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The Apostle’s Freedom

Posted on by korgrocker

“Am I not as free as anyone else? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord with my own eyes? Isn’t it because of my work that you belong to the Lord? Even if others think I am not an apostle, I certainly am to you. You yourselves are proof that I am the Lord’s apostle.”
1 Corinthians 9:1-2 NLT

Paul is still referring to the issue about meat offered to idols, even though we have started a new chapter in 1 Corinthians. He now refers to his authority, rights, and freedom as an Apostle. He suggests that he is no one special, even though he has “seen Jesus our Lord with [his] own eyes”. However, Paul claims that he is just as “free” as anyone else, implying that with such freedom, he can make the right choices. Paul also makes the point that the Corinthians are living proof of his status as “the Lord’s Apostle”, even if he isn’t to other churches that someone else founded. Perhaps he detected that there were some, even in the Corinthian church, who perhaps thought that, as he wasn’t one of Jesus’ original disciples, then he wasn’t a “proper” apostle, but from the Acts 9 account, we know that this wasn’t true. Paul was very aware of his origins, as he wrote later in 1 Corinthians 15:9, “For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church“. What a memory this must have been for Paul to carry for the rest of his life. Those times when he arranged for the arrest of the new believers in Jesus, tearing families apart, putting people in jail, sowing despair and anguish everywhere he went. Thankfully, Jesus intervened directly in his life and commissioned him to take the Gospel to the Gentiles. There was a man called Ananias in Damascus, and he received a word from Jesus about Saul, who was blind and probably suffering from shock after the encounter with Jesus just a few days before. We read what Jesus said to Ananias in Acts 9:15-16, “But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake””. Suffer Paul did, but he remained firm in his faith and ministry right until the executioner’s axe descended, ending his life. 

Paul claimed, rightfully, that through Jesus he had been set free from the shackles of sin and death. He knew that it didn’t matter what happened to him, because one day, sooner or later, he would leave this life and be with the Lord. In fact, he wrote to the Philippians, saying, “I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me” (Philippians 1:23). But while present on this earth, Paul highlighted that through the freedom he had, he could make right choices, and one of them was that he would never eat meat again if it made a fellow believer stumble in their faith. 

We pilgrims, too, are in a position of freedom, but not freedom as the secular world around us believes. If we asked a random person in the street if they were free, they would probably look at us very strangely, and if we received a response at all, it would be something along the lines of “Of course I am”. However, an unbeliever often fails to understand what real freedom truly means. In Paul’s day, slavery was common, and the slaves were owned by someone, with no freedom to do what they wanted. They would be at the beck and call of their master or mistress, with severe penalties for those who disobeyed. 

There were some Pharisees present one day when Jesus was teaching the people. He had just made the claim that He was the Light of the World, and during His teaching we read what He said: “Then many who heard him say these things believed in him” (John 8:30). Then we read in the next two verses, “Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free””. The Pharisees objected to this statement because they claimed that they were free because they were descendants of Abraham. Still, Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free” (John 8:34-36). A sinful person is not truly free because they are constrained by their sinful nature and therefore cannot make the right choices. 

In this life, our physical freedom is taken for granted because we have not been locked up in a prison somewhere with our liberty restricted. But Paul was not talking about this kind of freedom because he was referring to freedom in the spirit, the sort of freedom that can only be received through Jesus. One day, everyone will leave this life and will lose the opportunity to be free from the clutches of sin and death. Unless we believe in Jesus, we face a disastrous future, because one day our freedom will be taken away from us, and we will find that the reality of a life spent in sin will bring about a situation from which we will have no choice. Paul wrote in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”. 

So Paul lived his life of freedom, making right choices, and the one he referred to in his letter to the Corinthians concerned his freedom to decide not to cause a fellow believer to stumble and fall into sin. We pilgrims have the same choice, and we prefer the needs of those around us over our own. In 1 Corinthians 9:22, Paul wrote, “When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some”. Sound advice from the Apostle, and advice that we would do well to follow.

Dear Lord Jesus, we thank You that You have set us free from the spectre and consequences of sin and death. Please lead us in Your ways because we have chosen to follow You forever. Amen.

“Superior Knowledge”

Posted on by korgrocker

“Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling-block to the weak. For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.”
1 Corinthians 8:9-13 NLT

There was a significant problem in Corinth, as idol worship was deeply ingrained in every aspect of their society. No one could go anywhere or do anything without bumping into something to do with an idol. According to the historians, a temple might be no more than a large room which doubled up as a meeting place or social venue, so those early believers somehow had to reconcile meetings that took place in these centres of idol worship with their Christian beliefs. Inevitably, some believers still retained some vestiges of idol worship, not being fully and irrevocably convinced that the idols and “gods” concerned were just useless and dead lumps of stone. They knew that there was only one real God, but on the other hand, there were little niggles in their minds. These were therefore the Christians with weaker consciences. But some of their fellow believers had settled the matter in their own minds and had a strong faith in God to the extent that they were pretty happy to join in the meals with the idol worshippers. These were the ones with what Paul called “superior knowledge”, which had set them free from the shackles of idol worship. Presumably, they sat down at one of these meals, giving thanks to God for the food and drink, and proceeded to enjoy a good feed without thinking about the idol in whose name it was being held.. 

Paul’s instruction to the firm believers was to back off and remember the weaker believers with sensitive consciences that would have been terminally offended by the actions of their stronger brethren. Paul has agreed that idol food, in and of itself, is not evil, just as the false gods are not real. He does not disagree with the Corinthians with “superior knowledge”, but he does disagree with the application of their knowledge, because of its effect on their weaker brethren. 

In Matthew 18, Jesus was asked who the greatest is in the Kingdom of Heaven. In reply, He called a child to join Him, and there in the middle of His group of disciples, “ … He said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). But Jesus didn’t leave it there. We read in the next verse, “Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”. We must pause at this point and reflect on who a small child is and how they behave and think. The one thing that strikes me, after many years of fostering, is the innocence of these children and how easily it can be corrupted by those in authority, particularly their parents. My wife and I have been deeply saddened by children whose innocence has been taken away or violated, leaving them damaged, with a life skewed and even destroyed by the actions of those entrusted to bring them up. Of course, we did our best to repair what we could, but in those early years, a small life is formed and developed into either something good and fully equipped to face their life ahead, or corrupted with a future damaged almost beyond hope. Jesus warned those who failed one of the little ones in Matthew 18:6-7, “If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in me – to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung round their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!” 

We must remember that a new believer has just been born, born again, and that therefore puts them in the same position as the little child standing amongst Jesus’ disciples. The more mature believers around the “little children” in our churches and fellowships have a responsibility to be careful not to do anything that would make them stumble and even fall. We pilgrims may have strong consciences that will carry us through worldly situations, but if a new believer happens to see what we are doing, it might even, in extreme circumstances, cause them to leave the faith. Jesus said in Matthew 18:10, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven”. In one church I attended, the leadership decided that they would refrain from drinking any alcoholic beverages because of an alcohol-related sensitivity amongst some in the congregation. That was an application of exactly what Paul was encouraging the Corinthians to consider.

But we pilgrims, with our faith and sensitivity to the ways of God, know all of this, and we pray for the new believers amongst us, as we help them in their early years, discipling them when we have the opportunity, and all the while being careful in how we behave. And we must always be aware that it is not only the new believers who are watching us. There are those in the world around us who observe the behaviour of Christians and who are quick to condemn if they find an opportunity.

Father God. A sobering message today, but one in which Your desires for Your children come to the fore. We pray for our fellow believers and ourselves as well, that Your Spirit within us will lead and guide us in Your ways. Please help us to guard our tongues so that we will never cause anyone to question their faith in You. Please also direct our steps away from anywhere that would lead to places where You don’t want us to go. We praise and worship You today, deeply thankful for Jesus and all He has done for us. Amen.

A Weak Conscience

Posted on by korgrocker

“However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.”
1 Corinthians 8:7-8 NLT

Some actions that Christians take can be perceived as offensive to other believers. These are generally things on the margins that would not be included in a list of essential “dos and don’ts” or would count as behaviour to be frowned upon. So in Victorian times, playing cards and attending dance halls were definitely not pastimes fit for a Christian. And the list of “dodgy” behaviour can be quite a long one, even extending to clothes that are worn or not worn, in some cases. In the office space, the use of bad language and expletives can be ubiquitous. Lumped in with smutty jokes or risqué behaviour, they present a problem for believers, who become shunned and excluded from social gatherings because of their attitude to worldliness. In Corinth, the believers had a problem with food offered to idols because “Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated“. So what is a conscience?

“The conscience is defined as that part of the human psyche that induces mental anguish and feelings of guilt when we violate it and feelings of pleasure and well-being when our actions, thoughts and words are in conformity to our value systems … The conscience reacts when one’s actions, thoughts, and words conform to, or are contrary to, a standard of right and wrong“. (quote from gotquestions.org). We have concluded before that human beings, made in God’s image, must have a built-in moral understanding which we refer to as a conscience, a moral compass that will guide us through this sad world, riddled as it is by evil and wickedness. No surgeon could ever dissect a human being to find such a thing because it is a part of our thinking, and as such, is something intangible. But there is no doubt that a person’s conscience exists, and how we act or think is governed initially by the remarkable fact that we are made in God’s image. So we are wired to have a Godly standard of right and wrong, well, that is, until the devil gets hold of us, and sin creeps in to corrupt and sear the perfection that God intended. Thankfully, through Jesus, our consciences are going through a repairing process, particularly as more and more we “Put on [our] new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy” (Ephesians 4:24). Two words apply to the spiritual growth of a Christian – salvation and sanctification – both ongoing processes that one day will be completed as we enter God’s presence, and within those processes there are references made to our morals and standards, driven by our redeemed consciences.

So what does all this mean for a Christian? Firstly, we must have a conscience that is aligned with God’s standards. There is no place in God’s Kingdom for a believer with a conscience that is worldly and corrupted. On a number of occasions the Apostle Paul referred to his conscience as being clear, such as in Acts 23:1, “Gazing intently at the high council, Paul began: “Brothers, I have always lived before God with a clear conscience!””. Over the page in our Bibles, he said, “Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people” (Acts 24:16). In Romans 2:14-15, Paul addressed the situation of lawless Gentiles. He wrote, “Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right“. And Paul even referred to his conscience in matters connected to his teaching. Romans 9:1, “With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it“. 

But so far, we have connected our consciences to our own behaviour. This is important, of course, but the issue that Paul was addressing in his Corinthian letter concerned the problem with the consciences of others, and how our behaviour might violate their consciences. So, one Christian in Corinth might have no problem with his conscience when he joins in with a feast with food offered to a particular local god. This is because they have reached a position in their thinking that tells them the “god” is just an idolatrous lump of stone without any life or significance to them. But their next-door neighbour, a new believer, might be appalled that they are doing such a thing because they are still very sensitive to their previous life, where they had devoted much time to the worship of this particular idol. In this specific case, the neighbour has a “weak conscience”. 

I’m sure today we can find similar cases. Consider a hypothetical family where the father was an alcoholic and gave his wife and children a terrible time until his early death. Then one of the children becomes a Christian, but has been so sensitised by the problems caused by alcohol that they will not even drink the alcoholic communion wine. In such a case as this, the “wine” should perhaps be of the non-alcoholic variety, to avoid violating a “weak conscience”. 

A last word from “gotquestions.org”, “As Christians, we are to keep our consciences clear by obeying God and keeping our relationship with Him in good standing. We do this by applying His Word, renewing and softening our hearts continually. We consider those whose consciences are weak, treating them with Christian love and compassion”.

Dear Lord God. We know that as we grow in our faith, You will help us fine-tune our consciences so that they are aligned with Your standards. We praise and worship You today. Amen.

One Lord, Jesus Christ (2)

Posted on by korgrocker

“So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many Lords. But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.”
1 Corinthians 8:4-6 NLT

We pilgrims know that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is our Lord and someone special to us, because our faith is founded on His sacrificial death at Calvary, a hill just outside Jerusalem. A death experienced by the Son of God as He took on the punishment deserved by sinful men and women so that they could stand cloaked with righteousness before Father God. And so we refer to Jesus as Lord.

But what does it mean to say that Jesus is Lord? In those days when Jesus walked around the Palestinian countryside, the title “lord” was commonplace because it was a recognition of a leader or a person with some importance. It was not initially a reference to Jesus’ deity because that came later. In fact, we recall the incident with Thomas after Jesus’ resurrection, when Jesus suddenly appeared through a locked door and stood among His disciples. We pick up the account in John 20:24-25, “One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side””. At this stage, “We have seen the Lord” was a respectful reference to Jesus, and something He referred to in John 13:13, “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am“. But this all changed when Thomas encountered the risen Jesus. Back to John 20:26-28, where we read, “Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!” “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed“. Thomas added the divine to the word “Lord”, transforming the meaning to something that equates to “Jesus is God”. 

As an aside, in the UK today, we have a “House of Lords”, an unelected body of politicians who have many similar functions to the House of Commons, the elected part of our government. It scrutinises legislation, holds the government to account, and considers and reports upon public policy. This “House” of “Lords” (and “Ladies” as well) consists of religious leaders (bishops and the like), hereditary peers and political appointees. But there is nothing anywhere near “divine” about them. They are merely a hangover from Britain’s feudal history, and of no relevance to the “Lord” we are referring to, but worth mentioning to avoid confusion.

Generally speaking, a lord is someone with authority, control, or power over others; to say that someone is “lord” is to consider that person a master or ruler of some kind. However, when we apply this definition divinely to Jesus, we discover something awe-inspiring and special. By saying “Jesus is Lord,” we are acknowledging that we must live our lives in complete obedience to Him. In Luke 6:46, Jesus said, “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?”, and that is the issue. We sing the song “Jesus is Lord” with great enthusiasm, but do we really know the implications of what we are singing? If we are not in complete obedience to Him, would it not be more honest to sit this particular song out and not sing it at all? A person who says, “Jesus is Lord,” with a complete understanding of what that means (Jesus is God and has supreme authority over all things) has been divinely enlightened, as we read in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit“. We need that Holy Spirit revelation about Jesus being Lord to really understand what it means.

And so we come to Matthew 28:18-19, the Great Commission, “Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”. Because Jesus is Lord, He is God, and He has the authority to command us to do something. I have met some Christians who say that they are unsure of their role as believers, but if nothing else, the fact that they acknowledge Jesus as Lord means that they are commissioned and authorised to share the Good News of God’s plan of salvation with those people around them. But that is only part of it. As we read through the Bible, we find other ways in which the Lordship of Jesus needs to be recognised and applied in our societies, workplaces, schools, universities, neighbourhoods, and families. In our relationships with one another. In fact, our lives are the very medium in which God has chosen to make Himself known to the world around us. Are we shining like a beacon for God, or are we unrecognisable as a Christian? 

We must, of course, remember that one day the Lordship of Jesus will have to be recognised by everyone, believer or not. Philippians 2:9-11, “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. 

And so back to where we started today. Jesus is Lord. If He isn’t, then He’s not Lord at all. There is no halfway house. We can’t allow Jesus to be Lord of only a part of our lives, while we retain ownership of the rest. A sobering thought, because our sinful nature, our “old man”, wants to hang onto the bits of our lives that we enjoy. But thankfully, God is gracious and patient. The Holy Spirit will gently lead us through the process of sanctification, bringing more and more of ourselves under the Lordship of Jesus. It is a lifetime process, and one that won’t be complete until we stand before God in Heaven. 

Dear Lord Jesus. Please forgive us for our sins and our rebellion against Your Lordship. Amen.

One Lord, Jesus Christ (1)

Posted on by korgrocker

“So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many Lords. But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.”
1 Corinthians 8:4-6 NLT

Paul made two unambiguous statements about God and Christ in the last verse of our reading today. He said we live for God the Father, but through Jesus Christ. They identify two separate roles for God the Father and God the Son, in that all things were created by the Father, but through Jesus. These statements are foundational to the Christian faith, and there is no alternative way of life for any pilgrim. We considered the Father yesterday, and now we turn to Jesus, “through whom we live”. 

All the way back in Genesis 1, we see that God “spoke” the heavens and the earth into being. Genesis 1:3, “Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light”“. But if we now turn to John 1, we find out about what was said. John 1:1-3, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him“. So we find the Trinitarian relationship between the Father and Son, because God spoke and Jesus was the Word, a partnership that has always existed. In Genesis, we read that humanity was created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26f), and we must consider what that truly means. God had already created the angels – we don’t know exactly when, but this probably occurred before the world was created – and He then created human beings, populating both the spiritual realm and the natural world. Two separate kingdoms have existed, one eternal and one bounded by time, but it was God’s desire that He brought them both together under the authority of His Son, Jesus, as we read in Ephesians 1:9-10, “God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfil his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth”. 

The mind-boggling truth is that through the Word, the logos, we find the God-man Jesus walking this world, bringing God’s love and grace to people dying in their sins. Jesus was, and is, the Logos, as described by John, who went to great lengths to explain and correct false beliefs and ideas about God, and to provide us with the proper and correct facts about Him. In discussions with the JW’s, we will find that they do not believe that Jesus is God, a member of the Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Their version of John 1:1 (New World Translation) reads, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god”, and that identifies the JW’s as a sect that denies the divinity of Jesus as He went about Palestine showing His love and grace for the people. There are other differences, but we need to beware of a religion claiming to be Christian but one which has been infiltrated by the devil.

One of the first things that Jesus said when He started His public ministry was, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). We are all very familiar with this verse but the word “perish” is often overlooked. We go for the “love” bit and how we must believe in God’s Son, but the consequences for people who don’t are that they will perish. Back to Genesis 1:26. Being created in God’s image means that with the package came free choice, a huge responsibility that is avoided by most of the people in our unbelieving society. It is a responsibility because those who don’t believe will “perish”and we know what that means if we read Revelation 20. And to those who claim a God of love would never send anyone to hell, we have to respond with the message that He would not overrule their right to free choice and turn them into an automaton. Instead, He sent His Son, full of unlimited love and grace, to take on the punishment they deserve and by His sacrifice ensure that they will never perish. 

There was a time in Galilee when Jesus addressed a couple of local news reports, brought to Him by the people there. The first was concerning Pilate, who had murdered some people in the Temple while they were offering sacrifices, and the second was when eighteen people died after a tower in Siloam fell on them. But Jesus turned the emphasis around, ““Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too” (Luke 13:2-5). Jesus’ response was clear. Don’t get caught up with temporal matters and neglect the reality that unless we believe in Him, repenting of our sins, then we will “perish”. 

We pilgrims live our lives through the lens of the Cross, where we lay our burdens down and believe that Jesus died for our sins. Paul reminded the Corinthians of that, and, with a sober and realistic perspective, we too take on board what it means to live through Jesus, the Son of God.

Dear Father God. Thank You for Your Son Jesus and all He has done for us at Calvary. Thank You that through Your plan for salvation You have saved us from perishing in a terrible place. Amen.

One God, the Father

Posted on by korgrocker

“So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many Lords. But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.”
1 Corinthians 8:4-6 NLT

I met a lady the other day, standing outside Dunfermline Abbey. She was listening to the organ being played, the soft tones carrying through a quiet but rather autumnal day. We started a conversation, during which I mentioned the God worshipped by the congregation that met in this ancient building, probing for an opportunity to share the Gospel. She mentioned that she believed in God but expanded on what she meant, explaining her understanding of a “god” who was in all world religions, and who was embedded in the very fabric of nature. She explained that to her, the adjacent tree was also “god”. Where do people get such weird ideas, ideas impregnated with a false understanding of God that has become so skewed and wrong? As we discovered yesterday, within every human being there is a “God-shaped” void that only He can fill, but without a voice declaring who God is, people create their own “god” in the hope that the empty ache inside will be somehow filled. In Paul’s day, created gods were called idols, and they obviously still exist today.

People have always created their own gods because something within them needs a spiritual being, a god, and it is far less hassle for most to worship a “god” that makes no demands of them. A “god” within them rather than a deity outside. And if they can include the possibility of pandering to their many human lusts, then even better. So, a popular “god” in ancient Greek days was Aphrodite, the goddess of love and procreation, but there were others in the Greek and Roman pantheons of deities. We won’t find temples dedicated to such deities in our towns and cities today. However, their influence lives on in the sinful practices of those in our societies, and we even still use words derived from their names, used to describe lustful acts associated with them and their ancient worship. But Paul wrote to the Corinthians saying that, even though there were so many idols, there is only “one God, the Father”.

The Jews were commanded to worship the one and only God. Exodus 20:3, “You must not have any other god but me“. And then we have the Shema prayer from Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength“. These verses establish the foundational belief in the absolute oneness and uniqueness of God, refuting the polytheistic beliefs of surrounding cultures and affirming that only the Lord (Yahweh) is the true and singular God. 

Paul expanded on God the Father as being the One “by whom all things were created”, something we know from Genesis 1. However, there is another sad religion, which has emerged in our schools and places of learning, and that is evolution. The high priests of this religion are people such as the prominent atheist Richard Dawkins, who say they believe in no god at all, and they have spent much of their lives promoting their beliefs, rubbishing the one true God in the process. But the evolutionists believe that given the right mix of chemicals, a flash of lightning, and billions of years, a living entity will emerge from the sea somehow, and then stand up on two legs and walk the land. Someone once described to me that the beliefs of an evolutionist are like putting all the constituent parts of an old-fashioned clockwork wrist watch, cogs and all, into a bag and then shaking it, and keep shaking it, because eventually, given enough time, a watch will emerge intact and fully functional. Really? There is much more that can be said, but what these people forget is that at some time all the chemicals and other matter had to be created, something they conveniently ignore. Many years ago, my teenage daughter, well-versed in the church’s Sunday school teachings, challenged her biology teacher about the evolutionary “facts” being promoted and got him to admit that the Theory of Evolution was just that —a theory.

Paul finally described God as not just a Creating God, but One “for whom we live”. Now there’s a challenge! Do we live for God or do we live to satisfy our own desires, and in the process, live for the god of this world, the devil. Jesus was asked by a Pharisaical religious legal expert the question, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” (Matthew 22:36). We read what Jesus said in return, “ …  “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments”” (Matthew 22:37-40). That was what Paul was meaning when he gently reminded the Corinthian believers that they must live only for God. There is no middle way for a pilgrim, then or now. We are either totally for God or totally against Him. Yes, in our daily lives we will occasionally lapse back into the human world of “the lusts of our flesh”, but through Jesus we have forgiveness and the resources we need to continue our journey. 

Jesus said to the Laodicean church, “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! You say, ‘I am rich. I have everything I want. I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realise that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked” (Revelation 3:15-17). Do we pilgrims need the same wake-up call, or are we on fire for God, “hot” in all the things that we do? A little later, Jesus said to the Laodiceans, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (Revelation 3:20). Can we hear a gentle knock at the door of our hearts this morning? Can we feel a hunger in our souls? Then all we have to do is allow Jesus to enter into our lives, our hearts, so that once again we can feast on His love, grace, and presence. He has done so much for us. Don’t let us ever lock Him out of our lives. We live for God and only God, this day and forever.

Dear Lord Jesus. Thank You for all You have done for us. We thank You too for this rich life we have found as we live for God. Please help us through the hard and difficult times, and show us the way so that we don’t take a wrong turning and lose heart. In Your precious name. Amen.

Idolatry

Posted on by korgrocker

So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many Lords. But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.”
1 Corinthians 8:4-6 NLT

What is an idol? In our minds, an image immediately appears before us of a figurine, perhaps beautifully crafted by a skilled sculptor. We remember the problem Paul had in Ephesus, where a silversmith called Demetrius had a successful and lucrative business manufacturing shrines of the Greek goddess Artemis, for resale to tourists. He stirred up trouble, saying, “But as you have seen and heard, this man Paul has persuaded many people that handmade gods aren’t really gods at all. And he’s done this not only here in Ephesus but throughout the entire province!” (Acts 19:26). He continued in the next verse, “Of course, I’m not just talking about the loss of public respect for our business. I’m also concerned that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will lose its influence and that Artemis—this magnificent goddess worshiped throughout the province of Asia and all around the world—will be robbed of her great prestige!” In the Greek society there were many gods and goddesses all represented with idols which the people worshipped and revered, and in some cases they brought before these “gods” offerings of food. Food offered to idols was typically meat from animal sacrifices, but could also include fruits, flowers, or other items, depending on the tradition. After a deity was thought to have consumed or been blessed by the offering, the food was often eaten at temple banquets, resold in the market, or given to priests. The practice served various purposes, including honouring a deity, seeking blessings, or participating in worship feasts that could also be associated with sexual immorality. 

So, the Corinthians believers must have had the opportunity to acquire this meat from animal sacrifices, and they were wondering if this was the correct thing to do. Paul’s first response was that these idols weren’t really gods at all, because “there is only one God”. Perhaps the logical answer to the believers in Corinth was that idols were nothing more than lumps of decorative metal, with no ability to do anything or be anything. Therefore if they were “nothing” then what was the problem if the meat had been offered to “nothing”. Paul wrote to the Galatian believers, “Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist” (Galatians 4:8), a verse that sums up the futility of the cults of idol worship. 

In Western societies today, the pendulum seems to have swung to the other extreme, where a secular people fail to recognise any sort of “god”, even the God we pilgrims worship, or so it would seem. Inbuilt within human beings is a god-shaped hole that has to be filled by something. To the Greeks, they filled their need for something spiritual by making lots of idols, and they then intertwined their sinful natures with idol worship. But today, mankind is still born with this god-shaped hole within them, a spiritual need that has to be filled in some way, be it by the use of various substances such as drugs, or by sexual misbehaviour, or by the person building their own “idols” for the purposes of worship. We find a mother idolising her children, or a pop fan idolising a singer. We see men worshipping the cult of golf, local football team, or some other sport, so there are probably even more “idols” present in our society today than there were in Greek societies. 

So what is an “idol”? To a Christian, an idol is anything or anyone that replaces God as the ultimate focus of their heart, thoughts, and reliance. While it can refer to a physical object, such as a statue or image, it extends to anything — a person, a system, a desire, or a possession — that is loved more than God or is relied upon for blessings, help, or guidance in place of Him. The core issue is a shift in loyalty and trust away from the one true God to something lesser. So, by now, I’m sure we have worked out that an idol is something or someone who takes the place of the one and only true God, but the problem originates in our own hearts. Back in Genesis, we read that God made man in His own image, and it therefore makes sense that the only valid and effective way of filling our need for a god is with the only God who exists. No matter how hard people try, they can never replace their need for a relationship with God with anything that is man-made or false.

Do we pilgrims have any idols in our lives? We may indeed have some. Take, for example, a St. Christopher medallion hung on a necklace. Some people, even Christians, superstitiously believe that this will protect them from danger. Then there is the phrase “retail therapy”. Isn’t this just another way some people replace God with “stuff”? Or how about the weight some people place on their “stars”, even being drawn to horoscopes? Then there are various superstitions, such as touching wood, that some people believe will ward off bad luck or will prevent good fortune from being taken away after making a favourable prediction or boasting about something. While the precise origins are debated, possible explanations include ancient pagan beliefs about tree spirits. Another idol? And we mustn’t forget that the very word “luck” is derived from lucifer, the devil himself. 

So, how do we discern if we are being surreptitiously drawn into idolatry? There is only one effective way, and that is to ask God for His guidance and then be obedient to what He says through His Spirit. A quotation from gotquestions.org, “idolatry is a matter of the heart—pride, self-centeredness, greed, gluttony, a love for possessions and ultimately rebellion against God. Is it any wonder that God hates it?” Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life”. Our enemy, the devil, knows that if he can get control of our hearts, then we will lose our effectiveness in our relationship with God, and we mustn’t under any circumstances allow that to happen.

O Lord. Please forgive us, we pray, for the times when we try to replace You with something that is so inferior. We confess our waywardness and pray for Your forgiveness. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Food and Idols

Posted on by korgrocker

“Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.”
1 Corinthians 8:1-3 NLT

The Corinthians must have written to Paul a letter containing a series of questions, which seemed to apply to the interface between secular Corinthian society and living the Christian life. An understandable situation for those early Christians, believers living without the benefit of the New Testament and having to rely on men like Paul and Apollos for guidance. We don’t know the structure of the Corinthian church. For example, was there a leadership team and a senior pastor, able to provide the answers the believers were looking for? The origins of the church can be read in Acts 18, and they refer to Paul travelling to Corinth from Athens, and meeting up with a Jew and his wife, Aquila and Priscilla, who had been evicted from Rome by Claudius Caesar. They were tent makers like Paul, so the synergy between them was a good start for their future relationship and the embryonic church that started up in the home of a Gentile called Titius Justus. Those were stormy times, with much opposition from the Jews who worshipped in the synagogue next door. Presumably, Paul spent much time with Aquila and Priscilla, because they encountered a preacher called Apollos, and about him we read, “He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately” (Acts 18:25-26). We don’t know anything about the letter that the Corinthians wrote to Paul, but we know that he was in Ephesus when he wrote his first Corinthian letter, containing the answers to the believers’ questions. 

The previous chapter in 1 Corinthians provided answers to their questions about sexuality and marriage, and now Paul moved on to address their concerns about food that had been offered to idols. In ancient Corinth, offering food to idols was part of pagan worship practices and included consuming meat that had been sacrificed to idols at temples. These meals were not just religious acts but also important social and business gatherings, with temples serving as places for feasts and community events. So it seems that in some way, this food became available to the Corinthian church, and the issue was whether or not they should eat it. Paul addresses this issue in more detail later in 1 Corinthians 8, but he first addresses a situation where some believers think they know all the answers. He addressed their arrogance by pointing out that it was not knowledge that builds up the church but love, love for one another. There is a saying, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”, implying that it is risky to base important decisions on a limited amount of knowledge and understanding about a particular subject. I once attended a meeting where a new project was being initiated, and there was one man there who seemed to be very knowledgeable about the technicalities of what was required. I asked him afterwards where he found all the information and knowledge about the project, to which he replied, “In a land of blind men, a one-eyed man is king”, meaning that he only had a little knowledge, but that was more than anyone else present in the meeting. 

So it appears that the believers in Corinth had in their midst people who said they knew all the answers and, consequently, were vociferous in spreading their views. However, the wise among them wrote to Paul, asking for his advice and direction. It is common for believers, particularly those who are young in the faith, to have questions. In the societies in which we live, many customs and issues could directly affect our faith, and about which the Bible is silent. Take, for example, our love of food. Is it right to eat so many carbohydrate-based foods, or drink so many sugary drinks? In Biblical times, it was often the case that any food was a bonus, but here in the West, we have more food than we need. Or many a new Christian is faced with the question about smoking or the consumption of alcohol. Should they smoke and drink as they did before they became Christians? There are other examples, such as the jobs we do or the hobbies we have. And so we try to find the answers from the Bible, and read verses such as 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honour God with your body”. But then our “old man” kicks in and the ancient whisper of the serpent from Genesis 3 sounds in our ears, “surely God didn’t say …”, and we end up in confusion and despair. Asking those around us for a definitive answer isn’t always helpful.

There is only one way to discern God’s will when we have difficult questions, and that is by referring back to our Maker through prayer and Bible study. In the process, we allow the Holy Spirit to gently reveal to us what His answer is and He then helps us to deal with the situation and bring about an answer in the way we live our lives. In obedience we embrace God’s help with addictions and all, trusting in His provision and grace. And if someone else comes to us with a question, we point to God and His Word, and pray with them, in gentleness and love, helping them on their journey. There is no other way. We are all pilgrims on a journey of sanctification, that will one day end up in perfection in God’s presence.

Dear Father God. Only You have the words that lead to eternal life. Only You have the answers to the issues we face in this sad world. And so we reach out to You this morning, asking for more of Your grace and love so that we too can help those around us with the issues of life. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Uncertainty

Posted on by korgrocker

“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. But in my opinion it would be better for her to stay single, and I think I am giving you counsel from God’s Spirit when I say this.”
1 Corinthians 7:39-40 NLT

So, Paul wrote that “A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives”. In today’s society, which is conscious of and sensitive to the rights of women, this is not a politically correct instruction. To single out a woman’s responsibility to her husband but not the other way round is enough to make any feminist’s blood boil. But in the misogynistic and patriarchal societies two thousand years ago, instructions such as these were not uncommon. A woman was considered the lesser of the two people in the marriage partnership. In first-century Greece, formal education for women varied significantly according to where a person lived. Corinthian girls would have received little to no formal instruction, instead learning domestic skills like weaving and household management from their mothers to prepare for marriage and motherhood. Male education varied by place as well, but generally involved foundational literacy and numeracy for the wealthy, with higher learning for affluent boys through Sophists and philosophers, emphasising rhetoric and philosophy. Physical training was also standard, often in a gymnasium, to instil discipline and prepare for military service. Today, in Western societies, education is available to all, regardless of sex, providing equal opportunities. This ensures that marriage is equally supported by both men and women, even to the extent of traditional role reversals, with the husband taking on childcare and managing the household.

Paul, however, suggested that, should the husband die first, then the wife, presumably a believer, was free to remarry, as long as the new husband was another believer. But, and here’s the thing, Paul suggested that it would be better for the widow to stay unmarried and remain single. This would not always be the best option for the poor woman, because these were days before Social Security payments were available. The church would have helped out in a way such as was recorded in Acts 6:1, “But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food”. But nevertheless, Paul promoted singleness for the widow, writing, “I think I am giving you counsel from God’s Spirit when I say this”. “I think …” indicates a degree of uncertainty on Paul’s part, as he showed an honesty about what he thought he was hearing from the Holy Spirit.

If we pilgrims are honest with ourselves today, “I think …” is more common than we might be prepared to admit. Faced with an important decision, it is difficult most of the time to separate our human thoughts from God’s thoughts. Although the Bible is full of God’s counsel, on many matters it is difficult to get a definitive answer from it. Yes, we will receive general advice in line with God’s principles, but often we come up against situations about which Scripture is silent. This introduces a difficulty when it comes to matters of direction. “Should I accept this job …”, or “should I date this girl …”. Perhaps, “Should I become a missionary”, or “Should I go to Bible College”, might be options laid before us. For older people, thoughts of moving to a smaller house or a new part of the country to be nearer family might present themselves as potential “I think’s“. So what should a pilgrim do?

If we find ourselves presented with a life-changing option, such as the widow in Paul’s verses today, we must first pray about the situation, believing that through our faith, the Holy Spirit will lead and guide us. In parallel, we might bounce our thoughts off a trusted friend or pastor, obtaining more guidance and a different perspective. But if we’re still not sure, then for the “risk-averse” amongst us, perhaps the best solution is to put the matter before God, leaving it “on the back burner” until we get the confirmation or direction that we need. This is not always best, though, because sometimes God wants us to step out in faith, much as Jackie Pullinger did when she boarded a steamer asking God to reveal to her the port where He wanted her to start her missionary calling. We must also be aware that often, the decision before us may be acceptable to God, whichever way we go and whatever we do. In the end, He wants us to grow in His grace and love, flourishing in the place and bearing fruit where He has placed us.

“I think …” may be a God-thought that we need to act upon. Consider ourselves a sailing ship, tied up in port, while we wait for the right wind, one that is right in terms of direction and speed. But it never comes, and we remain in the port, increasingly unhappy and frustrated, never going anywhere. Sometimes God wants us to launch out and leave the port anyway, because once we are on the move, God can work in the situation to bring the right circumstances. These may not be what we were expecting while in the port, but once on the move, God can show us the course He wants us to take. Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path“. Psalm 37:5, “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you”. Proverbs 16:3, “Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed“. God doesn’t mind sometimes if we make mistakes. Paul wrote in Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them”. Once we are on the move, God will redeem the situation we find ourselves in, and as we look to Him in faith, He will guide us. We don’t know what the future holds for us in our natural lives, but we do know who holds the future, both now and forever.

Dear Father God. We know that You love us and want the very best for each one of Your children. Please lead us and guide us, we pray, as we walk along Your paths in this life, in preparation for the next. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Being Engaged

Posted on by korgrocker

“But if a man thinks that he’s treating his fiancée improperly and will inevitably give in to his passion, let him marry her as he wishes. It is not a sin. But if he has decided firmly not to marry and there is no urgency and he can control his passion, he does well not to marry. So the person who marries his fiancée does well, and the person who doesn’t marry does even better.”
1 Corinthians 7:36-38 NLT

In these closing verses of 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is addressing the situation that applied to engaged couples. He still emphasised his belief that marriage is second best to being single, but only from the perspective that singleness avoids the distractions that marriage brings. The culture in Paul’s day in Greece was different from today, when it comes to such things as engagements. In those days, a woman had very few rights, and her father would have wielded much influence over her marital status and the engagement to her future husband. Being a believer had the potential to change much of the process because it brought God’s perspective into the relationship, present and future. Today, in 21st-century Western society, being engaged to be married remains a significant step towards the future of two people, a man and a woman, as they spend the rest of their lives together. Still, it means little in many cases because such an engagement is easily broken. But things change today when an engagement happens between a Christian man and a Christian woman. The couple would probably have met in church, perhaps at a youth meeting, or in a singles group, and the bigger churches may have in place a “Preparation for Marriage” course. Pastoral support would have helped and supported parental advice, and the build-up to the big day, when the bride walked down the aisle towards her groom, would have been complete.

Being engaged to be married starts with two people making a promise to each other. The promise forms a commitment and provides the future couple with the opportunity to make plans and preparations. Subjects discussed and agreed upon range from the mundane, such as the colour of the bedding, to the subject of having a family and how to raise them. Change and compromise will be involved, so that when the day arrives, there are no nasty shocks, such as happened to a young woman I knew who found out on her honeymoon that her husband was a drug dealer. As we would expect, it was a major disappointment for her, and she quickly returned to her parents’ home, devastated, her world and future in ruins.

There is a marriage parallel with being a believer. God has made promises to His children which He will never break, and those promises will come together with the Church becoming the Bride of Christ. Isaiah 62:4-5, “Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City” or “The Desolate Land.” Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his bride. Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem, just as a young man commits himself to his bride. Then God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride“. In this context, Isaiah was referring to the Jews, God’s chosen people, but in the New Testament we read, “For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Saviour of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:22-23). And then we read about the Wedding Feast of the Lamb in Revelation 19:7-9, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and let us give honour to him. For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God””.

Finally, we must turn to the Book of Songs, a rather explicit, even mildly erotic, account of the King and his betrothal to a young woman. How did this book find its way into the Canon of Scripture? In answering this question, we cannot ignore the fact that this love poem between a man and a woman is only there because God wants it to be, and we have to look at its application as being a “type” of the intimate relationship between Christ and His church, His bride. In a significant sense, we pilgrims are a part of the Bride of Christ, engaged to be married, and we will one day take our seats at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. Isaiah wrote, “I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding or a bride with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). We have our wedding clothes already prepared, and these were given to us at the Cross of Calvary, where we repented of our sins. We have been saved from the punishment our sins deserved, and, more, we have been given Jesus’ righteousness as a cloak to enable us to stand before God, pure and spotless, a suitable bride for our Bridegroom, Jesus. It all reads like a fairy tale, but that is not what it is. The reality is that God made a promise to us through Jesus, who is the ultimate Bridegroom, because He laid down His life for the sake of His bride. Too good to be true? Too good not to be!

Dear Father God. To be a part of Your Son’s bride and being able one day to partake of the wedding feast is beyond all that we can ever expect in this life. And so we are deeply thankful, worshipping before You once again. Amen.