Robert Grisham Posts

The readings for the next five days are on what most people believe is Paul’s greatest work – the book of Romans. I’ve once again known pastors who have spent a year preaching through this book of the Bible. And countless pages of commentary have been written on it.

This letter is different from the previous ones we’ve looked at in that it’s written to a group of people whom Paul had never met. How had this church been started then? No one really knows for sure. There were Jews from Rome at that Pentecost when the Church was birthed. No doubt many of them returned to Rome at some point. We also know that Priscilla and Aquila were from Rome. They ended up in Corinth, where Paul would meet them, after Emperor Claudius had expelled all Jews from Rome (AD 49). Priscilla and Aquila would follow Paul to Ephesus to help him start the church there. When Claudius died in AD 54, so too did the edict banning Jews in Rome. Thus they were able to return. Paul mentions them at the end of this letter, calling them his co-workers and noting they risked their lives for him (Romans 16:3-4).

Rome was of course the largest and most influential city in the Roman Empire. It was a city that Paul longed to go to. The church there knew who he was, and he had no doubt heard stories of who they were. Since at this point he couldn’t visit them, he decided to write them a letter.

Because this was such an influential church in an influential city, he wanted to use this letter as an opportunity to flesh out his theology. This theology had been taking root in his life for the last 25 years. People from all over the known world visited Rome, whether for business or pleasure. Many of those visitors encountered residents who had been shaped by the message of Jesus, and thus many of those visitors would end up taking that same message back to where they were from.

In the last few chapters of 2 Corinthians Paul once again feels the need to justify his work. There have apparently been some “super-apostles” (2 Corinthians 11:5) who have come to Corinth to denounce Paul’s work. These men are most likely from Jerusalem, but they’re not the same Jewish leaders who were trying to stop Jesus. These men are leaders in the church. They at some point came to the conclusion that Jesus was in fact the Messiah, and they dedicated their lives to following him.

However, they, like Jesus’ disciples, had an agenda. That agenda was that Gentiles must follow the Jewish customs and laws if they were going to follow the Jewish Messiah. They believed that this was their calling, and as much as they appreciated Paul for what he had done in bringing the gospel to the Gentiles, they felt that he was causing harm by not taking this next step with them. As a result, they felt it necessary to talk trash about Paul. They said, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing” (2 Corinthians 10:7).

As we’ve seen before, Paul saw this “next step” as adding to the gospel, which is in essence making it a different gospel. He’s said this more times than he can count, but because these impressive “super apostles” have denounced him, he feels it necessary to prove himself.

He reminds them of his background. He also reminds them of all that he has gone through in order to have even been able to meet them (prison, shipwrecked, stoned, beaten, sleepless nights, hunger). None of these “super-apostles” had faced anything like this. More than anything, though, he wants them to know that it is his weaknesses that he can most lean into. Paul is about to turn everything on its head.

Paul shared about a very powerful vision that had. something that most people would never get to experience. But then he said this…

In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in my weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 2:7-10

Paul was more interested in a posture that welcomed Christ’s power than he was in his own talents. That’s why he could boast in his weaknesses. He wanted this congregation to know that it is in humility that we find strength. It’s when we’re weak that we are needy. And it’s in those moments that we truly experience God doing what only God can do.

Today and tomorrow we’ll be looking at Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church. As I mentioned a few days ago, there are several letters between Paul and this church. There’s a first letter from Paul, which has been lost. Then the church wrote him a letter with questions. Then he wrote a letter in response, which we know as 1 Corinthians.

Some apparently pushed back against Paul in their next letter, which is when Paul wrote his “painful” letter (2 Corinthians 2:4), which has also been lost. Then there was silence. Paul was grieved over the situation in Corinth. He loved these people. He had spent 18 months with them.

When Paul arrives in Macedonia, he finds Titus, who had gone to Corinth to deliver the painful letter. Paul breathes a sign of relief when Titus tells him that the church received his letter with humility and repentance. Paul is overjoyed and, since he’s unable to see them in person, writes one final letter. We know this one as 2 Corinthians.

In 1 Corinthians Paul had reprimanded the church for their tolerance of sin. There was a man in the congregation who had been sleeping with his father’s wife. It was completely out in the open. Not only was no one telling this guy that he was wrong, but they were actually proud of the “freedom” that was so evident in their congregation. Paul told them in the letter that they must do better. It’s very possible that their push back was over this situation.

They have apparently now listened to Paul, but he now feels that they’ve gone a little overboard with their punishment. He addresses this in chapter 2. He says that the punishment is sufficient. Who knows what the punishment was, but it sounds like he’s been shunned. Paul says that they now need to take a different approach. Now, they “ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed with excessive sorrow” (2 Corinthians 2:7). He tells them that its now time to reaffirm their love for him.

I find it interesting that the repentance/rethinking took place in the community before it took place in the individual. The community had been celebrating this guy’s “freedom”, even though it wasn’t truly freedom that he was experiencing. Paul wasn’t happy with how this guy was behaving, but he was more troubled by the community’s response. He spoke truth to them. Their tolerance and celebration were not leading to wholeness for this person. And it would have an impact on the community as a whole. That’s why he had used Jesus’ analogy of yeast and dough (1 Corinthians 5:6).

But now the community had listened to Paul. They had been firm with their friend. And their friend had responded. The community responded properly, and now so had he. They had gone a little too far, though, and now Paul was there to help them take the next step. He reminded them that this man needed to experience comfort and forgiveness. He knew that what he had done was wrong. If he continued to be shunned, excessive sorrow would be the result, and that’s a difficult thing to come back from.

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.

Paul, Silas and Timothy spent 18 months in Corinth. When they left they went back to Antioch, and then shortly after they set out for their third missionary journey, which would take them to Ephesus, and where they would stay for 3 years. While in Ephesus Paul gets word that things are not going well for the Corinthian church. So he decides to write a letter to them. This letter has been lost, but he mentions it in the second letter he wrote, which we know as 1 Corinthians. After the church received the lost letter, they wrote him a letter that had a lot of questions. 1 Corinthians is a much longer letter than his first three, and a great deal of it covers the questions they asked.

Today’s reading covers the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians.

This church was filled with many smart and gifted people. Paul had started the church with Priscilla and Aquila, but they were now in Rome. And Paul was obviously in Ephesus. This group of smart and gifted people had begun to argue about who their leader was. Some felt it was Paul, since he had started the church. Others thought it was Apollos, a great orator who had recently spent time with them. Others thought it was Peter, who was one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. And then the guy looking for the gold star suggested it was Jesus.

Paul thought this argument was foolish, and he definitely had concerns about the many divisions in the church. But he doesn’t simply tell them to quit arguing. Instead and talks about Jesus, and specifically, the message of the cross.

The fact is that the message of the cross can come across as foolishness because it is steeped in weakness. The people in this church saw themselves as strong, not weak. Again, they were very smart and gifted. Paul wanted to remind them of who they were before their hearts were changed by Jesus. And he wanted to remind them that the same thing was true with him. When he first met them he didn’t come with lofty and impressive words. He simply shared Jesus. And that was enough.

Paul was concerned that pride had crept into this young church. He called them to humility. Without humility they wouldn’t grow past where they were. He says that they are still infants, unable to eat solid food. They haven’t matured, and it’s evidenced by their arguments over who is in charge. He says…

“I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church” (1 Corinthians 4:14-17).

The last part of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonian church was about the promise that Jesus would one day return. It was meant to provide encouragement and comfort for them in the midst of their suffering.

I believe that the Bible is inspired by God. I think that’s what Paul means when he writes in a letter to Timothy that it’s God-breathed. It means that it wasn’t simply the work of a human. But it was the work of a human. Case in point…Paul doesn’t have a group of editors that goes through his letters before sending them. He writes what is on his heart. And sometimes he probably wishes that he had been a little more clear in what he wrote. I’m thinking for sure some of the things he said about women in other letters. But this is also one of those examples.

Those in the church in Thessalonica took his words about the second coming to heart. They thought Paul meant that it was right around the corner. Paul had said some strong things in that letter, and it freaked some of them out. Others decided that since Jesus was headed their way, they should chill for awhile. So they quit their jobs and just waited.

Word of this got back to Paul while he was still in Corinth, so he decided to write a second letter, hopefully better explaining what he meant. He encouraged them not to be alarmed, and for those who had quit their jobs, he urged them to get back to work and not be busybodies.

Here’s a favorite verse of mine from this letter…

“With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith” (2 Thessalonians 1:11).

As I wrote yesterday, Paul had a rough time in Philippi. He was beaten and thrown into prison without a trial. But when he left he went to Thessalonica, and though he was not there very long, the people he met became very dear to him.

While Paul was in Athens, he got word that the new church in Thessalonica was going through severe persecution. He was unable to go to them, but he sent his protege Timothy. And when Timothy got back to Paul, Paul was relieved and overflowed with gratitude by Timothy’s report. Not only were these people standing firm in the face of persecution and suffering, but they were thriving.

At some point during Paul’s time in Corinth, he decided to write a letter to the church in Thessalonica. They had sent a letter to him, and he wanted to respond to their questions. But he also wanted to encourage them and remind them of what they meant to him. In the letter he describes himself as both a mother and a father. He also wants them to know that their story of facing adversity head on has spread throughout all of Greece.

My favorite verse in this letter is, “Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (1 Thessalonians 2:8).

Today’s reading covers three full years. Many of the stories in Acts show Paul to be a bit of a super hero. I love that this story also shows some of his humanity. Today’s passage begins with Paul ready to hit the road again. He tells Barnabas, who agrees to join but wants to take his younger cousin (maybe nephew) Mark. Yes, this is the same Mark who will write one of the gospels. The problem is that Mark had abandoned them during their last journey, and Paul wasn’t ready to give him a second chance. So they went their separate ways. Barnabas took Mark and went to Cyprus.

Paul took Silas and headed back to the cities in Galatia where the churches had been started. In one city they invited a young disciple named Timothy to join them. At another point Luke (the author of Acts) joins them. A little later Paul had a vision that told him to go to Macedonia (Greece). This would begin his second missionary journey.

They went to Philippi, where a wealthy woman named Lydia was converted and then began leading a church. During their time there Paul and Silas were arrested after casting out a demon from a slave girl whose owner had been making money off her as a fortune teller. This evil slave owner rallied the crowd. Paul and Silas were beaten with rods and then thrown in prison. In prison they sang. They wouldn’t let their suffering bring them down. And then an earthquake happened, and their shackles fell off and the doors were open. The prison guard was about to kill himself, fearing what would happen to him once the prisoners escaped. But Paul reassured him that they were going to stay there. This man and his entire household became followers of Jesus as a result.

The next morning Paul let the city officials know that they had beaten and thrown into prison without trial a Roman citizen. This was a big mic drop, and the officials were scared. At this point they just wanted Paul and Silas to leave, which they did.

From there they went to Thessalonica and then to Berea and Athens. Athens was the first place where the reception did not go as planned. There was no beatings, but there was also no interest.

Paul and Silas traveled to Corinth after this, and they actually got to spend about 18 months there. This would be the longest they had spent in any one city. They met Priscilla and Aquila there, who would become true partners in this ministry. He would later send them ahead of him to Rome to start a church there.

One of the things I most love about this story is that as great as Paul is, he’s not a one man act. He builds community and he empowers others. His reason is that he knows he can’t do the work on his own. He has no idea when he’s going to be run out of town or even if he’s going to be alive tomorrow. He has to let go of control and allow others to do the work. He empowers both Jews and Gentiles, as well as both men and women. I honestly don’t know how you can read the book of Acts and not come away with the belief that ministry is based on gifting rather than gender. The church over time has read a few verses from a couple of his letters and then built doctrines that have promoted patriarchy. I’m grateful that a lot has changed even during my lifetime, but a lot of damage has been done, and that damage has led to a lot of suffering for everyone.