2011

Notes on 1 Corinthians

1:6-9

✤ just as the testimony about Christ has been confirmed among you - so that you do not lack any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

✤ Apparently I should not be lacking a spiritual gift that God has put out into the world. This means that as I grow in the Spirit, the more and more I should have access to. Also Christ will continue to strengthen me in His Spirit until the day that I come face to face with Jesus.

1:24-25

✤ But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

✤ I find it interesting that Paul uses terms like “foolishness of God,” and “weakness of God.” I would not think to use such terms, but it does work. To those who do not understand God and do not walk by the Spirit God is foolish. To those who walk by these they see God as a kind of “crutch” or weakness. However, God is wiser then all human wisdom. He is also stronger then any human weakness we can give him. I feel even in my mind I have often given God some weaknesses. However, God is stronger then that and I pray as I grow in this Spirit that God will not allow weaknesses that I see in Him to turn into strength.

2:1

✤  2For I decided to be concerned about nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

✤ I pray that the more and more that I grow towards God, the more and more this becomes what is my concern that Jesus Christ was crucified.

2:9-10

✤ But just as it is written, "Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love him." God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

✤ I have to wonder if Paul realized that he was referring to me and people long after the events of Christ. Its kind of like Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who do not see but believe.” It was as if Paul knew that there were going to be believers who would not hear from the original eye-witnesses; nor would they have seen Christ. Yet people all the time are believing in Christ.

2:16

✤ For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.

✤ We cannot know the mind of God by human standards. Before this Holy Spirit came upon me, I think back to how I had always struggled to know God. Yet All I could do was fill my head with knowledge and doctrine. Now I feel as if the Bible speaks to me as if God is speaking to me. That I am beginning to know the mind and heart of God.

3:6-11

✤ I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow. So neither the one who plants counts for anything, nor the one who waters, but God who causes the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters work as one, but each will receive his reward according to his work.  9We are coworkers belonging to God. You are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master-builder I laid a foundation, but someone else builds on it. And each one must be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than what is being laid, which is Jesus Christ.

✤ This is such an interesting concept. People preach and speak the word of God. This is like planting seeds and then at other times watering it. Or like building something. All we can do is lay the foundation for Christ to come in, who causes growth. We are all co-workers of the same spirit of God.

4:11-13

✤ To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, poorly clothed, brutally treated, and without a roof over our heads. We do hard work, toiling with our own hands. When we are verbally abused, we respond with a blessing, when persecuted, we endure, when people lie about us, we answer in a friendly manner. We are the world's dirt and scum, even now.

✤ This sounds like my situation. I have only a temporary “roof” over my head. I do not have and some of my clothing is in poor conditions. I feel as if these demons that were in me have really beaten me. Now I am hard at work to learn about the Spirit of God. However, they are trying to now verbally abuse me because they are furious that they have lost and they want me back. Even now, I feel that very few people do not believe my testimony (of the few who actually know it).

6:9-11

✤ Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals,  10thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God.  11Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

✤ This verse is a good verse to think of in regards to when I want to judge someone. This would be the work of the flesh. I need to find a balance with those in the Spirit on how to not judge but to still come along as a believer in Christ and bring things to their attention when they are living by the flesh.

6:19-20

✤ Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

✤ This needs to be reminded to me how my body is now where the Holy Spirit dwells which helps me to communicate with God. This came at a price: the blood of Christ.

7:5

✤ Do not deprive each other, except by mutual agreement for a specified time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then resume your relationship, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

✤ This verse worries me for both myself and Mary… Could or has Satan already started tempting one or both of us?

7:24

✤ In whatever situation someone was called, brothers and sisters, let him remain in it with God.

✤ What is this verse saying?

9:24-27

✤ Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.

✤ Lord, help me to run in this race of life and persevere before you and to keep going on. Help my body become like a slave to you and my Spirit will grow in you.

10:1-13

✤ For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were cut down in the wilderness. These things happened as examples for us, so that we will not crave evil things as they did. So do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." And let us not be immoral, as some of them were, and twenty-three thousand died in a single day. And let us not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall. No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it.

✤ I need to head this warning as I am now entering the realm of God having been set free from the slavery of the demons. I need to just focus on God and not see things as temporary as they would want me to see things. There is an eternal realm that God is pushing me on towards. Though I may be in a “desert” now, Soon God will get me through to his promised land and His promises.

13:4-8

✤ Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

✤ Lord help me to understand this in my life. Help me to learn patience. Help me to not be envious. Help me to not brag or to be rude. Help me to not be self-serving, angered or resentful. Help me to be angry about injustice and be glad about truth. Help me to bear things in love and hope for all things and endure for all things. Help my love for you to end. This can then be passed onto Mary in my life.

15:3-8

For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received - that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.  Last of all, as though to one born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.

This is power and victory. The fact that Christ died and was buried and was raised. Not only that but to over 500 people, Christ appeared to as a “witness” that he had conquered death and that we now are free from the bondage of sin and death. That we can now win the victory over death and sin. This needs to be reminded to myself that over 500 people saw Christ raised.