Author Archive for: meiling

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Corinthians 16:1-12.  Let’s go!

1 Corinthians 16:1-12 (NIV)
1  Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do.
2  On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
3  Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem.
4  If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me. ……

On verses 1-12:  In 1 Corinthians 16:1-12, Paul shares his plans with his church in Corinth.  Notice how intentional and thoughtful Paul is in his planning.  Whether it’s about giving and collecting offerings (v1-4), about his travels and how he spends his time (v5-8), about how to treat his own disciples like Timothy (v10-11) or how to lead and take care of the church (v12), Paul explores different options, considers their advantages and disadvantages, and carefully plans out his steps.

What can we learn from this?  Whether it’s in regard to your ministry, your family, your finances, the way you give, your future, or your friendships, be a thoughtful planner.

Beware the misconception that spiritual leadership is all about “feeling the Holy Spirit” and nothing more.  Those who think this way will try to make it seem as though thoughtful planning is somehow unspiritual, that to plan means you’re not trusting God, and that it is more spiritual and supernatural to be spontaneous than to be strategic. 

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Corinthians 15:50-58.  Let’s go!

1 Corinthians 15:50-53 (NIV)
50  I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
51  Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed–
52  in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
53  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

On verses 50-53:  What is Paul saying here?  Let me explain it this way.  When you trust Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).  You received a new heart and a new spirit (one destined to be with God forever rather than one destined to be apart from God forever) (Ezekiel 36:26).  But while your spirit was made new in Christ, your body didn’t change.  I would be really surprised if the moment you received Jesus into your life, you went from balding to a full head of hair, or from a beer belly to six pack abs, or from your current bodily measurements to a clothing size up or down.  In other words, though some crucial changes happened in your spirit when you received Jesus, your body stayed the same.  

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Corinthians 15:35-49.  Let’s go!

On verses 35-49:  In 1 Corinthians 15:35-49, Paul addresses a question that people back then and people today have about resurrection: if Christians will physically rise from the dead, what kind of bodies will they have? Will we look the same way as when we died?  Will we look like zombies? Will those who died with wounds still show those wounds when they are resurrected? Will we look younger or older?  What about people whose bodies were cremated after they died? What will our resurrected bodies look like?

In response to these questions, Paul says: don’t expect your resurrection body to look just like the body you died in (v37). Rather, your resurrection body will have a splendour that is altogether different from your earthly body (v40).

Does that mean that guys who always wanted six pack abs will get it with their resurrection body? Does that mean the parts of your body which you wish were smaller or bigger will be your ideal size when you get your resurrection body? I can’t promise anything. But if we take a clue from how the disciples didn’t immediately recognize the resurrected Jesus after he appeared to them (for example, Luke 24:15-16), it’s very possible that when your loved ones see you in your resurrected body, your resurrection body will look different enough that they might not recognize you at first, but then when they realize it’s you they’ll be like, “Wow! It IS you!”

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Corinthians 15:29-34. Let’s go!

1 Corinthians 15:29 (NIV) 
29 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 

On verse 29:  Welcome to one of the more controversial verses in the Bible.  When Paul writes about people being “baptized for the dead”, what does he mean?  Paul seems to be describing a practice where a Christian would get baptized for an unbaptized dead person (perhaps a relative, an ancestor, or a friend).  This is the only place in Scripture that refers to this practice.  Now it is highly questionable whether getting baptized on behalf of an unbaptized dead person has any effect at all.  Baptism of course is a personal decision.  We can’t save someone from their sins or secure their place in heaven by getting baptized on their behalf.  Some scholars even see Paul as being sarcastic and rhetorical in verse 29, as if to say, “What good is it to get baptized for the dead?”  For all these reasons, baptizing for the dead is not something you see practiced widely in churches today, if at all.
Still, verse 29 shows us how important baptism was to the early church and how seriously the early church took Jesus’ command to get baptized.  Baptism is not an option for believers, but a command from Jesus himself (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16).  In fact, if you’re not willing to get baptized even though you have the opportunity to do so, you need to question whether you really believe in Jesus.  If I say, “Jesus I want to follow You”, and Jesus says, “Okay.  Go and get baptized”, and I say, “Well, let me think about it, or let me wait until my circumstances are more perfect”, then you need to question whether your heart is really set on following Jesus, or if you’re actually following something else more closely.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Corinthians 15:20-28. Let’s go!

1 Corinthians 15:20-23 (NIV) 
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 
21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 
22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 
23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 

On verses 20 to 23:  As we near the end of his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul talks about things that we as Christians can look forward to in the future.  The first thing that will happen as a pre-cursor to “the end” is that God’s people will be resurrected.  Just as death came to all people through one man, Adam, when Adam sinned against God, resurrection from death has been made possible for all people through one man, Jesus Christ, when he rose from the dead.  In other words, because of our connection to Adam the first man who sinned, like Adam we too were destined to die and be separated from God.  But because of our connection to Jesus the only man who never sinned and who rose from the dead, like Jesus we too will experience resurrection from the dead.  So when Paul says that Christ is “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v20), he means that Christ is the first to die, rise from the dead, and never die again, and that we as people who have trusted in Jesus (“those who belong to him”) will follow in His footsteps and also be raised from the dead one day (v23).  Praise God!  For Christians, death is not the end.  For after death comes resurrection.