The letter the Corinthians wrote to Paul had a lot of questions. Among them was the issue of food offered to idols. We sense that Paul is quoting their comments in that letter, but it's hard to be sure without quotation marks (I think the NET Bible does a fair job of guessing).

Just 50 miles from Athens, Corinth boasted a lot of highly rational thinkers who prided themselves on being less superstitious than their fellow Greeks. Sure, we recognize that our brains are capable of grasping factual information. Sadly, the more factual knowledge you think you possess, the less moral truth you can see. The fallen flesh takes great pride in its own talents, inflating your opinion of yourself. What really matters is not your erudition, but your submission -- to Christ.

It can be taken as fact that there is only one God. All those pagan idols really mean nothing. Most of humanity seems to defer to about as many false deities as they do human rulers. But it's not enough to adhere to the one true God as a fact; you must know Him and recognize His mastery over our human existence.

Not everyone has that sense of assurance. They instinctively worry that our Father is as venal as the pagan deities of mythology. And they reflexively worry that those other gods might somehow still be real, and that the Father is as easily provoked to jealousy as any human lord. Then again, there were also Jewish Christians who suffered a similar overly sensitive conscience about such things. We could say that Talmudism is little more than superstition, since it obscured Jehovah's personality and true nature.

In a place like Corinth, it was common for pagans to support their favorite deities by cooking fancy dishes and bringing them as offerings to the temples. What the temple staff didn't eat was sold in some kind of open market, with accommodations to eat on site. It was as close to fast food as the ancients ever got. It had the effect of making meat a lot easier to include in your diet in a society that seldom offered meat in small portions already cooked.

Some of the Corinthian Christians were intellectuals who never took seriously the pagan associations. They had no conscience about eating in the temple bazaars. They were elitist about it, snickering at those who still labored under the burden of superstition. Should the elitists prod someone with a weaker conscience into eating the temple cuisine, it could destroy the latter's faith. The internal battle was not healthy; they still needed time with the Lord to get used that level of freedom.

Paul agreed that eating such food made no real difference to our souls. Despite Jewish obsessions about it, Jesus and His disciples had taught that Jews were missing the point about kosher, and Paul understood this very clearly. The real sin here was the arrogant elitism that snickered at overly sensitive consciences. Paul's attitude was to seek awareness of where his companions stood on things. If they had a weak conscience, it was a lot easier to avoid meat altogether and just eat what was safe.

God does not promote smug elitism.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

Just noticed something strange in the forum footer here:

Quote:The most users online at one time was 500 on Wednesday, September 6th, 2023 at 06:04 PM

Birthdays aren't a huge deal to us here, but there's no reason not to give someone else attention who deserves it, right?

Happy Birthday, Ed! Go ride a bike! 

^ that's actually an insult in British English, I've heard.

Thought I would make this available to everyone here. It's a short PDF from the solar kill shot social network (not free--you have to pay a monthly fee to be a member) describing how we might be able to survive the likely-inevitable micronova. It's dealing with probabilities of what could happen...we don't have much direct observational evidence of any of this. Good to print out and have on hand, just in case.

Solar Killshot Survival Guide

In passing here Paul refers to the rising threat of Roman persecution for Christians. It was the same warning Christ issued to His disciples in Matthew 24-25, the same events, which eventually took Paul's life. It persisted for another two centuries before it stopped. This warrants Paul's rather extreme position that the church did not need to grow by physical birth, but grew quite strongly merely by spiritual birth. What follows is my previous commentary on this chapter...

The Corinthian church forced Paul to write in terms of God’s Laws because they could not handle grace -- they still needed milk. God’s Laws are the path to grace and spiritual understanding. Once you internalize the demands of the Laws (specifically the Covenant of Noah here), you are in a position to reach a more spiritual understanding that transcends mere principles of Laws. It should surprise no one that marriage and sex is a major issue for the still carnal Gentile Christians, particularly in a place such as Corinth, the imperial capital of sensual pleasure.

It would seem their letter to Paul suggested he declare sex itself a sin on some level. This heresy was already ancient in Paul’s time, so he clarified the issue. Sure, it’s great if a man can do without sex. But humans weren’t designed for that. Sex is a gift from God, and mere procreation was not the only purpose, else the wiring in our bodies would not make it so irresistible. The Fall did not create sex, merely ruined it. There’s nothing wrong with getting married, because it provides the one valid sexual outlet ordained by God.

Paul goes on to explain a vital principle ignored in almost every culture throughout history: husband and wife in marriage equally own each other. That is, each has full legitimate claims on the body of the other. Paul teaches from the unspoken assumptions that appear in almost no other culture except the Ancient Hebrew. Sexual passion does not rule, but is merely icing on the cake, and will most certainly follow your commitments. If you are committed to obeying God, then you can take just about anyone suitable in marriage, sight unseen, and the heat of passion will naturally follow. But once awakened, passion tends to be rather indiscriminate. God smiles if you keep it within the marriage bed. Otherwise, it can destroy your loyalty to Him. No one should be surprised that Satan uses that passion to break our loyalty to God, so prepare your mind to keep the marriage bed busy or Satan will offer sinful substitutes. This much comes from the Laws of God on the matter.

However, Paul’s personal preference is total abstinence. Realizing that is actually a minority calling, he cannot pretend it’s what God requires of all. Everyone has to find their own peace with God on such things. If one has never married, or the spouse has died, Paul encourages them to stay single, if they can bear it. Prostitution and even rare casual sex are sinful. If you must have it, make it lawful in God’s eyes.

Carrying on in terms of God’s Laws, Paul reminds them that marriage is sacred, even when it was entered before spiritual birth. Your spouse may be dead spiritually, but divorce is not an option in this life. If they find your faith intolerable, let them go. If they aren’t bothered by it, let them stay. But by no means can you now seek to drive them away as an excuse to replace them. You only get one shot at this until God calls them away from this world. To our undying shame, we find this very harsh in our modern world, but we see Gentile Christians of Paul’s day struggling no less with it. Within the context of God’s Laws, we find the blessings of the Laws attach directly to lawful conduct. Thus, in this context, Paul’s use of the terms “sanctified” and “clean” refer to purity under the Laws. The spiritual element comes in the possibility that your lawful conduct may draw your unbelieving spouse to repentance.

So, Paul’s teaching is that we can’t throw away everything from our previous life when we enter the Kingdom of Heaven. God calls us as we are, and it remains His alone to require changes. Using the figurative language of circumcision, Paul notes that a Jew in Christ should not go pagan and a Gentile should not attempt to ape Judaism. We are entering the Realm of the Spirit, where the details of this life are simply the circumstances in which we reveal Him. Slaves can live in the freedom of the Spirit, and freemen can act as slaves of Christ. If you can get out of your earthly slavery legitimately, do so, but don’t obsess over it. There is no spiritual gain in struggling to fix your circumstances as men measure such things, since this fallen world cannot be made somehow good by reforming.

In the Gentile world, a great deal of superstition is attached to virginity. It’s not magical; there’s no particular power in a physical artifact either way. Paul says there were no Laws from God, nor deep spiritual principles on virginity, only pragmatic suggestions from a man whom God had called and used. Given the difficult circumstances of Corinth in that day, and at that time in the Roman Empire generally, it was a good idea to remain a bachelor. If a man is married then let him prepare to face the days ahead in that condition. If she leaves him, he shouldn’t seek a successor. But going through with a planned marriage is fine, though the costs could be high. It’s not as if Paul is deluded in thinking Christ was coming during those days, but he states something hard to put in any language: God was moving in ways that would bring sudden changes. Keep your eyes on Heaven, and on the God who granted marriage among humans, and who can take it away from anyone He chooses. His words paint a picture of keeping a very light hold on every part of this life, because nothing is permanent. This whole fallen existence is actually a delusion, from which all Creation will awaken quite suddenly, and not even the Son knows when that shall be.

Marriage, while terribly important in God’s plans for this world, enough so that He places very high demands on it, can still be an impediment to serving Him. Unmarried people only have to worry about pleasing God directly, but married people have to consider the spouse in everything. Even without children, marriage looms quite large on your mental horizon, and naturally comes with tons of frustration even for the most spiritually minded believers. Still, marriage is a covenant, and God takes a dim view of covenant breakers. Keep this in mind when you consider whether to go through with a planned marriage. Again, Paul emphasizes that it’s not a sin for guys to grab the bride before she gives up on him and marries another. But if he’s strong enough he can afford to keep his own virginity, it’s not about magic, but simple pragmatism.

The same can be said for the father of the bride. If he can’t afford to keep her at home let him give her hand in marriage. But never forget such decisions are binding for life in the eyes of God. If a widow can shed the burden of a husband, she would be wise to consider staying a widow, never mind the fragile position such women maintain in this world. We too quickly let ourselves be managed by common secular assumptions about things in this life, instead of looking to God and questioning in our hearts those assumptions. Paul has found God faithful against the sorrows of this world, so his opinion should count for something.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

If it is our duty to discern who is and who isn't covenant family, then why do we breach that boundary for personal disputes?

Corinth was easily the most cosmopolitan city in Greece; sailors from the whole known world passed through there, and a broad mixture of them stayed. If there was one place in the Roman Empire where the sense of tribal identity would be difficult, it was here in Corinth. Then again, Paul had stayed longer in Corinth than almost anywhere he traveled. It was a real challenge to bring the Hebrew mindset of Christ to such a strange mixture of folks. They were slow to absorb it.

Thus, Paul confronts them on the matter of taking each other to court before pagan magistrates. Do they wish to be judged by pagan standards? Why have they not already appointed judges for petty matters within the church? Taking it outside the church is a failure before anyone can state their case. It's better to suffer financial losses than to win on false terms that reject Christ as Lord. It is tantamount to cheating, defrauding Christ Himself.

Using the pagan court system against your brothers and sisters is making peace with the world. Paul rattles off a list of repulsive sins to highlight the issue here. If you leave all of that behind, what does it say when you then go back to it? What does it say about the work of Christ on the Cross, and the power of His Spirit living in you?

There is a sense in which no material object can be forbidden believers. A tool is a tool. If you can find a way to bless the Lord's name with it, then don't fret about physical objects being sacred or profane. But by the same token, any material thing can become a trap, a means to enslave you. Paul cites the example of food. Jesus Himself said that food itself could not defile you. God gave us a stomach to process food, and then food to put in it. It serves the purpose of keeping us alive in this world to serve Him, but at some point, all of this would go away, both food and stomachs.

However, sex was in a different class. Without discussing the finer points of modern medical knowledge, Paul knew from Scripture that sexual experience changed us permanently. Food passes through and out the other end, but sex affects your body forever. More to the point, it involves another soul, and changes them forever, too. It's not just a fleshly appetite like eating; it leaves an eternal mark. One mistake is permanent.

Two bodies merged in sexual union is noted in God's Presence. You are now one flesh in His eyes. If you dilute that by pursuing other sex partners, you have poked God in the eye. He's not going to ignore that. At the very least, it trashes one of the single greatest divine blessings that you could ever have. This is the one form of self-abuse that can destroy everything else.

God owns you. Don't act contemptuous of His claims on your life.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

Paradise Regained

Quote:There is a place where the weary rest their hearts.
Where we are truly in love, and truly home.
I long for that rest.
Like falling asleep, like being at peace, where love conquers all things just
as it should.
We will only weep for joy.

You have seen me through the end of everything.
And now I see we’re beginning again.
You have seen me through the start of everything.
And now I see we’re beginning again.

This is the only way to be complete.
A site to dream of and not to tell.
Yet we will wake eternally.
Like falling asleep, like being at peace, where love conquers all things just
as it should.
We will only weep for joy.

You have seen me through the end of everything.
And now I see we’re beginning again.
You have seen me through the start of everything.
And now I see we’re beginning again.

We have the hope of all hopes.