Tuesday, April 7, 2015

EXPLORE IT - 1 Corinthians 10:1-3

1 Corinthians 10:1-3  For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food…

This week beings our journey into our next sermon series “iRock.”  We will be working our way through 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, beginning this week with verses 1-3.  1 Corinthians is the first of two letters the Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth sometime during A.D. 54-55.  He was writing in response to several problems that had arisen in the Corinthian community.  Factions within the church were developing, taking sides on several areas of spiritual health (i.e. spiritual gifts, sexual immorality, heresy about the resurrection, etc.)

Our passage this week begins by addressing the Corinthians as “brother,” encouraging this church to see one another as family and not as individuals or as separate groups causing division.  Paul desired the Church of Corinth to have true unity.  He also begins to speak of “our forefathers all under the cloud.”  This refers to the Israelites as they journeyed through the desert with Moses, following God as a cloud during the day and as a pillar of fire through the night.  Paul is encompassing the entire Corinthian community, whether Jew or Gentile, as the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Patriarchs of the Jewish faith.  This encourages the understanding that the Gentile believers are full heirs of the Biblical stories and promises, just as the Jewish community is.

As Christians, we too are grafted into God’s family and are full heirs of the stories and promises within the Bible.  We too are brothers and sisters through Christ with the Corinthians Church.  The teaching Paul gives to them is written to us as well.  So as we begin our journey through a portion of 1 Corinthians, will you commit to listening to its teachings as if Paul is writing to you?  Because he is!

Blessings,
Pastor Amy

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