Psalm 49 - Who can redeem a life?

"Hear this" The call is made to all peoples. The word of the Lord is for everyone, high and low, rich and poor.

When we meditate on the word of the Lord we can speak wise words. Note that he will also use music to expound the proverb.

It is natural to fear when evil days come, but if we trust in the Lord we have no need to do so. A moments consideration shows the futility of normal human thinking. No matter how rich or well equipped someone is, they can do nothing to redeem the life of another. It is God who decides who lives and dies. It is not the rich or the powerful who hold the keys of life and death, no matter what they may claim.

Of course we do have One who has paid a ransom and redeemed our lives. The only reason that Jesus' death on the cross was able to do this is that He is both God and Man. 

The fact the everyone dies, regardless of their earthly status, shows us that no earthly wealth is sufficient to buy eternal life. This is blindingly obvious if you think about it, yet so few do think about it.

So we should not be impressed by wealth or human wisdom, for it all ultimately comes to nothing. God alone is the one who can redeem a life.

Psalm 48 - Delight in the Lord

"Great is the Lord .. in the city of our God". The Psalmist is calling on the people to praise the Lord and realise that He is great amongst them. He is great in their midst. Time and time again they forgot that the Lord was great in their midst. So when danger loomed they turned to other nations and other gods, instead of calling on the Lord.

We can apply this to ourselves as well. The living Lord has come to dwell within us. Jesus said that whoever believes in Him, streams of living water will flow from him. We should expect the Lord to do great things among us. We should praise His name always.

The Psalm then moves on to declare the beauty of Zion. She has this beauty because of the Lord. In the same way the Holy Spirit is making us beautiful in Him. 

We get fearful when danger looms, but verses 4-7 tells us that when forces attack they soon become afraid and flee in terror. We belong to Christ, we are marked as belonging to Him.We need to learn to delight in our security in the Lord.

How do we do this? By meditating on His love. We need to delight in what the Lord has done, in what He is doing, and in what He will do.

Psalm 47 - King over all the earth

Always get reminded of Ian White's version of this Psalm when I read it!

The Psalm is a celebration of the greatness of God. Note that the Psalm calls on all the nations to shout to God with cries of joy. Our God is not just one god among many, or even a superior god. He is the only true Lord. He is Lord of all the earth, and His salvation goes out to all nations. When Abraham was blessed by God he was told that all nations on earth would be blessed through him.

Some people get upset when we talk of winning people from all nations, especially from other religions. They should not. What we are doing is calling all people into a God's kingdom to know His love. It can only be to the advantage of a Muslim or a Hindu, or an atheist to come to know the love of God shown in Jesus Christ.

"God has ascended.." This refers to the ark being taken up the temple steps. Now we know that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, and elsewhere it says that "now the dwelling of God is among men" (Rev 21:3). There will be an enormous shout of praise that day. When an individual comes to know the Lord there is great rejoicing, imagine the praise when multitudes from all nations come to know Him and He dwells with them.

Psalm 46 - Be still and know that I am God

"God is our refuge" A great many of the Psalms include declarations that God is a refuge, a protection, a place of safety. In life we all experience difficulties of some sort or another. This is normal! It is fantasy to imagine that we can be spared all difficulties. Instead we can be confident that God can help us in the midst of trouble. As David said in Psalm 34, the righteous man may suffer many troubles, but the Lord rescues him from them all.

So whatever happens we will not fear, for we are confident in our God. 

"There is a river that makes glad the city". Although life contains troubles, we should also be full of joy. The Lord dwells within us, both as individuals and as the church, and the Holy Spirit makes us glad. Joy is part of our inheritance. Just as suffering is part of the package of following Christ, so is joy. We need to remember this. They go together, yet we consider them to be mutually exclusive. In the midst of trouble we can experience the joy of the Lord, and it can help us to overcome.

The Lord is the Almighty One, He alone is all powerful. So we are to be still before Him. We need to still our troubled hearts. When we are still before Him we can then hear His voice.

Psalm 45 - Prepare for a wedding!

This is a wedding song, sung originally for the wedding of a king. We can view it in this light, but we can also see it as referring to the wedding of Christ and the church as well.

Verse 2, in particular, is so clearly applicable to Christ. He is excellent in every way, He speaks the words of grace, and He is blessed forever by the Father.

Our Lord is a warrior. We must never think of Christ as passive. Although He is seated at the right of God, it is a position of reigning (1 Cor 15:25). However, He does not use this authority in a worldly way, but in the interests of truth, humility and justice.

The king is clothed in glory, and He rules with justice. We serve a mighty king. 

Yet we are also the bride of this king. We need to realise our highly privileged position. So we are to forget our past, and make ourselves beautiful for the king. Revelation 19:8 speaks of the church clothing herself with righteous acts. And all the nations will come with gifts.

We need to prepare for a wedding!

Psalm 44 - Where are you now God?

The Psalm starts with a reminder of how God had helped the nation in the past. All this information was gained by what their fathers had told them. What God had done had been passed on from one generation to the next.

God had given the people victory. They had not won these victories by their own military might, but because God had given them victory.

Then the Psalmist applies this to himself. He declares that the Lord is his God. He trusts not in himself, but in the Lord. For it is the Lord alone who gives victory.

But now there is a problem, for it seems that God has rejected them. He no longer goes out with their armies. Instead of victory they experience only defeat. Verse 11 and 22 are verses quoted by Paul. Instead of being an exalted nation, they are scorned by the nations around them.

Moreover, there was no apparent reason for this happening. They had not forgotten God, they had not started to trust in something else. There is an important lesson for us here. There can be times when things go wrong for no apparent reason. When it seems as though God has deserted us, even though we have not hardened our heart against Him. We need to realise that times like these can happen.

So what is his response? It is to call on God to rise up and help them. So if we are going through this sort of experience, then we too should call on God to help us. Sometimes God puts us through stuff to see how determined we are to receive His help. 

Psalm 43 - Put your hope in God

This is a continuation of the previous Psalm. Indeed in some Hebrew manuscripts Psalms 42 and 43 constitute a single Psalm.

This, together with the previous Psalm, read as though they could have been written during the time when Absalom took over the kingdom. In the previous Psalm David remembers the times when he joyfully lead worship in the temple. Here he calls for God to vindicate him against an unfaithful nation, which for a time turned to Absalom. 

David's greatest fear is that God has rejected him. He can cope with the rejection of men, but not rejection by God. He calls on God to send His guidance and care to look after him. He desires to be in the presence of the Lord.

When in trouble what do you desire most? Is it just to be released from your troubles? Or is it to know and feel the presence of God in your life?

The Psalm closes with David again instructing his soul to trust in God. We live by the Spirit not by the flesh. So even in the midst of difficulties when our flesh is crying out against us, we can command our soul to worship God. Eventually our flesh will have to fall in to line with our spirit.

Psalm 42 -Thirsting for God

There is a natural longing in our soul to be with the Lord. Sin and all the distractions of modern life seek to dull that desire, but it is still there in every person. When the Spirit works in our lives one of the things He does is to heighten that desire. 

In Adam and Eve sin produced a desire to hide from God. The Holy Spirit produces a desire to seek earnestly after God. One of the ways in which He often does this is through suffering. Suffering and difficult times cause us to realise the futility and poverty of worldly things, and seek the Lord instead, sometimes in desperation. 

The Psalmist remembers a time when he used to go joyfully to the temple, but now he experiences only depression. He is surprised that his soul is like this, and cannot understand it. He instructs his soul to trust in the Lord, hoping that days of praise will come again. I am sure we can all identify with these sentiments.

"I will remember ..." The places mentioned probably indicate a place of exile. It seems that the Lord is overwhelming him with sadness, but "deep calls to deep". In the midst of suffering come some of the deepest and most heartfelt cries to God. 

See the contrast between verse 8 and 9. In verse 8 he states that the Lord looks after him, then in the next verse he bewails the fact that God seems to have forgotten him. The conflicting emotions we go through are part of life and part of the process of drawing closer to God. 

In the midst of this depression he still believes that a day will come when he will praise the Lord with joy again.

1 Corinthians 16 - Closing words

The tone suddenly changes, with Paul returning to more mundane matters.

The collection was for the church in Jerusalem, which was going through a time of hardship. Note that the collection is to be organised efficiently and without fanfare. There is no big appeal, just a simple setting aside of money in proportion to each persons income. See also that care was taken to ensure everything was done accountably. If a church is attacked it will often be about money. If a church fails from within it will often be about money (sex and power being the other two likely causes). Therefore financial matters must be handled carefully to reduce the risk of this happening.

Paul then outlines his plans to visit them at some point in the future. Apollos and Timothy may also go to visit them.

"Be on your guard". We are in a battle and need to live as though we are in a battle. At the same time we are to do everything in love.

Paul then commends those who have been devoted to the gospel. We need to be careful about how we value people, and make sure we use a godly yardstick, not worldly standards.

The letter finishes with final greetings. Most of Paul'e letter would have been written by a scribe, but he signed the end of the letter to show that it was genuine. 

Verse 22 is interesting, not a greeting we would consider putting in a letter. In saying "a curse be on him", Paul is not casting a spell, but saying such a person is under God's judgement.

1 Corinthians 15:45-58 - He gives us the victory

Christ is now compared and contrasted with Adam. We all descended from Adam who was formed out of the dust of the earth. Then Christ came who is a "life-giving spirit" (again we need to remind ourselves that spirit and spiritual do not imply ghostlike!). The order was natural first, then the spiritual. So it is with all of us. At the moment we have a natural body, later we will be given a spiritual body (which will be 100% real).

We all have the same characteristics as Adam, and we know this. Our bodies are of the same stuff, they decay and wear out in the same way (albeit some more gracefully than others!). We are all corrupted by sin. 

In exactly the same way, all who are in Christ will have the same characteristics as Christ. We will have a resurrection body like His, we will be completely free from sin like Him, we will be completely committed to the Father like Him. 

Not only will the resurrection happen, it must happen. Our present bodies cannot inherit the kingdom. We have to die and rise again in order to receive our full inheritance. Death has indeed lost its sting, for it no longer spells the final defeat, but the doorway to our new bodies. Now this most definitely does not mean we should wish to die! We have a purpose here and now, and we should love life. God is the only One who can and should decide when we die, but we need have no fear of death.

All of us will be changed. This will happen when Christ returns. If we have died before then, then we will be raised from the dead just as Christ was raised from the dead. If we are still around we will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Either way it is all good!

In the resurrection of Christ we have the victory over sin and death. 

Paul then closes this section with a typical instruction. All this talk of what happens after we die must not give us any pie in the sky kind of thoughts, no notions of just waiting around to go to heaven. We are to stand firm and to give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord. Because of the resurrection we know that life here matters, it has a purpose, and that purpose will be achieved. So we are to give ourselves fully to the Lord in this life, knowing that it is all worthwhile. 

1 Corinthians15:42-44 - Raised in glory

This teaching immediately does away with the notion that eternal life will be a mere continuation of the current life. Our resurrection bodies will be different from our present ones. When Jesus was raised He was still the same Jesus, but was also radically different. He suddenly appeared, and was able to pass through locked doors. The disciples sometimes had difficulty recognising Him, though this could be at least partly due to the fact that they were not expecting to see Him as He had died. 

If someone dies of old age, or of a terrible disease, or after an horrific accident, their body is done for, and to be honest you would not want that body to be raised again in its current form. Paul says we need not fear. What is sown perishable, will be raised imperishable, what was sown in weakness will be raised in power, what was sown in dishonour will be raised in glory. Finally, what is sown a natural body will be raised a spiritual body. Now we need to be careful here, we are so saturated with Greek thought concepts that we think the material and spiritual are completely separate. So when we read of a spiritual body we tend to think of ghosts! In reality the spiritual and material are not completely separated. Jesus' resurrection body was different, yet He was able to eat fish, and He could ask Thomas to put his hands in the wounds in His side. 

Our resurrection body will be completely different, but also completely real. And while your body will be different you will still definitely be you. After the resurrection it will be amazing. We will radically transformed, yet still recognisable. We will say, "so that's what you were always meant to be like!". His work in us will be complete.

1 Corinthians 15:35-41 - Resurrection is natural!

Paul then turns to the question of the nature of the resurrection. "How are the dead raised?", "What kind of body will we have?". These are perfectly understandable questions, for we have no direct experience of resurrection, it does not normally happen.

However, Paul declares that these sorts of questions are foolish! He then points them to seeds. All plants grow from seeds, but the plant bears no superficial resemblance to the seed at all. So the process of resurrection is not actually as unusual as at first appears. Creation reflects the glory and nature of God. So Paul is saying we need to raise our eyes a little, to take a broader view of things.

Paul then points to the vast variety of types of life, and the variety in creation. All of it is wonderful, but all of it is different. We can get so self-centred that we miss out on things. Look around and see! This has interesting consequences for the science-religion debate. There actually should be no conflict between science and religion. Nor are they completely separate activities, as is commonly said by those who are not seeking conflict. The problem arises when we look at science in the wrong way. This has lessons both for militant atheists, and for some "creationists" of a particular ilk. We should explore the universe and how it works, but to people of faith this shows us the wonder of the workings of God. It can also help us to understand how God works. Both some scientists and some "creationists" need to take the blinkers off.

For here Paul is saying that looking at the world shows that resurrection is actually a perfectly reasonable and understandable phenomena! In v20-28 he argued from theological grounds, here he is arguing from natural grounds.

1 Corinthians 15:29-34 - The motivation for living

The first verse in this section is somewhat enigmatic and no one knows exactly what Paul was referring to. What we can be certain of is that Paul is not advocating baptising people for the dead. Rather he is showing the illogicality and inconsistency of their practices. Evidently there were some who baptised people for the dead, and Paul is saying what on earth are you doing this for if death is the end and there is no resurrection. Most atheists and humanists will demonstrate some amazing inconsistencies at various points. 

Paul then turns to something more edifying. "As for us ..". Paul and his companions endured all sorts of dangers and suffering for the sake of the gospel. Why would they do this if they did not believe in the resurrection? In fact the church is one of the strongest arguments for the resurrection. There is no way the motley bunch of disciples could have formed a movement that would eventually take over the Roman Empire without a little help from God! And why would anyone chose to be a believer in those days of it was not indeed true? Being a follower of Christ was to sign up for all sorts of trouble. 

The resurrection gives us purpose and hope in life. Note that it is not pie in the sky, it is not sitting around waiting to go to heaven. The resurrection motivates us to live for Christ now. 

If there is no resurrection then you might as well "eat drink and be merry" for there is nothing after death. Our future hope is the motivation for present action.

Why were the Corinthians getting involved in all this silly and destructive sort of teaching? Because they were keeping bad company. The company we keep affects us, so we need to be careful.

1 Corinthians 15:20-28 - He must reign

In the previous section Paul got them to consider the consequences of Christ not having been raised. He did this, not because he thought this was indeed the case, but to get them to realise that without the resurrection the gospel is nothing at all.

Christ has, of course, been raised from the dead. Moreover, He is the first fruits. This means that what happened to Him is what will happen to us. All who die in Christ will be raised to eternal life in the same way.

We all know that one day we will die, we may not like to think about this, but no one doubts that it is true. It is equally certain that we will be raised. For as death came through Adam, life comes through Christ. This resurrection will happen when Christ returns. So although this chapter is focused on the resurrection, it also teaches us about the second coming of Christ, and also about creation with the frequent references to Adam.

The end will come when Christ returns. Death shows us that there is an end to this life. In the same way there will be an end to this world as it is. Christ will return and destroy all ungodly power and dominion, and hand the kingdom over to His Father. So we see that Christ is under the authority of the Father. The gospels make this abundantly clear as well.

All this is so important and wonderful. Christ is fully God and fully human, and we will become like Him. We will share in His glory, but we will still be under the authority of Christ and the Father. 

He must reign until .. See the implication here. Jesus is reigning now. He did not ascend to heaven to sit at his Father's right hand so he could put His feet up! He is seated on the throne to reign, and He is doing so in order to put all His enemies under His feet (see Psalm 110). Jesus is in the victory business. And the final enemy is death.

Paul then says that he of course does not mean that God Himself (the Father) will be put under Christ. This would be absurd, and is a warning against making silly deductions from statements. The Son will be subject to God. An equally silly deduction would be that v28 means that Christ is not God. A whole bunch of other Scriptures make it clear that He is, but He is not the Father. 

1 Corinthians 15:12-19 - No point without the resurrection

Despite the clarity of the message, there were some in Corinth who were saying that there was no resurrection of the dead. Presumably they were saying that Christians are not raised. Paul is amazed at the ridiculousness of their argument. For if we are not raised, then Christ is not raised. Note the identity between Christ and us. In Romans 6 Paul talks about us sharing in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus was fully human and is fully human. As Paul will say later, He is the second Adam. Ie all of us who believe in Him will be like Him. 

Paul then says that if Christ has not been raised all the preaching was useless. The church was predicated completely on the fact that Christ was raised from the dead. There are many today in the church who deny the resurrection. Such people really do not know what they are talking about, and are certainly not preaching the gospel. No resurrection - no point. 

Paul then iterates even more strongly that if Christ was not raised then the apostles were misrepresenting God. If there is no resurrection, then the church has no message for the world. We do well to check our message and see how central the resurrection is to it. 

If there is no resurrection then everything is in vain, for in the end all die. If death is the end of everything, then there is no point to anything. Being a disciple of Christ means sharing in His sufferings, and living life on the premise that there is more to follow. If there is no resurrection then there no point to anything and we might as well give up.

1 Corinthians 15:8-11 - Grace in action

"Last of all he appeared to me as one abnormally born". The original apostles had to have been direct witnesses of the resurrection. This was true of Paul when Jesus appeared to him on the Damascus road, but this was different from all the others, for this was after His ascension. This is why Paul says "as to one abnormally born".

Paul knew his case was different, and that he in no way deserved to be an apostle. For he had actively persecuted the church. Yet he was saved by the grace of God, and by the grace of God took the gospel to the Gentiles. We see here the power of the resurrection. The resurrection is not something to give mere intellectual assent to, but something that turns our lives upside down. And why does it turn our lives upside down? Because Jesus is alive and becomes active in the lives of His followers. This was most dramatically demonstrated in the life of Paul, but it applies to all of us. In Matthew 28:19,20 Jesus says He is with us until the end of the age. We do not believe in a concept, but in the living Lord.

See also the place that Paul gives to grace. Too often we think of grace as a passive thing, God forgiving our sins. Now of course He does this, but grace produces action, and again Paul is a great example. God's grace caused him to work his hardest for the gospel. He then adds "yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me". We can so easily get worked up by "is it God or is it me". You know the best way to experience and know the grace of God? Do something for Him. When we do stuff for God, then we experience the grace of God working in our lives. 

Paul has, as usual, got a little side tracked, but the main point of what he is saying in the introduction is that the apostolic message is our being saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:5-7 - resurrection appearances

The fact that Jesus was raised from the dead is indeed a fact. He appeared to various witnesses, to individuals, to small groups, and to large groups. Many of these people were still alive. At the time there were many people who would have benefited from being able to prove that Jesus did rise from the dead: the Jewish religious leaders, and the Roman authorities among them. None of them could do so. Moreover, the people who claimed to have seen him were alive, and could be asked. 

Now we need to face the fact that the resurrection is an unusual event, and the resurrection of Christ is different from that of Lazarus and others. For Lazarus died of something else later, Jesus rose, never to die again. So we should not be surprised that people initially doubt the resurrection saying such things just don't happen. This is a reasonable reaction. But there is a large amount of evidence to support the resurrection. In fact it is one of the best attested events from ancient history. Then there is also the question of the church itself. Why on earth, and how on earth, did the church get going in the first place if Jesus was not raised? 

It still takes faith to believe the resurrection, but we are not believing in a fairy story, but in an extremely well-attested historical event. There are many excellent books on the subject, a recent one that is very good is "Raised with Christ" by Adrian Warnock.

1 Corinthians 15:3,4 - The message of first importance

So what is the message on which we stand? Namely that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he was raised according to the Scriptures". 

We do well to pay close attention to each part of this. First He died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Our most basic problem is sin. It is your most important problem, it is my most important problem, and it is the person next door's most basic problem. No one's greatest problem is health, financial, relationship or famine, it is sin. Now God may well use these issues as a gateway to dealing with the most fundamental problem. When the paralytic man was lowered through the roof to Jesus, Jesus both healed him and forgave his sins. God needs to deal with sin in our life. There is no lasting way forward unless that problem is addressed, and this is what the Father did through Christ on the cross. Note also that He died according to the Scriptures. Jesus was not doing something new in the sense that it bore no relation to anything that had gone before. Rather He was the fulfilment of the law and the prophets.

After the cross He was buried. There is no room for any swoon theories, or anything else that in anyway minimises the fact that Jesus died on the cross. Islamic teaching is completely wrong on this matter. 

Then He was raised on the third day, again according to the Scriptures. It is the resurrection that Paul will focus on in this chapter. Now remember that at the start of 1 Corinthians Paul says he preached only the cross. When Paul talks about the cross he means both the death and resurrection of Christ. The two go together, and neither makes any sense without the other.

1 Corinthians 15:1,2 - The Gospel on which we stand

This is one of the most important chapters in all of Paul's writings, and the one where the fact and meaning of the resurrection is most clearly set out.

So far Paul has dealt with a whole range of problems and issues that had arisen at Corinth. In fact the letter is quite different from most of Paul's other letters, where the first part is theology, and this is then followed by practical application. Now we come to what the gospel is all about. If we find ourselves getting lost, whether we are theologically confused about something, or emotionally confused, confused about our life and its direction and meaning, it is often helpful to back to the root of the gospel. This is what Paul is about to do.

What he is about to tell them is what he first preached to them, and the truth on which they have made their stand. Truth is not abstract. Taking a stand on the truth is basing our life, the decisions we make, the hopes that we have, the way that we live, on some fundamental things being true.

The gospel is what saved them. Speaking in tongues or prophesying do not save us, eating or not eating certain foods does not save us, getting married or staying single does not save us. It is the gospel that saves us. There may be things in your life that do not seem to be going right, and certainly not in the direction you would like. It is not that these things are unimportant, but they don't save you. If they go wonderfully right, you would not be saved because of it. If they go horribly wrong, you will not lose your salvation. We can rejoice in our salvation now, regardless of the circumstances.

"if you hold firmly". We need to keep hold of the word. We need to persevere, we need to continue to believe. Otherwise our faith was in vain. Now remember that Paul is also the one who perhaps talks more about predestination in the Bible than anyone else. We insist on getting involved in sterile and pointless arguments about  once saved always saved, and predestination. This is the truth: God chose me in Christ before the world was even formed, and I need to run the race with all the strength that I have and all the strength that Christ gives me. It's simple really!

1 Corinthians 14:26-40 - Order in Church

We now get instruction on worship services. We should not treat this as a set of rules, but of principles to be followed and adapted to our own particular situations.

First, each had something to bring. Now in a large church it is clearly not possible for everyone to share something, not unless we are going to have ultra-long services! In fact one gets the impression that at times in Corinth they may have just been clamouring to have their say, not so that they could build up the church, but so that they could get noticed. However, everyone in the church has a contribution of some sort to give. That is why small groups of whatever sort are extremely useful, so that everyone has an opportunity. Note also that it is not "greater" to share something in the main church service, than in a small group meeting. You do not know the effect of what you share. Maybe something shared in a small group will have an enormous effect on one person.

The key principle Paul adopts here is order. He refers again to tongues, saying there is no point whatsoever in someone speaking in tongues unless someone else has the gift of interpretation, so everyone else then knows what has been said and can benefit from it.

Prophets too were to act in an orderly way. An important point here is that the prophet (and for that matter someone speaking in tongues) is in control of themselves. The Spirit gives self-control. 

Finally he says that women should be silent. Now some say that this is a lasting ordinance. Others say that was an instruction given to address disruption of worship by noisy women. Given that Corinth seems to have been a rather disorderly place, I am inclined to the latter view, especially as 1 Cor 11:5 gives instruction for women prophesying in church. No doubt I am also influenced by the fact that I have heard some very good preaching from women.

1 Corinthians 14:1-25 - tongues and prophesy

The first part of verse one really says it all about spiritual gifts : "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire the spiritual gifts". They are definitely a fundamental part of the the Christian life, used in the right context. "Love" here essentially means "for the building up of others". Paul then talks about the difference between tongues and prophecy, and while tongues are good, prophecy is even better because it builds up the church.

When we speak in tongues, unless someone has the gift of interpretation, no one (including the one speaking in tongues) has a clue what the person is speaking about. 

Tongues is primarily for the building up of the individual, it does not do a great deal of good for others. When we pray in tongues we pray with our spirit, not with our mind. What does this mean? Well consider this. With normal English words I can silently run through them in my mind. With tongues I cannot do this, I have to actually mouth the words. I can do it quietly, but I do actually have to say them. This is because tongues are a product of the spirit not the mind.

Now some may say what is the point of this meaningless gibberish. The point is that it edifies my spirit. We need to build up our spirits and our minds. Paul says we should pray with our spirits and with our minds, so we should do both. At the same time we need to be aware that no one else will benefit particularly from hearings us speak in tongues.

With prophecy, on the other hand, everyone who hears benefits. It is designed for the benefit of others, for their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort.

At the end of the section Paul talks about their use in public meetings and the sort of sign they are. What does he mean? Well sometimes we seem to treat tongues as if it is some sort of magic, it isn't. In particular, praying on tongues in a public meeting is at best harmless, and worst harmful. It does not show that God is especially present! As Paul says, if an unbeliever wanders in they will just think everyone is mad (and may well be right!). The only sign it gives is convincing the unbeliever that he is shut out from the things of God and can never make any sense of them. Tongues is not a sign of God's blessing on a meeting.

Prophecy, on the other hand, is extremely useful in public meetings, and is a sign of God's presence. This time the unbeliever will make sense of it, may well be convicted because of it.

I will close with some final remarks about the questions "should everyone speak in tongues"? I believe God can give the gift to anyone, but at the same time speaking in tongues does not make you a superior Christian, and not speaking in tongues does not make you inferior. Sometimes people can get very uptight about speaking in tongues or not speaking in tongues. I would simply say "relax".

1 Corinthians 13 - Love

This is one of Paul's most famous passages. It is often read out at weddings, but we need to remember that Paul did not write it for a wedding, but for everyday church life! It is not about romantic love, but about something much more substantial. 

First he declares that without love everything else is worthless. No words or tongues, be they human or even angelic, are worth anything. Prophetic gifts are worthless, faith is worthless, giving all we have to the poor is worthless, sacrificing our very lives is worthless. Absolutely every type of Christian life or service is covered here: charismatic, evangelistic, social action. You name it is covered and declared worthless if we have not love.

Paul then tells us what love is. First it is patient and kind. It seeks the good of others over itself. It does not seek to exalt itself. It is forgiving, always looking and hoping for the good in others. It seeks the truth and always perseveres.

None of these are easy virtues, but involve risk and cost. When we trust and hope for the best in others there will be times when we are disappointed. Patience requires endurance. Overlooking hurts is costly.

Yet love never fails. Prophecy, tongues and knowledge are all temporary. They are also only partial. When we prophecy we prophecy in part, but when we love we truly touch God. It is easy to become captivated by gifts and manifestations of the Spirit, but love is what we should seek above all.

There are some who use verse 10 as a justification for saying that the gifts were only for the New Testament era, and that since the Bible is now complete there is no need for them, and no place either. I must say that I really do consider this teaching to be complete nonsense. For one thing it makes no sense, and moreover has no support in Scripture. The canon of the New Testament was not firmly established until sometime after the 1st century (even though the books had been written before then). Moreover, prophecy, as we find it in the New Testament, was not doctrinal in nature. The books of the New Testament, with the exception of Revelation, are not books of prophecy.

Perhaps most importantly, today we really have a need for the word of God to be followed by signs and wonders, just as much as they had in the New Testament era. We would do better to follow Paul's advice and seek to be filled with love and to live in love, so that we use the gifts properly.

1 Corinthians 12:22-30 - A wonderful pair of kidneys

People are admired for many reasons: their sporting prowess; their good looks; their intelligence; their signing abilities etc. But I have never heard anyone praise someone else saying "they have a wonderful pair of kidneys"! Yet if your kidneys stop working it is a disaster, we are all highly dependent upon our kidneys working properly. So it is with the body of Christ. There are many functions that may not be noticed, may even rarely be given attention to, or that we may even keep covered, but these are part of the body none the less, and are important. We need to view the body of Christ in the same way, recognising that we are all part of the one body, and that we all matter.

If one part of your body is ill or injured, then it affects your whole being. Again, so it is with the body of Christ. We cannot say that some parts of the church do not matter. If one is suffering, then it will affect others.

Paul closes with a list of functions within the church. Again, this is not an exclusive list. All are needed. No one does all the tasks. Paul will now turn to love, the essential quality that enables the body to work together properly.

1 Corinthians 12:12-21 - One body, many parts

The Corinthians were focused on "what I can do", "me". Paul teaches them to be focused on the body of Christ. In our very individualistic society we need to do the same. Individuals are important of course. Jesus was an individual, He dealt with individuals, but the church is His body. We need each other, we only find our true identity with each other.

The church is one body, but it is made up of many different parts. The human body reflects this, in it having many different parts, but the different parts make no sense on their own. They only have meaning in the context of the body as a whole, and function properly in the context of the body as a whole. Sometimes people consider themselves superior, or not part of the body at all. They may well say or think this, but they are talking or thinking nonsense. Equally some ministries or gifts may consider themselves better than others, or even the only one that really matters. This too is nonsense. Suppose all we had was evenagelists, or only healers, or only preachers, or only children's workers, or whatever. This would be a nonsense.

All are needed, and all are dependent upon each other. God may be giving you great fruitfulness, but if you look more closely you will see that that effectiveness comes only because of the work of many others as well. Take preaching. A preacher is only effective if the people are hungry for God. Why will they be hungry? Because of the work of many others. And after the message has been preached how is it going to take root in the lives of the people and bear fruit? Again because of the work of many others.

Suppose an evangelists leads many to Christ. Who got them to a place where they could hear in the first place? And after they chose to follow Christ who is going to teach them to become disciples?

1 Corinthians 12:7-11 - Gifts of the Spirit

The fundamental feature of the gifts is that they are given for the common good. It does not matter which gift or gifts you have, God has given it to you in order to help others.

Paul then mentions nine different gifts. This list should not be viewed as exclusive, ie the only nine gifts that there are. In other places in the Bible other gifts are mentioned. The first two to be mentioned are wisdom and knowledge. We see both of these in operation in the life of Jesus. He demonstrated tremendous wisdom in dealing with the attacks of the religious leaders, and showed insight into the lives of people, such as the women at the well (John 4). In Acts there were points when people predicted famines. The Spirit enables us to see through situations, to see a solution or a response where none seems possible. There are also times when He will give us knowledge that we could not otherwise have had. We have the knowledge because God has revealed it to us.

Faith, healing, and miracles are then mentioned. Now all have faith, otherwise we are not saved, but the faith here is not "saving faith". Rather it is special faith in a particular situation that God will do a certain thing. For instance at the Red Sea everyone else thought they were doomed, but Moses had faith in God. At the same time God gave him the power to do signs and wonders. 

Discernment of spirits, prophecy, tongues and interpretation are then mentioned. Discernment is the ability to distinguish between good and bad, between the Holy Spirit and other spirits. Sometimes the difference in blindingly obvious, as in the examples Paul gives at the start of the chapter, but at others satan appears as an angel of light, and deeper wisdom is required. Prophecy, tongues and interpretation will be dealt with in much more detail later on.

Whatever the gift, it is given by the Holy Spirit, and is given according to His choosing. There is no room for human pride.

1 Corinthians 12: 1-6 - Many gifts, one Spirit

Paul now turns to spiritual gifts. Now we need to remember that some of the pagan worship many of them would have been experienced before would have involved ecstatic acts of various sorts, perhaps going crazy at a rave is a good way to think of it. Now that they had received the Holy Spirit the gifts they received involved tongues and prophecy (the two which receive most attention from Paul in chapters 12 and 14). A key part of the fruit of the spirit is self-control, but they would have come from a background of lack of control (not much different to today!). So they needed to be taught proper use of the gifts, and that they are not a matter of losing control. In particular, not every urging comes from God! So if someone felt the urge to cry out "Jesus be cursed" they can be absolutely sure that it is not the Holy Spirit who is giving them that urge and they should resist it. Conversely things that lead to Jesus being honoured and glorified do come from the Holy Spirit.

Paul then moves to proper use of the gifts. The underlying principle is that there are different gifts, but all come from the same Spirit, and all are given to serve the same Lord. We can easily get concerned about our status, or look at what I can do. Or start feeling down because I cannot do something. This is evidence that we are looking at things in the wrong way. The gifts are given by God through the Holy Spirit to help us serve the Lord, not to puff anyone up, or show that one person is more favoured than another.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 - The Lord's Supper

Paul pulls no punches, there meetings did more harm than good. Meetings are not a good in themselves! Sometimes we judge people by how many meetings they go to, this is nonsense.

At the meetings in Corinth there were divisions among them. We are meant to come before God in unity. Verse 19 is almost certainly said with a degree of irony. They went along thinking how great they were, and that they were better than people in a different group (eg those who followed Apollos over those who followed Paul).

When we meet together we need to be focused on the Lord above all else. 

There was something seriously wrong with there hearts. The Lord's supper instead of being a commemoration of the cross and resurrection was an orgy of food and drink. We come to the Lord in humility, or we do not come at all. We need to take this very seriously for it is so easy for us to get puffed up in some way.

Paul then gives teaching on what the Lord's Supper is meant to be about. First, it is based on what Jesus did at the Last Supper. The bread and wine are to remind us of His body offered up on the cross, and His blood shed upon the cross. Sometimes people have said that the Lord's Supper is just like a normal meal, but this is not so. The food is not the focus, remembering what our Lord did for us is the focus.

So if we take the bread and wine in a contemptuous manner we bring judgement upon ourselves. We need to look at the cross, and recognise our utter dependence upon the grace and mercy of God. None of us can have any pride. We have a choice we can let Christ judge us, or we can repent and be free. 

Note also that Paul attributes the sickness of some to their attitude to the Lord's Supper. What we do can have physical consequences.

1 Corinthians 11:7-16 : The glory of God and man

We get some amazing teaching here. Paul says man is the image and glory of God. Now this means that we are God's greatest creation. Since we have such an exalted position they were not to cover their head, as this would indicate that they were not the glory of God. Then he says that woman is the glory of man. Now woman was created out of man, and is the glory of man. This means that she is the one in whom man delights the most. So a Paul said a woman should cover her head to signify that she is the glory of man.

Now, as I said in yesterday's post, I don't believe that the injunction for women's head to be covered is relevant today, as it does not signify anything. However, we should pay attention to the underlying principles. 

It is equally important to take verses 6-10 together with 11,12. Some will react to verses 7,8 thinking that Paul is saying man is superior to woman, but then he immediately says in verse 11 woman is not independent of man, nor man of woman. Paul is focusing on the glory of man and woman. Just as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all different, but all equally God, so man and woman are different, but are equally made in the image of God. In fact, Paul says elsewhere that in Christ there is neither male nor female. Also, man and woman should not be in conflict with each other, but should delight in each other.

We then get back to some instruction on length of hair and more on head covering. While I do not believe that we can apply this directly today, we should consider what our practices today say about what we believe. 

1 Corinthians 11:1-6 - Covering the head

Paul calls on the Corinthians to follow him as he follows Christ. We should all be examples of how to live. This does not mean we are all perfect, but there should be at least some parts of our lives where we have learnt to follow Christ, and so other people can learn from us.

Paul then turns to covering the head in worship. This passage contains some very interesting theology, and some practical guidance that gives us a problem! Let's look at the theology first.

The head of every man is Christ. This is the starting point, and is crucial. Christ is the head of every man. So far no problem, but then ... "the head of woman is man", and hackles start to rise, while others get all sort of self-righteous. It is interesting that Paul immediately follows this with "and the head of Christ is God". Paul is not saying that man is superior to woman and can get her to do whatever he likes, and she should serve his every whim. Jesus came to do the Father's will. So the man is to do Christ's will, which means he will do the Father's will also. The role of the husband is to serve the woman, and to give his life for her, just as Christ gave His life for the church (Ephesians 5:25).

Then we get the head covering business, and frankly this leaves most of us perplexed. What is he on about? Well (I am thankful to an article by Wayne Grudem for much of this info) wearing a head covering symbolised something. The possibilities are:

(1) Being in submission to her husband;

(2) Being a woman rather than a man;

(3) Being a wife, rather than unmarried;

(4) having authority to pray and prophecy in church.

To have her head shaved was a sign of disgrace, and Paul says it was the same if a woman did not have her head covered. Now wearing a head covering does not signify any of these things today, so it seems fair to say that we are not expected to observe this instruction today. However, what it symbolises is still true. Ie man is still the head of woman. We will look more at that tomorrow.

1 Corinthians 10:23-33 - Don't make unnecessary difficulties

Paul returns to an argument he used when talking about sexual morality, and now applies it generally. "Everything is permissible", some were saying, but Paul counters by saying not everything is constructive or beneficial. The motivating force should be to seek the good of others above yourself.

With regard to eating meat, then on the whole it was fine to eat anything, whether it had been offered to idols or not. If at an unbelievers house, then don't go looking for trouble, ie don't go looking for things to be "wrong". However, if the host was making a great play of the meat having been offered to an idol, then don't eat.

In today's terms we might say if someone gives you a mug with a zodiac sign on it, but makes nothing of it, then just drink the coffee and don't worry about it, it probably means nothing to the host either. However, if the person then makes a big play of horoscopes and so on, then it would be right to say something.

So Paul's guiding principle in all this is the good of others. Note also that we should be very wary about laying down little rules, all they do is cause problems.

1 Corinthians 10:15-22 - Don't play with fire

It seems evident form this section that some were participating in idol worship. Paul calls on them to take a sensible view of things. First the Lord's supper is a commemoration of the blood and body of Jesus, offered as a sacrifice on the cross. So we are taking part in the body of Christ, and we are celebrating too our unity with each other. We identify with Christ and with each other.

So if they took part in idol worship then they were uniting themselves with demons, and identifying with those who worship demons. Now idols themselves were nothing, useless bits of stone or wood, but behind them is the work of demons. The devil uses idol worship as a front to gain influence over men and women.

The Corinthians would have been so used to engaging in idol worship before they came to know Christ. Maybe they just carried on as before, maybe they didn't want to risk losing friends or standing in society. Then they rationalised their actions by the argument about idols being nothing.

In fact they were worshipping demons, and such an activity is incompatible with worshipping Christ.