Today’s edition of the Ripple is written by my longest standing friend, Joe Wendel. In the basement of Northeast Baptist Church on a January Sunday in 1979, we met for the first time, and have been friends ever since. We have been through almost every phase of life together except for nursing and learning how to walk, and Joe has been a most faithful and loyal friend to me, sharpening me as iron sharpens iron for almost 40 years now! Therefore I am beyond happy to read his thoughts here today. Enjoy and be sharpened!

1 Corinthians 12:26

If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

~ESV

Toward the end of Paul’s section on how the body of Christ should mirror our physical bodies is this simplistic and very “graspable” statement.

In this chapter we receive a powerful explanation as to why each person in the body of Christ may look a bit different…or behave in an odd manner.  Not everyone is a uvula!  (whisper, whisper – Boy is that uvula odd.)

If you are like me, during these explanations and exhortations you find yourself pondering “which part of the body am I?”  You see, most of us struggle with self-absorption at least a little.  My personal case is pretty severe.

Here is how my personal self-absorption goes:

Let’s say I am the right quad in the body.  I am quite good at focusing on being the best right quad I could possibly be.  Who cares about the left calf!? I have work to do here in “Right Quadsville”, and I’m going to do it right!  Of course, there is some part of me that does want the left calf to do well.  I want it to do very well, but I am not willing to think about it much because if it doesn’t do well I know I will hurt.

What this small portion of chapter 12 helps me understand is that when I “cut myself off” from the rest of the body emotionally, I may reduce the amount of my suffering in some ways.  But this lack of interconnectedness also reduces my amount of joy and rejoicing in these same ways.  And… if everyone in the body behaves in this manner, no one will be weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice.  Now that is a something worth avoiding!

1 Corinthians 11:26

For whenever you eat this bread and drink the cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes.

One of the things I love about Christ Church Anglican is that we partake of the Lord’s Supper every week, and recite a liturgy reminder recalling aloud the event on which our existence is based.

The Eucharist, as it is called in some traditions—a word that means thanksgiving, is a memorial filled with hope. As one of my absolute favorite teachers, Luke Timothy Johnson, says: The early Christians were not celebrating a dead guy of the past, but a powerful presence NOW.

We usually need more reminding than we need instructing. And it is beyond good to be reminded, at bare minimum weekly, what…WHO we are founded upon. The Christian Church was birthed from the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

And we remind ourselves of this within the great hope that we will someday see him face to face, as real as we see each other today. We obey Jesus by participating in this symbolic meal with other believers until we meet him in person physically.

That’s gonna be so awesome.

It’s going to swallow up all the crap in this life which we give way too much attention and stress to. Remember, stress is kind of like praying for what you don’t want. So maybe try thinking more about meeting Jesus, or the fact that he is alive, than about political ridiculosity and people not behaving the way you want them to.

We are going to see Jesus someday.

And in the new heavens and new earth, what if, with a smile of gentleness, one of his questions is, “So what did you spend most of your time thinking about while on old earth?”

1 Corinthians 10:12

If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall.

~New Living Translation

Contentment in Christ is one thing. Complacency in our Christian walk is quite another.

In the 2018 United States, I believe one of our deadliest yet underexposed idols is the idol of comfort. We worship at the altar of comfort, convenience, and ease. And it anesthetizes our once vibrant relationship with Jesus. We think we’re in and all is ok, then wonder why we fall.

If you’re not growing in Christ daily, coming closer to Him, then my concern for you is that you’re being lulled to sleep. Thinking you’re all good, with no real need for ongoing training, can be the most dangerous place of all to live.

Moment by moment, the Christian life is lived by faith only, without any human guarantee.

~C.K. Barrett

1 Corinthians 9:1

I’m a free man, aren’t I?

As Christians, we are free.

In a sense, we are at liberty to do whatever we want under grace, as long as it is with a clear conscience before our Lord.

So I feel just fine and totally guilt-free to drink a beer, go to a movie, have long hair, wear earrings, mow the lawn in my underwear, and play with action figures.

But perhaps there’s another way to frame it. A way that might be more enlightening.

As Christians, we are free to relinquish our rights to anything we choose, to limit ourselves however we see fit or are called to do, for the sake of others, for the sake of the gospel.

Because I have been set free, it is no big deal to abstain from anything so as to not be any sort of hindrance to any one receiving, or growing in, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because there’s no bigger deal than that.

1 Corinthians 8:1

Knowledge puffs you up, but love builds you up!

“Some Christians grow, and others just swell,” a famous preacher use to say.

Our knowing Christ is not an amassing of information about Him. Rather it is a getting to know Him in order to, by His Spirit, become more like Him, indeed to become Him—Theosis!

Knowledge and love must grow together if we are to grow in Christ.

Knowledge without love becomes brutality.

Love without knowledge becomes so mushy that there is nothing solid to stand on or hold you up in times of difficulty.

Are you more loving than you were a year ago?

Another test might be to ask yourself, “Am I more understanding of people or less understanding than I was a year ago?”

I believe that when we truly grow in the knowledge of Christ, we become more compassionate, more understanding, because we see ourselves more clearly—on equal footing with all others before Christ.

The more knowledge we gain, the more superiority we tend to feel, or at a minimum we find that we have to fight harder against feelings of superiority creeping in–unless it is sincere growth in Christ, always with the view toward helping others to freedom.

Another measure is to ask, “Am I purer in heart than I was last year?”

Growth in Christ, becoming more like Him, is to grow in purity of heart. More and more you will see people through a loving lens, not seeing their flaws first, desirous of their good, even at the expense of your own perceived rights. And it will not feel like a herculean effort. This attitude will become more and more natural to you as you take on the Spirit of Jesus and as He freely flows through you.

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

This is what I mean, my brothers and sisters. The present situation won’t last long; for the moment, let those who have wives live as though they weren’t married, 

those who weep as though they were not weeping, those who celebrate as though they were not celebrating, those who buy as though they had no possessions, 

those who use the world as though they were not making use of it. The pattern of this world, you see, is passing away.

These are rather confusing verses, but Paul’s basic point here is to not get caught up in that which is passing away. He doesn’t mean the transiency of creation, but the fact that the social and business institutions as we know them, for example, have no permanence.

Do not let things that are good in and of themselves like marriage, work, school, and commerce distract you from your devotion to the Lord. May nothing, even our responsibilities, rob us of our focus on God. [Isaiah 26:3]

A few quotes from C.K. Barrett which I have found illuminating of this text:

He who can thus live, in service to God and in detachment from the world, is a free man, though his freedom is not that of the Stoic, but of the slave of Christ.

The point is that neither laughter nor tears is the last word; a man should never allow himself to be lost in either.

Christians may use the world but must not be absorbed in it…

1 Corinthians 6:12

‘Everything is lawful for me’ – but not everything is helpful! ‘Everything is lawful for me’ – but I’m not going to let anything give me orders!

~New Testament For Everyone

It has been said that freedom is not the absence of rules, but the presence of discipline.

Being able to do whatever we want can quickly take control of us, and turn us into slaves to our desires and whims.

I think a good test might be to see if you can go 30 days without something. If the mere thought of that is upsetting, then it’s a good bet that you’re enslaved at least to some degree to that thing.

So I ask myself, “Can I go 30 days without a drink without freaking out?” “Could I go 30 days without buying a book without breaking out in hives?”

Being able to go an extended amount of time without something may prove to yourself that you don’t really need it as much as you thought you did, or that you were a little too attached to something that is not God.

What do you need to take a break from? What is perhaps a little too important to you?

1 Corinthians 5:6-13

Why should I worry about judging people outside? It’s the people inside you should judge, isn’t it?

God judges the people outside.

Judging people outside the church is kinda like getting upset with someone who gets lost in the woods with no compass.

God will judge accordingly those who do not trust in Him. That is not something we need stress about.

But what we do need to take responsibility for are our plentiful in-house problems. It is our task to discipline those “inside the fold”—those who claim to be followers of Jesus in our church community.

Like iron sharpening iron, we hold each other to what we say we believe in. And we do this for the good of each other. If I start going off the rails, I sure hope one or more of you will do everything to stop me!

In Ripple Effect meetings we always made it clear that we are here to encourage one another AND call each other out when needed.

1 Corinthians 4:20

The Kingdom of God, you see, isn’t about talk—it’s about power.

~New Testament For Everyone

For the kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power.

~New Living Translation

How have I never encountered this verse before?

What an amazingly pithy statement.

We could say that the kingdom of God is the range of God’s effective will—where what God wants done is done. It is not where what God wants done is merely talked about. Rather it is enacted through God’s power.

I was at this church planting forum a month or so ago, and at lunch one of the guys I met asked our group, “So what is God doing here in your city?”

What a great question. He didn’t just want to talk about the kingdom, pointlessly philosophizing, he wanted to hear what was actually happening via God’s power.

To be candid, I’ve grown quite bored with philosophizing about the kingdom, and simply want to live it, and hear stories about what God is doing. That’s what inspires people, way more than talking about theories or principles or what we could or should be doing.

Lots of talk quickly becomes a yawn-fest.

God’s power is….powerful.

Like the blind man who was healed by Jesus giving his testimony: “Look, I don’t know how He did it. All I know is I was blind, He put some mud on my eyes, told me to go wash in the pool of Siloam, I washed, and now I can see!” (John 9)

1 Corinthians 3:6-7

I planted and Apollos watered, but it was God who gave the growth.

It follows that the person who plants isn’t anything special, and the person who waters isn’t anything special; what matters is God who gives the growth.

This takes some pressure off, doesn’t it?

God does all the heavy lifting in human hearts. We get the easy parts: planting, watering, praying for growth.

BOOM.

Got it.

We all have our little part to play, our unique gifting and talents. And we’re all on the same level beneath God, so it is absolutely absurd to play one person’s part off against another. Nobody is more important or needed than any other. We all have our role to play and none of it is the creation or growth of someone’s faith—that’s God’s work, thank God–so let’s celebrate each other and the parts we each play, am I right!

The only significance of planter and waterer is that God accepts their labor and works through them (verse 9); they have no independent importance.

~C.K. Barrett