Many Parts

1 Corinthians 12:14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

14 Καὶ γὰρ τὸ σῶμα οὐκ ἔστιν ἓν μέλος ἀλλὰ πολλά.

This verse comes in the middle of a chapter on spiritual gifts. We could debate the nature of the various gifts until the cows come home, but there are two things that I think bear mentioning as one consider's 1 Corinthians 12. The first is that the lists of gifts in 1 Corinthians 12-14 are probably not comprehensive. In other words, these are examples of spiritual gifts, but spiritual gifts are not limited to these only. They are representative of what spiritual gifts look like.


The other is something that should certainly be stressed in light of the debate that often rages over this passage. People tend to get lost in the arguments about whether the gifts exist today and how they are manifested that they forget that this verse really speaks to unity in the body. It's ironic that a passage which emphasizes unity could be used to create so much disunity, but that is how Satan works.


God has gifted me in such a way that I am able to preach and teach. I am fairly good at organizing things and am very good at breaking problems down into manageable chunks. However, I am not particularly good at showing mercy. If I was laid up in a hospital room I would not be my first choice to minister to me. There are those who are outstanding at that kind of mercy care, but are not very good preachers. And so on.


The point is that God made us all a little bit differently. Because of the Fall we tend to envy what we don't have. A simple example is women and their hair. I used to work with a woman of Philipino descent who had beautiful thick curly hair. She thought my wife's thinner straight hair was beautiful and she wished that she had it. Meanwhile, my wife thought that her hair was much nicer, though she acknowledged the difficulty in maintaining it. This is a simple, though fairly common example. 


The same thing happens in the church. Rather than being content with how God gifted us we wish that we were like someone else. Here Paul tells us that we all have a part to play in the church and that we should be content with it. The key is to use what God gave us. How are you serving the church?

True Freedom

 1 Corinthians 7:23 You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.

23 τιμῆς ἠγοράσθητε· μὴ γίνεσθε δοῦλοι ἀνθρώπων.

This verse appears in the middle of Paul's argument about how we are to deal with relationships. Husbands and wives own each other's bodies; therefore, the sexual relationship should not be withheld except by mutual agreement and then only for the purpose of prayer. Then he goes into a long discussion of marriage. He says that marriage is a good thing, but if you are called to be single that is even better. Despite what the Roman Catholics teach regarding their priests, there is only an extreme few who are called to be single. No matter what, Paul would never call for the dissolution of a marriage.


What does this verse mean? It tells us that our allegiance is to the Lord. Although this is an unpopular concept here in America, we are born as slaves. Specifically, we are born as slaves to sin. The whole advertising industry banks on this fact. We are slaves to our own desires, which is why the promises of a bigger TV, a bigger house, a better vacation, or a younger and more attractive lover are so appealing to us, for example. We are slaves to ourselves until Christ redeems us.


A myriad of metaphors exist for this concept. An easy one for most Americans to comprehend is a mortgage. Our houses cost so much money that it takes 20-30 years to pay for them. Now imagine you received a letter from your lender informing you that your mortgage was paid off. It's so incredible to be unthinkable, right? Yet that is kind of what happened at the cross. The only problem is that only scratches the surface.


The problem here in America is that we are so accustomed to our freedoms that we don't really understand our slavery. We are going to be slaves to someone. Will it be to Satan or to the Lord? If you are in Christ then Christ purchased you with His blood. Do slaves have an option as to whether they will do their master's will? Go back 200 years and ask anyone with dark skin here in the South and I think they will give you a pretty clear answer that they don't have much choice. If they disobeyed there were consequences. We'll get into that more later when we get to the concept of fathers disciplining their children, but the point is that we don't have a choice.


And the good news is that, unlike the Southern slave of the 19th century, our master is perfectly kind and good. He may ask us to do things that are uncomfortable, but they are all for our good and for His glory. The men and women enslaved in early America could not always say that. And certainly the modern slave to Satan cannot say that.


We have true freedom through our slavery to Christ. We were bought with a price so that we might serve and worship Him. Let's enjoy the blessing of serving our Lord, amen?

Leaving an Example

John 13:15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.


15 ὑπόδειγμα γὰρ ἔδωκα ὑμῖν ἵνα καθὼς ἐγὼ ἐποίησα ὑμῖν καὶ ὑμεῖς ποιῆτε.

I apologize for my lack of posting lately. I am really working hard to finish this semester well since it is my last semester. Blogging has gone on the back-burner, but since Noah woke me up early today I got a good start and have time for it.

This verse comes right after Jesus washed His disciples' feet. There are some who take this passage as a prescription for how we should treat each other in a literal way. They practice foot-washing. I understand that this is prevalent among the Grace Brethren when they have communion services.

I don't think that it is a bad idea for the pastor to wash people's feet, though it would be a bit strange in our culture. I can't think of any men I want handling my feet. The question is whether Jesus is speaking literally or metaphorically here. If you don't like the word "metaphorical" you could substitute "paradigmatically" instead. In other words, was Jesus giving a specific instruction or was He simply giving them a principle by which to live?

I would have to go with the latter. Though this is not an ironclad argument, the fact is that we do not find foot-washing in any of the other synoptic gospels. We do not find it in Acts or the Pauline epistles. I don't know what the practices of the early church were, but I do think that these other arguments from silence are fairly compelling. If it is meant to be done regularly, why don't we see it elsewhere in Scripture?

I realize that this is not a particularly strong argument, nor do I think it is a sinful practice today. However, I do think that we will not go wrong if we take this to be an example of extreme humility on Jesus' part, particularly given the context of the next few verses where He describes the master-servant relationship. We need to humbly serve one another in the body of Christ. There are plenty of examples of that throughout Scripture, amen? Are there examples of that in your life?

Calling in a Favor

Philemon 1:20 Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ.

20 ναὶ ἀδελφέ, ἐγώ σου ὀναίμην ἐν κυρίῳ· ἀνάπαυσόν μου τὰ σπλάγχνα ἐν Χριστῷ.

It's hard to pick something to write about in this short letter.  Paul is writing to his friend Philemon about the escaped slave Onesimus.  Apparently Onesimus was Philemon's slave, ran away, met Paul, and then was saved by Christ.  Paul is making Onesimus do the honorable thing by returning to his master, but he is sending him with this note that appeals to Philemon to set Onesimus free.  Paul starts his argument on the basis of the fact that Philemon and Onesimus are now brothers in Christ, but Paul turns the screws a bit as the letter proceeds.  He basically says that he could command Philemon to do this since Philemon owes Paul his very life.  Plus, Paul is an apostle after all.

I'm not sure that this was necessarily Paul's intention, but what strikes me about this letter is how loathe we are to ask each other for anything.  As Christians we are quick to help someone out.  We help a brother move his house if we can.  We give people rides.  We give money and food to folks in need.  We serve at church.  We do all manner of things to help out.  After all, that's what Christians do.  You can't miss that if you read much of the New Testament.

But are we so quick to ask for help?  Not necessarily in a quid pro quo kind of way, but just in general?  We should not be bashful about asking others to help us.  Yet we don't.  Why is that?

I think it's pretty clear for me that pride gets in my way.  America is (or perhaps was) a great nation because of its can-do attitude.  If there is an obstacle we will either overcome it or outflank it.  We are used to being self-sufficient and pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps to do what needs to be done.

Yet that is not the way it should be.  We should confidently ask others for help.  It blesses them by being able to help us.  And of course we should be ready to help others.  We don't necessarily need to get to the place where Paul is effectively "pulling rank" on Philemon.  We just need to humble ourselves by asking.

Am I the only one who struggles with this?  How about you?

Great Service

I spent my birthday yesterday running errands. One that I kind of dreaded was going to the post office for our annual shipment of gifts to various parts of the country. I've found that any trip to the post office in December is bound to take a long time. I went to the one that allows you to do self-service parcel shipment in the hopes that my boxes would fit in the slot (they did) and that I could get the holiday snowflake stamps in the vending machine (I could). Imagine my surprise when I found a woman in a cheery red holiday Post Office sweatshirt assisting postal patrons in their parcel posting. She helpfully marked out the barcodes on my recycled boxes and helped me place the postage stamp in the right place. I was just blown away by this. In fact, I need to send a nice note to our Postmaster about this because I was so happily surprised. It was also nice that they had a desk going in the lobby for some simple tasks like buying stamps. This helped with the line a little bit.

I also received outstanding service at my local ACE Hardware, but that's no surprise. Every time I go to ACE for something like a washer or a nut I wonder why I ever bother with Lowe's. Lowe's may only be 3 minutes from my house, but the service at ACE makes it worth driving 4 times farther.

Finally, I got some great service from the Firehouse Subs corporate offices. I'm a member of their ecrew and am supposed to receive a free sub every year for my birthday. In fact, I planned my meals around that free sub. I didn't get the email at first, so I called and inquired about it. They took care of me.

I can't help but wonder if there is some connection to the fact that I did go to the Post Office to start with. I did it sort of begrudgingly because I really wanted to sit in the basement and play a couple of games of NCAA Football '07 (I almost typed '97--that dates my video gaming days). Amanda was going to let me off the hook after I whined a little bit about it. But I just had to take pity on her because she feels so consistently wretched with this pregnancy.

I think this all goes to show that we need to listen to that "still small voice" that speaks to Christians. And I am again reminded of what I think may be my life verse for marriage in James 4:17 - So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.