Read Reflect The city of Corinth is situated on the isthmus that joins the Peloponnese – the large peninsula in the south east of mainland Greece – to the rest of the mainland. The people who lived there in Paul’s time were very different from those in Thessalonica. The ancient city had been completely destroyed […]
Read More problems, Corinth, God’s own peopleRead Reflect “I beg you to get along with one another” (v 10). Sound familiar? After Paul had left them the Christians in Corinth started to argue with one another. One of the matters of contention was which leader you claimed allegiance to. Apollos was a Jew from Alexandria, with a Greek name, well educated […]
Read More quarrels, partisanshipRead Reflect The Christian faith is not a philosophy. You don’t have to be clever to understand it. So Paul warned the Corinthians, don’t brag, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth. […]
Read More pride, self-worth, being a ChristianRead Reflect This is one of those passages that takes your breath away. When we become Christians we learn to think in a completely new way. Ordinary human wisdom is warped, because it comes from fallible and sinful human beings, who position themselves at the centre of the universe. To them, Jesus Christ was nothing […]
Read More wisdom, Holy Spirit, mysteryRead Reflect The church at Corinth, as we’ll see over the next several chapters, was in many ways – depressingly so! – much like an all too common congregation of our time: spiritually immature, self-absorbed, prone to factions based on dogma and personality and so resistant to biblical authority, making a big deal about doctrinal […]
Read More temple of God, immature, dysfunctional, fellow-workersRead Reflect Christian culture seems fixated on leadership. Books, journals, training programs and conferences abound for leaders, but you’ll look long and hard for resources for people who just want to follow and serve. I even wonder about the term “servant leader”. Why don’t we say “leader servant”? Could it be that we, like the […]
Read More love, leaders, self-promotionRead Reflect In Western society, almost the only remaining moral law is “Don’t judge!” Usually what we mean is “Don’t you dare challenge my behavior!” Jesus taught us not to judge, lest we be judged ourselves, but he also taught us to humbly help each other see clearly – having first removed the dirt from […]
Read More immorality, boundaries, love, arroganceRead Reflect There’s a world of difference between what our society thinks of as justice, and that which characterizes the kingdom of God. The former is essentially state-sanctioned vengeance, bent on the punishment of anyone who breaches our individual rights or contravenes society’s rules. It’s reactive and reactionary, upholding the status quo. The latter proactively […]
Read More rights, kingdom, justiceRead Reflect Your body is incredibly important to God – he made it, after all; Jesus redeemed it and the Holy Spirit lives within it. Consider the two powerful images presented here, and ask yourself how your treatment and use of your own body might change if the truth of them really got a hold […]
Read More holiness, sanctuary, body, integrity, TempleRead Reflect The Greco-Roman world, like ours, was full of sexual adventurism and the confusion and destruction to which it leads. Already within the Corinthian church we’ve seen a kind of triumphant incest, and participation in religious prostitution; no wonder some were wondering if it was better just to do away with sex altogether. But […]
Read More intimacy, sex, marriage