February 3, 2012 – The Notes are Good

BSF Acts: Week 18, Day 5: 1 Corinthians 7

Summary:

Paul discusses issues and concerns about marriage, celibacy, divorce and widows.

Questions:

13. Chapter 7 concerns God’s gifts of marriage and celibacy.

Marriage is not required: it is OK to be single and there are some benefits to being single (more time to devote to kingdom work)

Marriage is one husband one wife, man and woman

The two become one, in all ways – and that is a good and God ordained thing (not immoral)

Time apart from each other (in any way) is by mutual consent and only for devotion to prayer and only for a short duration

Except for unfaithfulness, no divorce

b. Unspoken: choose spouse wisely and prayerfully

Do not divorce over issues of belief

If unbelieving spouse is willing to stay – then stay together

If unbelieving spouse decides to leave – let them leave

It is not up to the believing spouse to choose to leave the marriage

c. Marriage is sanctioned and sanctified by God, but not required. Paul emphasizes that it is a significant commitment and, as such, it requires time and energy that can be devoted to mission work. That does not mean that it is wrong, it also doesn’t mean that it is required of all.

14. There is nothing casual about marriage. Take your time. Be prayerful. Enter it for the right reasons. Plan and prepare for the marriage not just the wedding. For those who are married – be joined together as a body in Christ – building on each others strengths and supporting each others weaknesses.

Conclusion:

My wife is far more than my best friend – although she is that. She is an amazing woman of God. Someone who accepts my support and comfort, while at the same time praying for me and supporting me. I understand the blessing of raising a family together and understanding first hand what it means to be a Father and Husband – which gives me such a greater appreciation of my heavenly father and the bridegroom of the church. I also recognize that by marrying me, my wife has made a significant commitment of time and energy to minister to me. Could she have spent that time and energy reaching out to many other people? Would that have been a good thing in terms of spreading the gospel? Of course to both – but that doesn’t mean that she should have done that instead. God has given us to each other because that is His plan for our lives.

BSF Acts: Week 18, Day 4: 1 Corinthians 5–6

Summary:

Paul warns against the sins of the flesh – of identifying ourselves as physical beings with a spirit rather than spiritual beings in communion with God

Questions:

11. Write a brief summary:

a. Do not continue to commune with unrepentant sinners. When believers try to represent sin as acceptable, do not associate with such people

b. Disputes between believers should be reconciled within the body of the church with intervention by a fellow believer

c. Our words, actions and deeds as believers are the judgment of both angels and other believers, whose mission it is to minister to us. When we fall, our actions judge their work as less than worthy

d. Food is not prohibited, but when it becomes the focus and the pleasure it derides becomes the end-all, it becomes and idol like any other

e. chief among sins of a believer is sexual immorality. It is the only sin that is committed by us against us dishonoring God.

12. Sin of the flesh is not challenge to a spiritual being. We are endwelled by the spirit of God, bought at a price.

Conclusion:

Perspective. What is your self identity? Your view of yourself? If it is as a physical being, then temptation abounds for the flesh. Immorality, impurity, glutony, idolatry, pride, deceit, theft. And these are just the surface sins a physical being must fight. But in God’s perspective, we are not a physical being – we became a spiritual being in one with our maker. The physical structure is nothing more than the walls of the temple – the identity is what is within. A new creation.

BSF Acts: Week 18, Day 3: 1 Corinthians 3–4

Summary:

Paul provides the Corinthians with the equivalent of grabbing them by the shoulders, shaking hard and screaming – you are going the wrong way. By holding on to their world view, they fail to see that what they see as growth is not leading them closer to what God desires for their lives.

Questions

6. Paul was hindered by the Corinthians ability to hear, comprehend and process the message

7. a. Milk relates to the basic teaching of salvation. Solid food is a deeper understanding of the truth of the word and being filled with the spirit.

b. We know that man’s perspective is different than God’s. When we look at things only through human eyes (only from the perspective of the world) there is only so much that we can see and understand. If we think we are wise by way of the world, then we should become foolish so we can really understand. The were becoming self-righteous in their faith, rather than being servants.

Romans 8:7; sinful mind is hostile to God and does not submit

Romans 14:10–12: God is our judge, every knee will bow and give an account

2 Corinthians 5:10: Before the judgment seat we receive ourdue for our time on earth

Galatians 6:8–9: good work for our own pride and recognition leads to destruction

8. a. Jesus Christ

b. The person whose work survives receives the reward of God. A believer who does not will enter heaven, but will be lack the joy of receiving God’s recognition

c. Time wasters keep coming up – the things that take up my time that do not yield kingdom value. This is an area of struggle.

9. Servants of Christ

10. a. Those with true spiritual power, such as the Apostles, humble themselves in service to saving and teaching others. Growing in faith is not something to lead to a prideful boast it is an awakening of the desire and need to better utilize the hours we have on this earth for God

b. His letter is one of correction and teaching. Better from Paul on this earth than from God at the day of Judgment.

Conclusion:

Here is how I think of it. From a standard world view we can look at God and faith and the Christian community from one perspective only – one angle – one view of the wall. From that angle we can proceed on a path and believe that as we learn more and memorize more scripture, we climb that wall of sin that seperates us from God and rise higher than others just starting the climb. But Paul is trying to help them/us learn that this is the wrong path. The objective is not the climb, but to go through the gate that Jesus opened to the other side of the wall so we can see things the way God sees them. When we do we understand that climbing over others isn’t rewarded, instead, helping show them the right path is.

BSF Acts: Week 18, Day 2: 1 Corinthians 1–2

Summary:

The believers in Corinth have accepted the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, but they struggle to let go of their intellectual control. Paul explains the vast chasm between God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom and how foolish their “decisions” to follow certain missionaries are in the face of Christ’s decision to save us by suffering death on the cross. He explains the foolishness and weakness of man and how upside down we are.

Questions:

3. a. Paul was confident they had been sanctified, they called on the name of Jesus, they had received Christ and God’s grace, they had been enriched in every way, they did not lack any spiritual gift, they eagerly awaited Christ’s return.

b. Division in the church – arguments and following different missionaries.

c. Simply put – the answer is to follow only Christ, not any man. Only Jesus was God’s son, died and was resurrected. Only faith in Jesus delivers the gift of the Holy Spirt so that we live by the spirit (note, the reference should be Galatians 5:22–26: gifts of the spirit.)

4. a. Human wisdom involves observing the current state of an object, creating a theory for how it got to that state and then, based on the theory, projecting a belief on how it will change or stay the same in the future. God created the object, created the laws that govern it and put it into motion watching it continually and guiding its path.

b. God give His wisdom to His people through His Spirit.

c. Paul did not speak with his own wisdom or persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power – the Holy Spirit gave him the words to speak and the message was always the same, Christ died, He is risen, He will come again

5. a. Many of the divisions in the church come from minor disagreements over emphasis of tradition or scriptural interpretation where theory, not specific words, are the difference and which do not pertain to the core message and/or the spirit. However, we also must be diligent that our churches remain true to the word of God and do not preach a watered down version. God’s truth cannot be sacrificed at the altar of coexistance.

b. All of scripture is focused on a single point – Jesus and His act of saving mankind from sin. If we focus on the same point and live a life filled with fruits of the spirit and empowered by the spirit, then we live avoid the traps and pitfalls of men and enjoy the grace of and eternal life with God.

Conclusion:

How little changes in a couple thousand years. Living as a soul with a body rather than the other way around is in such stark contrast to all the world sees and professes that we keep trying to put things in line with the other way of thinking. But this is wrong. It is foolishness and short-sightedness. It also causes us to miss out on fully living in the spirit and enjoying the power and love that brings.