哥林多前书

Meditative Reflection
No More Boasting!

“So then, no more boasting about men. All things are yours” (1 Co. 3:21)

It is interesting to note that the Corinthian Christians took pride in whom they followed saying, “I am Paul’s and another, I am Apollos'…” (1 Co. 3:4, translated literally). In their boasting, without them knowing, Paul said they had subjected themselves to mere men and lost their freedom in Christ.

But Paul now points out that “All things are yours” and that includes even Paul, Apollos and Peter. More than that, all things include the world, life, death or the present or the future (3:22). What Paul is pointing out here is the tremendous freedom we have gained in Christ.

Before we are in Christ, we were enslaved by the world, by life, by death, by the present and by the future. But in Christ, things have completely been turned around— we do not belong to the world, rather we have mastered the world in Christ (1 Jn. 5:4). Life is no longer a drag: We live an abundant  life (John 10:10); death is no more to be dreaded, we have gained victory over death in Christ (1 Co. 15:57); and we fear not the future, because we have the most glorious future in store for us in Christ (Rom. 8:18). By saying that we belong to Paul or to Apollos or any mere man, we have unknowingly denied our freedom in Christ.

However, it does not mean that we are totally free. As much as we no longer belong to any mere men, nor the world nor other things that used to enslave us, we now belong to Christ and Christ to God (1 Co. 3:23). Therefore, apart from “no more boasting about men”, we have nothing to boast of ourselves either, as Paul reminds us later, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (4:7).

Meditative Reflection
The Scum of the Earth

“Up to this moment we have become scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.” (1 Co. 4:13)

I like reading the stories of missionaries and I always have the highest regards for them. Most of them have made tremendous sacrifice for the Lord. For many, the abandoning of their prospective future in the world, like a career in medicine or law, is the least of their sacrifices. For many, they risk the lives of their whole families, even their young children, for the sake the sharing the gospel with people of a foreign tongue, of a different culture and in a remote place. Worse, many are sharing the gospel with people who often harbor a suspicion and hatred toward them. I use the present tense to talk about them, because it is not confined to missionaries sent to tropical jungles of years past, but present-day missionaries all over the world, especially those in Islamic countries. Reading their stories puts the difficulties of my ministry in perspective, because whatever problems I face in ministry pale in comparison to the hardship they face and the sacrifice they make in obedience to their calling.

Such is the comparison Paul forces the Corinthian Christians to face. It is helpful for us to use the conditions faced by the Apostle Paul as a checklist to see how our lives and ministries compared to his. He was seen as a fool by the world, he felt weak, dishonored, hungry, thirsty; he was in rags, brutally treated, homeless; he toiled in manual labor, blessed when cursed, was persecuted, answered kindly to slander and was treated as scum and refuse to the world.

I wonder what your checklist looks like!

Meditative Reflection
Church Discipline

“What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip or in love and with a gentle spirit?” (1 Co. 4:21)

I do not believe church discipline is a thing of the past, but I do believe the willingness to accept discipline is a thing of the past.

Of course, church discipline is serious business and it applies only in very serious cases such as adultery or heresy. However, with the elevation of human rights and increasing legal implications, many churches have tended to shy away from applying church discipline. Even if they do, according to my personal experiences, it seldom, if ever, leads to the intended result and that is repentance and restoration. The party or person being disciplined simply walks away from the church and joins another unsuspecting congregation.

Frankly, I wonder whether those to whom the Apostle Paul addressed really cared if Paul would come with a whip or with a gentle spirit. However, to face Paul’s whip is far better than to face the Judgment Seat of Christ which many of today’s Christians who ignore or even laugh at church discipline will have to (2 Co. 5:10).

Meditative Reflection
Being Like the World

“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.” (1 Co. 5:1)

The Apostle Paul expressed alarm over not only the presence of sexual immorality in the church in Corinth but also their blatant tolerance of it. Their specific sin was that a man had “his father’s wife”. Such a sin is indeed something that even the secular world did not and would not condone. The question is, "How then could the church in Corinth tolerate such a horrible sin in the church?".  One can speculate and come up with quite a few possibilities. An obvious reason might be that the person must have either been an influential figure in the society or a major donor in the church. Another reason might be because he belonged to a very influential family of the church and disciplinary action against him might cause a major upheaval. However, the Apostle Paul associated their action with “boasting”, which means that the very fact that they would tolerate such a horrific sin had become a source for their boasting. So, the question we may want to ask is, "How would such an act of tolerance become something that they could boast about?".

To answer such a question, we do not, perhaps, need to go back 2,000 years to the time of the Apostle Paul. We need only look at the contemporary church and ask, “Is there any moral sin that the church tolerates today to the point that it becomes a reason for their boasting?”. The answer is very obvious. More and more churches are condoning same sex marriage and are proud of it — in the name of progression and in the name of tolerance. In other words, they are proud of being like the world!

The recent election of Pope Francis has been greeted by many liberal Catholics as a sign of progress in that, in their opinion, there might be opportunities for the Catholic Church to be reformed. However, the reformation they have in mind is just the opposite of the reformers’ in the sixteenth century, in which one of the mottos was sola scriptura. Their idea of reform is that the church might be more and more away from the Scripture and be more and more like the world, as if the church is not “Corinthian” enough.

Meditative Reflection
Dare to Discipline

“(Y)ou must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slander, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.” (1 Co. 5:11)

The people of God have been called to be a “holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9). As such, sin cannot be tolerated among us, or else, as Paul warns us, a little yeast will work through the whole batch of dough (1 Co. 5:6). As a result, we need to take sin seriously within the faith community.

However, in an effort to get rid of sin within the body of Christ, Paul specifically mentions several kinds of sin that are not to be tolerated, and they include sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, slander, being drunk and swindling. Those who claim to be Christians and yet continue to live in one of these kinds of sin are to be expelled from the church, and cut off from even social contact (5:11-13). Such a disciplinary action appears to be harsh, but it is a reflection of the seriousness of such sins, and ultimately it is for the good of the offender that “his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” (5:5) In other words, the goal of such harsh discipline is that it may lead to the repentance and restoration of the offender (Gal. 6:1).

Our inaction, on the other hand, will do more harm than good to the offenders. The lack of serious discipline may cause the offenders (and others in the faith community) to think lightly of such sins. Indeed, it will be like yeast that works through the whole dough—the church. Not only will others follow their precedent and commit the same kind of sin and consider it as normal, but soon the tolerance and commitment of sins of other kinds will follow.

James Dobson has called Christian parents to dare to discipline their children. The same call should be extended to the church as well.

Meditative Reflection
Completely Defeated

“The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated.” (1 Co. 6:7)

In addressing the fact that the Christians in Corinth had brought lawsuit against one another before a secular court, Paul brings out the seriousness of such a matter for these reasons:

(1) The church has failed: The “you” in 6:7 refers not to the two parties involved in the disputes, but to the entire church. That the church failed is true in two aspects: Firstly, the two parties involved in the dispute are part of the body of Christ at Corinth and as such the entire church has taken part in such a dispute and suffered the shame; and secondly, it is a failure of the church to teach her members properly to live as an eschatological community.

(2) The parties involved have failed to live out their eternal perspective: As Paul reminds them that they will be judges of the world and of angels, he is reminding them that they are an eschatological community that lives for the eternal. As a result, all things that do not have eternal value and all matters that do not have eternal consequences are, therefore, trivial cases.

(3) Both parties are wrong. On the surface, there probably will be one party who has wronged the other party, but Paul says both are wrong. The one who has cheated is obviously wrong; but the one who has been cheated is wrong in that he or she would not “rather be wronged” (6:7). In fact, even if they bring their disputes before the church, without an attitude of willing to be wronged, there will not be any real solution ultimately between them, because the church is not a place for vindication or even fairness, but a place of forgiveness and reconciliation. This is why Jesus refuses to get involved in the financial dispute of the two brothers (Lk.12:13-15).

(4) Finally, it is wrong for the people of God to bring their disputes before the world. Paul purposely calls those who judge in secular courts the “ungodly” (it does not necessarily mean that Christian judges are ungodly, but that they are operating under the court of the ungodly), while we know that he calls those in the church of God, saints (1:2). It is totally inappropriate that the saints of God be judged by the ungodly. The defeat is, therefore, not only ours, but ultimately God’s.

Indeed, whenever two Christians or Christian parties bring a lawsuit against one another, it is a complete defeat for both parties, for the church and for the name of God. The real victor is Satan!

Meditative Reflection
Not All Sins are Equal

“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” (1 Co. 6:18)

Paul points out that not all sins are equal, at least not in the case of sexual immorality. It is a direct offence to our body which is the temple of God, while “all other sins a man commits are outside of his body” (6:18). As a result, what he says about the collective body of Christ is also true of the individual body in that, “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him, for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” (1 Co. 3:17)

Whatever Paul means by “God will destroy him”, we know that sexual immorality often brings diseases that destroy the body, and worse, can be transmitted to others, including one’s spouse. Beyond physical destruction, sexual immorality destroys the sacred union with one’s spouse and shatters the lives of the entire family and often the extended family as well. And as a member of the body of Christ, one’s sexual sin destroys the church family. Indeed, not all sins are equal!