Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
It’s really easy to get hooked into debates and disputes which don’t belong to your primary interest, isn’t it? In an age of cultural and political wrangling, there are so many issues, truly important issues, to be talked about and worked on that we hardly know where to begin.
1 Corinthians 2:1-12 reflects on the apostle Paul and his interactions with the Corinthians. History tells us that this congregation was exuberant. Maybe “contentious” is the better word. There were people trying to outdo one another. This was the reputation the community had
When Paul came to Corinth he could have spoken to all sorts of issues. The city was full of corruption and vice. It was a rough and tumble place. Our generation could look at it and see all sorts of injustice. These are issues which Christians have always spoken to. They deserve a response from Christians. The Scripture is full of talk about how to treat our neighbors.
What did Paul do in Corinth? He concentrated on one thing. His message was that of Christ crucified for sinners. He didn’t dress it up. He didn’t conceal it. He didn’t try to slip it in under the surface of anything else. He proclaimed Jesus as the power of God. He proclaimed that Christ, God the Son, was the only hope anyone would ever have.
What is the response of this proclamation? Christianity came to Corinth. The church mirrored society for a while. It was a rough and tumble city, it was a rough and tumble church. Over the years, though, things calmed down. As the hope of the Gospel worked to create peace, the reputation changed. By the end of the 1st century, some 40 years or so after the writing of 1 Corinthians, a letter from Clement, bishop of Rome, was sent to the Corinthian church. It urged them to rediscover their zeal. They had lapsed into inactivity.
We operate this way. We swing one way, then we swing the other way. We need people around us to remind us where our priorities lie. And where do they lie? Just like Paul said. Christ crucified. Here is our hope.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.