Daily Liturgy and Scripture

This verse is all about life as a pastor, but don’t bypass it just because you aren’t a pastor. The life of a church requires everyone to support and love one another in different ways. The clergy have a right to their pay just as an ox has a right to eat the grain in front of him when he works. Passing love and support to one another shouldn’t stop there: the love that the early church defined them because they were bound together and dedicated to meeting each other’s needs. Start with the pastor, but don’t stop there.

Another answer to a letter we’ll probably never read! This time, the subject matter is a little easier with only one side of the conversation. The pantheon of gods around Corinth must have made it difficult for new believers to know what to do. We don’t believe in those gods… what difference does it make if we have a roast beef sandwich that was roasted on their altar? But Paul isn’t letting them off the hook. Church life is more than figuring out what works just for you. In the community of Christ, we must always look out for one another as well as those whom the Spirit has not yet called, but may be. It’s kind of a fishbowl life, but there’s nothing better than following Jesus.

It’s really easy to hear Paul saying that marriage is bad in this verse, despite the fact that he very specifically says that he’s NOT saying that. Perhaps the most important thing to remember in this little passage, even above the things Paul says, is, “regarding the questions you asked in your letter.” He is giving a response to some very specific questions from this church (in a letter that has been lost to the ages), probably about whether or another Christians should divorce their non-believing spouses because they were having difficulty living together under the terms of this new faith they had found. Certainly, there were great marriages in the Bible. Paul’s own friends, Aquila and Priscilla, are an example. He certainly never told them they needed to split up. He does think that serving the Lord should come first, and he is seeking diligently to help these new believers learn how to avoid being distracted to that end.

“Why not just accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated?” We almost can’t believe Paul is saying this. Let someone get away with cheating us? Especially a fellow believer?!?! Most of us wouldn’t dream of it. And yet there it is, a specific instruction from a genuine Apostle, setting church unity above legal fairness. It’s a picture of the church that’s something aspire to, but we certainly don’t want to chew on that hard directive.

Here’s a passage that’s sure to be inconvenient if you think being in the church means nobody should be “judgey”: Paul told the church at Corinth to judge one another. Not those outside the church, but inside. This isn’t a culture of throwing everyone under the bus (we should still let love be our primary motivation), but being part of a community of believers means we should love one another enough to help everyone learn to follow Jesus better. Sometimes that means getting a little tough, but it should always be done with the hope of redemption.

If the Corinthians still haven’t gotten the message, maybe they’ll get this one: being a superstar isn’t fortune and glory, it’s foolishness and a prison. Certainly Paul doesn’t hate his calling, but he certainly has had his share of persecution and will have even more. It’s no glamorous job. For the Corinthians to brag about knowing him isn’t, to Paul’s estimation, a mark of nobility, but it’s to identify themselves with the oppressed. As Christ was, so is Paul. To get very far from that identity is to get too far from Christ.

That Paul returns to talking about celebrity following is notable; it must have been worth coming back to. His message here is to once again repeat that following a preacher isn’t the point, but now he finds a new caveat: you don’t need your celebrities. You have everything already, because you have Christ. It must have certainly been a temptation to Paul to allow accolades to fall on him, but he’s not having it. God does the work, and Paul won’t take credit for that.

Having made an attempt to disentangle the Corinthian church from their preoccupation with all-star preachers, he now comes back to them with a reminder of how God works. He doesn’t need flashy words or flashy people, he takes pleasure in using the forgotten and weak. When he does, it makes very clear that all-stars aren’t making him up. It’s the Spirit, alive and moving, that creates the things of God among his people regardless of their talents.

The church at Corinth is legendary, and these two books will give us some very familiar passages. In the opening, Paul acknowledges that he thanks God for them and for the gifts they have been given, and subtly reminds them that their gifts come from God. It also appears that the members of this church were very familiar with the star evangelists of the day, and often associated themselves with the person whose teaching they followed. Has anything changed for us? Don’t many of us have our signature book writers, preachers, and spiritual celebrities? For Corinth as for us, it’s important to remember always that Christ is the point, not our favorite author.

What happens in a highly successful undertaking? There are always a few who show up and want to capitalize on the success but not take part in the work. Thessalonians appears to have been such a place. As Paul gives guidelines for dealing with idle people in their ranks, he seems to be addressing just such a problem. What is his best advice? “Follow the example we set for you.” That’s pretty hard to argue with. Not only is Paul encouraging everyone to be active in the life of the church, he doesn’t exclude his superstar self from the same requirement.