Sunday 16th March
Read Psalm 100
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
Despite the many modern and good translations of the Bible I still think of this Psalm in terms of the old metrical Psalm, “All people that on Earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice”, however translated though, it is a summons to people everywhere to express joyful praise to God.
Thanksgiving is at the heart of worship for it speaks of God’s creation and shepherdly oversight of us inviting us to “enter his gates with thanksgiving” (v4). When we gather together in worship every Sunday this should be in our heart and on our lips. And when we go about our week, we ought to find a joyful expression of thanksgiving to God.
READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday 1 Corinthians 1:26 – 2:5
After highlighting the centrality of the cross of Christ for the Church everywhere Paul tells them to think about themselves and whether it was through their intelligence, cleverness or noble birth that brought them into the fellowship of God’s people. The answer was no, in fact there were few of them with such claims and Paul goes so far as to tell them that God chose the poor and weak to shame the wise and powerful. Instead of making claims for people, even those who were apostles, their boasting should be in the Lord.
Paul then says that it was not through himself, his wisdom or rhetoric, that he came to Corinth, but it was to proclaim the gospel of Christ crucified. It was in that message that the power of the Holy Spirit was seen and experienced by the Corinthian people. Their faith wasn’t going to rest on human wisdom but on God’s power. Pause and think, if you are a Christian, how did you think that came about – through your cleverness or human wisdom??
Tuesday 1 Corinthians 2:6-16
In case it be thought that Paul was eschewing any kind of wisdom he wants to say that the gospel contains the very wisdom of God. He speaks of a mystery that has been hidden before time began (v7) and that has now been revealed by the Spirit of God in those who love him. If we consider the scientific advances in our knowledge of how things are we know that everything has been there in our world since the beginning, but we weren’t able to know them until, through scientific research, they became evident, they were revealed. This is how things can be hidden and Paul uses this idea in telling the Corinthians that through the Holy Spirit’s enlightening what had been hidden since the beginning of time was revealed to them and it was about what God had prepared for them (v9).
These things can only be understood by those who have received the Spirit. Apart from the Holy Spirit people cannot see, cannot understand, what this mystery is.
Wednesday 1 Corinthians 3:1-15
The apostle now weighs into them with a strong introduction to the third chapter (though remember, chapters and verses were never in original Bible texts, they were just added in the 13th and 16th Centuries). He tells the Christian community whom he still refers to as brothers and sisters, that he could not address them as spiritual people but fleshly of worldly people, just like babies in Christ. We all know the difference between dealing with adults and dealing with toddlers, well Paul is saying that about this early Church community in Corinth. He tells them that when he was there he fed them elementary or basic food for they were new believers but now they were still not ready for solid food of spiritual life. There is a difference between what can be taught toddlers and what can be taught even to older children – try to teach the rules of a regulated football game to toddlers and see where you get! Chaos.
Jealousy and quarrelling is what Paul says they were exhibiting when they claimed to be followers of himself or Apollos. He says that they were merely servants doing the work of God, himself planting and Apollos watering but it was God who gave the germinating and growth of the seed. He transfers the imagery to building and speaks of himself as laying a foundation, others would build on that foundation but they ought to take care what they build. Sometimes good gospel evangelism can bring people to faith and commitment to Christ but when following teachers don’t keep feeding the Word of God to the new Christians then a very flammable construction is what can result. We shall see the results of this in some of the future chapters of the letter.
Thursday 1 Corinthians 3:16-23
On the subject of destruction after construction Paul tells the Corinthians that they are not a straw building but the Temple of God. This picture is commonly used of the Temple being no longer the bricks and stone building in Jerusalem but the building with human lives which become the stones of God’s new Temple upon Earth. (Actually the bricks and stone building in Jerusalem would shortly be destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.). Paul tells them not to knock themselves about or they will find themselves destroyed. The Church needs always to depart from jealousy and fighting (v3) and to focus on who it is that is within, God’s Holy Spirit (v16).
Once again he reminds them that they are not wise and intellectual and instead they should humble themselves and not try to compete with each other imagining human leaders like Paul, Apollus or Peter as their intellectual heads. The head of the Church is Christ and in him they have everything.
Friday 1 Corinthians 4:1-7
Paul tells them how they ought to regard him and others entrusted as teachers and that is as servants of Christ. His responsibility is to God and not to men and it is before God that he will be judged and not before any human court. He says that his conscience is clear but that doesn’t make him innocent, it will be the Lord who will judge him, and everyone ought to wait for that time when the motives of the heart will be revealed then and everyone will receive their praise from God.
He says that he has applied this to himself and Apollos so that they will not be puffed up and arrogant as followers of one of them. He reminds them that what they have as members of this new Church they have received, it didn’t originate with them. This is something we always need to remember that we are receivers, we are not explorers who have found something out for ourselves and therefore deserve the praise as clever discoverers, not at all, we have just been recipients.
Saturday 1 Corinthians 4:8-13
Paul now takes to some sarcasm when he says, “Already you have all you want, already you have become rich!” and adds, “you have begun to reign – and that without us!” This is how arrogant they have become, they are thinking they are at the top of the tree in respect of spiritual matters. The apostle has already said that God chose the weak things of the world to shame the wise and he has already told them to look at themselves and what backgrounds they came from (1 Cor 1:26-29).
Paul puts his own experience forward as having been made a spectacle in his trials and tribulations. He has not been like one of those well-known American TV evangelists with their huge homes and private planes boasting of their wealth coming through their great spiritual ministries. On the contrary Paul had been hounded from pillar to post in various cities in the ancient world. He puts this forward as being like those who had been captured by a Roman General who had what was called a “Triumph”, or basically a parade through a town, showing off his captives in a train behind him, the last often being led to their execution. In other words we follow Christ as his captives not on his chariot as victors.
