The Right Motives

I am sitting at the very busy Dallas Fortworth Airport to start this blog post. I watch a few frantically get to their gate while Elizabeth and I calmly wait during our long layover. I quickly read the words of Paul (1 Cor. 15) and reflect on a week away from the business of life. In one sense, I am recharged, energized, and ready to return to the “daily grind”. In another sense, I feel guilty that I get the opportunity to go far away to escape the business and experience the beautiful Pacific Northwest Coast. Even a tiny part of me misses this time away with my wife as we get closer to home. 

Paul’s words however, anchor me and suck me back in. I live a pretty comfortable life. I deal with the stress that everyone deals with, bills that need to be paid, conflicts among those I’m closest to, and the stress of raising a three-year-old in our world today, but both Myself and Elizabeth work jobs that more than provide for our family and respects our need to get away. As I read this passage, Paul’s situation and the early churches situation flood my mind. They weren’t thinking about vacations to far-off locations. They were thinking about their everyday lives and everyday problems. Please don’t hear me wrong; the culture around them focused on self much like we do today. Corinth was destroyed by the Romans and rebuilt into a trading hub for Rome that was in its past. At the time of Paul’s writing, it was a Hellenistic Roman trade city. 

This means that the Christians were subjected to the challenges of the day’s culture. Would they worship more than the one true God? Would they use their bodies in sexually impure ways? Would they fall prey to the cultural views on marriage? Or would they hold on to the core of the gospel Paul had already shared with them and seek a relationship with Christ? It is clear from reading this letter that they were struggling and needed Paul’s words to remind them of what was most important. They needed to remember just how beautiful Christ’s death on the Cross was and that His death led to His resurrection. If you read today’s passage (1 Cor 15), you will also learn that Paul wholeheartedly believes we will also experience resurrection. 

I was shocked that the “fun” fictional read cut me deep to my core in how I talk about God’s love. I read “The Girl Behind the Red Rope” by Ted Dekker and Rachelle Dekker. I’ll do my best to share what challenged me without running the plot for those who might pick up the book. There is a moment when the main character realizes that much of the trouble in her world is brought on by her desires, wants, and fears and that the enemy uses that even to make the religious practices (the law) keep her and her peers trapped in not fully realizing and experiencing God’s love. I think like the main character in this book the culture (secular and Christian) can suck our attention from what is most important. 

It isn’t so far-fetched to believe that we are much like the Corinthians, looking to the structures and practices around us and even maybe trying to clean them up for our Church. I want to be like Paul, unphased by the persecution of those he once was best friends with, unfazed and persisting in writing letters to churches while in prison; he (Paul) even writes them even though it sometimes sounds like they might be a lost cause. The only way Paul could persist like this wasn’t because of well-timed vacations (though God does call us to rest in Him regularly) but because he experienced Christ and knew just how beautiful Christ’s death and resurrection were. He understands the freedom found in Christ and that freedom leads to a life focused on who Christ was and is. Paul’s life was no longer about rules, regulations, and laws, but it didn’t let him off the hook on who Christ called him to be. 

This week, as you feel weighed down, remember the freedom found in Christ and allow Christ to speak truth into your life, transforming who you are and how you live. 

Lord, give us eyes to see you and be transformed by your love living as you call us. Amen

Feel free to let me know how I can be praying for you this week. I’d love to be praying for you.