July 22, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the next 16 days we will be reading through the book of 1 Corinthians together. The church in Corinth was an absolute mess! They were plagued by serious issues of arrogance, division, sexual immorality, and confusion concerning doctrine as well as the particulars of their moral living under the gospel. This church needed a wake-up call, a call to repentance and purity, to renewed devotion to Christ, to love and unity, and to zeal for the gospel. The church has changed little over the last 2,000 years, but praise God that there is abundant grace for the mess! Each of us needs this same call to humility faithfulness, unity, and fervor today as much as they needed it then. Let\u2019s heed this call which God gave the church at Corinth through the apostle Paul and let it shape the way we live as Christ\u2019s body!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this chapter Paul presents himself as an example of the sort of self-sacrifice and others-centered living that he called the Corinthians to in the previous chapter. Paul reminds the Corinthians how he has laid aside his own rights to a wife, to eating and drinking as he pleases, to receiving financial compensation for his apostolic ministry rather than having to work for a living, along with many others. Paul laid all of these things that were rightfully his, he says, in order that he would present no hindrance whatsoever to the advancement of the gospel through him!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul\u2019s singular focus in life was the advancement of the gospel, the establishment of God\u2019s Kingdom on earth and the spiritual upbuilding of the churches, and this singular focus led him to willingly give up many things that he had a fully legitimate claim to as his rights. He refused to do anything that would present a barrier to the gospel moving forward in the lives and hearts of other people. It is an example of the Christlike, selfless, others-centered living that we are called to as Christ\u2019s body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of us approach our lives with a consumer mindset, looking only to what we can receive, what we can get out of it. Paul commands a very different way here: our focus must be, as his was, to see the gospel advance and to see others built up spiritually. What would the church look like if, instead of clinging to the things we deign our \u201crights\u201d, we looked for ways that we could give up these rights so that others might come to know Jesus or to see Him more clearly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n