There are a lot of things in life that we do not like, and we are very used to just avoiding those things because we are free to do so instead of living with and through them. My kids often say, “I’m bored. What can I do?” My response is always, “It’s good to be bored.” I don’t like being bored either, but it’s very good for me to learn how to live through it rather than just avoid it. Boredom often brings about a well needed refocus on what is important in life. It puts us in a position to think for ourselves, visit with the Lord, and spend time without constant pleasure and entertainment, which in fact brings about a much greater pleasure and contentment in the end.

Think of the difficult-to-understand issues in this chapter in same light. Our culture does not look at submission favorably unless it benefits us. For example, submitting to our employer is good thing in order to receive a paycheck each month and therefore pay the bills, etc. But if we are called to submit to something that we have the freedom to avoid without consequence, we will usually decline to submit. We are free to do so, right? This is especially correct in our culture, but not always the best. Just like we need to learn to live in boredom when we have the freedom to not be bored, we need to learn to submit even if we have the clear and open freedom to say no.

God has established multiple principles in His Word for us to understand, learn, and follow, because He is our creator and He knows what we need. What is best for us is all about our needs and not always about our wants. We want to be completely free, but it’s not best for us to be completely free – physically that is. Even though our culture (very selfish culture) does not like God’s order of submission, we are still called to live in it. Because in the end, when His other principles are also followed, we truly thrive! It’s not about men being above women or even more important. It is about what is best for us as the body of Christ. In the end, we learn humility, which then results in true love and true unity.

In Paul’s day, a woman without hair, or even with short hair, was usually a prostitute or wanted to be a man. A woman without a head covering (or a veil) was viewed as not being submissive to her husband. Likewise, a man with a veil or even long hair (really long) was not even seen as a man. In both cases, the lack of submission to these traditions was a substantial distraction in the church and created disunity. They were free to do it, but there were consequences.

The same was true with the Lord’s Supper. The people found a freedom to indulge with the food and wine, but in the end, it was a nasty distraction that ruined any possible worship. And what was the reason for coming together to teach and eat the Lord’s Supper? It was to worship – which can only be done in humility.

-David Jones, CEO

When we think of idols and idolatry today, it’s easy to tuck them away as something “they” did in the past. The view of idols that immediately comes to my mind is something out of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. There, people worshiped hot glowing rocks. Other examples that come to my mind are the stories in the Old Testament. Moses would step away for a minute, and the people would break out that golden calf. So idolatry seems removed from us, found only in movies and history. Yet, I think idols are more prevalent today than we think. Something as simple as a social game on Facebook can take over your life as an idol. Idols steal you away from God, in a sense replacing Him, often without you even noticing. Some of you know that I had a video game addiction in my past. This became a huge idol for me, as I devoted more and more time to it. Sin has a way of sneaking in to things, ever so quietly. Before I knew it, work was suffering, school was suffering, and I hadn’t been to church in months. Eventually, God got my attention, or maybe I finally started paying attention to Him.  I realized that I had given my life over to a contemporary idol.  Have you?

23 “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.

Today’s society is accepting of the occult. But, we don’t call it the occult. We call it Twilight. We call it Vampire Diaries. We call it Zombie Survival Guide. It sounds bad when we call it what it is, but by overlooking it, we accept it into popular culture. Paul reminds us that while it’s not “unlawful,” it might not be beneficial. It looks good when we focus on the love story, the hope, the caring, and hide the dark truth behind us. It’s fun to stand in line all day with our friends, waiting for that midnight premiere showing to start. But, the bottom line is that sin is sin, no matter how we wrap it up. Where are we leading our unbelieving friends, who are standing along with us in that movie line?  We need to flee from this occult darkness, and stay focused on Christ. Verse 13 reminds us of that:” You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.” You can’t stand on the fence; play in the sin of the world, and the Holiness of the Lord.

Paul closes by reminding us of one basic idea to guide all of our decisions: 

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

-Dave Bennett, Media Manager/Lights of Tejas

So why do I bring this up at all?

In the first part of this chapter, Paul talks about people in the ministry earning a wage from their ministry. I hope I'm not too far off, but I have heard that many of the apostles back in the day would get their food and lodging by invitation into other believers homes. They were provided for in every way because they were not from that area and had no means of providing for themselves. This is where the first paragraph ties in: do you seek to meet the needs of those ministering around you? Are you hospitable to them?

In this day and age it is easy for us to say, “pastors and ministers earn money through their job so what’s the big deal?”.  Well there are two main things I would like for us to keep in mind: first is that just like you at your job, we all get weary or burnt out from our jobs, and second is that we need to remember where the pastors get their wages.

When was the last time you got tired of your job and thought about how nice it would be to find a different one, or better yet thought about how nice it would be to be able to retire now? Pastors are no different. Day after day they devote themselves to pouring into others, serving others, meeting the needs of others. Can you imagine? That would get hard after a while. That is why we need to do what we can to serve them back. There are numerous ways to do this, so I'm not going to list examples, but take a minute or two and think about who takes their time to serve you? How can you be a blessing to them and give a little of your time and love back to them?

Loving on a person that loves on you is very important. But it is also important to remember where pastors earn their salary – from you. If you are not tithing to the church you are not only forgetting your call to give to the needy, but you are also denying a pastor their wage. Tithing is a huge struggle for many people, but we need to remember that every dollar we earn is a gift from God. We need to always be ready and willing to give it back to Him through those in need.

There are a lot of great things I'm not writing about in this chapter, but I bring this topic up because I struggle with it. I hope that you will join with me in realizing that we need to honor those who choose to serve us spiritually.

-Seth Gordon, Summer Camp Director

When Paul wrote this to the believers in Corinth, they were surrounded with people who were sacrificing food to all kinds of false gods or “idols.” Meat bought in the marketplace was likely to have been offered to an idol in one of the many pagan temples. Believers were wondering if eating this meat would somehow make them participants.

While Paul tells them that eating the meat is not wrong in itself, he shares with them that not all believers think that this practice is permissible. They should refrain from eating this sacrificed food if it might possibly make another brother in Christ stumble. Their love for one another is more important than their own knowledge or freedom in Christ. They must think of these other believers before themselves.

The same goes for us. We might not have pagan temples on every corner with meat ready to be consumed, but there are things we face daily that could have dire consequences in the life of the other believers around us. Just to name a few to think about… drinking in moderation, seeing rated R movies, wearing clothes that are immodest, etc. None of these things may cause you to stray from your walk with the Lord. But think of others first, as Paul tells us in this chapter, and you might get a different answer.

-Kim Newton

After spending a lot of time with God in that place, I found His willingness and patience to work that out of me to be settling. I took hold of where God had placed me with peace and genuine contentment. Only then, was I able to effectively minister and witness Christ to those around me. Several months after arriving at that contentment, they offered me another position in engineering. I remained there until I came to the camp.

--Mike Newton, Facilities Director

The second section titled, “Sexual Immorality” (v 12-20) starts out with “¹² ‘Everything is permissible for me’ – but not everything is beneficial…”  This is a concept I’ve been trying to teach Isaac recently.  He always asks about movie ratings and video game ratings, because he knows he can only watch/play movies and games with certain ratings.  So sometimes he will ask me when he will be old enough to watch/play the next rating up.  And I try to make it clear that just because something has a “permissible” rating on it, doesn’t mean that it’s good to watch.  I’m permitted to watch R rated movies because I’m an adult.  However most R rated movies don’t have any content that is beneficial to me. 

When Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians, there was a popular line of reasoning that the purpose of food is to fill the stomach, so similarly, the body is designed to be sexually satisfied.  Paul makes it very clear that this worldly thought was completely false.  Paul states that the body is meant for the Lord – that our bodies are members of Christ himself (v 13 and 15).  Paul tells us to flee from sexual immorality…not just walk away but sprint as fast as we can away from it!  We were bought at a price and we are to honor God with our bodies (v20).  In Romans 12:1, Paul urges us to offer our bodies to God as living sacrifices as a spiritual act of worship.  But if we give in to sexual immorality, we are giving our bodies to Satan instead.  There are so many blessings for us if we would just “Trust and obey” God like the old hymn says, especially in this area.  Hollywood makes light of sex and tries to make us believe that it’s just a physical act that doesn’t mean anything.  But that is a huge lie conjured up by Satan.  Here’s a defense strategy: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2.  Get into God’s Word, and protect your heart, your mind, and your body, too.

 --Kelli Biles

Paul uses the example of yeast in bread. In their times, they would always keep a little dough from a batch to help start the next batch of dough. The old dough would then help the new batch to rise when the yeast would spread through it. The purpose of the Passover's unleavened bread would be to start from scratch with the yeast because this process of using old batch dough with new over long periods of time would eventually lead to food poisoning and ruin of the bread. So the same goes for the church, to get rid of the man not repenting and so that his sin would not ruin the remaining of the fellowship.

Our first thoughts are “Of course, what are those Corinthians thinking!” It is so easy to read scripture and to quickly pass judgment about others in far off times and not to apply it to ourselves and what we deal with. What are we “overlooking” and being “open-minded” about? Scripture does say not to judge others, but we are to keep each other accountable. So next time when watching that movie, playing the game, joining in on the gossip or joining in on what the world thinks is ok, remind yourself of what you are allowing to creep into your life and become a part of you instead of kicking it out.

 --Paul Biles, CFO

1. To prove yourself worthy
2. The example: How we should live
3. To get your act together

Prove Yourself Worthy:

Paul starts off his letter by telling the church that the true judge is not man, but God. That God knows the motives of our hearts and is the only one with the right to judge us. It is so tempting for us to make hasty judgements toward one another because we think we understand the situation or the person. We show arrogance and are really no better than anyone else. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t keep our brothers and sisters accountable for their actions and correct them if necessary; by all means we must, but we should only do so out of love. When we make human judgements, it’s not out of love it’s out of selfishness, jealousy and pride which Paul warns can cause division between the church in 1 Corinthians 3. As Christians we have been given a gift; TRUTH -the knowledge that Jesus Christ died for us to save us from the judgment and wrath of God. With this knowledge all of us should “…live a life worthy of the calling we have received.” (Eph 4:1)

The Example: How We Should Live:

Paul continues with how we should live our lives. He makes an allusion to the Roman games in the coliseum and states that in the same way as the gladiators of the day have been made a spectacle to the public the apostles have been made a spectacle to both angels and men. We must remember that people are always watching us, waiting to see what we’ll do next, and hoping for us to either triumph or fail at the task at hand. To help us with this, Paul states exactly what we should do in verses 10-13 which of course is extremely hard because it involves humbling ourselves. The only way we can do this is by spending time with God in both the Word and in prayer.

Get Your Act Together:

In the last few verses Paul is telling the Corinthians that they need to get their act together. People weren’t living their lives according to Christ’s way of living. They knew the right words to say, but when it came to actually living a life worthy of their calling, they failed. Paul warns them that they better get it together because if not he would come to correct them. A great example of this is when you have a job. Usually if you’re left to your own devices and there is limited or no supervision you tend to let things slack a little bit and don’t do your job 100%. Sure you know the right way to do things and if asked you can tell people how to do the job, but if someone were watching you and you were the example of how to actually work the job, you would fail. We shouldn’t be content just knowing how to do our jobs, we should try to excel and be the best we can. In the same way, we shouldn’t just be content knowing the right answers about our faith. We should live out our faith so that our lives reflect that of Christ’s.

 --Kara Gordon, Recreation Manager

My brother was one of the more influential people in my life. For those who know him, he is a very Godly and good leader. Growing up, I was very proud to be his friend and his brother. As I began to listen to other people talk about him, I became more aware of what came with being associated with my brother. Not many people knew who I was, or who my friends were because we were still young, but my brother was held in a different light among both our church body and even among friends at school. If I was at football practice and the seniors began messing with me and my other friends, they would change their entire demeanor once they found out I was “Luke’s little brother”. At church, a similar effect would happen. When I realized that people treated me differently knowing that I was his brother, I began to commonly introduce myself as the little brother of Luke Gordon and became proud of who I was in Luke.

I think this is very similar to what Paul is talking about in this chapter. We are not defined by our association with other people, groups, or denominations. Not that it is bad to be associated with them necessarily, but if we become proud of these things over our pride in Christ, then we lose hold of the reality of who we are in Christ and what Christ has done. Christ is the one has placed his servants into our lives to help us with different things like we are told in verse 5. He is the one who has apportioned things to us. “For we are co-workers in Gods service; you are God’s field, God’s building.”

I hope you are able to be thankful for those who have impacted your life. I also hope you remember that God placed them in your lives and that it is Him and Him alone that we are following.

--Seth Gordon, Summer Camp Director

Paul also reminds the Corinthians of his message for some of the same reasons David mentioned in his 1 Corinthians 1 devotion. Paul saw that the Corinthians were too focused on their human leader instead of focusing their attention on the True Leader. The Corinthians should not be picking their leader based on their speaking ability, but should be searching out the opportunity to gain more wisdom that they may know God more. I think this sets a great challenge before us. We need to be aware of the people we are learning from. Do we listen to them because they have great speaking abilities or because they stick to the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified?

Further, the wisdom that Paul spoke could not be understood by those in the world. It was the wisdom of God. It could only be revealed and then understood by the Spirit. The Spirit knows the mind of God perfectly. Paul explains this by making the comparison of the human mind. No one understands your mind like you do- not your parent, friend, spouse, etc. The Spirit is part of the Trinity, so He knows the mind of God the Father perfectly. The incredible thing is that we have been given the Spirit, so we too can know God’s wisdom. We have the mind of Christ. Knowing God’s wisdom brings great benefit into our lives. If you read through the Proverbs, you will get a glimpse of this.  Remember that scripture tells us that no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has in store for those who love Him. Let’s continue to seek out God’s wisdom that He may be glorified in our lives and we may experience the things that He has in store for us. They will be more amazing than we could ever imagine. 

--Jennifer Jones, Discipleship Manager