1 Corinthians

Those of us who have been following our Bible Reading Plan since 2009, you have so far covered these books:

OT: Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Ezra, Nehemiah, Micah

NT: Matthew, Mark, John, Acts, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Philemon, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1 2 3 John, Jude

Our current reading is 1 Corinthians.

Congratulations! You have faithfully read the Word of God and journal down your thoughts and applications of God’s revelation to you. I am reminded in today’s reading (1 Cor 2:6 – 3:4) that spiritual truth can only be understood by the spiritual mind. Therefore intelligence is not equivalent to spiritual insight. You can be super intelligent and are able to regurgitate every known fact around, yet you can be spiritually blind to the things of God.

Yesterday we read “ ²⁶Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹so that no one may boast before him. ³⁰It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. ³¹Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 1 Cor 1:26-31

Therefore we have the Spirit of Revelation in each of us, the Holy Spirit, who comes and guides us into all truth (John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.)

Pray before you read the Word of God, because it is not only with our human minds that we understand, it must also be the spiritual mind that helps us grasps the truth and applies it to our lives. That’s why a person can know the word of God well and can quote effectively from the Bible, yet we see no real effect of the Word on his life. This the Bible calls a carnal man (as opposed to the spiritual man).

As you move into 1 Corinthians, here’s some quick background:

Of all the churches Apostle Paul founded, the Corinthian church is the one that gave him the most headache. That’s why they need two long letters from him. Their problems were serious.


1. They were deeply divided, different groups following different leaders.
2. They were very immoral, to the extent that a man was living in sin with his mother (possibly his stepmother). Even the pagans of the day would have condemned it.
3. Some were drunk while having Holy Communion and were not gracious and considerate towards their poorer Christian brethren.
4. Others practice an aggressive form of feminism.
5. They certainly were not clear of basic  Christian doctrines.

Let me quote from “Unlocking the Bible”, page 956

The city that Paul visited was very wealthy and terribly pagan. The inhabitants worshipped the gods of Greece and Rome, including Poseidon, god of the sea, and Aphrodite, goddess of love. The huge temple of Aphrodite housed 2,000 priestesses who were effectively prostitutes, since worship there involved intercourse with a priestess. Indeed, ‘to Corinthianize’ became a verb in the Greek language, meaning ‘to have promiscuous sex’. So this background explains in part why Paul needed to concentrate on male-female relationships in his Corinthians letter.

In fact he dealt head-on on this subject of worship at the temple of Aphrodite in 1 Cor 6:9-20.

With this background, you will appreciate Paul’s letters more.

Poseidon

Temple of Aphrodite

A painting by Andrew Annenberg 

Gateway to the Temple of Aphrodite

Ruins of Temple of Aphrodite

BECAUSE YOU ARE WILLING

1 Peter 5:5 Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be;

In my journalling on 10 May, the verse above reminded me of my attitude towards serving God. I remember when I was a young Christian at the age of 17, I was quite affected by my some older Christians who would come out committee meetings "sour face", complaining about the meeting being long, about someone who is not in agreement with them, or simply unhappy being there. I made a promise to myself since, that in whatever I do in serving God, I will not be a reluctant servant. In fact, I recognize the importance of my influence of the people around me, just as I was affected by those coming out from the meetings. If I want to affect people positively, I must find joy in what I do. That's why my vision and mission, written in 1994, is written this way:

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MY VISION

To inspire, equip and model a life of joyful worship and surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, both in person and as a family, to the community of people around me.

MY MISSION

My God is a good and faithful God and I make it my mission to communicate this so that others may see Him as such. Through my life, I want people to see that obeying and surrendering to God is a joy, and not a chore. 

I want to be called a man after God's heart, a true worshipper.

The first place where I want to exhibit this is in my own home. I want Stella to know that I will love her the way God wants me to, and I want her to express to the fullest her potential and giftedness in serving God. 

I want my children to see that their dad loves God dearly and serve Him joyfully, and they would want to have what dad has. I want to see my children grow up to love the Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly. In this process, we will serve God together as a family and be an excellent model of a Christian family in every aspect of our lives.

I strive for excellence in my ministry so as to inspire people to excellence in the way they serve God. I will put in a process of equipping that will enable people to discover their vision in life and actualise this vision at home, in ministry and their secular employment.

It is my desire to end life’s journey with these thoughts in the minds of people: Here’s a man who loves God intimately, his wife and children dearly, people passionately, and life itself purposefully

Having said all this, I am fully aware that Jesus Christ must continue to be my central focus in all that I do and all praise and glory are due His Name.

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As a leader today, I realize the power of joyful worship and service. That's what Apostle Peter is saying: "Do it not because you must, but because you are willing". There is a world of difference between the two because it will show up in our attitude. People will sense it and although they may not say it, they will simply be affected in the same way in the way they serve God. I am therefore careful about what I say in front of people, especially my own family. Often because they are the closest, they are also the most vulnerable to our shortcomings. I am not advocating that we are not authentic with the way we feel. Rather, I am advocating "efficacy" - right words at the right time. Better still, we should deal with our attitude towards the way we serve. This way we guard against bad attitudes that naturally comes out when we are reluctant. Examine therefore why we do what we do. We do it because we love God. It is a love response. This is the gist of my last post. 

SERVE GOD JOYFULLY!