Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 14:1-17

"But the one who prophesies is helping others grow in the Lord, encouraging and comforting them." - 1 Corinthians 14:3

These first seventeen verses of chapter 14 have caused confusion and division among Christians for centuries. Yet there is something that is a common thread among everyone. It is the fact that the New Testament wasn't completed by this point.

1 Corinthians was written in around 53 AD, one of the first letters Paul wrote. This was around 10 years before the gospels were written (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John). The church in Corinth couldn't turn their phone on and open their Bible app in these early days of Christianity.

These letters were arriving as they were written -- on scrolls. So you can see why prophecy, speaking in tongues and interpreting the tongues were so important as churches were planted in the first century. They needed to hear the gospel clearly to stay on track.

Will you thank God today for the completed New Testament? Today, all barriers are removed.

Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 12:27-31, 13:1-13

"Love will last forever." - 1 Corinthians 13:8

One of the most cherished passages in the entire Bible is this one in 1 Corinthians 13. Yet you won't find a more challenging section in all of Scripture. All the facets of love do not come to us a la carte. We cannot commit to being patient without also keeping no record of wrongs.

So there are two questions that arise from this:

1) How are we ever going to live up to the standard love sets?

2) Isn't it risky to treat another flawed human being this way?

The answer to the first question is that we won't live up to the standard, at least on our own strength. God not only sets the standard for love (1 John 4:7-21), he also empowers us to start loving the way He does (Galatians 2:20).

In answering the second question, we need to know that to love someone else is to take all of the risks of them not reciprocating. Jesus saw this as a risk worth taking for us when He went to the cross.

So much in our world is failing. Not love. It persists.

Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 12:1-26

“Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.” - 1 Corinthians‬ ‭12:13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Who is the most important member of the church you attend? Is the Senior Minister? Maybe one of the elders? Perhaps it might be one of the wealthiest in your midst?

Paul lays waste to this kind of thinking. There is, in fact, no ranking system in the body of Christ. This was as revolutionary in the first century as it is today.

Now, our culture may say that all are created equal, but most don’t live and work that way.

The Church is a body. If you are a Christian, you are a member of that body, and you matter as much as anyone else. Actually, Paul says that if you think yourself insignificant (the weakest), you may be the most necessary.

The truth is that God doesn’t need us to be a part of His church — He wants us. Yet we do need each other. We need everyone to exercise their gifts.

Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

“That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup.” - 1 Corinthians‬ ‭11:28‬ ‭NLT‬‬

We are prone, as humans, to do things our own way. We rush here and there to satisfy the various desires and whims that come upon us. We claim that these feelings and urges are beyond our control. Slowing down doesn’t seem like much of an option for people as driven as we are.

Yet here we see that Paul encourages the Christians in Corinth to slow down, to show some self restraint, when it came to how they were weekly remembering Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

The preventative he offers is found in the word, “examine.” It is the Greek word dokimazō. It can also mean “to test, to try to determine the genuineness of.”

How much more of a focused time would we have eating the bread and drinking the cup if we took this time to test ourselves. This inventory also is a good idea to take every day.

This also might remind us of Psalm 139:23-24:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 11:1-16

“Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God.” - ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭11:11-12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Our reading for today can be confusing as we go through it. This is reflected in the hundreds of misinformed teachings that have followed.

This what we know:

1) Roman culture saw many men AND women using head coverings while offering sacrifices. Paul is calling them to approach worship in a way that will not just mirror the Corinth (Roman) culture.

2) God celebrates the differences between a male and a female in worship services. The goal is not gender neutrality.

3) Our role in the church does not diminish the value we bring to it. We are all equally important to Jesus.

Bottom line:

You need to know that God fashioned you just the way He wanted. Your gender is not a mistake; it was intentional. The church needs you to be YOU — to shine like you were made to shine. We are horizontally serving Jesus together.

Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 10:14-33

“Whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, you must do all for the glory of God.” - 1 Corinthians 10:31

It is our fallen nature that makes us want to know our limits when it comes to living. What am I allowed to do as a Christian? What is definitively a sin? Why does my behavior have to affect someone else?

Yesterday’s reading had to do a lot with evangelism, what Paul was willing to do to reach those who had yet to say “yes” to Jesus. Today we see how we’re supposed to interact with fellow believers.

The fact of the matter is that none of us become Christians in isolation. When we confess Christ, we become join one body. This “one body” is from every part of the globe, speaks various languages. Our worldwide family includes the socially elite and the outcasts.

So how are we to interact with each other? How will we know when we’ve become self-focused. What is the filter? Verses 24 and 31 are the key. The following question flows out of them:

Is what I am about to do “for the glory of God” and “what is best” for the body of Christ?

Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 9:19-27, 10:1-13

“To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” - 1 Corinthians‬ ‭9:22‬ ‭ESV‬‬

For most of us, we focus on the many who don’t want to be saved. It discourages us that so many reject Jesus. If we allow this to go too far, we fail to notice the some who have been there the whole time. The some who will respond in faith to the gospel.

What would you be willing to do, or where would you be willing to go, to see that more people come to know Jesus as their Savior?

The key to reaching others is to not expect them to come to us. We have to meet them where they are.

We also have to be ready to share our own lives with them. I love how Paul puts it in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, “Having so a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.”

Ready to share your faith? Start with sharing your life with someone else.

Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 9:1-18

“If I were doing this on my own initiative, I would deserve payment. But I have no choice, for God has given me this sacred trust.” - 1 Corinthians‬ ‭9:17‬ ‭NLT‬‬

“Paul is disavowing the idea of the minister as a patriarchal overlord or master. Paul believes that there is only one Lord over the ekklēsia—Jesus Christ.” - Ben Witherington III

In our passage for today, Paul lays out a solid theological argument for vocational ministers to be paid to meet their living expenses. Yet he lays no claim on it. Instead, the Apostle seems to use his refusal of funding as an opportunity to prove his intentions. He was there for them and not what they had to offer.

Paul, with no family to care for, was able to make this lifestyle work with spurts of tent-making with the power couple, Priscilla and Aquila. Yet he knew other ministers didn’t have this luxury.

Is this how we react when Jesus asks us to do something a certain way? If He’s our Lord, we want him calling the shots.

We trust you to lead us, Jesus.

Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 8

“But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we exist for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.” - 1 Corinthians 8:6

Writing about this verse, Leon Morris says, “We came from him and we live for him; he is our origin and goal.”

Paul is using this incredible language to describe the unimportance associated with other gods. Idols, though they can be very distracting to our worship of the true God, aren’t real. They carry no weight. Jesus Christ, active in creation and alive today; He’s the One who has given us life.

So we are free! Free to eat or drink whatever we’d like.

Yet in verse 9, Paul lays out his own conviction. Our freedom is not a license. Our freedom from Jesus is a gift, and it is to be handled with care and respect for others.

Would you be so stubborn as to exercise your freedom at the expense of someone else?

Paul chose “no” as his response. We should consider it as well.

Today’s reading: 1 Corinthians 7:25-40

“A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but only if he loves the Lord.” - ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭7:39‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The following quote does well to help us understand what Paul is saying to those in Corinth during this second half of chapter 7:

“Obviously not morally, because, if one course be morally better than another, we are bound to take it; but “better” with reference to expediency in “the urgent necessity” which rested on the Christian world in that day.” - H.D.M. Spence

Plus, we also have to keep in mind that Corinth was such a sexually confused place. Seeing examples of a man and a woman confidently married, or someone who is single being steadfast in their choice would be a powerful example to the city.

Also, by Paul speaking so much to the freedom of women in marrying or not, he’s putting himself in his own category in the first century (where women had zero rights).

#1 question to ask a future spouse:

“Will you love Jesus more than me? If so, I’m all in.”