Measuring Glorifying God

How do we quantify "doing everything for God's glory"?

Give no offense to the Jews or the Greeks or the church of God, just as I also try to please all people in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1).

Paul says that he knows if he is doing everything for God's glory if he...

Gives no offense to everyone (notice he starts with those outside the church, then moves inside the church).
Tries to please all people in all things...not seeking his own profit.
Seeks the salvation of everyone.

I think a lot of the times when we use the verse about doing everything for God's glory, we are really talking about if I'm feeling good about what we do for God.

Paul uses a different metric. He knows if he is glorifying God if his life is all about others...starting with those outside the church.

He calls everyone to imitate him because he is imitating Christ in this. So today, you will glorify God if you go to work and do something for the profit of someone who isn't a Christian. You will glorify God if you go to school and do something that will be for the profit of the professed atheist. You will glorify God is you serve your parent who doesn't believe in Christ.

Why? You put each other first for the salvation of everyone.

Doing Everything For God's Glory

In Christian circles, we love this verse...

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for God's glory (1 Corinthians 10:31).

But how do we know if whatever we do really is for God's glory? Could we quote the verse and do stuff, but still not understand what Paul meant? Paul's context show us how we quantify if we are doing things for God's glory.

So how do we know if we are really doing things for God's glory?

Read 1 Corinthians 8 and 10:23-11:1 to find out.

Marriage Is About Each Other

We are following up THIS POST today.

If you read 1 Corinthians 7 for the first time, you might be thinking, "Paul said THAT and it made it into the bible?!"

So, how about it, inside marriage, who has authority over your body?

A wife does not have authority over her own body, but her husband does. Equally, a husband does not have authority over his own body, but his wife does. (1 Corinthians 7:4)

Apparently the church wondered if all sexual relations are bad. Paul affirms one sexual relationship: the husband and wife's sexual relationship. His detailed teaching on this was revolutionary for his day. He says that inside the marriage, each person has authority over each others' body. When you start to think about this idea, you may get a devilish grin. Then the reality hits home. The other person has just as much authority over my body as I do with theirs. The point? We serve EACH OTHER. Paul is showing the Corinthians that marriage is the most intimate of "each other" relationships. If you are single, pay attention to this. Don't marry ANYONE who you don't want them to have authority over your body!

Why does Paul want people to remain single?

32 I want you to be without concerns. An unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the things of the world—how he may please his wife— 34 and he is divided (1 Corinthians 7:32-34).

Once we are married, we are now divided on our concerns. Paul could go through all that he went through (including fighting wild beasts) because he was single. I'll tell you one thing...Nichole wouldn't want me in a cage match with wild beasts even if it was for the sake of Christ! The reason is to stay undivided in our devotion to God, but our devotion to God is quantified by our devotion towards people. When we are single, we can be more devoted to the concept of "each other" than when we are married.

Now, the best way to stay undivided in our devotion to Christ after marriage is to be concerned about being devoted solely to God as a single and then marry someone who has the same mission from God. That way when the two of you become one, you will be better than you were as a single person.

Why should a believing spouse not leave an unbelieving spouse?

For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the Christian husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy (1 Corinthians 7:14).

The believing spouse is to be so concerned for the unbelieving spouse and their children, they are to stay for the sake of their salvation. This teaching of Paul runs real deep, but when you boil this down, he wants those who are believers to be this concerned for their spouse's and children's salvation.

This is a VERY challenging chapter, even for someone who is devoted to Jesus. It is a CHALLENGE to live in the United States when someone else has full authority over you. We are to live in every relationship, especially the marriage relationship, with our utmost concern being each other.

How can you live out this principle of "each other" in your marriage or in being single this week?

Vindication's Remedy

Let's get back to what Paul wants to tell the church in Corinth about vindication (1 Corinthians 6:1-11).

Where does the desire for vindication come from?

Paul says that it comes from the same desires all sin comes from. He lists several and says none of these will "inherit God's Kingdom." People of the kingdom do not seek vindication. They know that God will handle it all. God has washed vindication (and all sins) from the lives of people who live inside of God's Kingdom. He has set us apart. He has declared us righteous; so now we are able to walk in righteousness.

What does vindication accomplish?

When people inside the church want vindication, it puts a black mark on the church and on the image of Christ to unbelievers. We are called to the opposite. Our call is to lift of Jesus' name to unbelievers, not tarnish it.

What is the remedy?

First, Paul calls the church to get someone wise inside the church and arbitrate in situations that the people cannot work out on their own. He says in the end, we will judge the world and angels. So why not get someone who is wise and judge each other?

Second, Paul tells them that it is better to put up with injustice and be cheated. Why be cheated? Because vindication isn't an attitude of the kingdom and that it puts a black mark on the church and Christ in front of unbelievers. When we put ourselves before others, we seek to stand up for our rights. When we put others before self, we don't care about our rights, but what we would do to the other person and the way others view Christ.

Notice Paul doesn't say, "Forget it and get over it." It is much more powerful to acknowledge the hurt, but extend grace anyway. This is what Jesus did in going to the cross. He went through several false trials based on several false accusations that led to several beatings and ultimately his brutal death on the cross. Despite (and because of) all this, while on the cross he looked down and said, "Father forgive them because they don't know what they are doing." Then Stephen, a man filled with the Holy Spirit, followed Jesus in this example as angry religious men stoned him to death.

This is impossible in America because of the rights that we do have. Impossible, that is, unless we live within the power of God.

A Dysfunctional Remedy

Follow up to this post.

How was this sin affecting each other?

"Don't you know that a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough?"

When we have an attitude and thus action that is opposite of what God wants, it will soon permeate into the people around you. The yeast will take over you personally, and then when it takes over you, it will move to others.

I've seen how sexual temptation and sin didn't just isolate with one person inside the body, it spreads through the thoughts and actions of others and the batch of dough becomes infected.

No matter how personal the sin seems, it will start to affect others, unless we remedy the situation.

What's the remedy?

"Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch."

Clean out the old yeast.

Personally this means that we must keep our lives in check and continue to clean out the old yeast. What is the "old yeast"? It is the old way of life. The way we lived prior to coming to Christ. The great news is that we can't clean ourselves and God is always ready to clean out the old yeast so we can become a new batch.

As a body, this means that we must keep each other accountable. We must make sure that we are all living lives that look like the Gospel. We must be willing to call each other to repentance. The goal is to urge each other to live repentant lives. Paul is never pretending that we will be perfect. But that doesn't mean that we should pretend that sin doesn't exist--or even congratulate sin. He calls them to live repentance filled lives. This is a life transformed. A life dependent upon Christ.

Without it, we too will become dysfunctional.

Tough and Touchy Sex and Marriage Talk

Paul gives us the most practical, comprehensive and detailed teaching on marriage, being single and sex in all the Bible. Due to the issue in chapter 5, the church's own questions on the topic and the general sexual culture of Corinth, he gave them this extensive and straightforward teaching in chapter 7. You need to read this chapter if you are:

Single
Married
Want to be married
Widowed
Divorced

Here are some questions to think about as you read this chapter:

Inside marriage, who has authority over your body?
Why does Paul want people to be single?
Why should a believing spouse not leave an unbelieving spouse?

There are some TOUGH and TOUCHY teachings in this chapter. Paul goes completely counter-cultural in teaching about sex and marriage. Seeing God's vision for your life in these areas will bring freedom, joy and the advancement of his Kingdom. Remember, faith in God means we see things the way God sees them and acts on it.

Take time this week to ready 1 Corinthians 7 and let the Holy Spirit show you how he wants you to live.

Vindication

You're on a special assignment in your new job. It is a great opportunity to work with a variety of people in your company and work hard to show what you can do. What's even better is that you're on the assignment with a close friend. You spend a lot of time with this friend because you go to the same church, are in the same small group and since you work at the same place, you meet at lunch once a week to talk about what God is doing in your lives.

The group stalls out on the project. You hit the wall hard. After many hours of trying to come up with the right idea, you give a suggestion and then one thing leads to another and that idea birthed the greatest thing your company birthed in recent history.

The entire group gets praise from people inside the company, and you're cool with that. Then one day as you were walking down the hall, you hear your friend's voice coming from your boss' office. You hear your boss ask, "So where did the idea come from?" To which your friend replies, "We were stuck then I suggested an idea, and that was the genesis of the final product." A couple weeks later, your friend gets the promotion, the raise and the prestige.

What's your reaction?

Paul deals with this in the Corinthian church. People in the church were standing up for their rights by taking each other to court. Maybe you wouldn't sue your friend--or your situation is a little different--but the principle of vindication still applies. People in Corinth were suing to vindicate themselves. Chances are pretty good that somewhere inside of you, you would want vindication. You maybe would daydream of (or even pray for) the day that your friend blew it and got fired.

Paul tells the people in the church at Corinth exactly how to handle the situation in 1 Corinthians 6:1-11.

How does Paul tell this church to act in such a situation? What is at stake? What is the remedy to vindication?

A Dysfunctional Church

Paul encountered a unique situation in the Corinthians church. There was a sin that not even the Gentiles (aka non-Christians) promoted. A guy was sleeping with his Father's wife.

Now this is an odd way of putting it. What does Paul mean by "Father's wife"?

Best case scenario: he is sleeping with his step mom.
Worst case scenario: he is sleeping with his mom.

Either way, I bet it made the family Thanksgiving dinner a little awkward!

To make matters worse, the Corinthian church was "proud" of this sin and boasted about it some fashion. Yeah, a guy was sleeping with his step mom (or mom) and others in the church were patting him on the back. And you thought your church was dysfunctional!

You may say, "Well, this was between him, whoever is his 'father's wife' and potentially his family. How does this apply to the entire church?"

Paul also gives the remedy to overcoming this type of sin...and any other sin.

How does this apply to "each other" and what is the remedy?

My goal is to get all of us engaged more with God's Word. So head to the Bible to find the answers, and let us know what you read.

The answers are found in 1 Corinthians 5. I am excited to see what you find.

Picking Sides

One day the disciples came up to Jesus, probably a little proud of what they had just done. "He's going to think this is great," they probably thought. "Hey Jesus," one of the disciples started, "we saw this guy over there driving out demons in your name. You'll be happy to know that we stopped him because he doesn't follow us."

Fast forward a few decades and a church was picking sides. Everyone had the guy they followed and no one else mattered. Some chose Paul. Some a guy named Apollos. Some Peter. Some proved how spiritual they were by sticking their nose up in the air and saying, "We just follow Jesus." (Yes that is bad when you use it to make yourself look more spiritual than another person.) They were like the disciples. No body else could minister or have authority except their posse.

Paul calls this "being inflated with pride" when we "favor one person over another." When we think that we can only learn from one person or one particular theology, we are prideful. When we think our church or our group is the only one that has ministry figured out, we are prideful. This tears down what God is trying to do. What is he trying to do? Build his church on one foundation: Christ.

It is easy to fall into this trap. We love our pastor; so if someone is different, it is hard to follow them. We like to make categories, and if someone falls outside our category, we quickly dismiss them. We want to make sure that we are listening to the right voices, but Paul tells us how to know we are listening to the right voices.

Paul gives us a very basic litmus test for a legit teacher/leader in the Kingdom. He wanted the Corinthians to "learn from them [Paul, Timothy, Silas] the saying: 'Nothing beyond what is written.'" His point is that as long as a teacher teaches what is written, then learn from them. Whether that is Paul, Apollos, Peter or another guy that they don't know about, they can learn from them. When we listen to anyone who teaches what is written, then God is using that to build into us.

Jesus quickly, but gently burst the disciples bubble by telling them to "not stop them because whoever is not against you is for you." The call is to put others before self by putting aside our personal styles, philosophies, theologies and boundaries and learning from anyone who simply teaches "what is written" because they are not against us...they are with us.

You can find this story in 1 Corinthians 1-4. The goal of this to get your appetite for reading more of God's Word. Go see how Paul addressed this issue for yourself.

Others Before Self

Nichole and I recently read through 1 & 2 Corinthians a few times. I want to spend some time going over the theme of each. Actually during this time, looking at overarching Biblical themes probably will be the primary focus of my blog.

I'll start with 1 Corinthians for a couple of reasons:

It's first.
2 Corinthians is a book written for ADD people. Paul seems to jump around a lot in that letter.

What really stood out to me in 1 Corinthians is this:

Others before self.

If you think your church is dysfunctional, read over Paul's letters to this church. You probably don't have people dragging each other to court, getting drunk during the Lord's Supper (that would be a lot of grape juice) or guys sleeping with their step mom (At least I hope you don't have any of these issues).

But through all the mess, Paul wanted to get one primary thing across: put each other before self. Over the next few days, we'll look at all the following ways he emphasized this concept:

Don't take spiritual sides. To do so is to be inflated with pride.
Don't allow sexual sin.
Don't sue each other.
Inside marriage, your body is for the other person.
Don't leave your unbelieving spouse when you become a new believer.
Don't do whatever you want at the expense of others.
Pay your ministers.
Sacrifice yourself to win some.
Don't offend people just to seek your own profit.
Acknowledge Authority & Use authority to serve others.
Wait for others & don't practice inequality.
Your gift is one part of a whole body.
Love drives "others before self."
Have things in order.
The Resurrection allows us to labor for others.
Give your finances for those in need.
Submit to spiritual leaders.
Walk through open ministry doors, despite personal sacrifice.

Shane's posterous

Bible Intersecting With Life

Filed under: 1 Corinthians