The Scripture readings I am doing right now are all from the letters of Paul. I am reading his letters and trying to put them into the context of the story told by Luke in Acts. I am presently re-reading 1st Corinthians. Any commentary I make is in italics.
1 Cor. 2 - He continues arguing that the while the gospel is not based on a wisdom that is “human.” It is a wisdom “mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages . . . ” It is a wisdom revealed through the Spirit. “And we speak about them [things freely given us by God] not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms” (13). To understand these things, we must put on “the mind of Christ” (16).
I have been thinking a lot about this lately (12/2010), how what we adhere to as a people of faith is really a kind of “knowing” that is not at all “worldly”; it is a knowledge attained through faith. What is this faith and how does it get planted in us? I, like many believers was not raised in any church. My grandmother taught me to pray and occasionally took me to church with her, but not with any regularity; and I never went to any class or learned any creed. But I always felt loved and watched over from above – yes, up above, when I reached far outside of myself, tapping around for a presence outside of myself. As I grew and made this “presence” part of how I lived from day to day, my identification as one connected to this grew in strength.
Not that I did not value and rely strongly on my reason and on what I could know through my senses or my ability to use logic; but the “presence” was not something I came close to through those doors. That those doors – reason, logic, consciousness – existed at all I considered part of the “creation” I was blessed with. But they did not lead me to any ultimate “home”. How well Paul puts his lips to these realities – it is amazing!
1 Cor. 3 – Paul admits his evangelization approach was not one that took a completely spiritual approach, for he did not and does not see them ready for such an approach. “I fed you milk, not solid food, because you were unable to take it” (2). The rivalry among followers of the various teachers must stop. Paul said he laid the foundation – And the foundation is Jesus Christ. Then other teachers came and threw the people into confusion about exactly what the gospel message was about. The work of each teacher must build on the foundation. He says some will “build in gold, silver and jewels”; others will build in “wood, grass and straw” and the buildings constructed will be tested by fire “in the end”. How each holds up will reveal the “quality of each man’s work” (13-15). Is this a way of predicting that some would build in a worldy way and others in a simpler way; or is he saying the building of some will be of great value and others of cheap materials. I think maybe it is the latter. But what really is “of value” in the spiritual realm – fancy outward things or simple, solid things? We believers are “God’s temple” (16), the home of the Spirit of God in our world.
It’s interesting that the words of verses 14 and 15 apparently form the basis of the Catholic Church’s teaching on purgatory. Paul says when we are tested on “the Day” of the Lord, the fact that some do not pass muster does not necessarily mean that they will not be saved, but they will be saved “as through fire.”
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