In my previous post, I explained my belief in the Bible’s claim of a global flood that nearly eradicated humans from the face of the earth. The Bible reports that God preserved a remnant of eight people to repopulate the earth. Significantly, it also states that God gave the rainbow as an evidence that he would never again flood the earth as a form of judgment upon its inhabitants.
Skeptics scoff at this, explaining the rational process for the presence of rainbows. I don’t disagree with these explanations. However, I would suggest that the logical, scientific explanation for rainbows does nothing to discredit the faith belief in what that particular rainbow represented (and what all subsequent rainbows have the ability to remind us). The explanation of a rainbows existence and the rationale for why rainbows exist are at least partially exclusive. But I digress.
Despite the phenomenon of rainbows, we – almost predictably – experience flooding. Sometimes on a widespread scale. While the list of floods in the last fifty years is impressive, it’s interesting to note that there is no record of any second global flood. (Note: while many efforts have been made to discredit the account of the original flood, much historic, geological, and anthropological evidence supports the biblical claim.)
God never promised that there would never be another flood. He promised that he would never use flooding waters as an expression of global judgment. Some people want to suggest that God brings hurricanes, earthquakes and their subsequent floods as judgment upon a nation or its people for its pagan beliefs.
While, I’m not qualified to declare unconditionally and authoritatively that this is or is not an expression of God’s judgment, I personally don’t believe that natural disasters are are a picture of God’s wrath. If it is, the United States should be in a collective state of woe for the impending judgment awaiting it (as a self-identified nation “under God”). Rather, I go back to previous statements (made in prior posts) that we now live in a broken world with a significantly larger quantity of water cycling through its closed system. Consequently, catastrophic floods are a periodic and unfortunate phenomenon.
My hope, then, is to draw attention back to Jesus’ declaration that all people turn to God before the next storm hits. Whether it is literal or figurative, and whether you face it alone or with your community, I invite you to turn to God and call upon him for rescue.
In my previous post, I mentioned that I believe there were two events that radically altered the earth’s environment. The first event was the original rebellion of man against God. That rebellion changed the earth from its utopian origins to its dystopian present, replete with destructive storms.
This first event was the precursor to the second event. After the first event, humanity moved forward in its “new normal.” A family became a clan, the clans divided and claimed new territory. Populations grew and generations passed.
Every person and every generation existed in the “new normal.” Each person’s death recalled the original rebellion. As the population expanded and generations passed, the story was changed or forgotten. As time passed, people grew more distant from God.
The Bible reports that after ten generations, God determined to judge the world’s population for its rebellion (and the details of his judgment can fill an entirely different post). He chose a global flood of waters as his means of judgment.
Giving 100 years of warning, he set aside one lone family to escape the judgment. The patriarch of this family, Noah, began to build a boat (as God commanded) to withstand and endure the judgment. He did so in a world that possibly, had never seen rain fall from the sky. Who knows what people thought of Noah or even said to him over that 100 years of ark-building. That no other people were allowed to join him on the boat allows for the fair assumption that they likely reasoned that the world could never exist differently than how they had experienced it. Then the time arrived.
On the 17th day of the second month of Noah’s 600th year, waters fell from the sky an a way unprecedented in world history.
It would be inadequate to think only that it rained. Instead, imagine a drenching rain where you’ve sought refuge under a tarp, tent, or canopy. You see the canopy sag as it becomes water-logged. At first, a few beads of water soak through, dripping overhead. Then, suddenly, without warning, the canopy rips with a load tear and you are blanketed by a sheet of water that literally knocks you off your feet.
This is what the Bible says happened, except on a global scale. The Bible says that in the creation, God had blanketed the earth with a canopy of water. At this time of judgment, God released this canopy and its waters plummeted upon the earth. The volume of water overwhelming the earth is unimaginable, even in light of our modern-day comparative calamities.
Compounding the disaster, the Bible says that God caused the waters under the earth to spring forth. These were no bubbling brooks of natural springs. Its appropriate to think of violent earthquakes, oceanic volcanoes, and tumult that results in landscapes like Colorado’s Flatirons mountains. This was happening on a global scale. Oceans of waters from above. Geysers of waters from the ground.
Chaos.
With each new violent storm, we see a new library of videos of violent winds pushing walls of water, sweeping parking lots of cars into and then through buildings. Homes, offices, and stores instantly are deconstructed as the unrelenting force of the waves pushes against and ultimately over them. Stories are shared of a man being found on a roof six miles out in the ocean, or of a dolphin rescued one mile inland.
In light of this modern evidence, I have no problem reconciling why I will find an unbalanced boulder atop a mountain in the middle of the rockies, or sea life fossils in the middle of the continental land mass. In this, I see evidence of God using nature as a means of both judgment and new beginnings.
When disaster strikes, there are a few predictable negative responses, theologically speaking:
“If God is in control, he made this happen.”
“God (the cosmic clockmaker) isn’t in control, so he’s not worth worshipping.”
“This is evidence that there is no God.”
Among the many shortcomings of us humans is our tendency toward dichotomous thinking. Black/white. Either/or. We presume that only two options are correct, that it cannot be somewhere in between…or somewhere completely outside of the two. We tend to think that if God exists, everything should be good all the time. So if something bad happens, the foundational thoughts on God are flawed. The reality of bad *must* mean that God is not good, God is not God, or that God simply is not real.
Yet, God’s role in adversity this not hindered by the limits of human reasoning.
Presuming God exists, if he is also sovereign, this means he is in control. In this respect, God bears the responsibility for any (and every) event that humans would label “bad,” “tragic,” or “disastrous.” If we lived in an edenic/idyllic/perfect world, this would mean that God is exceedingly cruel and is not at all good.
We don’t live in a perfect world.
The fact is, we live in a chaotic world. It is characterized by an ever-increasing frequency of earthquakes, destructive winds, demolishing storms, eruptions, and devastating waters. Ours is a world that is obeying the laws of thermodynamics and moving rapidly toward a state of increasing physical disorder. It exists in a universe that is perpetually expanding toward disorganization, too. It’s a world that appears destined for destruction and is growing increasingly unstable and volatile.
If we can agree that the world is becoming increasing disorganized and unstable, it’s appropriate to ask why this is so. There is no shortage of conjecture about human complicity in the not-small matter of global destruction, but I retrospect for the sake of maintaining focus on the question of God’s role
Two significant events changed the world from its original conditions to the ones within which we currently exist. Both are relevant to the current conversation; this writing addresses the first event’s role in explaining contemporary calamities.
The first event that changed the global environment is humanity’s original rebellion against God. Originally…according to the Bible…was created good, even perfect. God and humans enjoyed a close relationship. Yet, that relationship was destroyed when the first humans were deceived by evil, distrusted God and rebelled against him. The consequence of that rebellion was the eventual death of every person and, among other things, a curse upon the earth. This rebellion tainted the environment, altering the world from its utopian origin into a dystopian state, with ramifications and implications into the natural order that followed and is, even today.
Jesus reflected this reality in his teachings. He acknowledged we live in a world governed by natural laws. He didn’t blame God. In Luke 13, he spoke of a tower in Siloam fell, killing 18 people. We don’t know if it was a natural disaster or a man-made mistake. We we do know that Jesus went out of the way to say that the people weren’t victims expressly because they were in rebellion to God. He refuted the “cruel God” argument. In the very next breath, though, Jesus said, “but unless you turn to God, you too will die!” In this, he undergirds the reality of God, not entertaining a notion that God is not real.
His point is that everybody dies in a broken world and the only hope for anyone is found through faith in God. Whether it’s by being crushed under a tower, swept away in a storm, or asleep in bed after a long, quiet life, death comes to every person….and every death is tragic. Furthermore, Jesus defuses the “uncaring God” argument with his declaration that turning to God is the sole means to escape the tragedy of death, and that it is available to every person, without exception.
The effort to reconcile God’s role in disaster is actually more about man than it is about God. The only way a person can lob accusations against God, suggesting that he is cruel or lazy, is if that person assumes that he sits in an authorized position of judgment. While this doesn’t mean that humans have no right to exercise genuine inquiry to ask “why?”, those who are asking should have a proper understanding about themselves before they can ever hope to have a right understanding about God. If people are intrinsically good and in right standing with God (or even in judgment over God), this explains the speculation and conjecture about tragic calamities and the implications thereof.
However, if (as Jesus taught and the Bible reports) that people exist in an intrinsic position of rebellion against and defiance to God, the question changes. Instead of asking, “Why?” the more reasonable question is “Why not?” If humans are, by their nature, in a state of opposition to God, and live on a realm barreling toward its total destruction, why wouldn’t there be regular, periodic, and increasingly numerous of escalating upheavals? Indeed, if humans live in a judged state of rebellion on a judged world of destruction, it makes sense that humans should expect to endure natural disasters on an increasing frequency. Accordingly, a lack of forewarning and the potential for each to claim any unpredictable number of lives is likewise reasonable.
Because of the utter impossibility to prevent or avoid these natural disasters, the best (only) hope is to properly view the bigger picture with the perspective offered by the one person who authoritatively spoke with the divine insight. This is why Jesus said, “repent now!” when talking about the Siloam tower. He acknowledged that disasters will happen in a fallen world destined for judgment. Even so, death before reconciling with God is the biggest disaster.
This summer, one of our community groups is being led through the first 15 chapters of Genesis by our groups pastors. They both happened to be on vacation this week, so I stepped in and taught Genesis 8. Here are my notes:
But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. (8:1a)
Remembered – This word can be a little distracting to us, but we must remember that the narrative exists for our benefit and for God’s glory. So this word that we translate as ”remembered,” is better understood as “turned his attention to.” Even this, though fails to fully capture the magnitude of what’s taking place, in that God isn’t multitasking in the way that you and I would multitask.
God is omnitasking…as he always does…giving his full attention to all matters at all times, simultaneously.
So when we see this “remembered,” and that he turned his attention to Noah etc., it’s not that he turned his attention away from something else. For us, as observers, we see God giving his attention to Noah.
This is why the “but” is a big deal…it serves as a counterpoint to what came before….so what came before? The flooding of the waters and the prevailing of the waters for 150 days (the 40 days of rain occurred within the 150. See 7:12 & 8:4)
And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. (8:1b)
Remembered – the remembrance of God is important for this detail, too, for a couple reasons. First, it seen in this word “and,” which connects that which follows to that which precedes it. This very act of wind blowing over the earth is not “just nature,” or coincidence. It is the deliberate, intentional act tied to the “giving full attention to.” This show that God is putting actions to the promises. In this regard, it evokes that understanding of Yahweh, the God of covenant relationship.
God, here, though is the Hebrew Elohim, and he is the same God of Genesis 1.
The Hebrew word for wind is ruah, which is the same word from Genesis 1 used for Spirit, where God’s Spirit hovered over the waters. Remember that the promise was to start anew with these people aboard this ark, and just as His Spirit had been present and active in the creation of the earth, He was actively at work delivering Noah and the surviving creation from these dangerous waters. This is the same wind that Moses would later witness driving away the plague of locusts in Exodus 10, and that would part the waters of the Red Sea delivinghis people onto dry ground in Exodus 15, and the same wind that would bring in quail in Numbers 11.
God regularly makes use of nature (see Joshua 10; Psa. 104:3-4)
The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained,3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. (8:2-3a)
This passage reverses the action of 7:11-12
all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. (Ge 7:11–12)
At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. (8:3b-5)
Exactly 150 days, 5 months to the day. It’s interesting that this very specific date has been included as a detail.
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Exactly 150 days, 5 months to the day. It’s interesting that this very specific date has been included as a detail. (Romans 15:4)
Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. (Ex. 13:4)
In the month of Nisan (Neh. 2:1)
This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. (Ex. 12:2)
When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruitsof your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it (Lev. 23:11)
Passover occurs on 14thof Nisan…Jesus was offered as our Passover lamb on the 14thof Nisan. Three days later, the morning after Sabbath after Passover is the Feast of First Fruits.
3 days after the Passover sacrifice, Jesus “waved” to the people… He truly is the first fruit of the Lord, the offering that makes us all accepted.14+3 = 17…This 7thmonth would eventually become the first month, and this day of the Ark landing aground offering mankind and all of creation a new beginning on the same day in advance that Jesus would do in full through his resurrection.
Note that this says in the mountains of Ararat, not Mount Ararat. The location of the ark has been a provocative matter of speculation for a long time, and continues to be now.
the Mountains of Ararat
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. (Genesis 11:1-2)
Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. (Genesis 6:14b)
This would indicate that the descendants came from a region of Iran, not Turkey (the North).
What’s interesting is that the wood of the ark is covered inside and out with pitch (tar). There’s the functional aspect that it would be waterproof…and that it would be functional on the inside. The byproduct of it is that it is amazingly well preserved. It could be that someday, the testimony of the Ark still has more to say.
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. (Genesis 11:1-2)
This would indicate that the descendants came from a region of Iran, not Turkey (the North).
Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. (Genesis 6:14b)
What’s interesting is that the wood of the ark is covered inside and out with pitch (tar). There’s the functional aspect that it would be waterproof…and that it would be functional on the inside. The byproduct of it is that it is amazingly well preserved. It could be that someday, the testimony of the Ark still has more to say.
While it took 40 days for the rains to fall, it took 5 long months for the waters to recede to the point where the new beginning could commence.
Isn’t this an apt picture of our calamities, too? How often do our calamities go away as swiftly as they come?
While we wait for it to “come to pass” where we can go forth again, don’t we feel like Noah and his captive family?
At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. (Gen. 8:6-7)
40 more days passed, and the waters continued to retreat.
He sent out this raven….there’s a couple interesting thoughts here, perhaps inspired.
First, the raven is an unclean bird. It is an eater of dead things. So it is reasoned that it could fly about and eat from the carcasses floating on the water surfaces.
Its ”flying to and fro” is indicative that the raven could likely fly longer than could a dove, and because it was good for neither food nor sacrifice, it was expendable. This language indicates being sent out repeatedly, not that it just flew and flew and flew until it found a place to land.
Also interesting, the raven is associated with the predicted desolation of Edom in Isaiah 34:11. Some scholars reason that the raven, therefore, is a picture of the impurities of the past being removed, and that creation indeed has a fresh new start.
Or, it’s just a raven.
a raven with a filthy habit
Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove,and she did not return to him anymore. (Genesis 8:8-12)
This dove serves as his eyes.
The dove, though, is both a bird associated with sacrifice and food. It is appropriate both as a burnt offering and as a sin offering. The dove is also a symbol presented in the Lament imagery, but also beauty and innocence. Where the raven was a picture of what was left behind in judgment, the dove is a picture of what is ahead in new beginnings., A dove would be included in the burnt offering (at the end of the chapter).
When at first the dove could find no place…the Hebrew word for place is monoah, derived from the Hebrew word for rest which is…Noah. (He will find rest). When the dove couldn’t find rest….Noah retrieved the dove himself….giving it rest. The dove, a picture of purity, is welcome.
After 7 days, he releases the dove again, and it returns with the first sign of life outside the ark. This is an indication that the earth had completed its season of destruction, and was creating anew. The olive leaf would have been significant to the early readers of this, for their awareness of the importance of the olive, the oil of which is used to fuel the menorah in the tabernacle, and anointed the tabernacle and furnishings. It was a plant with good, blessed connotations. Don’t miss, too, that both the oil and the dove are symbolic of the Spirit of God (the anointing of Jesus – Luke 4:18; Matt 3:16)
Finally, another week later, the dove is sent out a 3rdtime and doesn’t return, a proclamation of freedom to the ark’s inhabitants.
In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. (Gen. 8:13-14)
It has been almost a full year (see Genesis 7:11) 314 days. Noah had known about land, but he still couldn’t see it for himself. Yet, here, now, he sees it for himself.
Yet, it wasn’t until 370 (or 371 depending on your counting) that the ground was dry enough for the next events.
Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. (Gen. 8:15-19)
This divine message from God parallels the command to enter the ark (7:1).
We don’t have any indication that God spoke to Noah during the entire time he was in the ark.
Yet, we have Hebrews 11 telling us everything he did, he did by faith, and so we have no reason to suspect that he was somehow without faith while he waited on the Lord.
That is instructive to us in our waiting…
What do you do while you wait? Meet with God (James 1)
Eventually, according to God’s timing, God speaks.
The language of 18-19 also parallels the entrance, but it is indeed pointing forward to the blessing of repopulation.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Gen. 8:20-22)
We have information here of Noah building the altar and sacrificing clean animals of every kind…before the law was given. This indicates a superintentionof God to illuminate Noah on these matters.
Worship had existed clear back to Cain and Abel, but here we see an altar built for this purpose. And the worship was directed to the Lord.
God responded positively to this act of worship.
Compare 8:21 with 6:5 – The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that everyintentionof the thoughts of his heart was onlyevil continually.
We continue to have a sin problem – it has ruled us since Adam.
Yet, God makes 2 vows – not to despise man (though we haven’t changed, cannot change)…and he will not destroy us.
Instead, God promises regular predictable weather and seasons and provision.
parallels in the creation account and the re-creation account. This graphic was a nightmare to produce.
Corinth was a Greek city famous for its immorality.
The people there had many non-Christian cultural influences.They were trying to meld their new faith with their established culture.One area this bore out had to do with understand what were good and permissible and honorable ways to honor their bodies.Paul wrote this letter in AD 50. He had stayed in Corinth for a year and a half before moving on to Ephesus. They had corresponded with him while his was in nearby Ephesus.Paul wrote them in response, and addressed several (12) topics of importance to the congregation in Corinth.
Paul identifies himself as the letter’s author, chosen by God to be an apostle of Christ. Sosthenes is listed as being present, too. There is not agreement about whether or not this is the same Sosthenes mentioned in Acts. If it is (the same Sosthenes), it would indicate him being a Jewish believer.
He addresses this to God’s church in Corinth. God has called these people to be believers. The church is not a human-conceived or organized institution. Jesus makes his church holy.
In his general benevolent greeting, Paul mentions how the people of Corinth have been blessed with every spiritual gift needed, and that God will keep the church strong until the day of the return of Jesus.
He appeals to the church to live in harmony with one another, to be unified and free from divisions. The congregation was divided, creating artificial and unnecessary schisms around following Paul, or Peter, or Apollos, or Jesus. Paul corrected that by reminding everyone of the preeminence of Jesus, and the singularity of the Gospel of Christ resurrected.
He reminds them that he came to them with the simple message of the Gospel.This simple message is considered foolishness to those who are perishing (who consequently don’t receive this message as truth). Yet, for those who are being saved, this Gospel message is the power of God.Here, the Gospel is presented in terms of power and wisdom, perceived as weakness and foolishness toward those who are powerful and wise (from a worldly perspective), but eternally mighty and wise to those who are weak and unimpressive to the world. God regularly uses the weak and unimpressive things of this world; accordingly, this keeps people from boasting. If you boast, boast only in the Lord
Paul reminds them of his coming to them in the simplicity of his message, relying only on the power of the Holy Spirit to be effective.
He explains that when he is with mature believers, he does use words of wisdom (to speak of more in-depth matters)
He explains this wisdom is articulated in the mystery of God; that is, the church. The plan of the church had been hidden from the beginning of time, but now was being revealed.
He further explains that nobody has ever understood this or comprehended it (for if they had, they would have misused it).
God has revealed these things now, to the church, and to the Jewish and Gentile believers alike.
God has revealed these things by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We learn here that the Holy Spirit is the revealer of the secret things of God because the Spirit alone knows God’s deepest thoughts.
understated points: Godhas given you His Spirit! This Spirit, who alone knows and reveals God’s secrets, lives within the believer and communicates with you these very details!
This is why we can say confidently that we speak with God’s wisdom and with God’s power.
Succinctly stated, we can have the mind of Christ.
understated points: the entirety of the triune godhead is present and available to you -knowing God’s thoughts (secrets), thinking with mind of Christ, and receivingthe Spirit’s wisdom and power.
Despite all this, Paul acknowledges having had to speak to the Corinthians not as mature believers, but as spiritual infants, using simple words to communicate foundational truths. He gives as evidence of their immaturity:
They are jealous of one another and quarrel.
They unnecessarily divide over which teacher/leader they follow.
Paul reminds them that all these teachers work in union under the primary headship of Jesus. They have different responsibilities towards a common goal (that is, making and maturing believers)
He compares his efforts to constructing, in them, a building of faith. He explains that he has laid the foundation; that is, Jesus.
Other teachers are now building atop this foundation, and he warns the people to be careful with what how allow their faith to be constructed, because any other faith where Jesus is not the cornerstone will not survive God’s judgment.
Furthermore, the very things that any person uses to construct their own lives (so to speak) serve as the building blocks of life (in this construction of faith). The totality of all these things will be judged, too. If any of these things are on a different foundation (meaning they aren’t built upon the premise of Jesus), they will not pass through judgment.
Conversely, anything that is “of faith,” it will pass judgment and be rewarded.
Paul makes it clear that a person with a solid foundation of Jesus is still capable of building foolishly upon it. In these cases, the person will survive the judgment because their foundation is secure, but suffer the loss of everything foolish that was built upon it (that is not of faith).
Paul reminds the reader, “you are the Temple of God, and the Spirit of God lives within you.”
From this reminder, Paul tells the Corinthians to stop deceiving themselves with their own sense of self-importance and misperceptions of being wise…encouraging them to pursue the simple wisdom of God that is perceived as foolishness by the world.
Better that the world thinks you a fool and God makes you wise, than be wise to the world and a fool before God
Paul keeps progressing, encouraging the Corinthians to be faithful before God, and not to be distracted by judging others (or even self). Paul learned he can’t even trust his own conscience, but he wholly trusts the Lord to examine him.
Toward this end, he encourages people not to judge others prematurely.He employs some hyperbole and sarcasm as literary devices here to drive home the point that the Corinthians had “not yet arrived,” and weren’t as rich or authoritative as they thought themselves to be.To offer a stark counterpoint, he offers himself and the apostles for consideration.
To the world, they were the spectacles on display living under the sentence of death. They were perceived as fools to onlookers (while the proud Corinthians proclaimed themselves to be so wise). The Apostles were perceived as weak, in contrast to the Corinthians who presented as being mighty. They were ridiculed, while the Corinthians were honored.They were starved, beaten, homeless, overworked, cursed, abused, and mistreated. To the world, they were scum.
Paul tells them all this because he is uniquely positioned as their spiritual father to tell them…and he encourages them to imitate him, because in so doing, they will honor God.
This is why he sent Timothy to them, to remind them of these matters.
He loves them enough to tell them these hard truths.
The fact is, these hard truths are necessary because they are living immorally, with sexual practices that not even the unbelievers were doing.
He mentions specifically a man in a sexual relationship with his stepmother.
Not only is this man guilty, but the church, too, for not mourning over this sin.
Paul says this man should be ejected from the faith community.
This is a challengefor me. Not because I don’t agree with it, because I do. I’m just having a challenge reconciling this with the earlier exhortation he gives not to judge to prematurely. I ultimately resolve this challenge by the nature of the offense listed, that itis so patently egregious that it demands a response, as an expressionof God’s clear opposition to the evil being committed.
Paul makes clear that this expulsion not punitive in nature, but to drive the man to the end of self, so that he may ultimately be saved.
His admonition points to the church itself in its culpability regarding this offense and offender, in that its coddling of him and unwillingness to be humble and pure created and environment where this type of evil could flourish.
This sinful environment is seen in the church’s willingness to boast about allowing such licentiousness in its midst (thus cheapening the grace of God).
He compares this sin to a yeast that works its way through an entire lump of dough. He exhorts them to get get fresh dough (so to speak) that is without yeast (or sin); in this, he is pointing the church to return to the simple foundation of holy Jesus Christ.
He clarifies here that these exhortations regarding a pure sexual ethic are specifically targeted toward believers.
Then he drops this truth bomb…and it addresses my earlier challenge, somewhat…that Christians are called to judge those inside the church, but not those outside the church.
This judgment means to be able to rightly pass the judgment of God because of alignment with truth.
It doesn’t mean having a judgmental attitude or a critical spirit.
It requires knowledge of truth, a humble attitude, and a restorative, gracious spirit.
He chides the believers who have made a practice of dragging other believers to court. We mustn’t do that, because when we do, we allow the unbelieving world have judgment over us, and we are operating out of order. We betray our faith in this regard, and we convolute and distort the order of God by abandoning the sense that God’s wisdom is superior to man’s wisdom and God’s outcomes are superior to human outcomes.
This teaching is accompanied by a listing of the types of carnal behaviors typified by the lost person that will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul reminds his audience that they are not like the unbelieving world. They were made right with God by calling on the name of Jesus.
Paul returns to a brief discourse on fleeing sexual immorality, because the notion that we have the liberty to do anything we want (particularly with our bodies) is wrong. He makes the point that fornication and adultery are unholy unions that corrupts the sanctity of marriage.
Sexual immorality is a sin against a person’s own body (which is the Temple of God, the God who lives within you).
understated point: you are not your own. you have been bought for an expensive price, so honor God with your body.
Paul then moves into answering some questions that had been posed to him:
Abstinence was virtuous.
So is monogamy.
Mutual submission in a marriage relationship is honoring of one another and functionally beneficial.
Depriving one another (husband and wife) sexually is not good.
Singleness is virtuous, but not realistic for all people.
If you can’t live a virtuous single life, pursue marriage.
For those who marry, stay married.
Abandoning a spouse is not good.
If you leave your spouse, don’t make matters worse. Either stay single or eventually try to reconcile.
If you are married to someone who is an unbeliever, stay married.
There is a chance your unbelieving spouse will come to belief.
However, if your unbelieving spouse leaves, you are no longer bound to the spouse who abandoned you.
Generally speaking, try to live in the circumstances in which you find yourself. Strive to be faithful in the circumstances of where you are.
Reiterating: don’t idealize or idolize marriage. Singleness is beneficial if you can thrive in it. Marriage offers benefits, but also its own challenges.
Marriage relationships are for life, but when the life of a spouse ends, the marriage commitment ends. A widow/er is free to remarry, but must remember to marry a fellow believer. (There’s no expiration date for the truths of God).
whether this or…
this, honor God with your life.
Once there is recognition that a judgment call is required, a leader has to frame it and name it.
Warren Bennis
One cool judgment is worth a dozen hasty councils. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat.
Woodrow Wilson
It is impossible to judge others accurately when you cannot accurately self-measure.
One cool judgment is worth a dozen hasty councils. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat.
B-log 