our body is his temple

Posted on March 7, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

DON’T DESTROY US!

March 2016 (7)

1 Corinthians 3:14-17

14 If the work which someone has built survives that fire, he will receive a reward. 15 If someone’s work is burned up, he will lose it. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 17 If someone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. Because God’s temple is holy, which is what you are.

our body is his temple

Note to the editor: I am intentionally using incorrect grammar here. I have to, because Paul did. It should not be corrected. We should not be thinking in our minds that it should read “my body is his temple.” The word “you” appears three times in verse 16, and each time it is plural. The same thought reappears in 1 Corinthians 6:19, and in 2 Corinthians 6:16. The church is Christ’s body on earth. The warning is against those who would destroy it by causing division and rivalry.

Yes, it is true that we should take care of our physical bodies by not defiling them or abusing them and keeping them healthy. But this passage is about a different kind of health. We should be just as diligent to keep our churches (his church) healthy.

LORD, help us to be just as diligent to stay healthy as your church as we are to stay healthy physically.

Posted in church, divisions, heresies, ministry, Uncategorized | Tagged | 2 Comments

disclosure day

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

ARE YOU BUILDING WITH THE RIGHT STUFF?

March 2016 (6)

1 Corinthians 3:10-13

10 By means of the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I placed a foundation, but another is building on it. So each worker should watch how he builds upon it. 11 Because no one can lay a different foundation than the one which is being laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 But if someone builds on the foundation using gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 the result of each one’s work will become clear; because the day will disclose it, because it is revealed by fire; and that fire will prove what sort of work each one has done.

disclosure day

The context in which Paul writes these words is the problem of divisions in the Corinthian church fellowships, caused by leaders with different agendas and different emphases. There are two points Paul is making. First, there is no other foundation for a Christian church other that Jesus Christ himself. Some schisms and divisions happen because certain leaders are simply not saved, and when they draw people to themselves they are causing apostasy.

Paul’s second point is that within the true Christian church there will be levels of quality within the leadership. Some will be building with gold, and others with straw. But, Paul does not encourage the Corinthians to attack and destroy its substandard leaders. Instead, he assures them that at the second coming of Christ, all who had taken shortcuts in their leadership would be revealed.

LORD, may we be found to have built with the right stuff on disclosure day.

Posted in church, criticism, discernment, divisions, heresies, Jesus Christ, leadership, ministry, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

significance in service

Posted on March 5, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

COMMITMENT, NOT COMPARISON

March 2016 (5)

1 Corinthians 3:7-9

7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is significant, only God who is causing you to grow.   8 But the one planting and the one watering work together as one team; and each will receive his own wages according to his own labor. 9 Because we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s crop, God’s building.

significance in service

The Corinthians had chosen to divide over theological and philosophical differences, blaming their founding missionaries for the differing emphases. They looked at the ministers who had influenced them in terms of their relative significance compared to each other. No, Paul says. He told them they had the wrong model. They should look at themselves as a crop that God owns. All the missionaries and ministers are co-workers on the same team, but God is the owner of the field. Significance for the ones in ministry is found in their service to the same master.

LORD, show us how to work together as a team, serving you as we assist in growing your crop, and evaluating our service based on commitment to you, not comparison with each other.

Posted in commitment, cooperation, leadership, ministry, partnership, servanthood, teamwork, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

servants of the sovereign

Posted on March 4, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

STOP WORSHIPING SERVANTS

March 2016 (4)

1 Corinthians 3:4-6

4 Because when someone says, “I am in Paul’s group,” and another, “I am in Apollos’ group,” are you not mere humans? 5 What then is Apollos, and what is Paul? We are servants through whom you believed, and each one did what the Lord allowed. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the crop to grow.

 

servants of the sovereign

 Leaders had emerged in the Corinthian fellowships who were gathering followers for themselves, and this was not good. Not only that, but these new leaders were starting to identify themselves and their teachings by means of referring to the church’s original founding missionaries – like Paul and Apollos. Paul needed to address this problem, but if he simply appealed on the basis of the authority of his position as the church’s founder, he might wind up appearing to endorse the Pauline group. Instead, Paul downplayed the role of all human leaders, and stressed the fact that behind everyone’s work there was a sovereign, allowing the miracle of life and development to happen. We are all servants of that sovereign Lord.

LORD, thank you for bringing life to your work, and allowing us to be a part of that miracle.

Posted in dependence upon God, growth, humility, leadership, ministry, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

carnal people

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

JEALOUSY AND RIVALRY ARE SIGNS OF IMMATURITY

March 2016 (3)

1 Corinthians 3:1-3

1 Yet I, brothers, was not able to speak to you like you were spiritual people, but like you were carnal people, like you were infants in Christ. 2 It was milk I gave you to drink, not solid food; because you were not yet able to digest it. But even now you are not yet able, 3 because you are still carnal. Because since there is jealousy and rivalry among you, are you not carnal, and are you not walking like a human?

carnal people

If you have followed Paul’s argument so far, you know that he admits to preaching a simple message of Christ crucified when he began working in Corinth. He did this intentionally, since he did not want people drawn to his rhetorical skill, he wanted to make converts for Christ. He gave the young, immature Corinthians what they needed: the milk of the word, not solid food that they would be unable to digest.

Yet, since then, new leaders have emerged in the congregations. These have been teaching new things that they claim is solid food for the mature believers. The trouble is, these so-called wise teachers are creating jealousy and rivalry. As a result, believers, who have the mind of Christ, are walking like a human.

LORD, we have betrayed you by our loyalty to some, and animosity toward others. Rid us of our jealousy and rivalry, and help us to grow into mature spiritual Christians.

Posted in conflict, divisions, gospel, partiality, Uncategorized, wisdom | Tagged | Leave a comment

spiritual stupidity

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

WE GET IT — THEY DON’T

March 2016 (2)

1 Corinthians 2:13-16

13 …truths which we can also communicate, just not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities using spiritual words. 14 But a soulish person cannot receive the truths communicated by the Spirit of God; because they are stupidity to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are only subject to spiritual investigation. 15 But someone who is spiritual does investigate all these truths, yet he himself is investigated by no one. 16 Because who has known the mind of the Lord, so that he is able to advise Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

spiritual stupidity

 Paul has been explaining to the Corinthian believers the amazing disclosed wisdom that has been taught them in the gospel. Only believers can investigate the significance of these truths, because only believers are taught these things by the Holy Spirit. To outsiders – merely soulish people who are not connected to the Holy Spirit through faith – these truths about Christ crucified appear to be stupidity. But not us – Paul says. We have the mind of Christ himself. We get it.

LORD, thank you for the amazing wisdom that is ours – the truth about Christ crucified for us.

Posted in bible study, discernment, gospel, theology, Uncategorized, wisdom | Tagged | Leave a comment

God’s little secret

Posted on March 1, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

THE SECRET IS OUT

March 2016 (1)

1 Corinthians 2:10-12

10 But God has uncovered it for us through the Spirit; because the Spirit probes all mysteries, even the deep ones from God.   11 Because who in humanity knows the secrets of a human except the human spirit, which is in him? In the same way, no one knows God’s secrets except the Spirit of God. 12 But we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we can know the things granted to us by God,

God’s little secret

Paul had determined not to begin his evangelistic work in Corinth appealing to the Corinthians through flashy human rhetorical skill and secret wisdom. Instead, he simply preached the gospel to them, and trusted God’s power to change their hearts. Now he explains to the church of Corinth that they actually have received secret wisdom, directly from God’s Holy Spirit. That wisdom is the gospel itself. The Holy Spirit has uncovered the destiny of this universe, and it is all wrapped up in the reality of what happened to Jesus on the cross. God’s little secret can change your life, too.

LORD, thank you for uncovering your amazing secret – the sacrificial death of Christ to save us from sin.

 

Posted in discernment, evangelism, gospel, insight, revelation, Uncategorized, wisdom | Tagged | Leave a comment

concealed wisdom

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

THIS GENERATION NEEDS THE GOSPEL

February 2016 (29)

 

1 Corinthians 2:6-9

6 Yet we are speaking wisdom among the mature ones; but a wisdom which is not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are being brought to nothing; 7 but we are speaking God’s wisdom in a mystery, the concealed wisdom, which God predetermined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has come to know; because if they had come to know it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 9 but it is just like what is written, “Those things which an eye has not seen and an ear has not heard, and have not been conceived by the human heart, God has prepared them for those who love Him.”

 

concealed wisdom

 

Paul had told the Corinthians that when he first evangelized them, he took effort not to use skillful words of wisdom so that he would not be gaining disciples for himself. He relied on the pure message of the gospel and the power of God to convince the Corinthians of it. But now he is telling them that it is that gospel itself which is actually a special wisdom message. It is a special message, concealed in the bible, and now revealed, not to the rulers of this temporary age, but to those who dare to believe it.

LORD, give us the wisdom to reveal your special gospel message to this dying generation.

 

Posted in evangelism, gospel, insight, knowledge, Uncategorized, witness | Tagged | Leave a comment

reverse strategy

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

PROCLAIM, LET GOD PERSUADE

February 2016 (28)1 Corinthians 2:1-5

1 Remember when I first came to you, brothers? I did not come with a lofty word or wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony of God.   2 Because I had decided to know nothing while among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 And I approached with you weak and afraid and with a lot of shaking. 4 And my word and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on human wisdom, but on the power of God.

reverse strategy

The Corinthians were Greeks, and Greeks respond to wisdom, so if Paul had wanted to get a following for himself, all he would have had to do was come into the city, and blow them away with his superior intellect. Paul was a very smart person, so he could have done that easily. But the end result would have been devoted disciples of Paul, not disciples of Christ. So, Paul had taken the reverse strategy. He decided to not prove his knowledge of anything except Christ crucified. The essential elements of his message were the key components of the gospel of grace and nothing else.

Paul’s reverse strategy worked because God’s Spirit is always looking for ways to convince people of the truth of the gospel. God himself intervened and the Corinthian church was born. All he wants is a servant who is willing to demonstrate weakness and allow him to demonstrate his strength.

LORD, use us to declare your gospel.

 

Posted in dependence upon God, evangelism, gospel, grace, Paul, Uncategorized, wisdom | Tagged | Leave a comment

replacing rock stars

Posted on February 27, 2016 by Jefferson Vann

WHAT DOES LIGHT DO TO DARKNESS?

February 2016 (27)

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

26 You want evidence? Think about when you were called, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many powerful, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the stupid things of the world to embarrass the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to embarrass the things which are strong, 28 and the insignificant things of the world and the ignored, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might replace the things that are, 29 so that every human being would never be able to brag before God. 30 But by His doing you Corinthians are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 to fulfill scripture when it says, “Let him who brags, brag about the Lord.”

replacing rock stars

 The Corinthian church groups had started creating rock stars for themselves to idolize and follow. Paul tells them here that they got it wrong. Christianity is about replacing the rock stars, not creating them. It’s not supposed to be about how good, how smart, how strong, or how significant our leaders are. It’s supposed to be about what Jesus did for us. Salvation is God’s doing, and God’s choice. If Christians should brag, it should be about God’s grace.

The picture Paul paints of deliverance is that of God’s light coming in and replacing the world’s darkness. When we choose to idolize human leaders, we going back to that darkness. That is a serious mistake.

LORD, may we never brag about anyone but you, and what you have done for us.

 

Posted in dependence upon God, discernment, divisions, grace, leadership, the flesh, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment