My Morning Meal

Discontentment . . . I wonder how much time, money, and resource goes into battling discontentment. People not happy with their current situation bent on changing it. People frustrated at where they’re at, or how things are playing out, so they pour their blood, sweat, and tears into altering their reality. Whether it’s driven by self-imposed goals . . . or by some “greener grass on the other side of the fence” . . . or by some idealistic view of how their lives should be turning out . . . they want to be somebody else . . . or be doing something else . . . or be living somewhere else.

And it’s not necessarily that what they aspire to, or dream of, is wrong . . . or shouldn’t be aspired to. But it’s not their current reality . . . and so they are discontent . . . and they are frustrated . . . and they can get trapped into being consumed with the “if only.” When, in fact, they may just need to rest and continue in the “whatever condition” God has called them to.

Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches. . . . So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.   (1Corinthians 7:17, 24 ESV)

Seems like there may have been some “now what?” confusion in Corinth. “I’m saved . . . now what?” I’m saved and married to an unbeliever . . . do I need to get out of this relationship? I’ve been a Law abiding son of Abraham . . . now that I’m saved do I now try to “remove the marks of circumcision?” Or, I never knew who Abraham was, should I now be circumcised? I’m saved and I’m a bondservant . . . surely God intends a better life for me, do I rebel and run? Now what?

Paul’s answer, lead the life that the Lord has assigned to you.

Not that Paul is saying that God won’t lead us to a very different place than we are today . . . nor that God purpose for us will not involve a change of life situation. In fact, the “life that the Lord has assigned” may look very different tomorrow than today.

But what Paul is saying is that right now . . . in today’s “whatever condition” . . . there we should remain, or abide, with God.

Our current reality should be seen in the context of God’s calling. Our current situation placed under the umbrella of God’s sovereign purposes. And in that, we can abide . . . we can rest . . . and we can trust, that the next steps, or the next season, will reveal itself in God’s timing.

We were bought with a price, says Paul (7:23). Purchased with the precious blood of Christ that He might own us as His special people . . . redeemed at great cost that we might know the divine fellowship we were created for . . . ransomed through the power of a resurrected life that we might be adopted into His forever family. He has bought us and He has called us. And so, I’m thinkin’, He’s got our “whatever condition,” figured out . . . both for today, and for tomorrow. Ours is to live with the mindset that we are living out His calling . . . by His power . . . for His purposes.

And so, while I might have my dreams, desires, and aspirations, many of which I trust have been formed by the Spirit moving within me, I need not know discontent nor frustration. Because I’m called to remain . . . to adide . . . with God in my “whatever condition.”

By His grace . . . for His glory . . .

It’s known around these parts (aka my home) as the “chin of disapproval.” Over the years, bringing up five daughters, working with kids in youth groups and camp settings, my wife has perfected it. Often, it was all that was required for the girls to know they needed to get back in the line they had just stepped out of. Subtle but effective. I don’t think Jesus had a chin of disapproval, but something I read this morning has me wondering about the look Jesus gave when he was angry.

I’m in Mark 3 and Jesus is in the synagogue . . . the place where you expect to find the people of God. And He is drawn to a man with a withered hand . . . and the eyes of the religious elite are drawn to Him.

And they watched Jesus, to see whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart . . . ”  (Mark 3:2-5a ESV)

Jesus saw the man’s deformed hand . . . and Jesus knew the religious leaders’ deformed hearts. These men of the Book . . . these leaders of the congregation of the righteous . . . their hearts were hard. Even when Jesus tried to engage them in a logical discussion of the merits of healing a man on the Sabbath, they remained silent. It wasn’t a matter of could they believe . . . the evidence and testimony of Jesus’ power was clear . . . but it was solely a matter of what they wanted to believe. And they were not prepared to believe in anything that in any way compromised their self-serving positions of authority.

And so, records Mark, Jesus looked at them with anger. Peterson, in the Message, imagines that “He looked them in the eye, one after another, angry now, furious at their hard-nosed religion.”

Eye to eye with Jesus in His anger . . . makes the chin of disapproval pale in comparison. To grieve the Son of God . . . to agitate the Author of Life . . . to provoke the wrath of the Creator and Sustainer of all things. Talk about crossing a line!

And, as I reflect on it, I guess I have two reactions. One is to thank God that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Though once an enemy . . . though once opposed to the King . . . though once a possessor of a calloused heart of stone . . . because of the finished work of the cross, and through the abundant grace of God, there is no “chin” for me. No glare . . . no stare . . . no “how could you?!?”

My other thought though, is Paul’s exhortation to the believers at Ephesus to “not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30). The word used by Paul indicating not so much an evoking of anger as it is of making one sad or sorrowful . . . of causing the Lord “distress” through actions unbefitting a child of God. It’s not that I fear “the chin” . . . it’s that I don’t want to do anything that would cause my Savior to grieve.

And yet, I know my frame . . . and He does too. I know my weakness . . . and He says His grace is sufficient. I know my failures . . . and He says that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1John 1:9).

My desire is to please Him . . . my confidence is in the finished work of the cross . . .

No chin for those who are in Christ Jesus. By His grace . . . for His glory . . .

You can almost imagine Paul’s jaw dropped low . . . his eyes stretched wide . . . as he glares unbelievingly (at least in his mind ) at those who will read his letter . . . and says, “Really!?!? Really!?!?” You, who are going to judge the world, . . . you, who are going to judge angels, . . . you can’t settle a dispute among yourselves? You need to sit before unbelievers to deal with lawsuits against each other? And that you’d even have lawsuits at all is unbelievable. Better that you suffered wrong . . . better that you be defrauded than take such disputes to the world for resolution. But, beyond that, that there should be a basis for a lawsuit does not compute . . . that a brother in the Lord would defraud another brother is inconceivable!

That’s the issue Paul deals with in the first part of the sixth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians. Unbelievable! Some among these saints persisted in living like sinners . . . defrauding their brothers . . . and it poured out into the world as they battled one another like the unsaved . . . and the name of Christ was shamed . . . the “new life” they proclaimed to possess looked a lot like the “old life.” Paul says, Stop it! That’s not who you are.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. 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.   (1Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV)

“And such were some of you . . . ” Oh, the grace that flows from that short, but powerful, declaration!

Not because of our righteousness, were we wooed into the Family of Faith . . . not because we were better than anyone else, were we declared to be a holy and royal priesthood. No, “such were some of you” . . . sinners . . . far from God . . . at enmity with God. But no longer. That was then . . . we live in a very different now.

In the name of Jesus, those of faith have been washed by the blood of the Lamb and cleansed with truth of the Word . . . they have been set apart for holy purposes . . . they have been declared righteous and without fault . . . all through the active agency of the Spirit of God. They have had an encounter of the divine kind and it has changed everything. The old has passed away . . . the new is come (2Cor. 5:17). It is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20).

Sometimes I think we Christians just need to get in touch with who we really are and, by His grace, and through the power of His Spirit, determine to walk in the light of that reality.

We are the people of God. God having started a work in us to conform us to the likeness of His Son. We should seek to walk in that likeness. Our conduct being above reproach, first and foremost, toward others in the household of God, and then, to those who are yet outside of Christ. We should forgive according to that likeness. Our tolerance for being wronged gauged against Jesus’ humiliation for our sake and not based on the letter of the law which defines “our rights.” Our desire for the kingdom fueled by that likeness, that the affairs of this world are considered, at best, secondary as we set our sights on another land.

“And such were some of you . . . ” Praise God for new life in Christ! By His grace, may we live out that life such that His Name is lifted up.

Really!!!!

That they had problems in Corinth is evident. That they had such problems as described in chapter five, is a bit disturbing. Sexual immorality, and of a kind, says Paul, “that is not tolerated even among pagans.” Rather than dealing with the sin in their midst, they boasted of it. I don’t think they boasted in a way that condoned the sin or promoted it . . . but boasted, I’m thinking, of the degree of grace that they thought they were showing to this wayward brother. But what they failed to recognize was that he was sin-infested and that they needed to “Purge the evil person from among you” (5:13).

It was not intended to be an act of retribution, but an act intended for his restoration and redemption . . . that the one who had embraced such sin, might, through being put out of fellowship, come to his senses and return to the cross and seek the cleansing power of the blood. But beyond the intention of such action towards the “sick sheep,” it was also intended for the welfare of the flock, the entire congregation. For, says Paul again, “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?  Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.    (1Corinthians 5:6-8 ESV)

A lump . . . that’s what the church is likened to here . . . a new lump . . . an unleavened lump.

Next Sunday, Lord willing, our church family will gather around the Lord’s table. We will quiet ourselves and reflect again on the love of God shown to a lost world through the cross. We’ll take the bread and the cup in remembrance of the One who came to offer Himself as the atoning sacrifice for all sin. We’ll recall that the Son of God entered into His creation in order to be slain as the spotless, undefiled, Lamb of God . . . shedding His blood for the remission of sin. We may call to mind again the power of the blood as first foreshadowed on that night of deliverance from Egypt . . . that where the blood was applied, the angel of death would pass over. Maybe we’ll reconnect the dots between the Lord’s supper and the Passover feast . . . both celebrations of deliverance.

And just as the ancient Israelites were to observe the Passover with unleavened bread, the church is to seek to celebrate the Lord’s Supper with the “unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Unleavened . . . free from sin’s replicating agency. Dealing with intentional and habitual sin. Desiring sincerity and truth.

Not perfection . . . for our perfection is found only in Christ. Not without stumbling . . . for we are called to restore brothers and sisters who are “tripped up” in a fault (Gal. 6:1). But, where there is a premeditated predetermination toward sin, “the lump” needs to deal with it . . . otherwise the leaven expands, permeating more and more of “the lump.”

There is connection between Christ’s finished work and how Christ’s “in progress” people are to conduct themselves. He gave Himself for our us . . . we, by His grace, seek to preserve ourselves for Him.

A lump . . . a new lump . . . an unleavened lump . . . a lump for His glory.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am the furthest thing from being a handyman. The tools I possess fit into two small drawers . . . and that’s twice the space needed to contain my skills as a builder and fixer of things. My idea of a construction project is putting together IKEA furniture. Most of the “power” stuff we own is because my wife has bought it and uses it. Nope . . . nobody’s gonna mistake me for a master craftsman . . . at least not when it comes to physical stuff. But I’m reminded again this morning that, in the spiritual realm, I possess a “workshop” . . . and have been provided with some “tools” . . . and been graced with some skills . . . so that I might build upon the foundation of my salvation, Jesus Christ. And that mine is to be a careful builder.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw–each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1Corinthians 3:10-15 ESV)

Paul says the foundation has been laid and now, “each man must be careful how he builds on it” (NASB). It’s not about “if” I build I on it . . . it is only about “how” I build on it. It’s not like I can say, “Good enough. I’m saved now . . . I’ve got my ‘fire insurance.’ I don’t want anymore Christianity than what I have. I’ll hold right here.” No, Paul says that, as believers, we are building on the foundation and we need to be careful how we’re doing it.

Our handiwork will become clear . . . there will be “the Day” when we stand before Jesus and He’ll examine and test the quality of what we’ve built upon the foundation of our salvation. What kind of materials did we use? . . . . gold, silver, precious stones? . . . or wood, hay, and straw? The fire will test our work. For some, our work will stand up and endure . . . for others, it will be burned up. For some, we will receive reward . . . and for others, they “will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames” (NLT). That is the reality of the Christian life . . . saved by the grace of God . . . placed firmly on the foundation of Jesus Christ . . . asked to build upon that foundation for His glory.

That’s the deal . . .

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)

It’s not about earning salvation . . . it is about living out our salvation . . . growing up in Christ . . . showing the reality of the difference God’s grace makes . . . embracing being the temple of God, inhabited by the Spirit (3:16) . . . wanting to build up that temple that He might be exalted.

So . . . while you will never see “the house Pete built” on some piece of land on this earth, I do hope to present to the Lord, on that Day, that which I’ve built upon the foundation of Christ.

I desire to be faithful with the tools He has given me . . . to be a careful builder.

By His grace alone . . . for His glory alone . . .

You just know that the situation in the church at Corinth was complex. It was complex because of the pagan culture and norms they had grown up with prior to being “called into fellowship with His Son.” Complex because they were “not lacking in any gift” and yet, weren’t sure how to steward the abundant grace that God had poured out on them. Complex because of different allegiances to different preachers and teachers that allowed schisms to simmer in their midst. Complex because of a lack of maturity in how to apply the grace found in the new life to the problem of sin still evident in the old man. The list goes on and on. These people had issues! So where does Paul begin as he seeks to address the many issues in the church of Corinth? He begins with the power of God.

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. . . . we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
(1Corinthians 1:17-18, 23-24 ESV)

Paul begins with the folly of the cross . . . the power of God for those who are “being saved.” Their issues were complex . . . but the key to unraveling them and working through them was to begin with the cross . . . and Christ crucified . . . the power of God.

How often we see the cross only as something associated with our past . . the means by which we WERE SAVED. When, as Paul reminds these issue ridden believers, we need to return to the cross, again and again, believing it is also the power of God as we are BEING SAVED.

We can get caught up in our spiritual disciplines . . . can surround ourselves with our favorite internet preachers . . . consume ourselves with making use of our spiritual gifts . . . but if we lose sight of the power of God for salvation, we run the risk, just as the church of Corinth did, of having all the right stuff but going in the wrong direction.

There’s something humbling about the cross. A reminder that, apart from God’s loving determination to redeem us, we would have been helpless to rescue ourselves. That, apart from God’s grace, our sin was more than great enough to eternally bar us from knowing His presence. That, apart from the spotless Lamb of God giving His life for us and imparting His righteous nature to us, we would be powerless to walk in the way of the kingdom we’ve been called into. “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1:31).

The good news of the cross. It’s not about eloquent words or even things that make sense to a lost world. But, for those to whom God has given ears to hear, it is the power of God for salvation . . . the power to enter into new life . . . the power to navigate new life.

We’ve all got issues. So where do we start? O’, may God continually draw us to the cross . . . and it’s finished work. May He lift our heads to the risen Christ . . . and His glorious person.

For His glory . . .