David Bahn – Reflections

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I’m using the 49 Week Bible Challenge for these blog posts. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 1 Corinthians 15:54-58; 1 Chronicles 18; 19; 20.

1 Corinthians 15:54-58

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
⁵⁵ “O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”

⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Well, that was a wasted day! Have you ever had that feeling? You spend a day driving to some far distant government office, assured by means of a phone call that was where you needed to go, and they would have what you need. Only the office there is closed and they’ve moved to a new location – on the other side of town! Or you walk in and they have no idea what you’re talking about or why you would have come to their location. Perhaps you’ve worked on a project at work only to discover that it’s been scuttled; your work is in vain.

Humanly-speaking we may be able to identify 1000’s of cases where people’s work has been in vain. From carefully preparing a home-cooked meal only to learn your guests already ate to spending hours waiting for a repair technician who never shows.

But let’s go even deeper. Let’s say you pour yourself into discipling someone in the Christian faith, but who suddenly leaves without explanation, and abandons the faith. Is that even possible? I wish I had never had the experience of having a man come into my office and announce without apology that he was leaving his wife and two daughters to move away and start a new life with another woman.

Was my preaching, teaching, and pastoring in vain? It would seem to put Paul’s promises to the test. What good did it do in his case? Or what if our children abandon us, or worse yet, the faith and remove themselves from the fellowship of the redeemed? Is all our effort to raise them right in vain?

We must believe God’s word through Paul that our labor in the Lord is never in vain. There are two wonderful truths to which we can tie our hearts in regard to this. First of all – the last chapter of God’s story in our family’s lives, or a wayward church member has not been written – until that Great Last Day comes. Where there is life, there is hope. And second: look at this chapter! This is the Resurrection Chapter! The tomb is empty! In light of that reality, even the days that feel wasted or fruitless are gathered up by God, who weaves them into his saving purposes.

God can raise the dead. He showed that in Jesus. And those who believe in him can be certain that it’s not over until it’s actually over. Whatever energy, effort, blood, sweat, and tears we may have put into raising our children or guiding a brother in Christ is not wasted. It will be honored and redeemed. That’s the promise of the resurrection and the beautiful blessing of God’s grace.

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I’m using the 49 Week Bible Challenge for these blog posts. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 1 Corinthians 15; Isaiah 22; Hosea 13; Ezekiel 45; 46.

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ² and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

TV personality and show host Larry King once said that if he could interview anyone from history, he’d choose Jesus Christ — because the answer to one question, ‘Were you really born of a virgin?’ would define history. King understood that if Jesus truly entered the world as God in the flesh — and rose again — that changes everything.

Antony Flew, a famous atheist philosopher, later said the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus “is outstandingly different in quality and quantity” compared to other claimed miracles.

So there you have it. Larry King says in effect, that the resurrection of Jesus – if it were true – changes everything. King was a self-described agnostic and of Jewish ethnicity, yet he realized how pivotal Jesus’ virgin birth and bodily resurrection is to all of life. Antony Flew recognized that the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection is not easily dismissed.

They are echoing Paul’s witness here in 1 Corinthians 15. Paul further says, “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ” (v. 14-15). The resurrection of Jesus is one of two pillars on which the Good News of Jesus rests – the other being the virgin conception and birth of our Lord.

I’m not certain how much thought we give to this foundational truth. Perhaps that’s because it is so remarkable – nearly unbelievable. But it is of first importance, and the foundation of our hope for our eternal salvation. Not only that (as if that isn’t enough!), here’s the application for us today: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (15:58).

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I’m using the 49 Week Bible Challenge for these blog posts. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 1 Corinthians 14; Isaiah 28; Amos 7; Numbers 10.

1 Corinthians 14:6-9, 13-19

Now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching? ⁷ If even lifeless instruments, such as the flute or the harp, do not give distinct notes, how will anyone know what is played? ⁸ And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? ⁹ So with yourselves, if with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air. 

¹³ Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret. ¹⁴ For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful. ¹⁵ What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also. ¹⁶ Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? ¹⁷ For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. ¹⁸ I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. ¹⁹ Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

I have an untested theory about the Charismatic Movement of the 1970s. It may have risen, at least in part, as a response to a growing loss of confidence in Scripture. In those years, many dismissed biblical miracles as natural phenomena – a red algae bloom instead of the Nile turning to blood, Jesus “appearing” to walk on water rather than truly doing so. The supernatural was being explained away.

In that climate, a groundswell of people rediscovered a living faith in Jesus. The Jesus Movement spread across the United States and Europe, bringing with it a deep respect for Scripture and a renewed belief in God’s power. From it grew a wave of charismatic gifts – tongues, healings, and prophecies – vivid reminders that God was still alive and active among His people.

Without judging those sincere believers or their gifts, I sometimes wonder if this renewal was a Spirit-led answer to an age that had lost its sense of the spiritual.

Whether or not such gifts continue today, Paul’s warning to the Corinthians still applies: God gives His gifts for one great purpose – that all people might be saved and come to know the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). Religious enthusiasm may have its place, but the clearest sign of the Spirit’s work is when hearts are brought to faith through the plain, powerful proclamation of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

God wants you and me to know that clearly – and to live in ways that honor Christ in the ordinary rhythms of life. Most often, his work isn’t revealed through moments of religious euphoria, but through people who speak simply and clearly of God’s great love — the fullness of grace and truth found in Jesus.

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I’m using the 49 Week Bible Challenge for these blog posts. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 1 Corinthians 13; Job 13; 19; 26; 36.

1 Corinthians 13:4-13

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Many couples choose 1 Corinthians 13, the “Love Chapter,” for their wedding service and the message I share that day. I like to make a point by substituting their names for the word love in the passage:

Joe is patient and kind; Mary does not envy or boast; he is not arrogant or rude. She does not insist on her own way…

It doesn’t take long before they glance at each other, sometimes with a smile, sometimes with a little shame or accusation. You can almost hear it in their eyes: You’re not all that! or I wish I were more like that.

This passage is perfect for a wedding – after all, love is essential for Christian marriage – but Paul didn’t write it about marriage. He wrote it to a divided church. The Corinthians were quarreling over leaders, bragging about their spirituality, abusing Holy Communion, tolerating immorality, and even taking each other to court.

Paul had just finished teaching about the Holy Spirit giving different gifts to different people. Now he shows them the more excellent way – the way the church is to live out faith with God and with one another.

Love is the way the body of Christ is built up. It’s the heart of true worship and the measure of every offering. It’s impossible to make a bold witness or a genuine sacrifice without love.

The trouble is, we’re not very good at it. I lose my temper too quickly. You may recognize impatience, envy, or pride in your own heart. None of us display love perfectly, but by God’s grace we keep learning – at home, in marriage, and in the church.

Here’s the good news: when you put Jesus’ name in place of love, in the passage it finally fits.

Jesus is patient and kind. Jesus does not envy or boast. He is not arrogant or rude. He does not insist on His own way; He is not irritable or resentful. He does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Jesus bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Jesus never ends.

That’s because Jesus is God in the flesh, and God is love.

When Jesus’ love fills our hearts and shapes our lives, it spills over into marriages, friendships, and communities that reflect his love to a world desperately in need of Him.

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I’m using the 49 Week Bible Challenge for these blog posts. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 1 Corinthians 12; Psalm 115; Judges 17; 18.

1 Corinthians 12:12-20

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

¹⁴ For the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? ¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

I am not a details person. Too many details? My brain gets full and I cannot process any more. But sometimes I need to know those details. Time, place, date, and occasion are important details. So while I may know there are is something happening sometime somewhere, unless I know the details, I’ll miss the party! Diane, however, is a details person. She keeps track of all those things. And they are all important. And she can handle them all much better than I. Most often that is a blessing. I know the big picture things. Diane knows the specifics. We need each other.

But that can be frustrating. I can feel my way through many a computer problem, like how to change a setting or how to fix an issue. Diane needs the steps. So it’s difficult for me to teach her. I frustrate her by saying, “I don’t know, I just do it.” She frustrates me because she can’t just figure things out.

The same can be true in the church. Some people are wired to care for people. Their hearts go out to those in troubling situations and they can’t understand why everyone is not responding as they do. Others are wired to keep the church running. They drop everything when the air conditioning goes out and can’t understand why people say it’s not that important.

But we need both – in the church and in life. That’s why God put us together in the church and the world. We need details people who track expenses and read financial statements. We need also to have Sunday School teachers, and small group leaders. We need pastors and evangelists and trustees and administrators. That’s all God’s provision for us.

When it works best it’s like a human body. The hands and eyes work with the ears and feet to see where to go, hear what is being said, and help where needed.

And when it all comes together, it’s a beautiful thing to see. The church becomes what God designed it to be – one body, many parts, each doing its share. The detail people make sure nothing falls through the cracks. The big-picture people keep our eyes on the mission. The helpers, the teachers, the givers, the pray-ers – all serving under one Head, Christ himself. When we honor each other’s gifts instead of competing with them, the whole body grows strong. And in the end, it’s not about who does what — it’s about God working through all of us to build up His people in love.

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I’m using the 49 Week Bible Challenge for these blog posts. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 1 Corinthians 10:1-13; Exodus 17;32; Numbers 20; 25.

1 Corinthians 10:11-13

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. ¹² Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. ¹³ No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

I can resist everything but temptation. This quote by Oscar Wilde seems humorous. But while his saying is humorous, for an unbeliever it is also sad and true. Those without Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Scriptures do not have the internal strength to resist temptation. The devil, the world and the sinful flesh will always win. That is true especially of the fundamental sin: to refuse to honor God, to hold onto their own arrogant pride. Wilde struggled with faith and eventually came to reflect deeply on Christ’s compassion, suffering, and forgiveness, calling Jesus “the most supreme of individualists.”

Those who do believe in Jesus – who have been brought to faith – must never hide behind Wilde’s ascertion. Paul is making that clear in this passage from 1 Corinthians 10. First he warns against pride – the foundational sin. He urges us to consider the history of Israel to learn from their example of faithlessness, and to be humble before God and man. Then he promises that whenever temptation comes our way we will be presented a way out. God will make a way for us to escape the pitfall that temptation is.

Jesus teaches us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Those two not only go together, they reflect the lesson Jesus surely learned during his time after his baptism and in the wilderness when he was tempted by Satan. Jesus knows what it is like to face temptation. He also knows deliverance. For not only did he rely on the Scripture to thwart Satan’s schemes, he was also ministered to by angels at the end of those 40 days.

It seems to me that the key to resisting temptation is twofold. First we must rely on God’s strength, the Holy Spirit’s power and the truth of Scripture if we are to resist temptation. Second – and perhaps just as important – we must flee from temptation. We must take advantage of the way of escape that God promises. Even that may be difficult because temptation can be so pleasant – it can seem so appealing to give in to anger, frustration, greed, lust, or bitterness. But when God provides a way out, we must take it!

Click here for an audio version of this blog post.

I’m using the 49 Week Bible Challenge for these blog posts. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are 1 Corinthians 9; Deuteronomy 20; 25; 1 Samuel 27;  Proverbs 12.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. ²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. ²¹ To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. ²³ I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

The bathroom sink in my room doesn’t have a stopper. That was the problem the customer presented to my mom. I overheard it and immediately sprang into action. I ran down to the utility room, and appropriated the stopper from that sink and took it to the man. I think I was 8 or 9 years old. My mom and the customer were impressed.

I have always been a problem solver. That’s a good thing most of the time. Don’t try it in a marriage relationship though. That is almost never what my Diane wants when she shares a problem with me. Sometimes she does, and I’m happy to solve it. Many times, however, she just wants a listening ear.

The same is often true in the church. Many times people just want to express their concerns, be heard, acknowledged, and understood. Sometimes they want a problem solved. But it’s important to know the difference.

Accommodating people’s requests and preferences can be challenging. But when those don’t conflict with Scripture or cause further conflict in the church, I have always tried to do it. I haven’t always succeeded, but I have tried. It’s the way God wired me from early on. Look for solutions to problems. Act when you can. Listen to the customer. Those motel lessons are hard wired in my brain.

Paul had some hard-wired lessons as well. From the time of his first missionary journey he did all he could to share the Gospel message of Jesus’ death and resurrection – that Jesus is the Messiah and Savior of all people. Here he writes about the flexibility and accommodations he made during his missionary work.

He would live as a Jew’s Jew among the Jews. He would reason like the best of the Greek philosophers when he witnessed to the Greeks. He knew how to relate to God-fearing Gentiles, kings and magistrates, and jailers and fellow prisoners.

Paul wasn’t duplicitous. He was committed. He was committed to saving as many as possible (though he knew that only God really saves!). And he did all he could to spread the reign and rule of Jesus.

Some people seem not to flex at all. They remain completely unchanged in the face of new contexts. A member of a church I served long ago one day said, “Can’t they (outsiders) come here and become like us?” That was definitely not the attitude of Paul. And I believe he was right. He never compromised the truth of God’s word, but he did all he could to relate to and save people according to their needs.

Next time something bothers you about the way things are going in your church, ask yourself, “Does this violate God’s word? Or is this my personal preference?” Guess what must bend and what must not?

Paul did that not only for the sake of those he sought to reach, but also for his own sake, that he could share with others the blessings of Jesus’ love and salvation. That’s great motivation for us all.