My Bible reading plan lead me through Paul’s first letter to the early church in Corinth, more commonly known as 1 Corinthians. Two realizations dwelled heavily on me.
The first realization was that there was a lot of Paul’s advice that I couldn’t fully align on. And this despite my core belief that the Bible is infallible. For instance, he says that sexual sin is different because it is a sin within the body whereas other sins are committed outside of the body. I do think that sexual sins are different but I was unconvinced by his argument. Does Christ refer to good and bad things that come from the heart? He constantly made a distinction between the outer appearance and the inner life, so I don’t find this line of argument from the Apostle as a strong one. I think sexual sins are different because sex itself is different. I won’t attempt to break it down here, but it’s biological, and weird, complex, and beautiful, and damaging, and vulnerable, and mechanical all wrapped up in one thing. Idk.
And on that point it’s interesting that he advised it better to be single, but then he also just earlier quoted the scripture about the two becoming one. Like I see his argument, and he acknowledged that it is fine to not be single, but just not the line I expected.
And then the points about covering your head in church, or men having long hair, or that women should be quiet in church. I’m like “bruh, really?” Maybe this it’s why he was single.
The second realization that I had was that Paul was really one hundred percent about God and the preaching of the word and the building up of the church. And he was one hundred percent more of a follower of Christ than I am. You can gather from the text itself how’s much he thought, meditated, and debated these things. The letter it’s relatively wide spanning in topics and intricate in the detail of the issues it addresses. Do I agree with all of his points? Do I follow all of his arguments? Do I think of his arguments are the strongest? No and no and no. But I am not an Apostle. I was not blinded by the glory of the Lord. I did not endure beatings, imprisonment, abuse, hunger, poverty, scorn, and endangerment of my life and limb for the sake of Christ. I am fully aligned with the convinction that he fundamentally holds:
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” -1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NIV
Praise God.
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