Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Paul lays the sacrifice he has made on behalf of the church out in public. It seems a bit like bragging, but he's making a point from earlier: boasting in his struggles. He is demonstrating the very submission that he encourages new followers of Christ to show one another.

The rules about eating almost seem to be Old Testament purity laws. Then Paul gives us a different reason for doing it: the unity of the body. This is the body of Christ, and encouraging one another is part of the life of that body. No longer are we responsible only for ourselves, we are part of something much more important.

Perhaps the part of this passage that we should pay the most attention to is, "Now for the matters you wrote about." Obviously, there is some struggle in the Corinthian church about what to do with marriage in this new Kingdom of Jesus, and Paul answers their questions. It's really unfortunate that we only have one side of this conversation, but the apostle keeps his focus on the love that Jesus gave us to share, living out in the Spirit, even in relationships.

The Kingdom of Jesus is not concerned only with the unseen, but also with the seen, Jesus was resurrected with his body, and so will we be also, following that pattern. So our bodies do matter, and what we do with them is important to God.

Judge one another within the church? That sounds a little harsh, doesn't it? But Paul has a valid point. The Kingdom of Jesus is supposed to be different, a place where we value one another differently than those outside the body of believers. Keeping one another mindful of what it looks like to follow Jesus can mean discipline, though it should still be administered in a spirt of love.

Paul works pretty fervently to remind the churches he has helped start that their real reward is Christ, not the distractions around them. They have a place in a Kingdom, and the person who brought them into the Kingdom isn't the place where their focus should be.

If the passage before was reorienting everything under the Lordship of Christ, this next part orients people all on even footing under that Lordship. Even popular leaders and preachers find themselves at the same place, the level ground at the foot of the cross, as the believer who has just come to faith.

If knowledge of God's ways come only though the Spirit, then truly nobody can brag about coming across some special inside track on knowing God. The Spirit moves among us as God wills it, we we don't own any part of God's mind as our own. It all remains God's, and we are participants in it.

Paul talks about unity in this passage, but that doesn’t mean you must always agree with everybody else whether you think they are crazy or not. What he is talking about is more connected to the identity of the church, where leadership comes from, especially in regards to Christ. On this point, there should be unity. We are all equal at the foot of the cross, and that includes Apollos and Paul.

While love should be shown to all in the body of Christ, that does not mean it's a free ride. A practical and necessary part of life in the body is making our own contributions. Not because we're buying God's love, but because we're passing that love along in practical ways.