Daily Bible Reading: Jeremiah 11 and Corinthians 14:1-25

Jeremiah 11 – A curse lies over the heads of those who do not observe the terms of God’s covenant, the Lord says to Jeremiah.  “Urgently and constantly I warned your fathers to obey my voice, from the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt even to this day” (11: 7). He tells Jeremiah not to try to intercede for them.  It is too late.  Outward observance alone is not enough: “Can vows and sacred meat turn away your misfortune from you?” (11:15). Jeremiah then learns that people from his own city, Anathoth, are out to kill him, so that no one will listen to his message.

1 Corinthians 14:1-25 - Prophecy is preferable to “tongues” in Paul’s estimation. Tongues or “glossolalia” is an emotionally-driven vocalization of sounds that was common in the early church and still very central to many Christian believers - Pentacostals: if you have never seen it practiced, check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZbQBajYnEc]. I say “emotionally-driven” instead of “spiritual” as Paul calls it. I confess it is just my “take” on it, having never experienced it. Paul believed that prophecy was important because it edified and built up the church. He thought of prophecy as an “intellectual” gift.  It is best, Paul says, to have a unity of spiritual and intellectual gifts.  The personal, emotionally satisfying gift is not as good as the gift exercised for the building up of the community. Tongues are more a sign to those outside the faith, like miracles. 

We are asked to exercise our MINDS as well as our SPIRITS in God’s service. Paul seems to say even for the unbeliever, the gift of understanding is to be preferred, for the unbeliever will have his spiritual condition addressed and not come away thinking believers are crazy.

It is interesting here too to read this passage in light of what Paul says about the cross in 1 Corinthians 1:18-20, which many use as a justification for anti-intellectualism in the Church: “For the message about Christ’s death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God’s power. The scripture says, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the scholars.’ So then, where does that leave the wise? Or the scholars? Or the skillful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world’s wisdom is foolishness!” Here he seems to be saying that the intellectual gift is not one that will necessarily lead one to truth, so he isn’t completely dismissing “spiritual” or more emotional ways of comprehending the gospel. I think he is encouraging a balance.

Paul says here, “[For] if I pray in a tongue, my spirit is at prayer but my mind is unproductive.  So what is to be done? I will pray with the spirit, but I will also pray with the mind.  I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will also sing praise with the mind. . I give thanks to God that I speak in tongues more than any of you, but in the church I would rather speak five words with my mind, so as to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (14:14-19).

Daily Bible Reading: Jeremiah 10 and 1 Corinthians 13

Jeremiah 10 - People’s idols are not worth worshipping. The natural phenomena they are fascinated with, “unusual sights in the sky” and such-like things, these are not things they should fear or worship. The idols they craft are “like scarecrows.”  They cannot speak; they must be carried about. They “can do no harm, neither is it in their power to do good” (10:5).  “The Lord is true God, he is the living God, the eternal King. . .He who made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his skill” (10:10-12).  A lot in this chapter sounds like passages from Job, which apparently was written sometimes after Jeremiah, and continued to examine the life of the faithful servant who must suffer. As for idols, “Every man is stupid, ignorant; every artisan is put to shame by his idol: He has molded a fraud, without breath of life, Nothingness are they, a ridiculous work” (10:14-15).

The misery of the prophet’s personal life is overwhelming: “Woe is me! I am undone, my wound is incurable; yet I had thought: if I make light of my wound, I can bear it. My sons have left me, they are no more, no one to pitch my tent, no one to raise its curtains” (10:19-20). He blames the leaders of the people: “Our leaders are stupid; they do not ask the Lord for guidance” (10:21). The nation “to the north” (Neo-Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar) will turn them “into a desert.” Jeremiah ends with a prayer to God to turn His anger “on the nations that do not worship you and on the people who reject you” (10:25); I detect some anger in him here.

1 Corinthians 13 – Paul’s discourse on love.  Nothing is higher—not prophesy, not knowledge, not self-sacrifice, not faith, not even martyrdom.  Love is patient, kind, not jealous, not pompous, not inflated, not rude, not self-seeking.  It does not brood over injury or rejoice over wrong-doing.  It rejoices in the truth.

When we are spiritually immature, we think like children. But now we must put away “childish things” – “What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; [but soon] we shall see face-to-face” (13:11-12).

Daily Scripture and Thoughts On It

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. 14 - Prophecy is preferable to tongues for it edifies and “builds up” the church. It is best to have a unity of spiritual and intellectual gifts. The personal gift is not as good as the gift exercised for the community. Tongues are just a sign to those outside the faith, like miracles. Paul seems to say even for the unbeliever the gift of understanding is to be preferred, for the unbeliever will have his spiritual condition addressed and not come away thinking believers are crazy. It is good here too to read this passage in light of what Paul says about the cross in 1 Cor 1:18-25, which many use as a justification for anti-intellectualism in the Church. Paul says here, “[For] if I pray in a tongue, my spirit is at prayer but my mind is unproductive. So what is to be done? I will pray with the spirit, but I will also pray with the mind. I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will also sing praise with the mind. . I give thanks to God that I speak in tongues more than any of you, but in the church I would rather speak five words with my mind, so as to instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue” (14-19).

Paul’s concern is that those who come into the Church will encounter there a testimony that can bring him to God. The kind of service Paul describes in this chapter is interesting to think about. He imagines that a person coming in would see one person reading a psalm, another giving an instruction, revelation or a speaking and interpreting of tongues, prophets speaking—two or three at a meeting. The way he describes it, it sounds more or less like a Quaker Meeting. Would that Friends really saw themselves as exercising this gift of prophesy. The admonition about women not being free to speak in the church is very hard to deal with. I think Fox clearly saw that the Church in Christ should be a place where the “redeemed” should gather without the burdens of “the fall.” I still love Paul. He is amazing in this letter.

1 Cor. 15 – Paul repeats to them the very heart of the gospel teaching, which he “received” and which he passed on the them: that “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared to Kephas, then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers on once. . After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me” (3-8).

Christ’s dying must be seen in the context of the scriptures—of the scripture redemption narrative. [The NAB note refers us to the following OT texts specifically: Psalms 2:7 and 16:8-11; Is 52:13-53; Hosea 6:2 and the OT references made in Acts 2:27-31; 13:29-39)]
• Ps. 2:7 – The Lord speaking: “I myself have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain,” I will proclaim the decree of the Lord who said to me, “you are my son; today I am your father. Only ask it of me, and I will make your inheritance the nations, your possession the ends of the earth. With an iron rod you shall shepherd them, like a clay pot you will shatter them”.

• Ps. 16:10 - For you will not abandon me to Sheol, nor let your faithful servant see the pit. You will show me the path to life, abounding joy in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever.

• Is. 52:13 – See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted. Even as many were amazed at him—so marred was his look beyond that of man, and appearance beyond that of mortals. . .He grow up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him. . .Yet is was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured. . .”

• Hosea 6:2 - He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence. Let us know, let us strive to know the Lord; as certain as the dawn is his coming, and his judgment shines forth like the light of day! He will come to us like the rain like spring rain that waters the earth.”

• [Acts] Ps. 27:13 – “I believe I shall enjoy the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.”

The disputed points of this gospel Paul addresses are 1) resurrection of the dead, which Paul argues must be general and applicable to all if it is to be applied to Christ (13-16). If there is no resurrection, then Paul says their “faith. . .is empty” (14); they are still in their sins (17). This seems to put a lid on an exclusively “realized” eschatology. But Christ has been raised. Paul gives an archetypal argument, comparing Christ to Adam: “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life. Paul’s vision of the end times is that Christ will come (23), the end will come and reign “until he has put all his enemies under his feet,” destroying every sovereignty and power death included. Then Christ will hand over his kingdom to His father.

Paul goes into a great deal of detail, trying to make sense to his readers of the thing called “resurrection of the dead.” Having assured them of its centrality, he now tries to find a way of making it sound reasonable: he argues that death is always necessary for birth. Things must be sown in the ground before they can come forth in new life. He argues that there are different kinds of flesh, and the kind we will have may be very different from the kind we now have (39). The seed of this new life is the corruptible flesh we now inhabit, but it can be changed from being “natural” to being “spiritual.” His belief that the end will come very soon, even before the end of his own generation, comes out here (51), and death will be “swallowed up in victory” (54-55). It is only faith that gives us the “knowledge” that the work we do now for the gospel will not be “in vain” (58).

I can relate to the idea that the bodies we live in now might be a kind of seed for the springing forth of some kind of existence that we cannot imagine, an existence that will even be bodily—just as any seed thrown into the ground may issue forth in a kind of new life that looks nothing like the seed from which it came; but the limitations of my own experience, the limits imposed by my senses and my imagination, make me wonder if we might have it really all wrong—that maybe our continued existence will only be real to the extent we retain a vision of our interconnected lives, our unity with all people—past, present and future. What we are and do today, in our lives, could make the human life that comes forth in the future far different and better than it could be if we live only for ourselves. But that is all so this-worldly, that sometimes I wonder if that is what Christ meant; or maybe all I am supposed to do is be obedient and not worry about what I cannot understand. It is more likely that.

1 Cor. 16 – The collections for the church in Jerusalem should go on weekly. He tells them he plans to come after he passes through Macedonia and is thinking of staying the winter with them to sort out some of the problems he has addressed He plans to stay in Ephesus until Pentecost because his work there is very productive. Timothy is traveling and might come. Apollos was asked to go to them, but cannot. He urges them to do everything they do in love.

Daily Scripture and Thoughts On It

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. 10 – Paul expounds on the lessons Christians can learn from the OT narrative. As Christians enter into Christ through baptism, the Israelites were “baptized into Moses” in their water passage. Similarly they “ate. . .spiritual food” provided by God on their passage through the wilderness. The rock that nourished the Jews in the wilderness was Christ typologically present in the water from the Rock, and in the manna. Yet they were unfaithful. Christians face the same choices—we must not fall into idolatry (14). The sacraments are for us a “participation in the blood of Christ . . .participation in [His] body.” (16).

This chapter presents in a very unequivocal way the idea that things in the Old Testament narrative are to be seen as “types” and “figures” of events and lessons from Christ’s life. No one in my experience focused more on this than George Fox:

“. . .as man comes through by the Spirit and power of God to Christ who fulfils the types, figures, shadows, promises, and prophecies that were of him, and is led by the Holy Ghost into the truth and substance of the Scriptures, sitting down in him who is the author and end of them, then are they read and understood with profit and great delight.” George Fox, Journal, 32

This is an idea that has meant a great deal to me, but I have also come to see more in it than Fox and early Friends saw. They saw the types and figures as “shadows” of the substance – Christ – that preceded his ascendance into the world we live in. But Fox never considered that the time that was to come AFTER Christ’s time here on earth would also be a time when we would need the physical presence of some “shadows” to remind us of him. Like the sun rising and setting, shadows are cast on both sides of the noon of His Presence. And I think I see those sacramental “types” and “figures” as still playing a significant role in reminding us of the eternal spiritual substance, which is Christ.

Returning to the text, when you eat of food sacrificed to demons, you make yourself one with those demons—even though we may know that they are “really” nothing. We must remember that what we want to do is “build up” the body of Christ, not bring it into disrepute. You don’t need to probe into the origin of food offered to you by pagans, but if someone tells you it was sacrificed, then you must respond as if that act has significance to a brother’s conscience.


1 Cor. 11 - Paul uses the prevailing cultural norms as ways of bringing out how Christ can be understood by the people of Corinth. As a man is head over his wife in marriage, so Christ now is head over the man. Women should not act like men—if she doesn’t wear the customary veil, she should logically have her head shaved like a man, but this she does not want to do. Women are to be veiled as a sign of submission – and for propriety’s sake. These are all just customs, but people should not be rebellious (16).

He addresses the problem of factions among them. When they meet together it ought not to be for simple eating and drinking but rather to all be equal before God and to share in the sacred memorial of Christ’s Last Supper with them. He warns them that communion is not just eating. It involves “discerning” Christ’s presence in the bread (29). Ordinary eating should be done at home.

Daily Scripture and Thoughts On It

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. 8 - Since “gods” other than Yahweh really do not exist, Paul is not troubled by eating food sacrificed to them. They are illusory. But if others are troubled, then one ought to refuse so as to preserve the good conscience of one’s brother or sister in the Lord.

The note in the NAB is very good: “Paul urges them to take a communitarian rather than an individualistic view of their Christian freedom. Many decisions that they consider pertinent only to their private relationship with God have social consequences. Nor can moral decisions be determined by merely theoretical considerations; they must be based on concrete circumstances, specifically on the value and needs of other individuals, and on mutual responsibility within the community.”

1 Cor. 9 – Paul insists that he is “an apostle”—he has seen the risen Lord; this church is his work “in the Lord.” People who work for the gospel have a right to be supported, but Paul does not claim it. In an exercise of the same “communitarian” ideal mentioned previously, he does not exercise this right because he thinks it might create obstacles to some he is attempting to reach. He is also still dealing with the boasting question—the boasting or self-inflation of those in the community who think their grasp of the gospel gives them a certain status or aura—grasping the gospel, embodying the gospel, representing it in any way puts a burden on you to serve it, not boast about it. His “freedom” in the gospel makes him want to be its slave, and that means he must try to be all things to all men—he must try to communicate the truth of the gospel to all manner of men so as to “win” them. We are after an imperishable crown, not an earthly one.

Daily Scripture and Thoughts On It

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. 6 - It is wrong to resort to the law courts when dealing with a “brother.” The saints should work things out in their community. Paul clearly alludes to the promises made in Daniel’s eschatological passages (7:22-23) that the “holy ones” would be the ones who would eventually possess the kingdom and be judges over others, even angels [though when I turn to Daniel, that seems far from clear in the cited passages]. Paul seems to think it is better to put up with injustices than to go to “outside” courts for judgments in cases between believers. Paul lists those who will not inherit the kingdom: the unjust, fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, boy prostitutes (catamites), practicing homosexuals (sodomites), thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanderers, robbers. Beyond this, the saying, which perhaps Paul had said and others in Corinth have “over-relied” on by some there, that “everything is lawful for me,” (12) does not mean that immoderation or other departures from “moral” behavior is now okay. The standard of the kingdom is high, not slack: “[W]hoever is joined to the Lord [and all the baptized are joined to him] becomes one spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside he body, but the immoral person sins against his own body” (17-18). Our bodies are temples “of the holy Spirit within [us] whom [we] have from God. . .” (19)

1 Cor. 7 - “Sex is always a danger,” Paul says. Marriage is for this--neither partner owns his own body in a marriage. Each belongs to the other. So he thinks staying as you are at the time of your call is best (7:25-40). He is sure the “world as we know it is passing away.” The important thing is to give individual attention to the Lord. He goes on to say that if you are married, you are not to separate or divorce; or if you do separate, you should remain single. He does permit believing partners whose unbelieving spouses leave them to remarry. “The brother or sister is not bound in such cases; God has called you to peace” (15). The overriding principle with Paul seems to be that people should not worry about the state they were in before their call, that decisions about changes to one’s earthly state should become relatively unimportant in light of the fact that “time is running out. . .[that] the world in its present form is passing away.” (31).

What shall we make of such advice today, made as it was from such a perspective? I think we ought not to put much weight on it in the last analysis. On the question of how marriage “divides” us from single-minded service to the gospel, it is true to some extent. Yet every person must put the Lord first to some end. The single man or woman serving the Lord puts Him first in order to serve the faith community. The married person must put Him first in order to fulfill the calling of being a spouse and a parent, a citizen or a friend—the only thing that changes is the field of service, for there is no state of life—excepting perhaps the purely contemplative—where only the Lord is served; and then we need to ask “to what end” He is served?

Daily Scripture and Thoughts On It

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. 4 - We are Christ’s servants, stewards of the mysteries of God (1). Having just finished some of the earliest Christian writings – the Didache, Ignatius of Antioch and Clement – I can say how wonderful it is that Paul sees himself as “steward” of these deepest mysteries. The others dwell so steadily on the “dos” and “don’ts” of the Christian community. He too will impose a standard [see chapter 5] but he does not dwell on such things as much. Paul will not be judged by them or even by himself. He will be judged by God He urges them again not “to go beyond what is written,” (6) [said in both JB and NAB to be obscure—maybe a reference to the OT promises and their fulfillment in the cross, maybe a gloss]. Somehow they must be making claims and boasting of having come into some advanced state or mystery—maybe the very kingdom of God itself—but Paul brings them up by reminding them while they are reveling in this claim, he is still weak and deprived, serving the gospel, being ridiculed and persecuted for the sake of the gospel. They need to stop their boasting.

1 Cor. 5 - A case of incest that has been brought to his attention disturbs him, especially in light of the spiritual boasting the Corinthian church has indulged in. The person should be expelled. But still it is the boasting that is the focus of his concern (6). It is not necessary (or possible) to withdraw from misdeeds in the world, for one would have to leave the world entirely to get away from all those who are sinners; but Christians must exercise discipline inside the church, “banning” those who are “sexually immoral or greedy” or those who are “idolater[s], reviler[s], drunkard[s] or robber[s]” (11). God is judge of those outside the church.

We clearly do not “separate” ourselves from sinners who are in the faith community any more than we do from those outside [in society generally]. We probably should “labor” more actively with those in our communities who we suspect are behaving badly. Paul’s division of “in” and “outside” the church gets more complicated with democracy, for in a democratic society, we cannot simply dissociate ourselves from decisions made on ethical/moral issues. We must put our political “weight” behind judgments that reflect our sense of God’s will. Abortion, sexual “sins” – all of this is very complicated. I think many Christians have adopted Paul’s conviction that only God can judge in the last analysis. There is no “unity” among us on many ethical and moral issues.

Daily Scripture and Thoughts On It

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.”

Daily Scripture and Thoughts About It

The Scripture readings I am doing right now are from the letters of Paul. My commentary on the readings is in italics. Presently, I am on the 1st letter of Paul to the Corinthians:

1 Cor. 1 – Paul writes the church at Corinth because he concerned about divisions that have arisen among them. It has been reported to him that these divisions are based on loyalties of factions to different teachers – to Paul, to Apollos or Cephas, men who have come and instructed them on their admittance into the people of Christ. We [all those who teach of him] preach a “crucified Christ, to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get over, to the pagans madness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (23-25).

How can one reasonably accept an explanation or teaching about Christ that seems to violate both Jewish tradition, from which the whole idea of the “anointed one,” “the Christ” came from, and the demands of human reason, which the Greeks celebrated? This problem is still a serious obstacle to many. My way through it or around it is not something completely mysterious to me. It is by understanding Christ as the fulfillment of a tradition and more importantly a narrative that must be “entered into” by us through the faculty of our God-given power of imagination and through what we have come to call “faith,” our inner commitment to a vision that is not in the same category as things we can “know” or “prove.” We cannot know that truth lies here, in Christ, but we cannot see life as meaningless or empty of spiritual realities that elude reason or logic either. Somehow we must just accept that we have been given faith. It is just part of the person I am.

“The human race has nothing to boast about to God, but you [those who are part of the community of faith], God has made members of Christ Jesus and by God’s doing he has become our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our freedom” (30).