At the end of our reading yesterday in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul stated that he does not judge outsiders to the church. Instead, God would judge them (5:12-13).

Here in chapter 6 he picked up the theme of judgment and rebuked the Corinthian believers for using secular courts and unbelieving judges to decide their disputes (v. 1). Throughout this chapter, Paul rebuked the Corinthians by making distinctions between how unbelievers live and how believers should live.

1. Unbelievers go to court when they have a dispute with another person. Believers should go to the church leaders to resolve those issues (vv. 1-5)
2. Unbelievers will never accept being cheated and wronged. Believers should never wrong each other--we’re brothers and sisters in Christ, after all. But, if we are wronged, we should accept being wronged rather than expose our problems to the secular world (vv. 7-9).
3. Unbelievers live in all kinds of sinful ways. Believers used to be like that, but were redeemed by Christ (vv. 9-11).
4. Unbelievers justify their sinful behavior by any rationalization necessary. Believers understand that we belong to God and, therefore, want to live for him with our bodies, especially in the realm of our sexuality (vv. 12-20).

Does your life look any different than the unbelievers around you? If you’re in Christ, it certainly does.

But are there any areas where you need to grow in your submission to the Lordship of Christ? You may not sue another believer, but will you gossip and backstab him if possible?

You may not live an immoral life, but do you have food habits or drinking habits or entertainment habits that are not glorifying to God?

A passage like this one calls us to reflect on our lives. Verses 19-20 say, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” Is there anything you’re consistently doing with your body or your mind that the Holy Spirit would not do?

This short chapter discusses the difficult subject of church discipline.

The person who needed discipline in Corinth was a man in their church who was committing adultery with his father’s wife (v. 1). The fact that she is not called his mother probably means that she is a step-mother to the man. Regardless, Paul was appalled both that someone who claimed to be a believer would do this (v. 1) and that the Corinthian church tolerated this sin in their church family (v. 2).

"Tolerated” is too mild a term, in fact. The phrase, “and you are proud” in verse 2 indicates that the Corinthians celebrated this sin. It would be nice to know more about what Paul was meant. It is possible that the Corinthians saw their tolerance of this sin as some advanced display of grace, but we don't know for certain. Regardless, Paul called on the church to remove this man from the church through church discipline as we saw in the phrase, “put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this” (v. 2b). What, then, does this passage teach us about church discipline?

First, that church discipline is public. Verse 4 told the Corinthians to handle this matter, “when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present” (v. 4). That phrase is speaking of a public gathering of the church. When someone is removed from church membership through discipline, all the other members of the church should know of his removal and why he was removed.

Second, that church discipline is for the spiritual good of the person placed under discipline. Verse 5b describes the purpose of this act with this phrase, “so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” Remember that no one should be disciplined from the church until they have been confronted with their sin and given the opportunity to repent. A repentant believer is not removed from the church because repentance is the way that a Christian should respond to sin. But a person who will not repent when sin is addressed is acting like an unbeliever. Paul is very concerned that the man described in 1 Corinthians 5 will go to hell because his open practice of sin is not consistent with the life of a believer. A main goal of removing him publicly is to shake him out of his false confidence of salvation so that he will repent of his sin like a believer should or turn to Christ genuinely for salvation.

Third, that church discipline is for the good of the church, too. Verses 6-8 compares sin to yeast (leaven). A little bit of yeast expands throughout baking dough to make the resulting bread soft and cause it to rise. The image is that the yeast grows to affect the whole loaf; likewise, sin unaddressed in the church also grows and expands until it pervades the entire body. Church discipline, then, removes the sin by disassociating the church from the person under discipline. While the people in the church might still see this man around, they are no longer to regard him as a brother in Christ who is growing in his faith. This has a sobering affect on the rest of the congregation, showing them that sin will not be tolerated in the body of Christ.

Church discipline is always a difficult thing, stressful for everyone involved. It is like surgery for the body of Christ. A surgeon wounds your physical body in order to remove or repair something that is affecting your health in the long term. Church discipline, likewise, is painful to the body, but God uses it to bring long-term health and healing to the body of Christ.

Some Christians have a regal view of the ministry. That is, they see pastors and other ministry leaders like monarchs. They look up to us, in some ways, so they think that everyone must give us honor and respect and treat us with reverence.

What nonsense.

Paul continued, here in 1 Corinthians 4, correcting the false ideas the Corinthians had about ministry leaders. Paul and Apollos were not in competition ( 1 Cor 2) with each other but instead were partners together in God's work (1 Cor 3).

So, here in chapter 4, he says, think of us as "servants of Christ" (v. 1) who must be faithful (v. 2). Instead of living like modern day royals, Paul said we ministry leaders are "fools for Christ" (v. 10a). Instead of being put on a pedestal, we are paraded like prisoners of war (v. 9).

While some people treat us with honor and respect, that's not the norm. Instead, people "curse" us (v. 12b) and "we are slandered" (v. 13a). People think we are the "scum of the earth, the garbage of the world" (v. 13c).

Being an elder is not majestic. It isn't easy or particularly fun most of the time. When we are mistreated, we have to respond in a godly way, not the way we might want to. That means "When we are cursed, we bless...; when we are slandered, we answer kindly" (v. 12, 13). Most of the people in our church are kind to me. But some people have said the most unkind things to me or about me, sometimes in public meetings.

But, enough about me. Given what you know about ministry, don't you want to become a ministry leader? That's where Paul turned next in this chapter. Despite the pain that ministry leadership can bring, Paul wanted to build more leaders.

The Corinthians didn't have enough "fathers" (v. 15). They needed more so Paul said, "I urge you to imitate me" (v. 16). He also sent Timothy to them to "remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church" (v. 17).

That's the essence of spiritual leadership: Know the truth. Teach the truth. Live the truth. Then encourage others to do the same.

No church has enough leaders. Our church could certainly use more. Are you growing in your knowledge of God's truth? Are you teaching it while simultaneously living it out?

None of us is perfect but, when there is sin in your life that is out of step with what we believe and teach, are you dealing with it biblically?

This is what the church needs so that the gospel can advance and people can be redeemed from this lost, cursed world. Will you step up to the need and become a spiritual father?

Back in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul expressed a great deal of confidence about the salvation of the Corinthian believers. He talked about all the ways in which God had enriched them (1:5) which confirmed their acceptance of the gospel (1:6) so that they had every spiritual gift (1:6). At the end of chapter 1 he explained that their salvation came from Christ crucified not from human wisdom and in chapter 2 he described how their faith was a spiritual work done by the Holy Spirit of God.

Here in chapter 3, he made a turn in his message to the Corinthians. Although they were saved by the Spirit, he could not speak to them as if they were spiritually mature; rather, they had to be addressed as if they were babies in Christ (vv. 1-3). This is quite a put down--not an insult but a needed adjustment to their self-assessment. The Corinthians were proud of how advanced they were spiritually--just look at all the spiritual gifts they had!

But, contrary to their beliefs about themselves, Paul told them that they were acting in a spiritually immature manner, like babies in Christ. What caused him to say that? It was the fact that there was “jealousy and quarreling" among them (v. 3). That jealously and quarreling was about who was the best spiritual leader--Paul, Apollos, or someone else (v. 4). But Paul and Apollos were not competitors; rather, they were servants of God who both made meaningful contributions to the church (vv. 5-9).

Verses 10-17 are often misunderstood in part because Paul will later in this same book talk about our human bodies as the temple of God. That’s what he meant in chapter 6, but here in chapter 3 he is not referring to the human bodies or their individual spiritual lives.

Instead, the context of verses 10-17 refer to the church itself. The foundation Paul laid is the foundation of the church at Corinth, the Lord Jesus Christ himself (vv. 10-11). Apollos, or anyone else who serves the church, is building on that foundation. But it is God who will test the quality of everyone’s work (vv 12-14). The “temple” Paul is referring to here, then, is the church itself in Corinth (v. 16) and the warning against “destroying the temple” is a warning against tearing the church apart through “jealousy and quarreling” (v. 3) or any other way that creates disunity.

What are some sins that tear churches apart? One answer is sin of any kind that goes unconfessed and unaddressed, and the Corinthian church was full of that. Just from this letter we know that the Corinthians had:

• incest (1 Cor 5)
• lawsuits among believers (1 Cor 6:1-11)
• sexual immorality of all kinds (1 Cor 6:12-20)
• unbiblical divorce (1 Cor 7)
• abuses of Christian liberty (1 Cor 8-10)
• disorderly worship (1 Cor 9:1-16)
• abuse of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 9:17-34)
• and more

The warning in today’s passage is very serious: “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple” (3:17). How many churches have been torn apart by sin--sin among leaders or sins within the body? How many congregations have been ripped apart by gossip? How many have been weakened or killed by failing to follow biblical leadership?

Understand, then, that as a church member, your choices affect far more people than just you. If your choices cause harm to the body of Christ, God promised to deal with you severely for the harm you’ve done to his work (v. 17). This passage should sober us and cause us to realize the importance of making godly choices not only for our own walk with God but for the spiritual health and strength of his church.

In this chapter, Paul explained to the Corinthians his approach to ministry. That approach was to rely on the message of Christ (v. 2) and the power of God’s Spirit (v. 4).

Verses 14-15 described the differences between those who have God’s Holy Spirit and those who do not. Unbelievers―those who don’t have the Spirit―cannot welcome God’s truth because God’s truth is spiritual by nature.

Sometimes verse 14 is interpreted to mean that unbelievers cannot understand God’s word. That is not the point of the passage, however. The point of the passage is that an unbeliever is unable to believe, to welcome, to “accept the things that come from the Spirit of God” (v. 14).

Unbelievers may understand every fact of the Gospel or every doctrine of the Christian faith or they may not, but either way an unbeliever can only believe God’s truth if God’s Spirit is within.

This is why our outreach to unbelievers should consist of the pure gospel of Christ rather than persuasive techniques, convincing arguments, or powerful entertainment. Those might bring some genuine conversions--if there is any gospel at all in them--but they will also bring many false professions.

Only the Holy Spirit's power can change a person's will so that that person will welcome Jesus Christ and put his or her faith in him. So stick to the gospel message and pray for God to save through his Spirit.

That is the righteous approach to evangelism.

Was there ever a more mixed-up group of Christians than the believers in Corinth?

Although they had been blessed by the ministries of several faithful men (v. 12), they could not just receive and appreciate each man’s teaching. Instead of seeing each man's ministry as one part of God’s complete instruction to them, they took sides. They claimed to follow one of these men as if they were in opposition to each other instead of co-workers for Christ.

In addition to their divisions, they were confused about what God’s grace meant and about several points of Christian doctrine. We’ll read about all of this in the coming days, but just know or remember that the church in Corinth had a lot of problems.

Yet, Paul began his letter to them by writing, “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (vv. 2-3).

That greeting gives me great hope. It reminds me that we don’t belong to Christ because we volunteered and worked hard morally to become worthy of being his people.

Instead we are “sanctified in Christ Jesus.” Sanctified means “set apart.” In this context, it refers to our membership in God’s family by faith. It is our association with Christ—being “in Christ Jesus”—that caused us to be set apart to belong to him. It is through the gospel of Jesus that was preached that they were “called to be his holy people” (v. 2).

Despite our many differences, we are one in Christ “with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours” (v. 2). Despite differences in where we live on earth, or when we live on earth, or age, or language, or anything else, if we're in Christ, we are one. We all call on the same Lord and that same Lord is working on us, causing us to grow and become like him.

The city of Ephesus occupied an important place in the New Testament, and here in Acts 19 we read about Paul’s first contact with this city. You know about the letter we call “Ephesians” that Paul wrote to the church there. He also sent Timothy there later on in his place. And, while Timothy was there, Paul also wrote and sent the letters we call 1 & 2 Timothy to Ephesus. Finally, Ephesus was one of the seven churches in Revelation that Jesus spoke to (Rev 2:1). So we read in this chapter the origin story of what would become an important church in the New Testament days.

Things began powerfully there. Paul arrived in Ephesus and found twelve men (v. 7) who were described as “disciples” (v. 1). They were disciples of John, however, because they had not yet heard of Jesus (v. 4). Still, they were faithful to the truth they did have which was the teaching and baptism of John. God sent Paul to them to complete their discipleship by bringing them to Jesus (v. 4) and, when he taught them the gospel they showed the same signs of faith that the original disciples showed (Acts 2:4) and the first Gentile believers also showed (Acts 10:44-48, 11:15-18).

After three months of teaching in the synagogue (v. 8), Paul faced opposition--first from the Jews who did not receive Jesus (v. 9), then from Jewish leaders who tried to claim Jesus’ power for their own reasons (vv. 13-16), then the idol worshipping Gentiles who saw their livelihood threatened (vv. 17-41). God used Paul powerfully both to do miracles delivering people from Satan’s power (vv. 11-12) and to spread the gospel to the region around Ephesus (vv. 9-10). But, God did all of that in the middle of strong opposition from many sides.

That seems to be a pattern throughout church history; wherever God is working powerfully, Satan is always bringing strong opposition from as many directions as possible. It makes sense--doesn’t it?--that Satan would push back as powerfully as he can where God is working powerfully.

So don’t be discouraged if God is using you in the lives of others. There will be opposition and the enemy will seek to discourage you and derail your faithfulness. Just keep doing what God is blessing and keep praying for his power to overcome the opposition you face.

We all know that we should be praying for our missionaries and others who serve the Lord full-time in ministry. But what should we pray for, specifically?

Maybe we ask the Lord to “bless them,” but what do we really mean by that?

Second Thessalonians 3 starts out with Paul’s request for prayer from the Thessalonians. He asks them to pray specifically for two things. Both of these requests serve as good models for our praying for those serving the Lord in the gospel.

We should pray:

1. For people to be saved through the gospel message. Verse 1 says “pray for us that the message of the Lord may” do two things: “spread rapidly” and “be honored.” The message of the Lord spreading rapidly means that people come to Christ for salvation a few or more at a time. Instead of reaching people one-by-one, the gospel spreads rapidly when a crowd of spiritually hungry people hear the gospel and trust Christ. They, in turn, are discipled and organized into churches while simultaneously telling others they know about Christ.In this way, the gospel spreads rapidly. The phrase “be honored” is a way of referring to a response of faith. We see this from the next phrase in verse 1, “just as it was with you”; in other words, just as the Thessalonians honored the gospel by believing it, Paul asked them to pray for others to hear and believe the gospel as well. This is the first way in which we can pray for those serve the Lord—pray for many to hear the gospel and for many to respond to it in faith.
2. For preachers to be delivered from persecution. Paul’s second prayer request for the Thessalonians is in verse 2: “And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people….” This is a request about persecution; specifically, that God would rescue his servants from those who would seek to harm them physically or make it difficult for them to communicate the gospel.Calling them “wicked and evil people” not only describes their own lifestyle, but it reminds us that those who oppose the spread of the gospel are sinning against God. They are not merely misinformed; they are opposing the Lord and his work. The last phrase of verse 2, “for not everyone has faith” explains why there are wicked and evil people in the world. The difference between those who “honor the message of the Lord” (v. 1) and those who oppose it is the gift of faith that God gives to some when they hear the gospel.

   Paul acknowledges that some who hear the gospel will reject it and even oppose the opportunity for others to hear it. Paul asked that those who prayed for his ministry ask the Lord to deliver him from these people. Similarly, when we pray for God’s servants who share the gospel, we can pray for them to be free from the attacks and opposition of those who love disobedience and want to suppress the truth.

Whenever we pray for those serving the Lord in full-time ministry, we can pray for their encouragement, for their health, for their families, for their financial needs, but let's remember to pray, too, for many people to believe the gospel and for protection from those who don't believe the gospel and don't want its message to spread.

Paul continued, in this chapter, his teaching on end time events. We saw that right off the bat in verse 1: "Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him...." Paul described the rise of the Antichrist, called here the "man of lawlessness" (vv. 2-8a), and the deception he will bring on the earth (vv. 9-12). But, in the middle of this description, we are told in verse 8, "the Lord Jesus will overthrow [him] with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming."

So, as bad as the end times will be, Jesus will win. The passage ends, then, with a reminder that they have been saved by God's grace (vv. 13-14). Therefore, Paul encouraged them (and us) to persevere in the faith: "So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter" (v. 15).

Knowing and clinging to the truth of God's word is the key to perseverance. When you start to doubt the truth of God's word or entertain novel interpretations of it, that's will weaken your faith and your walk with God.

The promise of God, however, is that those who believe and follow Jesus to the end will be saved. As verse 14b says, "that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Did you notice that phrase? It's easy to miss but it is so important. God saved us so that we will share in the glory of Jesus Christ.

That "glory" describes his holy character that is being formed in us and and that will be completed in eternity. But it also describes the eternal kingdom God has promised to all of us who love Jesus and follow him. the Bible tells us again and again that we will rule and reign with Christ (2 Tim 2:12, Rev 20:4, 22:5). I cited 2 Timothy 2:12 in that last sentence, but let me quote it for you because it is so on point: "...if we endure, we will also reign with him."

That's God's promise to you and me. No matter how bleak things become on earth, continue to follow Jesus and you will be rewarded with his kingdom.

So don't be deceived by the fake promises of sin or the tantalizing "secrets" of false doctrine. Don't let discouragement keep you from following Jesus. Instead, "...stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you" (v. 15).

In yesterday’s reading we read about the end of humanity as we know it. We learned there in 1 Thessalonians 5 that most of the human race will be caught utterly unprepared when the “day of the Lord” comes in judgment. Here in 2 Thessalonians 1, Paul continued that theme.

The passage began with Paul’s usual greeting to the church (vv. 1-4) and a transitional statement saying that all the ways in which the faith of the Thessalonians was growing (vv. 3-4) was evidence that they would be included in God’s kingdom (v. 5).

At the end of verse 5 Paul noted that it is this kingdom, the kingdom of God, “for which you are suffering.” That phrase both indicates the circumstances the Thessalonians were facing and prepares us for the next few verses which tell us what God will do about it.

According to verse 6, “He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well.” Although all of us were once enemies of God and opponents to his kingdom, God in grace saved from the penalty that we deserved for our sins. That salvation made us “worthy of the kingdom of God” (v. 5b) but also put us on the other side of the rest of humanity which is still at war with God and resisting Christ’s kingdom. That is why believers are persecuted--both back then in Thessalonica and around the world today.

Here, though, God promised that suffering would not be the fate of believers forever. Instead, God will execute justice someday in the future. That justice will give relief to his children who are suffering but deliver judgment to those who reject him and oppose him. And when will this judgment happen? Verse 7 says it will happen “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” In other words, the “day of the Lord” which we read about yesterday in 1 Thessalonians 5 will begin when Christ returns as described here in 2 Thessalonians 1:7b-10.

Christians debate about the timing of these events and this is not the place to address that debate. What we should take away from 2 Thessalonians 1 is the promise that God’s judgment is coming when Jesus returns. On that day there will be justice--eternal punishment for those who are not in Christ (v. 9) but salvation for those of us who are in Christ. Our salvation is not based on our goodness but based on the fact that Christ died in our place, taking God’s punishment for sin for us.

But what do we do while we wait for that day of the Lord? Verses 11-12 tell us. Paul prayed for these believers that “God may make you worthy of his calling.” This prayer was for God to form real righteousness in these believers to match the status of righteousness that he declared them to be in Christ. That “real righteousness” was described in verse 11b as God bringing “to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith.”

Like all believers, the Thessalonians wanted to grow in grace. They wanted to serve God and become like him. Paul prayed for them that, until Jesus comes, they would be growing in God’s grace to become godly men and women. The result of that growth was described in verse 12: “that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

What Paul described in this passage is what God is doing and wants to do in the lives of every believer. It is why I teach God’s word, shepherd his people, and write these devotionals. May God continue to change us and grow us until Christ returns to finally save us.

BTW: this is how we should pray for each other, too. Not that we would have health, happiness, and prosperity but that God would keep working in us to make us “worthy of his calling.”