The church of Christ on McDermott Road

Similar to his point in Romans 12, Paul again emphasizes that the church is like a body. The Spirit of God dwells in the collective body the way an individual’s spirit dwells in an individual. As the Spirit fills the church, he gives various gifts “for the common good” (vs. 7). So often, when we talk about the work of the Spirit, we think about what the Spirit does for each of us individually. But Paul’s emphasis is on what the Spirit does through us for the collective benefit. (Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:4-13)

If there was any first-century church that needed to be reminded of the collective nature of the church, it was the Corinthian church. They were a divided church and may have even struggled with some individualistic tendencies, living as if their individual behaviors did not impact the rest of the body. Some of the members of the Corinthian church were still flirting with idolatrous practices. Paul emphasized that participation in a ceremonial meal (whether the Lord’s Supper, Israel’s sacrifices, or idol feasts) binds you together with the other participants. When we share the bread and cup, we celebrate and solidify our oneness in Christ. (Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

Welcome to our Wednesday night class. We are discussing Jesus' example of humility. What does it mean to humble ourselves the way Jesus humbled himself? What is humility, according to the teachings and example of Jesus?

This is one of the passages in which Paul compares the church to the “body” of Christ. He acknowledges our individuality and our diversity, but says, “We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (vs. 5). In other words, we all belong to each other and not only to ourselves. Our gifts, talents, and uniqueness belong to the other members of the body. It does not matter how talented a foot, hand, or finger may be, its talents all belong to the body and not to itself. (Scripture: Romans 12:3-8)

Our final example of patience is that of the apostle Paul. Describing his life to Timothy, he used words like, “patience” and “endurance.” Paul suffered through imprisonment, stoning, beating, and ridicule from both believers and unbelievers. But he was not surprised that he was mistreated. He understood that suffering goes with the territory, saying, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” How can we adopt an attitude like Paul’s? It’s certainly not “okay" for people to mistreat us, but we must learn to be “okay” with it as we wait on the Lord. (Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:10-17)

In this lesson, we discuss Jesus' obedience - how he prioritized his Father's will above his own. This study's scripture is Matthew 26:36-46.

Surely David got tired of waiting for Saul’s reign to end. Surely he got tired of being hunted and chased. It must have crossed his mind that if he killed Saul, all of his running would be over and perhaps he could assume the throne even sooner. However, David refused to take a shortcut to God’s promises. He refused to raise his hand against God’s anointed king and chose rather to continue waiting patiently. As we wait for the end of sin and death, we must resist the temptation to take matters into our own hands. We must wait patiently for God. (Scripture: 1 Samuel 24:1-7)

We study Matthew 9 and Luke 15, Jesus eating with "tax collectors and sinners." We will discuss how Jesus is our example of how to show compassion and to whom we should be sharing compassion.

Faith is all about waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises, always believing they will be fulfilled….even on days when it seems impossible. Abraham “patiently waited” for God to keep his promises, never seeming to lose hope that God would come through. The writer of Hebrews used the story of Abraham to encourage Christians to “patiently wait,” saying that our hope in God’s promises is the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul."  (Scripture: Hebrews 6:13-15)