There will from time to time arise issues between believers. We are human and we make mistakes, so what do we do when this occurs? Do we take it to the courts, or do we take it to the church? Well, Paul recommends taking these disuptes to the church, and his reasoning for saying this is quite profound.

It is all too easy as a Christian to try to disassociate from people who are engaged in egregious sin. There is a desire to try to remain pure in a world of wickedness and that means not engaging the wicked without addressing their sin. But Yeshua ate with sinners! Not as a way of legitimizing their sin, but as a means of calling them to repentance. So too, Paul recommends continuing relationships with sinners who are outside of the church. But those who continue to sin inside the church, well that is another matter.

Judgment is a hot topic in the modern world. Verses from Scripture are pulled out of context in order to make the claim that people are not to judge each other. And 1 Corinthians 4:5 is one of those verses. But when we take the entire context of this chapter, this verse cannot be a complete moratorium on judgment. Rather it is about engaging in a specific type of judgment.

The division in the Corinthian church was a major issue for Paul. It is such a foundational issue that Paul found it necessary to address this issue first. And with all of the other issues that Paul addresses in this letter to have this be the first, should tell us a lot about its importance. In chapter 3 Paul begins to address the source of unity for the church and to provide metaphors to describe the relationship between the foundation of the Christian faith, and what men build on that foundation.

The church of Corinth was divided and in disarray. Factions were forming and standing in opposition to each other. It is into this fray that Paul sends this letter to the Corinthian church. In the first few chapters, Paul makes an appeal for unity among the members of this church, but we also know that throughout the book, Paul demonstrates that division is also to occur from time to time. The question that then follows is, where does that line between division and unity lie?

The church at Corinth was a mess. There were many issues that it faced that Paul decided to confront through written letter. But what were those issues? What was the underlying cause that allowed those issues to propagate within the church? To discover this we need to examine the culture and context of the city of Corinth. Only then can we begin to understand the daunting task of discipling this church.

As the book of Joshua closes, Joshua gathers the leaders of the people of Israel to Shechem for the last time before his death. While there, Joshua closes the book in the same way that it opened. He encourages Israel to remain true to God and to keep His ways. It is in these last two chapters and the way that Joshua presents his appeal to Israel, that we find what set Joshua apart from the rest of his kinsmen.

As the war for Canaan draws to a close, the two and a half tribes that had chosen to settle beyond the Jordan River are released from their vow and are sent home. And all is at peace in the land. But on the way home these tribes decide to create a thing meant to bring continued peace and camaraderie with their brothers in the land, but this token of brotherhood is misunderstood and nearly leads to civil war.

In these two chapters of Joshua we read of the cities that were given to the Levites as their inheritance in the land of Canaan. As we read through this list there is one city that stands out among the others. The city of Hebron. A city that had already been granted to Caleb as his inheritance. How can this be? How can two families both inherit the same city?

Prophecy is a very misunderstood spiritual gift. But using this chapter and its descriptions of the tribal allotments for the remaining tribes, and then looking at the prophecies spoken over the tribes by both Jacob in Genesis 49 and Moses in Deuteronomy 33, we read of prophetic blessings that were spoken over each of the tribes, and when we compare these blessings to the tribal locations we discover some things of interest.

Map 1: https://seeklifesc.com/wp-content/uploads/podcast/tribalallotments.jpg