Old Sandals

1 Corinthians 14:13
Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

The Lord graciously gave gifts to His young church, by the Holy Spirit, to build them up and as a witness to unbelievers.  But these gifts were not divinely micro-managed.  Abuses in the Corinthian church eventually caught the attention of the apostle, who here offers correcting counsel.

1 Corinthians 13:2
“If I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”

This is hypothetically-speaking, of course.  It is the quality of faith to which Jesus refers when he speaks of moving mountains, not its quantity.  The size of a mustard seed.  Very small, but very pure.

Surely to have a such a pure faith in God is also to have a pure love for Him.  How can one exist without the other?

1 Corinthians 12:25-26
There should be no division in the body,…its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

We are just parts.  None of us constitute the whole.  The whole is the mystical body of Christ.  His life in us—in all of us.  This is why we intercede for one another.  We are never alone.

Remember the old Russian Orthodox saying: “The only thing you can do alone, by yourself, is perish.”

 

I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you.  1 Corinthians 11:2

Tradition—holy tradition—is a good thing.  Holy tradition is the way the teaching was passed down and preserved in the very early church, before the writings of the apostles were widespread.

Holy tradition should also be thought of as the stream of living water flowing out from Pentecost into all the church in the years and centuries following.

This is true despite the fact that the Church—like Israel of old—has oftentimes failed in her calling and mission. Nevertheless, the water remains pure at the Source; it ever flows both to quench the thirst and to flood the heart of those who take seriously the calling and mission–to speak out and live out the message of God’s love to the world.

I Corinthians 10:1-4
Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.

The church fathers are sometimes criticized for interpreting the Scriptures in too allegorical a fashion. But isn’t that exactly what the apostle is doing in this chapter?

I Corinthians 9:10
He who plows should plow in hope.

Our hope does not give us an excuse not to plow, as if plowing isn’t necessary in light of the Lord’s soon return. Rather, it gives us a reason to keep on plowing, knowing that in due season…

I Corinthians 8:5-6
For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there  is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

The one God is the Father. He is the Source of everything. Of Whom are all things. Yet Christ is also God, the “God-Man” as Origen first said. By the Son of God, eternally Begotten of the Father, were all things created. Through Whom are all things.

I Corinthians 7:10-11
Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.

Not I but the Lord. Serious stuff.

I Corinthians 6:2
Do you not know that the saints will judge the  world?

   Do you not know that we shall judge angels? 
   Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
   Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
   Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with  her?
   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?

I Corinthians 5:12-13
For what have I to  do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges.

“Who am I to judge?”. Perhaps it was with these verses in mind that Pope Francis made his recent, somewhat controversial comment.