Daily Liturgy and Scripture

Paul starts this second letter by being cordial, but also defending himself a bit. It seems there has come a bit of a tension between him and the church. According to Craig Keener, the church may have thought Paul was a bit late in visiting, and Paul seems to think that the Corinthians needed a bit of a rebuke. Paul is defending his decision about travel, and you can be pretty sure that he’ll still correct them if he thinks they require it, since he is their spiritual father.

As Paul finishes his first letter to the Corinthians, he takes care of a few housekeeping items, reminding the young church to be faithful in their giving and loving to one another. This might seem like something to rush through because the important stuff is over, but it’s really not. This is a great picture of life in community. Paul has been at times harsh with them, at times he has been like a stern father. Now he is speaking to them about family matters, because at the end of the day, that is what they must remain: the family of God.

Resurrection was not just Jesus’s thing. He came first but that will be our future as well. God will give us all new bodies, spiritual bodies that are raised to live forever with him. This is the perfection that God seeks for us, the undoing of the Fall, and the best future we could possibly imagine.

The resurrection is central to the Christian faith. Not just because it makes Christ unique in his deity, but because it’s a preview of our own coming attraction. This is a promise from God that better things are coming, and that we will follow Christ in resurrection to a new kind of life. No other religion has a risen Savior, and we are bound to Christ because of the working of God.

This passage is not meant to keep women from being equals. Both the section on tongues and the section on how women were to act in worship both revolve around order. According to scholar Craig Keener, women in Greek tradition were not traditionally well-educated and didn’t participate in public forums, so that would have been way out of line in their culture. Paul wanted to keep the emphasis on God, and not the people asking questions. Certainly, that culture is neither current nor universal.

Speaking in tongues is a bit of a contentious point in many Christian circles, and entire denominations have been sparked from their opinion on the issue. Paul did this, so it is certainly a Biblical action. Paul speaks pretty clearly on the issue, though: if you’re going to speak in tongues, it should be to build up the body. Where we’ve been in the letter to the Corinthians supports this. Don’t separate yourself, love one another, and worship in a way that allows you do do those things well.

In this well-known verse, Paul brings it home. Why has he taught not to create divisions? What brings us closer to the Spirit of God, that unleashes the gifts of the Spirit? It is always love. It is what God shows us purely, and if we are following Jesus, it must become the biggest part of our new nature.

Paul has reminded the young church at Corinth of how to treat one another, now he tells them why: you are all equally one in the Spirit. The order was important, because we aren’t ready to find our identity in Christ until we release our own ideas. Once we come close to him, find our true identity, and start following, the gifts of the Spirit follow. Those gifts are meant to build up the body of Christ, just as laying aside our ego does.

“No doubt there have been differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.” This is probably the bridging verse in this section of Paul’s letter. He is not complimenting the Corinthians, as he says multiple times. He is pointing out the harm they are doing to their own body. Separating into multiple meals separates the rich from the poor, leaving the poor behind. Separating the modest from the less modest (in terms of head coverings) also divides. This connects back to what Paul said in the previous chapter about doing eating and drinking to the glory of God. This time, though, he isn’t talking about food offered to idols. He’s talking about food among people and the things that bring the body of Christ together.

In the pantheon of gods found in the Roman world, it would have been easy for followers of Jesus to look like another fad. Eating food sacrificed to false gods would have been commonplace, especially among the poor. Paul wanted the young Church to distinguish itself. Not only was their conduct to be different, but their spiritual practice wasn’t to be just another option in a buffet of spiritual options. It was their only option, because it defined them. That must have been really difficult to accomplish in a place like Corinth, but the believers needed to support one another both practically and spiritually.