Idolized

"About food offered to idols," 1 Corinthians 8:1.

Well. Turns out the discussion isn't really about idolized foods. I mean, sure, there's a conversation about the okay-ness of eating a steak that was presented first as a meal for pagan deities, and then leftovers available to the rest of us. (fyi: It's ok if you think it's ok.) But the conversation nails the meaning of love among brothers and sisters. Mature believers do not flaunt correct spiritual knowledge undoing the tender conscience of weak faith in other brothers or sisters. Says again: The mature in Christ show their maturity in Christ by sacrificing their freedoms to assert Christ's love for weak-faithed brothers or sisters. Bought with a price, we are not our own.

When we meet with a brother or sister today we affirm care for each other in God's kingdom. And together we praise God for freeing us from carefree observance of freedoms.

Eschaton

"The time is wrapping up," 1 Corinthians 7:29.

Time? Time for what? For the end. End of what? Of time itself. That is, the ending time of this age. Some Bible students say that Paul (and Jesus, too!) had the mistaken notion that the end of everything (it's called the eschaton) was just around the corner. But, they suggest that since we're 2000 years later and no wrap up yet, the urgent pressure's off. But that's exactly what contemporaries said even 2K years ago: Nothing's changed, we got all sorts of time. And Peter warns, 1K years to God is like 1 day. (So we're only a couple of days in.) Time's passing away. So we live unworried about passing worldly affairs, but devote ourselves to pleasing the Lord.

We visit with a brother or sister today redeeming the time. And together we say Thank You! to God for giving enough time to include us in Christ.

Assigned

"Each one must live as the Lord assigned to each," 1 Corinthians 7:17.

O brethren, let us unpack this strange saying forthwith. It says: our Master assigned every believer to a way of life. God has called each one to a certain role in the world. Now, many of us pray for God to reveal his will for us: What career? What town to live in? Which person to marry? And so on. (but we've got to wrestle with him in asking, because.) Because. Well, here's God answering: Are you married? Stay married. Are you single? Stay single. Are you a slave? Stay a slave. Are you circumcised? Stay circumcised. Are you uncircumcised? Stay uncircumcised. Just stay in the condition we were in when God called us. Just stay there. He owns us. Stay there with God.

We meet a brother or sister today blessed by God's call on our lives. And together we give thanks that he stays with us through this world into the next.

Bodies

"So glorify God in your body," 1 Corinthians 6:20b.

So what do we do with these bodies that currently make up part of our selves in this world? We enjoy them with the control God created for us to have over them. In Christ we are no longer natural beings but are spiritual beings. Our spirits live now in communion with God's Spirit. He exercises the rule over our bodies. Not the other way around where our bodies' desires control us. God created our bodies to be for the Lord. We do not give them for sexual immorality. No. Rather, God wills that our bodies belong uniquely to our respective spouses. We are not our own.

When we visit with a brother or sister today we yield to the Spirit's control over us. And together we thank God he gives freedom not to obey our bodies' passions but to serve Christ's purposes.

Transaction

"You are not your own," 1 Corinthians 6:20.

I am free to be me! Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness! That's my right! Especially, the pursuit of whatever I feel will make me happy! True! But not true for Christians. That is, not true for men and women who have confessed Jesus as Lord. When we came to Christ, we entered into a transaction with the God of the universe. We traded our lives for his in the sacrifice of Christ. We have been redeemed. That is, somebody bought us at a great price. The master owns us. Henceforth we live for him. He makes our life-rules. We live to glorify God in and with our bodies. Sanctified.

As we visit with a brother or sister today, again we confess Jesus as Lord. And together we praise God that he has bought us for life as he ever designed it to be.

Washed

"You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified," 1 Corinthians 6:11.

We practiced sexual immorality. We were idolaters. We were adulterers. We practiced homosexuality. We were thieves. We were greedy. We were drunkards. We were abusive. We were swindlers. We were no heirs of God's kingdom. Yeah. That's who we were. (Not all were all of those, but all of us were some of those and more.) But now. Now we are clean, justified saints. Wow! Purified? How? In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. By the Spirit of our God.

We get together with a brother or sister today no longer sinners but as saints. And together we praise God for washing us heirs into the kingdom of his Christ by his Spirit.

Holiness

"To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you," 1 Corinthians 6:7.

Life under the cross of Jesus calls to an uncommon standard, doesn't it? That's holiness. Sanctification refers to something different from the common, secular, vulgar. Rather, says the Good Book, be defrauded, suffer wrong than to go to secular court against fellow saints. (That thinking just does not sit well, does it?) But here's the fuller thinking: Bring your case if need be, not to secular courts, but to the court of the church. Bring the case to someone wise enough in the congregation. (wow! this really is different from the usual.) Saints will judge the world, even angels. So it says. So these worldly cases are just so much trivia.

Meeting with a brother or sister today, we defer to each other in humility before the cross of Christ. And together we give thanks to God for his mercy and grace.

Monastery

"You'd have to go out of the world," 1 Corinthians 5:10.

In order to do what? This: To get away from all evil activity, we'd have to exit life altogether. The remotest monastery whether on top of a foreboding mountain, or way out in a harsh desert, or behind impregnable walls in an urban center, cannot separate a person from the problem of sin. Why not? because it's from within that comes all kinds of evil, not from outside. We backpack it in with us wherever we go. Instead, God's holy monastery is the church of his first-born, right smack dab in the middle of all humanity. Its mission offers sincerity and truth to all surrounding sinners who want it.

We visit with a brother or sister today associating with no malice and evil among us, his saints. And together we thank God who purifies us in the blood of the Passover lamb.

Satisfaction

"There is sexual immorality among you," 1 Corinthians 5:1.

Yeah? So? What's the problem? Sounds like hypocrites, prudes, trying to legislate morality. Everybody knows whoring's a victimless crime. Hmm. Well. Such words preach easy by men seeking to justify our own sexual satisfaction most any way we can get away with. Noticeable, though, not too many women preaching that cause. Mere animal satisfaction yields rot among human beings. Biblical injunctions supporting God-designed sex between a man and a woman yield joy, honor, and wonder throughout their lifetime.

We approach a brother or sister today honorably in God's discipline. And together we thank God for purifying us in the Passover lamb and transforming us into true humans.

Economy

"We are fools for Christ," 1 Corinthians 4:10.

Here it is again, lest we forget. God's economy has no connection with earth's way of doing things. People speak of economic systems, you know, capitalism, socialism, communism, or whatever. All these are worldly plans having a common goal: to bring prosperity to their respective adherents. Some plans do a better job of it than others. Nonetheless, none of these follow God's economy. His economy begins with the notion of giving (what folly!), not of getting. Grace bestows undeserved life. And his fool preachers proclaim that against this greedy, miserly world.

We meet with a brother or sister today receivers of God's unmerited generosity. And together we return thanksgivings for Jesus who foolishly gave us all he had.

Written

"Not beyond what is written," 1 Corinthians 4:6.

This line still talks about wisdom and foolishness, pride and humility. It says we must learn this: Follow only what is written. This is what the Lord's earliest missionaries lived by, so that we'd do the same. Because when we humans base our faith on our unique experiences (and not in the writings of Scripture) then we get puffed up in the pride of our wonderful experience against others' lesser experiences. (Now, each of us may well have had experiences ...) But in fact, we received our faith just like everyone else does. We received it by hearing what has been written. It did not originate in our better-than-others' experiences. We received it. So we claim nothing beyond what is written.

We visit with a brother or sister today humbly recognizing our common faith in Christ, the Word. And together we give thanks to God our only source for the faith.

Everything

"All things are yours," 1 Corinthians 3:21.

The end of the matter: Any so-called wisdom that fails to recognize God's thoughts brings nothing but deception. God knows people's rationalizing remains a futile endeavor; boasting in human ingenuity is all smoke and mirrors. God has already secured for human beings ownership of everything! Human beings who trust the foolishness of God: human beings who form his church. This congregation belongs to Christ. Christ belongs to God. And so, everything (world, life, death, present, future) belongs to this people, by the wisdom of God.

We visit with a brother or sister today rich beyond measure in God's wisdom. And together we give thanks to God in Christ for everything.

Potato

"You are God's temple and God's Spirit dwells in you," 1 Corinthians 3:16.

Not talking here about you. Not you, singular. Not talking about taking good care of your body by not overeating, not smoking, not being a lazy couch potato. No. Ain't talking about none of that. Total missing the notion, those ideas are. Instead: Talking about you, plural. Yes, us. Us. Us, together. The church. God's temple. The congregation. Not the Jerusalem temple. Talking about the new Covenant. The new Creation. God's new People. And whoever would destroy God's temple, God will destroy them.

Sobered by the warning we meet with a brother or sister today in quiet reverence. And together we give thanks that God's life giving Spirit dwells in us through the power of the cross.

Confessors

"I laid a foundation," 1 Corinthians 3:10.

A foundation for what? For God's building. Well, actually, more to the point, a foundation for God's temple. Yeah. The temple of God. In the old system, God's temple was in Jerusalem. But no longer. Not now, not ever again. God's Spirit lives in his temple. And you, O human confessors of Jesus as Lord, are that temple. Confessing Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God - that's the foundation laid once for all time. On which believers scaffold as its living stones.

We meet carefully with a brother or sister today serving God living among us. And together we give thanks that he places us on his eternally firm foundation.

Waiters

"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants," 1 Corinthians 3:5.

They're servants. Waiters. Like, at our tables. Slaves, even. We can think back to any or of all the preachers of the gospel that we've ever known or heard of. Do we remember our favorite? Perhaps the one that first or best taught us the story of Jesus? Well. They're not anything. They're just field workers planting or watering or whatevering in the field. But they're nobody special. God is the special One. God gives growth. God. God will pay his field workers their appropriate wages. But God's treasure is the crop he himself grows. So we turn eyes away from the preachers to the One they preach about.

When we see a brother or sister today we remind each other of God's work in Christ. And together we give thanks to him for him.

Nourishes

"You are not ready for solid food," 1 Corinthians 3:2.

No? Why not? Well, the discussion has been about being a natural (soul-ish) person versus being a spiritual person. Spiritual adults behave like Christ. Now, people born into Christ (born of water and Spirit, right?) are no longer natural. But we're babies in Christ. We must grow up. Grow up into the mind of Christ. As long as we do not, we're just roly-poly babies whose world starts with milk bottles, continues with tantrums for attention, and ends with diaper changes. Yeah. Pretty much like: I'm for this guy; or, I'm for that gal. Just like natural, unspiritual people.

We meet with a brother or sister today in service to God's purposes, not to our own wills. And together we give thanks that he nourishes us up to behave like sons and daughters of the Creator. Like his Son.

Babies

"I could not address you as spiritual people," 1 Corinthians 3:1.

Instead, the apostle must address us as babies. Babies in Christ, perhaps, but babies nonetheless. (Oh, yeah?! When you say things like that, Paul, it makes me want to just stomp my feet and throw myself on the floor and beat my fists on the ground and yell out loud!) And why must he address us like babies? because we haven't grown into spiritual adults yet. because we still think with a fleshly mindset: I follow this religious heavyweight or I follow that other more religious one. (Or think that one political figure or another is our salvation!) Jealousy. Strife. Signs of toddler behavior. Not attuned to the Spirit and mind of Christ.

We meet with a brother or sister today humbled and quieted by the Spirit of God. And together we give thanks that God grows us patiently into spiritual adults focused in the mind of Christ.

Soul-ish

"The natural person does not accept the things of God's Spirit," 1 Corinthians 1:14.

Why not? Because spiritual things seem folly to that natural person. Natural? Yes. Well, what it actually says is: Soul-ish. The soul-ish person. These folk have only body and soul. But not spirit. So not spiritual. The Good Book can use the terms spirit or soul meaning pretty much the same thing: the inner person. But sometimes it distinguishes soul from spirit. Then, soul refers to the part of a person that's not the body, you know, like the mind or will or thinking part. What's natural to all people. But their spirits? The spiritual part of humans that connects with God is lame. The spirit must become whole to render us connected, spiritual people. Regenerated spirits hear God's Spirit and receive the mind of Christ. Spiritual persons hear the difference between God's true wisdom and the world's deceiving folly. Soul-ish persons do not.

Visiting with a brother or sister today we give thanks together to God for bringing our spirits to life by faith in Christ's sacrifice.

Free

"We impart a secret and hidden wisdom," 1 Corinthians 2:7.

Ah! So! Hmm. So there is wisdom here after all! A mystery wisdom, indeed! Wisdom that God held fast in his mind, held back from before the beginning of time. Nobody knew it or about it. Not even the powers of present times had a clue. Not the devils. Not a single solitary one got it. (If they knew, they wouldn't have crucified Jesus.) So. Does anyone now understand it? Yes. God's secrets are given away for free. By God's Spirit. To spiritual persons. To persons who have received God's Spirit, instead of the world's spirit. To persons whose spirits God's own Spirit brought to life, not to persons whose souls are still chained to the natural world.

When we see a brother or sister today, we rejoice in the Spirit's truth alive in us. And together, we give thanks to God for opening up his wisdom for us.

Consequently

"So that your faith would be in God's power, not in men's wisdom," 1 Corinthians 2:5.

So that. (?) The phrase - So that - emphasizes that the next thought hangs on something said earlier. OK. So what was said earlier? Well, a couple of things. Thing One: Know nothing except the preaching of Jesus Christ crucified. Thing Two: Demonstration of the Spirit and of power. So, we hear the preaching that God worked through the cross of Christ and we recognize God's power to save us in it. In consequence, our faith rests in that message. Not in a skillful sales speech closing. Consequently. So that. Faith in God. not in man.

We visit with a brother or sister today resting in the power of God's cross. And together we give thanks for the announcement telling us that God worked in Christ.

Hogwash

"God chose what is low and despised," 1 Corinthians 1:28.

What it says. Yes. To put a finer point to it, God even chose what just isn't. (Isn't? Isn't what? Isn't of any value at all.) God chose what humans consider base, scorned, hogwash. Why? Why? Why!? To show worldly wisdom, power, and position for what it is: utterly bankrupt. To show that God takes what we throw out in the garbage and creates wisdom, righteousness, and redemption. (Mind you: It's talking about hanging somebody on a tree here.) To bring human endeavor to its knees in the presence of God. To bring humans to boast only in the work of Christ.

We meet with a brother or sister today and take pride only in Christ. And together we give thanks that God has reached down into our hearts and lifted us up with our Lord.