I Corinthians 11

Jesus asked His disciples and us to remember His sacrifice by remembering the Last Supper. Specifically, He wanted us to recall, through the symbolism of the bread and wine, that He gave His body and blood as atonement for our sins. The point was not to create a ritual. The point was to create a way to remember.

We don't use rituals to tell stories or remember events very much anymore. In our highly literate, internet-based society, we can collect our knowledge on blogs and web pages rather than learning by rote tradition. In the time of Paul and Christ, though, the majority of people may not have been able to read at all, so they needed a way to help everyone remember the history of the church.

The Lord's Supper was just one of those mechanisms, but in Corinth it was twisted into a party. The Corinthians took the event of eating and drinking together and turned into something focused on eating and drinking rather than remembering that the focus should be on Christ. That's what Paul is admonishing them for. If you are looking to eat and drink for entertainment or nourishment do it at home. If you are remembering the sacrifice of Christ through the symbolism of food, then you are in the proper frame of mind for the Lord's Supper.

I Corinthians 10

Do not think that just because you go to church that you are on equal ground with the other members. Attending church is important, but it's not everything. And it doesn't guarantee anything. As a matter of fact, it could just be a false sense of security.

The Israelites in the desert all walked together. They all worshipped together. They all ate together. They all followed God together. Yet the Israelites did not all trust together. Some tested God, some ignored God, some worshipped idols. All of those died.

The same is true in our church family. We all hear the same sermons. We all eat the same spiritual food. We all walk together as a church. But we don't necessarily all have the same commitment to God.

Are you faithful to God or to your church? Are you following the Lord or your friends? Are you a believer or just an attender?

I Corinthians 9

Do you expect your ministers and church staff to earn a living without your help? Do you resent them for expecting your donations to help them survive? Or do you faithfully support their ministry as God has commanded?

Paul was not the first person to seek support from the churches where he preached. God established that precedent ages before with the priests in the temple. The people seek spiritual guidance from priests, preachers, and ministers. God seeks tithe from you to support them. Don't be so naïve as to think that the physical church can sustain itself without your material support. It simply cannot.

I Corinthians 8

We are all in the public eye. Some more than others; some less. But we are all being watched by others. Paul warns us here that while we are free from the law that doesn't mean that we are free to do anything that pleases us. We have a responsibility to build each other up.

In Paul's example, he talks about food sacrificed to idols. The food itself is not any different before or after it is sacrificed. At all times it is good to eat and healthy for you, but once it's been sacrificed, some people have a hard time seeing it just as food. To them eating it would be the same as worshipping that idol, so while it may not be a problem for you, it could be a problem for someone watching you.

Truly, we should each try to help one another grow in spiritual maturity, but we don't have to make any uncomfortable in that process. What are some things in your life that might be causing issues for others that are observing your life?

I Corinthians 7

Even good things can be a distraction and hindrance in your walk with the Lord. Paul recognizes this and tries to lay out for us the pros and cons of marriage.

On the one hand, it is good and ordained by God so that we are not alone in this world. It helps keep us from immorality by providing a release for our physical urges and it is an opportunity for us to have close companionship.

On the other hand, it draws our focus to the physical world and away from God. When you are married one of your primary concerns is your spouse; or at least it should be. If you are focused on pleasing your spouse, you may not be focused on pleasing God. This is a division in your attention that could be damaging to your relationship with God.

The most important thing to recognize here is that we cannot put anything before God. He provides things that make us happy and are good for us, but if we make them more important than God they can become something twisted and wrong.

I Corinthians 6

Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should. Christ has given us freedom from the law through His resurrection, but that doesn't mean that it is good for us to run around doing whatever we like. Of course, we are saved regardless, but we are not effective if we are living with sin.

The things that seem right and feel good in this world are just temporary. Even the things that we need to survive will not last. Paul reminds us that we have to eat every day to fill our stomach and we have a stomach for the purpose of eating. In the end, though, that is just a temporary way of getting us through this life. God is going to take both food and the stomach away and give us something better. So, if the things that are good and necessary in this life are not good enough to last, then why would even want to consider spending any time with the things that are not good or necessary in this life?

I Corinthians 5

Paul explains to the Corinthians the important distinction between immoral people of the world and immoral people in the church. We are called to be light to the world, and we can only share the gospel if we talk with and interact with the immoral people of the world. We are certainly not called to join them or to be like them, but we must interact with them on some level or else they will never know salvation.

The danger is that we must distinguish between that and the person that calls himself a Christian and yet is also completely immoral. The church body is for the saved; it's for believers. We must be careful to distinguish between those that belong and those that do not. And those that call themselves believers and are still living in willful disobedience and sin should not be tolerated in the church body.

Does that mean that we completely ignore them? No. If we are called to share the gospel with the world and to bring believers to Christ, then how much more should we work to reconcile a brother that has lost his way? Of course we do not ignore them. Paul is simply saying that we cannot gloss over it either. We cannot turn a blind eye to the sins within the church unless we want the church to crumble. We are not called to judge the world, only to share with it, but we must judge within our congregation and hold each other accountable for our sins so that we can build each other up.