Well, after a brief resurgence, my little blog seems to have gone back into hibernation. I think that the "food" theme hamstrung me a little bit because, while I enjoy cooking, I was a bit too lazy (and hungry) to take pictures and prep blog posts before enjoying the fruits of my culinary labor. Since I enjoy blogging, I think I'm going to try out a format change. This blog will now serve as a repository for the thoughts and feelings I have on a lot of subjects and events as well as a forum to post events and things I enjoy. The food content isn't going away, it'll just be part of the meal instead of the whole course (+1 for food analogy!).So here goes...
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
This, friends and neighbors, may well be the most beautiful verse in the Bible. It is a simple, yet poignant end to a portion of a letter Paul penned to the church in Corinth. Taken on its own, chapter 13 of I Corinthians an incredible and elegant piece of work. When read in context, it becomes something much more. Let's set the stage.
Paul has received word that the church he planted in Corinth is, frankly, a mess. Outside influences and differences in opinion had reduced the young church's gatherings to chaos and disorder. It's easy to see why. Corinth served as a major economic hub of the Roman empire as well as the location for the temple of Aphrodite, the Roman goddess of love and sexuality. Debauchery, sexual promiscuity, and greed were commonplace and accepted in that culture. Needless to say, it would take a good bit of reeducation to teach the new Christians there the principles God wanted them to live by. Also consider that there were likely a few Jewish Christians in attendance who, despite being freed from the old law, still held on to some of the old traditions and procedures they had grown up with. This environment, coupled with a lack of mature leadership and small amount of available information, resulted in some serious divisions and infighting. Brothers were suing brothers, men lived and slept with their stepmothers, chaos ensued during worship, and the Lord's Supper had become a banquet for the rich. Paul certainly had an uphill climb in front of him. The amazing thing to me is how he goes about correcting them.
Consider Paul's first words:
I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.
Wait, what? He's thanking God for this group of ne'er-do-wells? Surely the Corinthian church thought the same thing when they read his letter. We know there were various warring factions among them, and there's nothing warring factions like more than to hear they were correct and the other side wasn't. So imagine their initial disappointment when Paul doesn't go down that road. In fact, he kind of heads in the other direction. His next statement is a simple plea to them:
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into[b] the name of Paul?
Paul seems to be less than concerned with the arguments they are having and more worried about the consequences of these arguments - division. And this is not a kitchen/no kitchen dispute. They were divided over who to follow! Serious stuff, to say the least. So I find it very interesting that Paul briefly reminds them that they were baptized into Christ, then moves on. I believe that Paul understands the consequences that these divisions would carry, and begs the brothers to avoid them at all costs. If you look at the current landscape of the church, you can see why he was so concerned. Christendom, in its current form, has more sects, denominations, walks, and so on than one could count, none of which seem to be willing to work together on anything. I don't know much, but I'm fairly certain that this not what Christ envisioned when he prayed that "they all be one." We have allowed our differences to create the very divisions that Christ and the apostles worked so hard to prevent. What happened? The short of it is, we have missed the point.
But wait, some say, these divisions were necessary! True, many divisions are born of a desire to be doctrinally correct and faithful, and that is certainly an honorable quest. But consider again the Corinthians. I have never seen or heard of a group of Christians who were more doctrinally torn than these brothers were. I, as most of you know, grew up in the Church of Christ. I have seen churches split over everything from buildings to small group implementation to worship style, and everything in between. I was encouraged to fortify myself to "defend the faith." That's great, except to me "defending the faith" meant going to war with Baptists, Methodists, or anyone else who might disagree with my background on any point. We battled over the Lord's Supper, instrumental music, the role of women, and other things of that nature. But not once did I ever encounter any brother or sister who told me they followed someone other than Christ. It seems my battles were a bit petty in comparison. And yet, Paul instructs these warring brothers to unite. How in the world can people with such deep differences remain one? Love. Paul is 100% clear about one thing - love for your brother/sister in Christ trumps everything. It trumps spiritual gifts, hope, wisdom, and faith. Yes, even faith. Now think about this - our love for one another is to be so great that even the biggest, most colossal and seemingly insurmountable doctrinal divide won't overcome it. What does this mean?
I hope that nobody is offended by what I am about to say. It is not my intent to discredit or attack anyone, but this has been heavy on my heart recently. Brothers and sisters, we have failed. Thanks to our inability to love one another, we have splintered off into countless groups, warring against each other while weakening our effectiveness in the fight against the real enemy. We meet exclusively with people who see things the way we do, hold seminars and write books and pamphlets that reinforce our set of ideals, and lash out at those who don't see eye to eye with us. We have taken preferences and made them into law. We have adopted an alarmingly legalistic view of a law that was intended to do away with legalism. In our fervor to reproduce the processes and procedures of the early church, we have completely lost sight of their greatest trait - they were united in love. They were more concerned with taking care of each other and excitedly telling friends and family about the amazing power of Christ in their lives than they were debating the pros and cons of having a song during the Lord's Supper. Love reigned in the first century church. Some time after that, it stopped. One day, I fear, God is going to demand to know how and why this happened, and we're going to have to explain it.
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