DAILY DEVOTIONS BLOG

 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

In this verse Paul gives us a great example of “first fruit proportionate giving”. When we speak of first fruit giving, we are talking in Bible terms. In the Old Testament the sacrifices were supposed to be given off of the top. When you gathered in the grain, the first portion was to be given to God. When you slaughtered the animals, the first portion was to be given to God. This was called the “First Fruits”, and when Paul speaks about the process of gathering their gift for the poor in Jerusalem, he says that they should follow the practice of giving the first portion, therefore set aside your gift at the “first day of the week”. This practice seems like a good idea and many of us plan to follow this example and give to God first, but then all of the other needs that we have seem to get in the way. We find ourselves thinking, after I pay this and after I pay that, then from what I have left I will remember God. Unfortunately we let everything else get in front of our gift to God, which is very sad since we know that everything that we have is a gift from Him.

Paul also talks about proportionate giving, he says “in keeping with your income”. Paul does not say that it should be 10% of your income, it could be less and it could be more! In the Old Testament the rule was that you should bring 10% or a “tithe” of all that God gives to you. In this section Paul says that it should be in keeping with your income, if you are blessed with more you give more, if you are blessed with less you give less. The temptation today is to set a dollar amount that you feel comfortable with and then that stays the same for year after year, even though God continues to bless you with financial increases each year. Paul’s idea of percentage giving helps to eliminate that problem. If you decide on a percentage to give, whether 5%, 10% or 15% then as God sees fit to bless you with more you will automatically be giving Him more.

Finally Paul makes the point that if they put aside a little each week then no one has to go around and brow beat people in order to raise the needed funds, they will already be there and all the people will have to do is take them to Jerusalem. This suggestion also makes perfect sense for today as giving a little each week is much easier to accomplish than one or two large gifts.

It is interesting that in the area of giving, Paul saw some of the same problems that we still have today!

How do you feel about giving money to your church?

What motivates you to give?

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed-in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

Paul finishes this section on the resurrection with a discussion of just what the body will look like when it is raised from the dead. Paul anticipates the normal question of what the body that has been in the grave will look like when it is raised to life. We have images of the walking dead or zombies. Paul says that this kind of talk is foolish! God is in charge and He does not make junk!

We have to quit thinking in terms of the bodies that we see here on earth, Paul points out that the things of heaven are heavenly and the things of earth are earthly. When we rise from the dead we are going to heaven for eternity, therefore we need the heavenly style body. This new body will have all of the characteristics of the things of heaven, perfection, beauty, and holiness. Paul points out that our earthly physical body gives way to the spiritual body, he compares this change to the first Adam who was of the earth and physical that gives way to the second Adam (Jesus) who was of heaven and spiritual. Therefore since we are now children of Christ we will be spiritual and our bodies will be spiritual.

Another interesting thing that Paul talks about in this section is the fact that if we have not died when Christ comes again then we will be changed also. In other words, not only the ones who have died and been raised to life will have glorified bodies, also those of us still living will be given glorified bodies as well. Once again this is proof that Christ is stronger than death. We already have the victory over the devil in Christ and when we are raised glorious that will be the final victory.
See you in Heaven!!

What kind of body would you like to have in heaven?

What is most comforting when you confront the reality of your own death?

 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

Evidently some of the Corinthians were listening to people around them who said that there was no way that people had an after life. They believed that when you died that was it and there was no more. Paul’s argument was that since we believe that Christ was raised from the dead, we have to believe that people are raised to live anew at the last day. If we say that no one is raised then Christ could not have been raised and we know that He was, so we all will be!! It is just that simple.

In this section Paul talks this problem into a circle. He makes several points to show that Christ is more powerful than death and that His victory over death was complete. Therefore we have hope of our own resurrection. Paul says that if we did not have that hope, our life as Christians would not be worth it.

Paul finishes this section by saying that you will eventually become like the people you spend time with. Therefore you should pick your friends and not be with the people that don’t believe in God and have completely different mindsets than you have as a Christian. This is not to say that we can’t have a good influence on the non-believers around us, but we must also realize that they will have an influence on us as well. We are never so strong that we need not worry about the company that we keep. At the same time, we can’t bring more unbelievers to know Jesus unless we get close to them.

Therefore we must be bold in proclaiming the resurrection from the dead and the fact that just as Christ has already been raised we too will one day be raised to a new life.

How can too close an association with unbelievers affect your faith?

Paul said “I die every day” meaning that he daily gave up his rights in order to give someone else the gift of salvation. In what ways do you “die every day”?

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.

Paul proclaims the importance of the resurrection of Christ in this section. He says that this is what he preached and what they believed and this is what was going to save them. The resurrection is what makes our belief in Jesus Christ different from every other prophet and savior that has ever come and gone in the history of the world. No other prophet has risen from the grave.

A couple of places in the letters of Paul he makes the statement that the resurrection is the most important part of our belief. Jesus had to die, man had sinned and the penalty for sin is death, therefore if man’s sin was to be paid for someone had to die. God wanted to pay for man’s sin and restore the relationship that He had with man at creation. However, God cannot die! Therefore the one to die had to be a man, but the death of a man would not pay for the sins of the whole world therefore God the creator had to die, His death would pay for all of His creation. In order for this to happen, God had to become a man, hence Jesus of Nazareth.

Then Jesus had to die, which he did on the cross; he stayed in the grave for 3 days so that everyone would know that he was really dead. Then God raised him to live to show to the world that the sin had been paid for the sacrifice had been accepted.

Our belief and trust that Jesus’ death and resurrection paid for our sin is the only hope for restoration into God’s family, we put our complete trust in Jesus. Paul’s statement in this section is that “this is what I believe and this is what the disciples believe, so this is what you should believe”.

Today the resurrection of Jesus Christ saves US! Praise God!!

How hard is it for you to believe that Jesus rose from the dead?

What does COMPLETE trust in Jesus mean to you?

But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.

This verse is really a summary of this section of Corinthians, Paul speaks about tongues, prophesy, teaching, and even prayer. His focus is that in all things our worship should be done in an orderly fashion. He is right to assume that people will benefit more from the worship services that follow the orderly program that he has laid out. However, we must remember that acceptable worship rules for the Corinthians were shaped by their culture. In the same way our acceptable worship practices are shaped by our culture.

Paul’s prohibition to women speaking in the service would seem to be at least partially driven by the culture of that day where women did not speak in public. Paul’s point would be that in the interest of good order, you should not abandon the accepted rules of the culture. At the same time Paul had spent a great deal of time in Chapter 11 speaking about God’s order of creation and the role of the woman in respect to the man. Therefore his prohibition may come from this angle as well.

As we study the order for worship that Paul outlines here, we realize that his type of structure in our worship services would not lead to order, but to disorder! Order is the rule and so we choose not to have each person stand and speak as the Spirit moves him in the worship. This really is following Paul’s instruction as he was telling the Corinthians to plan ahead as to how their service of worship would run, to achieve the most orderly worship. Paul was not giving a step-by-step order of worship; so much as he was giving examples of how to develop an orderly worship service. In some ways it would be easier if God had given us just one acceptable way to conduct worship.

Once again this section of Scripture is very hard for us to interpret for today and we must ask the Lord to send His Spirit in an extra measure in order to understand just what He would have us understand from these words of Paul.

What are the positive qualities of the worship style that you enjoy?
Can worship be “too orderly”?

I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

Evidently God had gifted the Corinthians with a great many people who could speak in tongues. They had decided that these people were more special than the other believers. Therefore Paul speaks to them about this “Gift of Tongues” and what it means and how it should be used. This particular gift is still a fascinating gift that is often misunderstood today. There are church bodies that feel that everyone should have this gift; some even use this as a mark of who has received the Holy Spirit and who has not. Let me take a few moments to talk about this gift.

The gift of tongues is not the gift that was being exercised by the disciples in the 2nd chapter of Acts when people heard them all in their own language. Tongues is a language all its own and it is to be a language for talking with God, some call it their “God Language” or “Prayer Language”. According to the New Testament this is a true spiritual gift and therefore something that God gives to us, not something that we can learn as you might learn another language. It is given at God’s time and for His purpose, but because even the people who are speaking in tongues don’t know what they are saying, it is really meant only for God’s ears. Another gift of interpretation may also be given so that we might know what was said. However if God is looking to communicate something to the church, then someone would receive the gift of prophecy and God’s directions would be given through him or her to be shared with the church.

Because of these reasons, Paul says that the gift of tongues is not one that is to be a part of their worship services. His point as this section shows is that it is impossible to lead worship with words that no one understands. As a result of this discussion Paul asks the Corinthians, how bad do you really want this gift, and if you have it use it for yourself at home when you are talking with God.

Have you been in a worship service that was chaotic and disorderly?
Have you tried to worship when everyone seems to just be doing whatever he or she want?
What do you think would be Paul’s thoughts about those kinds of worship services?

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

In this chapter Paul illustrates how love is a greater gift than all of the other gifts that the Holy Spirit can and will give to us. Love is the first of the “Fruit of the Spirit” and so we know that all who believe have love, once we read this section we must search our souls to see if the love in our lives is of the quality that Paul speaks about. The love that Paul describes is the perfect love, no one here on earth will ever achieve this depth of love Christ was the one example of this perfect love.

Paul tries to put into words how this kind of love might look. The thrust of what is said is that love is about putting everyone else before you. To live in love is to live with the well being of everyone else ahead of your own. Chapter 13 is a description of “Agape Love” that self-giving love that Christ brought to us and we can have only a taste of as we live and believe in Him.

Paul refers to this temporary condition when he says that now we see through a glass darkly, but when we are with Christ we will see everything, as we should. We live in this world as children of love, when we are in heaven we will be adults! The fullness of love is the fullness of knowing God; this only comes as we live in His presence.
This is a favorite verse to be read at weddings, and even non-Christians think that this is a great description of love. But when we read this as believers, we see the hard life struggle that this kind of love would bring. In order to try and live this type of love we must put ourselves to death.
“Therefore love one another as Christ has loved you!”

What have you done that is really a substitute for truly loving?

What does this passage have to say to people who are “in love”?

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

This is a continuation of the first eleven verses of chapter twelve. When the Spirit of God comes to us and fills us then we receive the “Fruit of the Spirit”, every believer has this fruit. Paul describes this in Galatians 5:22,23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Not all of us have this fruit to the same degree, but we can cultivate it and grow it by God’s grace. This fruit marks us as one of God’s children and a part of the body of Christ here on earth. Paul says in this section of Corinthians that as parts of the body of Christ, we also have spiritual gifts and they are not all the same, but are very different and that is for a reason, so that the body of Christ may be complete here on earth. When you put all of the gifts together, then the body of Christ is able to function and fulfill God’s purposes here on earth.

Paul tells us this so that we will not all desire the same gifts! The body needs all of the parts and the full variety of gifts! Even those gifts that seem less attractive, God has special need for in His plan. Therefore there should be no divisions in the body, no one should be jealous of someone else’s gifts or their position in the body. In stead we should spend our time and energy building up the body of Christ. Paul is concerned that we should all be so fired up about the purpose of reaching the lost that we want the Body of Christ to be all that it can be!

Our love of God should compel us to want the gifts that will make the body of Christ better where we are.

Have you ever coveted the gifts that someone else at church seems to have?
Which gifts that God has given you are you keeping covered and unavailable to the body?

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

In this section Paul speaks briefly about spiritual gifts. The Corinthians had developed the mistaken idea that some gifts were better than others. Paul writes to tell them that all of the gifts come from the same Spirit of God and God gives all of the gifts for a purpose. When we see the gifts, we are seeing the Spirit of God, God works in and through each of us to show His Spirit. All of the gifts are for the good of everyone, not for the individual believer.
God sends His Spirit into each of us so that we can believe and trust Him above all things, without His Spirit we would be unable to believe. But that same Spirit of God also works to bring all believers together and the gifts of the Spirit that we see are for the purpose of expanding God’s church here on earth. Paul says that for that reason there are a variety of gifts, but they all come from the same Spirit and all are equal in the sight of God. God gives these gifts as He sees fit, people don’t determine which gifts they want or which gifts they have.
The list of gifts that occurs in this chapter is not an exhaustive list, but rather, Paul is pointing to a few of the more common gifts of the Spirit. We all have gifts, but we do not have the same gifts. According to Paul the best gifts are those that affect the most people and help the most people.

What Spiritual gifts would you say that you have?

How have you explored your gifts? We have a Spiritual Gifts Analysis available from the church office; we can also e-mail this link to you.

Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.

Paul jumps right into this topic because he knows that the Corinthians have abused the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. They have taken something that was to help unify God’s people (hence “communion”) and made it divisive, by the way they were celebrating. These verses are some of the best in the New Testament to describe what the Lord’s Supper is supposed to be about! Consequently we could have 30 “daily devotionals” on these verses, but I am going to try and just give the highlights.

First of all Paul states that what they are calling the Lord’s Supper is not really the Lord’s Supper! They were evidently doing some kind of potluck dinner and calling it the Lord’s Supper. But the dinner that they had was not really shared at all since the rich people brought their own food and did not share it with others. So some were stuffed and drunk and others were going home hungry. Paul says, this is not the Lord’s Supper, if you wanted to have a private party do it at home!

Then he gives the instruction again about how the holy meal should be celebrated, as close as possible to the way that the Lord did it with the disciples. He retells the story about how our Lord spoke to the disciples and what He said to them about this most holy meal.

Paul then writes about those who eat and drink the body and blood of the Lord in an unworthy manner, they are sinning! He says that they are unworthy to celebrate the Lord’s Supper if they do not examine themselves, if they do not think about what they are doing or if they do not believe that the Lord is in the meal. This verse is the verse that gives the church its understanding that people should receive instruction in the meaning of the Lord’s Supper before they share in the meal in order that they may not take the meal unworthily.

It is interesting that Paul takes the Lord’s Supper very seriously. This is not a side issue to him, it is very important.

When do you tend to approach worship or a part of worship too lightly?  Does your church discriminate in any way?