Month: December 2024

Paul will receive a letter back from the Corinthian church, and then he’ll write a second letter, which we’ll get to tomorrow. For now, though, let’s go back to the book of Acts. As I wrote a few days ago, Paul’s third missionary journey was to Asia, and it was during this journey that he was able to spend a large block of time (3 years) in one city (Ephesus). How nice to not be run out of town two weeks after arriving!

By this point Paul was an old man. I’m about to turn 50 and don’t consider that old, but back then it was. He had to think about what would happen after he was no longer around. So he spent these three years in Ephesus training men and women who would start and lead new churches. The seven churches that we see in Revelation 2-3 were most likely started during this time.

Ephesus was a very large city. It was a port city, and like Corinth, was very diverse. Ephesus is the home of one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, the temple of Artemis. I plan to write a bit about Artemis when we get to Paul’s letter to Timothy.

It’s also during time time that a teenager named Nero will become emperor of Rome. Nero will play a big role in Paul’s story.

Paul’s time in Ephesus came to an end because he threatened the economic system in Ephesus. There was a silversmith named Demetrius who made silver shrines for the temple of Artemis. He rallied together other business owners in Ephesus to complain about Paul. They felt that Paul was leading people astray. “He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all (Acts 19:26). He acknowledged that this was impacting his business, but he also pointed out that it was discrediting the great goddess Artemis (he probably wasn’t that concerned about that – it was all about the money).

Soon the whole city was in an uproar. Paul and his friends didn’t know what was going to happen to them. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and the uproar ended. Paul figured he should take advantage of the calm and go ahead and leave Ephesus, so he did.

Today we have one more reading from 1 Corinthians.

Every Sunday morning at my church we take communion together. And quite often the person leading reads from 1 Corinthians 11. It’s a reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice, of how at that Passover dinner before his death, he helped his friends see that he was true bread that they were breaking and the true wine that was being poured out. He invited them to eat and drink with this in mind. By the time Paul was writing to the Corinthian church some 20 years later, this practice had been cemented into the life of the church, both Jewish and Gentile.

Paul needs to address a problem, though. In that day, the Lord’s Supper was an actual supper. It was a communal meal. Paul believes community is absolutely essential to the life of the church, but he needs them to know that what they are doing is causing more harm than good (1 Corinthians 11:17).

What was the problem that Paul wanted to address?

The church in Corinth was very diverse. It reflected their very diverse city. There were people in the church who were extremely wealthy, and there was also extreme poverty. There were business owners and there were slaves. To Paul the church was the one place in society where people from diverse backgrounds could come together and be one. Their diversity wouldn’t be eliminated. But what brought them together (Christ) was greater than what differentiated them. But at these dinners, the opposite was happening. Those who had food brought it to the meeting and ate, while those who didn’t have food came and ate nothing. This simply reflected the truth that division, rather than unity, was the result of their diversity.

Paul was strong in his condemnation of this behavior. He says, “So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves” (1 Corinthians 11:27-29).

Every church I’ve been a part of has observed the ordinance of communion. Some did it quarterly. Others did it every Sunday. For most of my life I heard this passage and related to it as an individual. Did I have some unconfessed sin that would result in me taking communion in “an unworthy manner?” It’s not that I don’t think this is true, but I don’t believe this is what Paul was talking about. He was addressing them as a community, and the “unworthy manner” came when they failed to think about one another. It came when they failed to honor one another above themselves. And it came when some would have their fill while others were hungry.

Today’s reading is on 1 Corinthians 5-10.

As I begin to write, I want to acknowledge that there are verses in these passages that have caused a great deal of harm. I come away with some frustration reading them again this morning. Do I believe that Paul meant them to cause harm? I don’t. I have had the belief for a couple of decades that Paul wouldn’t have believed that someone halfway across the world (me) would be reading the letters he wrote almost 2000 years later. If he had known this, I think he would have written differently. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think what he wrote was inspired by God (God-breathed). I do. But I also believe it was Paul writing. Further, I think we need to remind ourselves that he wasn’t writing to us. He had a specific context in mind. He was writing to individual churches that were going through specific situations. That was his goal. I’m good with that goal, but I think it’s important to understand that.

I want to go back to something that had happened just a few years before. After the first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to share with Peter, James and the others why they they were adamant that the Gentile believers did not need to be circumcised (and thus be Jewish). This story is found in Acts 15. Peter, James and the other leaders listened to both sides, and in the end they agreed with Paul and Barnabas. They decided to write a letter, which would then be read among the new churches.

The phrase that has stood out to me in their letter is, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” There was no direct revelation from God. It wasn’t as black and white as they would have liked, but they were confident that they had listened well. There had been good discussion. And they had sought to surrender the decision to God through prayer. At the end of all of that, this was the best they could do: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”

But they did have a couple of black and white issues that they wanted to make sure that these Gentile churches followed. “You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:29).

Now fast forward just a few years later and we see Paul writing from Ephesus to the church in Corinth. Again, the purpose of this letter is to respond to questions they had but also to address problems that he has heard about. And he’s still no doubt contending with those Jewish leaders who believe strongly that these new Gentile believers must follow their Jewish law and customs.

Paul has been asked about whether or not they can eat food that has been sacrificed to idols. Most of the meat that was sold at the markets came from animals that had been slaughtered at pagan temple ceremonies. They wanted to know if they could still purchase it. And they knew what a challenge it would be to even know whether or not the meat they were buying was from an animal that had been sacrificed. This was very practical to this church, so Paul wanted to do his best to answer them.

Paul knew that this setting was night and day from Jerusalem. Peter had spent a little time in Galatia, but at this point he had probably never been anywhere as cosmopolitan and pluralistic as the city of Corinth. Because of that, Paul was about to take something prescribed by the church leaders in Jerusalem as black and white (don’t eat food that has been sacrificed to idols) and make it gray.

Here’s the gist of what he had to say: Don’t eat food sacrificed to idols if you’re eating while worshiping idols in a pagan temple. But other than that, unless you choose to be a vegetarian, it’s fine to continue to purchase meat from the marketplace, even if it’s from an animal that was sacrificed to an idol.

Today we could care less about this issue, but it was a big deal then. I imagine that Peter and James were less than thrilled when they first heard what Paul had said.

From the time that Israel became a nation, circumcision was a big deal. No one questioned it…until Paul. And then Peter and James. And not eating food sacrificed to idols was a big deal that no one questioned…until Paul.

What is the point of all this? It’s that I have problems with some of the things that Paul says. If I were to give just one example, it would be marriage. Paul was single. He chose this. It fit who he was and what he was called to do. And he says it pretty clearly to the members of this church: “It’s good to stay unmarried, as I do. But if you can’t control yourself, then you should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion” (1 Corinthians 7:8-9).

I’ve officiated a few weddings in my day. Can you imagine the response if I had led with this!

Paul didn’t have a very high view of marriage. Does that mean that God doesn’t have a high view of marriage? No. It just means that Paul didn’t, at least not then. Maybe he changed his mind over time.

There are a lot of people today who believe that if you question something that Paul said, then you are also questioning God. I believe that puts God in a very tiny box. I’m a big fan of Jesus’ words that we must come as a child to God. We’re called to trust, and there are a lot of areas with my relationship with God where I continue to lean in, to trust, when things are difficult or I simply don’t understand. But I also want to put my big boy britches on and lean into thinking and questioning. That’s the way to go deeper in knowledge and understanding. These two things go together.

This line of thinking has not led me away from Scripture. It’s led me towards it. Having the freedom to wrestle has actually been life-giving to me.