The First letter to the Corinthians is what I started reading a couple of days ago. I'm just about done with it, and it is a picture of the "Messy" Church.
The Corinthian believers, like all believers in that first century, were newly established in their faith. They probably were a mixture of both Jewish converts and Gentile believers. Corinth is a port city in lower Greece, and had a reputation for being a city of perversion...sort of "whatever you want, you can get it in Corinth". In fact, to "Corinthianize" was to commit sexual immorality. It is in this cultural setting that the church in Corinth comes into being.
The church struggled...division, sexual immorality, along with incest, eating foods that were dedicated to idols/gods, marriage's in struggles, freedom vs license as well as freedom vs. law, men and women in pure relationships, abuses in worship, trouble with use of gifts of the Spirit, and doubts about the resurrection...what a mess!
Church is like that isn't it? We'd like to think that we come to church with our acts together, our doctrine all clear, our behavior pure, our attitudes and actions all godly...but that is only a church in fantasy. The real church is a hospital for the sick. That's what Jesus said. When we forget that, we lose sight of the grace, love, mercy and forgiveness that accompany teaching, discipleship, worship, correction and counsel.
I remember years ago a quote: "The church is the only army that shoots its wounded." Ouch.
1 Corinthians 12:27,31 - 13:13 (NIV)
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Beautiful Mess... Peace
The church struggled...division, sexual immorality, along with incest, eating foods that were dedicated to idols/gods, marriage's in struggles, freedom vs license as well as freedom vs. law, men and women in pure relationships, abuses in worship, trouble with use of gifts of the Spirit, and doubts about the resurrection...what a mess!
Church is like that isn't it? We'd like to think that we come to church with our acts together, our doctrine all clear, our behavior pure, our attitudes and actions all godly...but that is only a church in fantasy. The real church is a hospital for the sick. That's what Jesus said. When we forget that, we lose sight of the grace, love, mercy and forgiveness that accompany teaching, discipleship, worship, correction and counsel.
I remember years ago a quote: "The church is the only army that shoots its wounded." Ouch.
1 Corinthians 12:27,31 - 13:13 (NIV)
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Beautiful Mess... Peace
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