions reminds me of John Wesley’s famous saying about doing good; “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

The thread that runs through all of these seemingly disjointed instructions is life is community.  You can hear Paul’s heart for the life of the little communities he’s writing to be healthy and vibrant.  To hear about the toxic divisions that have emerged among these people he loves is breaking his heart.  He’s trying to convince them that it doesn’t have to be this way.  The answer to resolving this is to raise their level of consciousness. 

                The default level of consciousness is to think about life as my life. Do I have what I need and/or want?  Am I happy?  Am I being treated fairly?  What is my opinion on a certain matter?  How can I solve the problems I am experiencing?  I could go on and on, but I’m thinking you get the idea.  My default consciousness is self-referencing.  Paul is calling the Galatians to adopt the next level of consciousness – a communal consciousness.  The questions we ask at this level of consciousness change.  What does the community need?  Are there people that are struggling that need our help?  What is the role that I can play in this community that is really needed right now?  Do we have unity?  What’s most important for us right now?  It is a shift from “I” thinking to “we” thinking.  It’s seems very subtle but the effect is revolutionary.  It’s also how Jesus lived and calls us to live. 

The majority of people in Jesus-centered communities that thrive have made this shift.  They think of individual resources as community resources.  They think of their time as belonging to something bigger than themselves.  Their fulfillment and happiness are found in life together.   Furthermore, they find that this is a more joy-producing and fulfilling life than was possible when they were living for themselves.   This next-level consciousness unlocks the beautiful combination of freedom and love for God and others.   

 

Questions:  Try to observe your thought life today.  What do you notice about the reference-point for the majority of what you think about?  What is the interplay between “I” and “We” consciousness?

 

Prayer:  Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer God, you have called us to life together with you and others.  Help us see how we may live into this way of being in the world.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the helpers today.  You can decide who those people are and pray for them.

 

Song:  Life Together – Geoff Moore & the Distance

The Most Famous Galatians Passage

Galatians 5:16-25 - So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

 

So how did it go?  Last time, I encouraged you to make an effort to act lovingly towards all for one whole day.  I gave it a go as well.  I must say that I think I did better than I would have if I hadn’t adopted the conscious intention to love all day long.  I edited some of my smart-ass remarks before they came out of my mouth.  I made an effort to speak some kindness to others that I all too often withhold.  I tried to be thoughtful and do some favors for others that I could have easily gotten away with not doing.  The consciously-held intention to love did make a difference.

Before you applaud my efforts, I also have to say that I failed miserably.  I mentioned that I edited only SOME of my smart-ass comments.  I was only half-listening when someone I claim to love was talking to me.  I failed to follow-up with someone that was expecting to me do so.  I could go on and on, but the point is that although I made a bold effort to love all at all times for just one day, I couldn’t do it. Furthermore, it was exhausting.  Holding that intention all day literally made my brain hurt.  You might have had  similar experience.  We can’t will our way into loving perfectly. 

Willing our way into living right is a good way to describe what Paul says are the “acts of the flesh” above.  Left to our own devices, we invariably check off some of boxes on the list Paul makes of those acts of the flesh.  Even with good intentions, we can’t seem to avoid the pitfalls all the time.  Admitting that is Step 1; our lives have become unmanageable.  The surprise is that admitting our inability is actually the beginning of getting better.  It is this confession that helps us know that we need help and the help we need is God. 

Fortunately, God is willing.  God has given the Holy Spirit to all who have asked and the Holy Spirit is how Love begins to live through us.  When that happens, the fruit of the Spirit begins to bloom in us.  It’s not magic and instantaneous (I wish it were!).  Most often, it’s a gradual transformation of our character.  Theologians call this the process of sanctification, the gracious work of the Spirit living in us.  Hundreds of books have been written about it, but the process has yet to be demystified.  That’s because knowledge about such things is “too wonderful” (Ps. 139:6) for us.  The good news is we don’t have to be able to explain it fully to have it work in us.  We just have to believe and expect that it will work in us.

As I recall some “video clip” memories in my mind of who I was when I was a teen, I sometimes struggle to recognize that young man.  It makes me realize how much work God has done on my soul.  The crazy thing is that, at the very same time, I am so much more acutely aware than that young man was of how much more work God has yet to do on me yet.   The work will continue; I expect that it will.  I will try to cooperate.   I invite you to do the same.

 

Question:  Can you identify at least one bona fide difference in the “fruit” being displayed in your life now compared to the time before you knew God?

 

Prayer:  God of Sanctifying Grace, we know we are not who we are destined to be yet, but we thank you that we are not what we used to be.  We expect that you will continue to produce the fruit of your Spirit in and through us.  We can’t wait to see what you will do next. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time asking God to show you what the Spirit is doing in you during this season of your life. 

 

Song:  Breathe on Me - Hillsong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHnomHnH51A

It Keeps Coming Back to One Thing . . .

 

Galatians 5:1 - It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

 

We begin today by summarizing what Paul has said to the Galatian churches so far.  He confronts their obsession over circumcision and the Torah laws as being antithetical to the Gospel.  Following the law can’t save anyone; only Jesus can.  Our invitation is to believe in that truth and trust Christ to save us and bring us into a right relationship with God.  As we all do that, we become adopted sons and daughters of God;  our standing with God is the same as Jesus’s standing.  Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and free people are all now part of the same family.  This was God’s intention all along implicit in his promise to Abraham to make Abraham a Father to all the nations.  We have been freed from the law and sin and we are freed from the divisions that plague us. 

In today’s passage, Paul adds a caution concerning this newfound freedom in Christ.  If we don’t use our freedom in the right way, we run the risk of falling back into the entrapments of sin.  This isn’t all that hard to grasp as we see this happening every day.  Christians fall into addictions of every kind.  They enter into destructive relationships.  They get caught up in the frenzies of conspiracy theories that lead to division and sometimes even violence.  They are exercising freedom, but these expressions of freedom are leading them right back into bondage.  Paul says that there is an alternative and that alternative is love:

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” (Galatians 5:13-15)

As you work through vast sections of scripture in both the Old and New Testaments, it keeps coming back to one thing – love.  It’s almost as if that is what all of our lives with God and each other boil down to – love.  It’s almost like all those songs about love being all that you need are right.  It’s almost like it really is as simple as “love God and love People.”  Go figure.

The kicker is that we know from experience that “simple” seldom equates to easy and that is the painful truth here.  For the love that scripture keeps reverting back to is not sentimentality but loving action towards God and each other forever and ever, amen.  We know that definition of love may be simple to understand, but seem impossible to actually live out.  Have you ever intentionally tried to act lovingly toward EVERYONE for even one day?  If you haven’t, try it for the next 24 hours.  Even if you have tried to do it before, do it again until after your next sleep. 

 

Challenge: (instead of a question today)  Act with love for everyone without exception.  All day.  Every minute.  Everyone. Seriously. I mean it.  We’ll talk more about this love experiment next time.

 

Prayer:  God, everything action you take is done in love.  Help us, your adopted children, learn how to do the same.  Amen,

 

Prayer Focus:  Pick 5 people you haven’t thought about in a long time and pray for God’s love to be made real to them today.

 

Song:  This is one of those sentimental old love songs, but maybe we can hear something deeper in it today.

Forever And Ever, Amen - Randy Travis (Cover by Endless Summer ft Summer Overstreet)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iifj0yGVQkI

The “Long Game” God’s Playing

Galatians 3:26-29 - So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

 

Today, we skip to the end of chapter three of Galatians.  Throughout chapter 3, Paul makes a complicated legal argument that he actually explains more fully in Romans 7-8 (which, remember has not been written yet).  The gist of the argument is summarized in the passage above.  Our faith is Christ marks our membership in Christ’s family, not our observance of any law.  There is no basis for a hierarchy of any kind in this family, for we have all received the same status as Christ before God.  No Jew above Gentile, no free man above slave, and no men above women – we all have the same “righteous” status with God.  Paul simply used three common divisions in the Galatian churches to make his point, but it’s important to realize, he really means that there is no possible issue on which we can establish a “pecking order.”  If he were writing to churches in America today, he might use different examples.  He might say, “in Christ there is no clergy or laypersons, no male or female (we still haven’t gotten that right), no gay or straight, no white, black, or Hispanic” – one upmanship has NO PLACE in God’s family.

It’s impossible to overestimate how revolutionary this argument is in 55 AD.  In first-century Judaism, it was simply understood that Jews were better than Gentiles, men were better than women, and free men (I do emphasize “men” here) were better than slaves. Let push pause right there for a moment – what are our current assumptions about the kinds of people that are better than other kinds?  Imagine that Paul used those examples and you and I would be feeling the discomfort that the Galatians did when they read this.

 That’s why Paul makes the complicated legal argument because he needs some rock-solid evidence that what he is saying is in fact what God had in mind going all the way back to Abraham.  While there is evidence that at least some of Paul’s audience took this idea and began to put it in practice, it’s also safe to say that those who practiced this radical vision of God’s community were in the minority.  Sadly, that’s still true not quite two-thousand years later. 

But if God can wait from the time of Abraham to the time of Paul to see such a small advancement of this radical vision. It is obvious that our patient God is “playing the long game.”  God’s expectation, nevertheless, is that we would continue to live into this radically egalitarian arrangement of the Christian global family.  It is the expectation of God that every kind of “ism” will disappear in the Church.  It should be our expectation too.   As we affirmed yesterday, this improvement program is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit of God.  We can’t make God’s vision a reality by our own effort; only God can do that.  But if we truly expect that God is moving in that direction, why wouldn’t we move in that direction as well?

 

I see signs of hope that we are.  The majority of Methodist seminary students now are women.  Even some leaders in the Southern Baptist Church are beginning to question its ban on women clergy.  Churches who are led by laypeople are on the rise.  Systemic racism in church structures is beginning to be dismantled.  Christian nationalism is being exposed for ugly perversion of true Christianity that it is.  Xenophobia is being called out in churches where it never was before.  Every day, there seems to be another clergyman that falls off a pedestal where he never belonged in the first place.  These are just some examples.  It’s a messy process to be sure, but God is using it all to forge the community that Paul is trying to describe here in Galatians.  The invitation for us is to get on board.

 

Questions: Being brutally honest with yourself, are there people you would rather not have as equal members of your family in Christ?  

 

Prayer:  God, we make the painful confession that we still have prejudices in the crevices of our hearts that we can’t seem to remove on our own.  We admit this and we look forward to the day when you will remove them.  Make us and mold us as you wish.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for leaders in positions uniquely positioned to facilitate needed reforms of the Church (Bishops, denominational executives, etc).

 

Song:  Help Us Accept Each Other - Doug Smith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF6z5dizEdA

What God Thinks of Our Self-Improvement Plans

Galatians 3:1-6, The Message - You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a spell on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.

Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don’t these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.

 

Most of us give lip service to the core message of Paul’s letter to the Galatians; our works (the things we do and don’t do) don’t earn God’s favor.  It’s very possible that many in the Galatian churches did too.  In the passage for today above, Paul calls them out.  Too often, we say we depend on God’s grace and then turn around and live like we are self-sufficient.  I have to confess that I am calling out myself as much as anyone else.  I’ve even unintentionally taught this way of living at times.  I have held up the following mantra from Saint Augustine in the 4^th Century.

“Pray like everything depends on God; work like everything depends on you.”

It sounds so good; it’s from St. Augustine for goodness sake.  But it is this very division of faith and works that Paul is confronting in this passage in Galatians. His contention is that you can work as hard as you want, but don’t ever be deluded that your work is doing a single thing to make you more righteous (righteous meaning “right relationship with God and people).  It is this very teaching that forms the basis of Step 1 in any 12-step program:

“We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.” (AA)

It’s insanity to believe that God would ask us to put our faith in in God’s grace to save us, then expect us to take it from there.  

Let me make it personal here.  Think back to the time when you first considered yourself a Christian.  For some of you, you can point to a moment. Others, like me, can only really point to a season of our lives.  Whether it’s a moment or a season is not important.  As you think back to that time, is there some change that you have wanted to make in your life that you actually were convinced would be a God-honoring change that, despite constant effort since that time, has never been made?  You’ve expended Herculean effort, but there is no noticeable change.  You might have even prayed extensively for God to help you make the change (I know I have).  You’ve seen others make the same change and give God the glory for it, but nothing has changed for you. 

Paul himself understands how this feels; he had a self-described “thorn in the flesh” he wanted God to change.  We’ll discuss that in more depth when we get to 2 Corinthians, but for now I just mention that God never helped him with that problem.  God’s answer was, my GRACE is sufficient for you.  God says that what My grace is doing in you is more important that the changes you want to see happen.  That’s a hard pill for us to swallow personally.  But I want to call us back to the point Paul is trying to make to the Galatians.

                It’s also hard for us to accept that the changes we would prefer to see in others are not our responsibility.  Just as God doesn’t always cooperate with our self-improvement programs, God doesn’t always cooperate in our “neighbor-improvement” programs.  The bottom line is that Paul insists we all have to completely trust God to mold and shape us as God wills, not as we wish.  Work hard? Yes!  But trust God will effect the change in you and in others that God wills. 

 

Question:  In what ways has your life “become unmanageable?” 

 

Prayer:  Where our lives have become unmanageable, bring us to a place where we can simply accept our powerlessness and wholly put our trust in you to bring us to a better place.  Help us to wholly trust that same process of your grace in others as well.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend a few minutes today specifically praying for people you know personally that don’t know Christ.

 

Song:  Change My Heart Oh God - Eddie Espinosa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwudqCO7mSQ

Paul Calling Out Peter?

Galatians 2:11-21, The Message - Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. Here’s the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That’s how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that’s been pushing the old system of circumcision. Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade.

But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: “If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you’re not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem buddies?”

We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over “non-Jewish sinners.” We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it—and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.

Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren’t perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. If I was “trying to be good,” I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a pretender.

What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God’s grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

 

This is a long scripture reading today, I know.  However, I find it quite compelling reading.  The late-to-the-gospel-party Paul is calling out is, of all people, Peter the Rock.  Peter’s reverting to Torah practices only when his Jewish friends are around and shunning his now-Jewish friends is hypocrisy and Paul calls it as he sees it.  Furthermore, Paul argues that Peter makes it even worse by then turning around and requiring non-Jewish Christians to observe Jewish laws and customs.  Paul rightly judges this to be totally contrary to the Gospel of Jesus.  

Here’s the core of that Gospel that Paul is defending.  You (or I) will never have a right relationship with God by following rules, even good rules:

“Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.” 

As soon as you set up a rule that “good people” follow and “bad people” don’t, you have set up an unholy division among Christ’s people.  No matter what you’ve done or not done, no matter what anyone has done or not done, our standing before God based on our works is the same;  that standing based on works is sinner.  The only thing that changes that standing is the freely given grace of God for people who place their faith in Christ.  This freely accepted grace unites us and when we use rules that separate us, that unity is shattered.  This is why Paul is willing to confront even the almighty Peter.  He is calling Peter back to the grace that Peter knows in his heart of hearts is the only basis for right relationships.

The revolutionary point that Paul is making is that the grace that is the basis for our right relationship with God is also the basis for right relationship with each other.  That is what Paul means when he says, “Christ lives in me.”  The gracious Christ in me is the same gracious Christ in you.  Our shared faith in this gracious Christ forms the basis for our relationship as well and NOT anything we do or don’t do. 

Paul has much more to say about this in this brilliant letter to the Galatian churches, but for today, let’s be challenged by this difficult word we’ve encountered so far.  As soon as you or I put someone in a “lower” category because of what they do or don’t do, we’ve departed from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, when we hold onto those categories, we negate the possibility of right relationship with them because we have left grace behind. 

 

Question:  Take some time to reflect on a “broken” relationship you have with a fellow Christian.  Have you (or they) placed the other in a lower category?  How might the Christ in you be reconnected with the Christ in them?

 

Prayer:  Glorious God, help us connect not just with the grace you have for us, but also with the grace you have for all people – even the people to which we would rather not have your grace extended. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for healing of the divisions in the Jesus’s Church everywhere.

 

Song:  Grace Greater Than Our Sin - Nathan Drake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxKxLVKFrqc  

Getting into Galatians

Galatians 1:6-10 - I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—  which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!  As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

 

Today we move to Paul’s letter to a group of churches in and around Galatia (modern-day Turkey).  He writes to them a couple years after the letters to the Thessalonians (55 AD).  The reason for the letter is to try settle a growing movement in these churches that Paul believes is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  To understand the backstory, we need to remember that pretty quickly after Jesus’s resurrection, many non-Jews had begun to follow Christ.  By the time Paul writes this letter, there are at least as many non-Jews as there were Jews who were part of these early churches.  Because of this, an issue arose as to whether or not non-Jews needed to follow the Jewish law found in the Torah.  Specifically, there were leaders in the Galatian churches who were requiring new non-Jewish converts to be circumcised and to follow Torah dietary laws.  Paul is distressed by this and writes to these churches to call them back to the core of the gospel.

You get a sense of this in the passage above in the opening passage of the letter.  Paul laments how quickly they have strayed from his teaching and began to make up their own new rules.  However, this is hardly surprising when we think about what happens in groups made up of diverse people.  When minorities grow to the point where they are approaching the time when it will no longer be a minority, the majority invariably begins to find ways to re-exert control.  We’re seeing this in our country today as we approach a time when whites will no longer be the majority (most likely by 2050).  The early church was not immune to this all too human group dynamic, so Paul is calling them out in this letter.

We’ll have much more to say about this in the coming days as the whole letter is about this issue.  But for now, let us hear the core of Paul’s correction to these churches.  What he is saying is essentially this;  what you are practicing is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is a gospel of your own making.   We can hear this and say, “shame on those pesky Galatians,”  but to do that is to miss what Paul would be saying to us today.  The core of the gospel is from God and we aren’t free to use the Gospel to gain an advantage over others.  Christian Nationalism is an attempt to do that.  Using passages from the Bible to support unjust immigration policies (ie…putting children in cages) is an attempt to do that.  Those are extreme examples but this kind of thing happens every day in hundreds of ways that do not make the news.  As we work our way through Galatians in the coming days, we will dive deeper.  For now though, here are some questions for reflection:

 

Questions:  Have you ever felt excluded by a rule or practice that was obviously imposed to separate those who were “in” from those who were “out?”  Do you believe God would ever be behind such a practice?

 

Prayer:  God, thank you for loving us just the way we are.  Help us to love others the same way.  Amen.

                                                                                          

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those who feel excluded by the church.

 

Song:  H.E.R. and Tauren Wells – Hold Us Together

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwqU78VEmNc

Tough Love in Thessalonica

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 - In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us.  For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.  We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate.  For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”

We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies.  Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.  And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.

 

Last week when we were discussing Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, I mentioned that Paul addresses those who were not working.  Whether it was because they expected Jesus to return any moment or for some other reason, the problem didn’t get better.  Here Paul comes at the problem from a different angle.  Instead of addressing the inactive directly, he instructs the community itself that it’s time they deal the problem themselves.  The idle can ignore Paul hundreds of miles away, but they cannot ignore the people who are feeding them while they do nothing. 

This is an important teaching on life in community.  A community must be willing to hold its members accountable for their contribution to their life together.  It’s one thing when someone is helpless and unable to contribute; Jesus’s instruction is to take care of those precious people.  But the ability to do just that is eroded by people who can contribute and don’t.  They hamstring the mission. They diminish the capacity of the whole.  And Paul says that is unacceptable. 

We’ve lost that level of accountability in the church of today.  Paul’s instruction to Thessalonica is important for the 21^st Century church to hear.  We are entering a time in the history of the church when able-bodied and resourced but passive members of a church will be more and more a hindrance to the ability of a community to carry out its mission.  Not since Paul’s time has is been more important for a community to expect their community members to do all they are able to do to keep the mission going.  Resources and unpaid servants are becoming scarce.  We need everyone to do what they can.

So I humbly ask you these questions:

 

Questions:  In whatever community you count yourself a member, are you contributing all the resources that you can?  Are you helping the mission activities of your community as you are able?  Are you actively praying for your community leaders daily?  Are you giving witness to others about the good things God is doing through your community?

 

Prayer:  God, give us sober awareness of ourselves.  Help us to become clear about what you would ask of us and what our community needs from us to thrive and be about your mission.  Give us the joy of knowing that we are part of something so much bigger and more important than ourselves.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people who are struggling with a sense of debilitating loneliness.

 

Song: Are Ye Able - BuPyeong Methodist Church (The 74th Anniversary Service

Immanuel Symphony Orchestra United Choir)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcY-rMvCfGg

What are Firstfruits?

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 - But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings[c] we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,  encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

 

In this second part of Paul’s second letter to Thessalonica, the Apostle circles back to a concern in the first letter – the Second Coming of Christ.  He assures this church that they have not missed the Second Coming.  There are specific things that need to happen before Christ returns and they haven’t happened yet.  I want to note that Paul’s list of things that need to happen is somewhat lost on us two thousand years later.  Paul had some very specific things in mind that he was looking to happen before Christ would return.  It is nearly impossible for us to take what Paul says in 2:1-12 and try and match it up to today’s events in an effort to predict Jesus’s coming.  That was not Paul’s intention in first century Greece and so certainly, it is not an appropriate use of this text two thousand years.  What we can take from 2:1-12 is the same thing Paul intended the Thessalonians to take for these words long ago;  we have not missed Jesus’s return.  That glorious event is still ahead of us. 

The other encouragement that we can take from 2 Thessalonians 2 is from the passage quoted above.  The fact that we have been trusted with the exciting knowledge of Christ’s Gospel and with the knowledge that Jesus will return is a privilege that we should never take for granted.  We are what Paul says are “firstfruits.”  Broadly speaking, “firstfruits” are what “prime the pump” for the work that is come after.  Firstfruits in Hebrew tradition were an offering that provided for the sustenance of Priests and the Temple.  In the early church, this practice morphed into the practice of the tithe, giving the first 10% of all income to provide for the work of the church.  Two thousand years later, this practice still persists;  the church is resourced primarily through the giving of Christian community members.

So what would it mean to say that “God chose [us] as firstfruits?”  It means that we who have chosen to follow Christ were first chosen by God to be the “resources” through which God’s work is done in the community.  It’s actually not much of a stretch to say that God has chosen us to be reinvested in his work so that the work is glorified through the very people God has chosen.  We are God’s “tithe” to multiply and provide for the work of the Kingdom.  I invite you to spend a few moments to think about yourself in this way. 

 

Questions:  How might my life be God’s way of providing for others?  Are there specific people or causes that I am feeling pulled toward right now?  Will I say “yes” to being used by God in these ways?

 

Prayer:  God, thank you for choosing us to become your sons and daughters.  Thank you for making us stewards of your message and outreach to others. Lead us to be faithful with all that you have entrusted with us.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the victims and Louisiana community where yet another mass shooting has taken place.

 

Song:  Live Like That – Sidewalk Prophets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r1lLYKdMLU

Are Christians in America Persecuted?

2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 - With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.  We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians was written very shortly after the first letter.  The reason for the letter was that the issues he wrote to them about in the first letter had actually gotten worse.  The persecution had intensified and they were more confused about Jesus’s return. So Paul writes this short letter in hopes of encouraging and comforting them. 

In the first part of the letter, the Apostle addresses their persecution.  He assures them that God has not forgotten them and God will hold those who persecute them accountable.  The Thessalonians will be found righteous in God’s sight for their faithfulness and their oppressors will be punished.  The Thessalonians had probably hoped that these things were true, but it was probably good to hear Paul confirm it.

However, Paul offers a prayer in this section that they will stay the course in the midst of persecution.  He prays that through this difficult time, they will be able to keep boldly doing the work to which they were called.  Persecution doesn’t let them off the hook and Paul prays they will be found “worthy of [God’s] calling.” 

There are Christians in America who complain that we are in a time of persecution in this country.  I want to go on the record as saying, “hogwash!”  There may be isolated examples here and there of Christians actually suffering for their faith here in the US, but it is not comparable to what the early churches in the Roman Empire suffered. Are we portrayed as idiots, simpletons, and/or zealots in movies and TV? Yes, sometimes.  Are our values always upheld by the laws of this country? No, not always. Is it easy to live out Jesus's teachings in our culture?  No, but it's not easy to do so anywhere.  However, there are many places in the world right now where letting it be known that you are Christian is a life-risking act.  Christians die every day for simply being Christians across the globe.  We should remember that and pray for those who face this danger daily. 

My other challenge to us today is to do the work God has called us to do.  If the persecuted church can be faithful under life-threatening conditions, how much more faithful should we be? 

 

Question:  What work has God led you to be involved in right now?  What is one step you could take today to move forward in faithfulness to that call?

 

Prayer:  Gracious God, thank you for bringing me to this moment in my life with all the blessings and privileges I have.  Show me how I may leverage those blessings and privileges for your glory.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the persecuted church in other countries across the world.

 

Song:  "No Turning Back" Christian Persecution Play by CORNERSTONE ASIAN CHURCH YOUTH]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICRAuOFzj2U

The Community of Jesus

1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 - Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.  Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Do not quench the Spirit.  Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and though. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.

 

This passage pretty much speaks for itself so I will hold my comments to a minimum.  Paul is wrapping up his letter to this fledging church (less than a year old) and he is led to share with them the core principles of what it means to be a God-centered community.  Two thousand years later, these still form the backbone of Community 101.  I would just encourage you to read this passage a few times today. 

You’ve most likely read it once already to get to what I’m writing now.  Read it again, but this time try to think about your experience of being part of a community. 

 

Questions:  Who were the people that did these things?  Who were the “hard workers?”  Who were “idle and disruptive?”  Who were the peacemakers?  Who were the encouragers? The helpers of the weak? Who are you in the mix?  As you read through the description of a healthy community, think about the times you have experienced this kind of community, if only for a short time.

 

After you done that, read the passage one more time.  Before you start, pray this prayer:

 

Prayer:  Lord, speak your word for me today. Show me how I may do my part in building a healthy community.  Amen.

 

Then, read through the passage slowly.  Listen for the phrase or sentence that jumps out as being just for you today.  Spend some time repeating and meditating on that phrase.  Identify one step you can take to act on that leading today.  Make a plan to do it. 

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for the leaders of your faith community today.  Ask God to guide them in the coming days.

 

Song:  Zero8 – Blest Be the Tie That Binds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29wxv2tg8F4

Awake, Full of Faith and Hope

1 Thessalonians 5:8-11 - But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.  You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.  So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.  For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

 

Some of you might be familiar with Paul’s description of the “Armor of God” in Ephesians.  If you were, you would notice that the version found here is not the same.  This is the value of reflecting on these letters in chronological order.  Here in the first letter to Thessalonica, we see the origin of a metaphor that Paul will develop further and, ten years after this letter was written, we will see that the armor is more than just faith, hope, and love.  When we reflect on Ephesians we’ll talk about the full armor of God.  But as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13 (a letter that falls chronologically between Thessalonians and Ephesians)  faith, hope, and love are all that remain, so let’s stay with those for now.

Paul asks to “build each other up” in these three core virtues.  We are to that instead of belonging to the darkness.  The trouble is, it’s really easy to be drawn into the darkness – the darkness  “The hope and love when it seems the whole world, as the saying goes, is going to hell in a handbasket.  That kind of resolve is not unlike a reluctant soldier strapping on armor for a battle she’d rather not fight but she does it anyway because she knows it’s a battle that has to be fought.  Holding each other up in faith, hope, and love in a time of social media rancor, endless death, and multiplying hardships is precisely that kind of struggle.  But Paul is teaching us that that is who we are – we are children of light and not darkness, eternal life and not death, faith and not skepticism, hope and not despair, love and not hate or fear. 

A few years ago, at our current president’s inauguration, a young lady, at least for me, stole the show with her incredible poetic talent and even more impressive poise when she read her poem, “The Hill We Climb.”  It was for me a beautiful expression of what I was talking about above. . .hope in the midst of despair, brave living in the midst of a lot of death, and faith instead of skepticism.  I substitute that reading of Amanda Gorman’s poem for our song today. 

 

Prayer:  God, arm us with all we need to be children of light in the darkness around us.    Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for God to instill faith, hope, and love in your family in the midst of this 2023 Holy Week.

 

Link: Amanda Gorman – The Hill We Climb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Rn5WULjmc