The biggest theme that I can spot that really flows through this entire section of this letter is that we aren’t to serve our religious practices, our traditions, and our bodies. We are to live lives that direct our bodies to reflect our love for God and for those around us. There were so many ‘hollow’ practicing Christians who would go through the motions and try to check the boxes and get God on their side rather than trying to orient their lives around living on mission for God. And that hasn’t really changed today...in fact, I know I am guilty of that at various degrees and at various points in my life. It is a natural thing to be be self-centered and self-serving and to try to do just enough to get God on our side but to do what we want to do, when we want to do it, and with whom we want to do it. But Paul is really teaching us through this second half of Corinthians that life is about more than that...it is about actually transforming our minds to a life of service to God rather than service to self. It isn’t easy, but it is the point that Paul is driving towards.
Throughout the rest of this letter, he shows us how our faith can be expressed through physical action as it relates to the foods we eat, to how we do ministry both avocationally and vocationally, how we can live ‘in’ the world but not ‘of’ the world, and how we can live out our faiths in our marital relationships as well. There is a ton of stuff in here that we can use and apply in our lives and we’ll really dig into this stuff when we go back through this more methodically.
The last thing I will say is that we see Paul mention this idea yet again of follow me and do what I do instead of watch me and do what I say. I think this can be overlooked really easily, but it is so important. We should live our lives in a way that invites people to follow us. We should know that our lives are an example. Our faith is caught more than taught...meaning, people are going to decide what they think about the Christian faith based on how we act. Too many times people, me included, are Sunday Christians in that we tend to put on the Christian face for one day each week and then go about living our lives in a manner that doesn’t reflect our faith. If our faith isn’t constantly challenging our lifestyle, we aren’t growing. We should have a dull ache within us as we consider this thought, “If I REALLY believed what I say I believe, then I probably would do ____ or wouldn’t do ____”. Our faith should be informing and shaping our lives continuously. Paul is showing us various ways in which we can apply that idea throughout the rest of Corinthians with this morning’s reading.
Tomorrow, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and we’ll dig in deeper!