SMBC Principal's Hour

There was flagrant sin in the church at Corinth, and Paul knew that serious action needed to be taken. His response seems harsh and judgemental, but it was in fact motivated by love. What does it look like to love someone well? It will mean some tough calls. Paul’s instructions answer this question – for the man involved and for the church. They also challenge us to to be intolerant of our own sin; but in Christ, God has provided a passover sacrifice that gives us righteousness and a cause for celebration.

How should we think about and relate to Christian leaders? If we are in leadership, how should we lead? In 1 Corinthians 4, as Paul continues to confront the problem of divisions in the Corinthian church, he provides a profound and important insight into the nature of Christian leadership.

Paul has been showing in 1 Corinthians 1–2 how the gospel message undermines the divisiveness of the Corinthian church. But how does the gospel message relate to what we do in Christian service or Christian ministry? How should we view what we do in serving Christ? With the images of a field and a building, in 1 Corinthians 3:5-17 Paul helps us apply the gospel of God’s grace through a crucified Messiah to the way we serve Christ.

God has revealed to us the way of true wisdom: the way of the cross. And yet there is a danger that we will neglect what has been revealed to us, and live instead according to the wisdom of the world. In 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, Paul equips us for a life guided by true wisdom by teaching us what it’s like, where it comes from, and what it produces.

As his resurrection reveals, the cross of Jesus is God’s wise and powerful way of saving us from our sins. But it is more than this too. Because the message of Christ crucified confounds all worldly approaches to wisdom and all human conceptions of power, it confronts and exposes our pride (the very heart of our sin), shows our total dependence on Christ, and leads us to a place boasting not in ourselves but only in the Lord.

Because of everything that God has given us in Christ, the local church has great potential. We could be a unified, God-focused, holy, mutually edifying group of people. But what happens when we’re not? What happens when conflict strikes, and dysfunction and sin abound? In 1 Corinthians 1:1-17, Paul responds to this very scenario in the Corinthian church. As we observe Paul’s response, we are equipped to respond to similar scenarios in our own day, looking as he did to the power of the cross.

In this final Principal’s Hour of the year, we do something different! Instead of a sermon, we have a time of Bible storytelling and Discovery Bible Study. Missionary-in-Residence Christine Dillon facilitates this time, helping us to become familiar with a method of engaging God’s Word that is bearing fruit in many pioneer mission contexts around the world.

What does being God’s holy people mean for how we think about, and what we do with, our resources (our time, our money, our possessions)? Leviticus 27 offers a staggering portrait of worshippers pledging their animals, houses, lands, children and even themselves to God. What can we learn from this about how we use our resources?

The God we meet in Leviticus makes us very uncomfortable. At many points his judgements are stark and disturbing. Why is that necessary and how do we respond as God’s people? In these chapters we gain a deeper insight into God’s desires for his people. The laws of Sabbath years and Jubilee years reflect God’s radical desire for people who are dependent on him, recognising the value of justice, and enjoying the blessing of his presence.

In Leviticus 23, God re-orders Israel’s time in such a way that reinforces the spiritual realities they are to live out. He establishes weekly and annual rhythms for them by giving them a suite of holy days. Even though Israel’s holy days are not our holy days, there are timeless principles embedded in this chapter which help us to order our time well, and establish good rhythms in our lives.