and we've been hit with the flu.
'Twill be quiet here for a bit.
Love,
Sarah
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
1 Corinthians 8
Ah, “Christian liberty.” That over-used, often abused expression. Such is the topic of 1 Corinthians chapter
8.
The
apostle Paul addresses the topic of Christian liberty apparently in response to
another question which the congregation in Corinth had sent to him. He begins, “Now concerning things offered to
idols,” but then, it would seem, he digresses for two and a half verses: “We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but
love edifies. And if anyone thinks that he knows
anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God,
this one is known by Him.” In reality,
Paul here lays down the principle for how a Christian must approach matters
which the Bible does not specifically address: not with pride in his or her
ability to understand and apply the Scriptures, but with love for his or her fellow
saints. Paul reaffirms this idea later
in this letter, “And
though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (I Corinthians 13:2).
Then,
specifically addressing the question at hand, Paul affirms, “We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there
is no other God but
one.” Paul’s statement brings to mind
Psalm 115, “But our God is in heaven; He does
whatever He pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the
work of men’s hands,” or Isaiah 44, where the prophet recounts that pathetic scene
in which a man cuts down a tree. Part of
the tree he uses to build a fire to warm himself and to prepare food to fill
his empty stomach, and what is left over he carves into a god, to which he bows
down and implores, “Deliver me!” So, knowing
that an idol is nothing, Paul reasons, whether or not food has been
offered to an idol god is of no account.
The Corinthian believers were free to eat it.
But Paul doesn’t stop there.
He acknowledges that there were some whose convictions did not allow
them to eat the food that in principle they were free to eat. Whether one eats or doesn’t eat does not make
him or her more or less acceptable to God, writes Paul, “but beware lest somehow this
liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak.” It could be, he
continues, that seeing you eat food offered to idols is enough to persuade
another to violate his conscience in order join you, making you guilty of
causing your fellow saint to sin. “And because of
your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus
sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against
Christ. Therefore,” Paul asserts, “if food makes my
brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.”
So how do we apply this principle to our own
lives? By remembering that, at heart,
“Christian liberty” does not refer to our freedom to dress as we’d like, drink
what we’d like, spend our time as we like, live as we’d like… It refers to our being set free to love our
fellow saints. To our being set free
from serving ourselves to serving our God by loving our fellow believers. Also, by acknowledging that it is the
consciences of others that determine how we will live (I Corinthians 10:29). That rubs us the wrong way, doesn’t it? As in chapter 6, we prove ourselves more
concerned with our “rights” than ready to face our Christian responsibilities
to God and to the neighbor.
So do not treat your liberty as license to live
in whatever way you please. Nor exchange
your freedom in Christ for legalism. Rather,
remember: you have been set free to love.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
a day's journey
So I've not only been packing these past few days. I've been painting, too. Some time ago I got it in my head that I would like something new, something personal, to hang on our living room wall in CO. For a while I was trying to decide on one of the many photos of the Iowa sky that I've taken over the past year, but I wanted it to be fairly large, and I couldn't justify the large photo canvas prices, even with a Groupon. Then, after painting at Calvary and packing up several tubes of acrylics, I decided instead that I would take a whack at painting something for our home. So I spent $20 on Amazon for a 30 x 40 inch canvas, and the past few mornings I've spent the first quiet hour of the day sorting things through and painting.
I think I've painted three things since my grade school days in Mrs. Hunter's art class. A mural for junior/senior banquet - and that was a joint venture, as several ladies who read this blog will testify! - the Trinity mural, and the Calvary mural. And I've never painted, made, or created anything that turned out like I had hoped it would.
This piece is no exception - there are things I'd like to change - but it does still do two things that I intended: it moves from tall cornfields in Iowa and across plateaus in western Nebraska to the twin peaks that overlook the place to which we are moving, and it also progresses from sunrise to moonlight.
I entitled it A Day's Journey.
Because it takes about a day to drive from here to there.
But more than that.
Because this transition has caused me to reflect as I never have before on the fleeting nature of my earthly life. On the temporary nature of most things here below. On how I long for heaven.
I hear in my head the words of Rev. Haak on the Reformed Witness Hour, several years ago...
Have you already counted the coming year as yours? Are you looking five years ahead? God counts in days. That teaches us the shortness of our human life, especially as it is compared to eternity. Man thinks that he is forever, that his dwelling places are for generations. But it is a day. Infancy is daybreak; youth is sunrise; adult-life is noonday; sickness and arthritis are sunset; old age is evening. It is but a day.
My life is but a day.
And this move?
But a leg of the journey Home.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
I Corinthians 7
If I were to make a list of difficult
chapters in the Bible, difficult both to study and to live, 1 Corinthians 7
would rank near the top. The chapter
contains the Apostle Paul’s answers to a variety of questions that the
Corinthians had sent to him. I do not
intend to address each specific circumstance mentioned – nor would I do them
justice in a column of this length – but to do my best to overview the main ideas
of the passage.
This chapter, like the previous
two, addresses Christian sexuality. Paul
ended chapter 6 by commanding Christians to flee fornication – meaning sexual
perversion of any sort – in body and spirit, for the believer’s body and spirit
both belong to God. Now Paul addresses
very practically the sexual life of the Christian. His teachings were radical in the godless
culture of Corinth; they are radical in the perverse society in which we live.
1) Single
life is good – not because living singly is holier in itself, but because one
who is single is able to – must! – devote more time to the Lord and to the
church without the distraction of a spouse and/or children (vs. 1, 7-9, 26, 32
– 40).
2) If
a single person has strong sexual desire, he or she must marry (vs. 2, 9).
3) Marriage
is a lifelong bond between two persons (vs. 11, 39).
4) Sex
is – at the very least – a consistent, frequent duty that a married person owes
his or her spouse (passages like Proverbs 5:15-23 and the Song of Solomon make
clear that this is an obligation that the Christian fulfills joyfully.).
5) Christians
are not to seek to divorce their spouses, as Christ also made clear during his
earthly ministry, even if one’s husband or wife is an unbeliever (vs. 10-13, Matthew
19:9).
6) If
a believer is deserted by an unbelieving spouse, he or she must not live
enslaved to the guilt of that broken marriage: he or she still has peace with
God (Note: The words in this verse “under bondage” come from a different Greek
word than the word translated “bound” in vs. 27 and 39, though certain Bible
translations render them the same way.)
7) Parents
have authority over their children until they are married, and with regard to
when and whom they marry (vs. 36-38. Note:
Some translations render the man in these passages as one who is betrothed to a
young woman rather than her father).
As I read I Corinthians 7, two
passages jump as out as “keys” that unlock the door to living a life of godly
purity. First, whether one is single or
married, the life in which God places him or her is a calling. Not a relationship – or lack thereof – that
exists as a result of his or her own preferences or for the sake of his or her
ease in this life. Men or women are
commanded by God to live faithfully and contentedly in the life that God has assigned
them.
How is this possible? Some of us, no doubt, find ourselves in very
difficult circumstances: single, with no prospective spouse; married, with
trouble; deserted, and lonely. Paul
shows us how in verses 29-31: with an eternal perspective. This life is short, and our time here, though
we be single or married, plagued with sorrow or full of joy, wealthy or poor,
passes quickly away. And it is for
eternity that the godly will receive – as singles! (Matthew 22:30) – a gracious
reward for living faithfully in their calling.
The idea Paul expresses here corresponds to Jesus’ words in Luke 14: “If
any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be
my disciple.”
Friday, May 11, 2012
my favorite mother's day tradition
On the morning of Mother's Day, I have a note ready for each of our children - nothing fancy, in the past I've just used a piece of paper torn from a legal pad or a notebook - in which I tell them how thankful I am that God chose me to be their mom and commend one of their characteristics or encourage them in an area in which I've seen them make a lot of effort. I leave these notes at each of their places at the breakfast table.
A Happy School
The home we’ve been renting
for the past five or so years is an old two-room school house that was hauled
here from somewhere in southern Minnesota back in the 40s. The rafters in the attic are stamped “Sears,”
hailing the era when you could order a schoolhouse kit from the Christmas catalog. The floor of the porch, now enclosed, still slants
downward, and the school’s original siding lines the interior of the coat
closet. Our children have tacked bug
collections, birds, the letters of the alphabet, and a banner that reads “A
Happy School – Today!” to the porch’s paneled walls. My Grandma’s old alphabet, from the days when
she taught kindergarten, decorates the dining room. Crayons and paper pepper the small table in
the kitchen, and artwork adorns the refrigerator.
Our home has the feel of a happy school.
And then we moved in. We scraped dry dog poo out of the entry and the
bathroom’s peeling paint. We planted a
garden. Soon there was a puppy, chickens,
kittens, and goats. Will was born a few
months after we arrived, followed later by Marie and Nathan.
We’ve made a lot of memories in this little
school. We’ve learned much about living
and loving.
For as long as the Master Teacher gives me life, I’ve things to be taught...
...'til the day I graduate...to glory.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Eulogy
The piano was the first to move.
I scoured the counter as it creaked
through the living room
and heaved out the front door
into the bucket of the Allis.
My back was turned when it fell
face-first onto the burn pile.
I didn’t watch him douse it with gasoline
nor strike the match,
but as I tugged laundry off the line
smoke billowed like the black clouds overhead.
We huddled in the basement
beneath the threat of a tornado,
the rush of rain,
the smatter of hail.
When I ventured up and peered out,
it was still glowing at the far end of the yard,
hailstones thrumming the charred strings…
I Corinthians 6
I learned a new word today: “litigious.” Perhaps it’s new
to you, too. Merriam Webster defines
“litigious” this way: 1) “disputatious, contentious” or 2) “prone to engage in
lawsuits.” A fitting adjective for the
society in which we live, perhaps? Also
a fitting description of Greek culture at the time the apostle Paul wrote I
Corinthians 6. There, trials were held
in theaters, and juries consisting of hundreds of people determined the outcome
of each case. In order to a win a case,
it was important that one be a skillful orator and that he be popular. No wonder the saints in Corinth were prone to
respect the wise and the debaters of their day; no wonder they were guilty of
seeking the praise of men (chapters 1-5).
Likewise, the members of the church were also assuming the mentality of
the ungodly with regard to the legal system.
Whenever anyone felt that his rights had been violated, he took his suit
to court. Sound familiar?
Paul
sets forth this principle in I Corinthians 6: no lawsuits between
believers. “Now
therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against
one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let
yourselves be cheated?” We’re just like the Corinthians, aren’t
we? More ready to defend our "rights" than
assume our God-given responsibilities toward one another.
Paul
addresses the subject of lawsuits through verse 8 of chapter 6. Then he returns to the subject of immorality
in the church, and, more specifically, sexual immorality. In some ways, verses 1-8 seem misplaced,
don’t they? But wait, let’s refresh our
memories on chapter 5. There was a
member of the congregation in Corinth who was leading an immoral life and
deserved to be judged by his fellow church members, but was not. In contrast, Paul points out how quick they
were to bring their grievances before the ungodly – thereby giving unbelievers
occasion to ridicule Christianity – even though they refused to judge
immorality in their own congregation! So
now Paul reaffirms: “Do
not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers (one who uses abusive language), nor extortioners (one
who obtains from another by force, intimidation, or undue or illegal
power) will inherit the kingdom of God.” And then, this beautiful statement: “And such
were some of you, BUT you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” Ephesians 5:8: “For you were once darkness, but now you
are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light.”
Paul
then takes on two idioms of the day:
First, “All things are lawful for me.” Only some things, asserts Paul, are conducive
to the Christian walk, and a Christian must never become a slave to a substance
or behavior. Then, “Food for the stomach
and the stomach for food,” a phrase some apparently used to rationalize sexual
immorality: God created the body for sex, therefore we should enjoy sex without
restriction. No, writes Paul, the body was made for the Lord,
and the Lord for the body. You may think
you are your own, but your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In chapter 3 we saw that Paul referred to the
church collectively as God’s temple, His building. Now Paul refers to the body of the individual
believer as the temple of the Holy Spirit in the same sense in which Jesus does
in John 14:23:
“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will
love him, and we will come to him and make our home
with him.”
You’re one with Christ, says Paul. Do
not join Christ with a prostitute! And
why should the Christian never become the slave of a substance or
behavior? Because we already belong to
another – we’re the slaves of God – and what a price He
paid for us! So honor your Master with
your body as well as your spirit.
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