Latest / Scripture Central / Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Aug 21 - Aug 27)1 Corinthians 1–7

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Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Aug 21 - Aug 27)1 Corinthians 1–7 · Scripture Central

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Hello everyone. Thanks for listening to Come
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Follow Me Insights with Taylor and Tyler presented by Scripture
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Central. We use a lot of visuals in our
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videos, so if you want to see the visuals, we invite you to
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find us on YouTube. Thanks for listening and enjoy.
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I'm Taylor and I'm Tyler. This is Scripture Central's
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Come, Follow Me insights. Today First Corinthians chapters
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one through 7. Now if you look at the heading
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for this book, it says the first epistle of Pauly, apostle to the
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Corinthians. In reality, it's his second
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epistle or his second letter written to these Corinthian
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Saints. If you look at chapter 5, verse
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nine, he references this initial letter that he sent to them.
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And then later on in this letter here you find out that they've
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written back to him. So this is the third
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correspondence at least that we have record of, but we're
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missing those first two even though they're referenced here.
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So there's been some water under the bridge and the apparently
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the message he's gotten back is concerning some pretty
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significant struggles that they're facing in Corinth.
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So I think it's interesting to to note the location of these
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Corinthian Saints being just South of Athens down on the
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Peloponnese of Greece. It's near the epicenter of Greek
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philosophy and Greek learning and the Greek language and
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basically the Greek way of life. And all the trade, if you look
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on a map, you can see that Corinth really controls all the
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trade routes, east, West from a water standpoint and the
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north-south on land. And when you have that much
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interaction, usually you're going to have a lot of diversity
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in terms of lifestyle, religions, languages.
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And people, and this is one of the big issues that Paul is
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dealing with, is how to help people be unified.
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Now we saw this in the Epistle to the Romans.
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How do you help people become unified in Jesus?
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The question is, Tyler, does this matter at all?
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Today we don't exactly live in a unified world.
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Today we don't live in in a world that breeds peace,
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peacemaking and forgiving. We live in a world that really
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seems to encourage more divisive speech and and bickering and
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contending and fighting. So especially in these first
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four chapters look for the contrast between unity and
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division. And these Corinthian states are
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that they're struggling to the point where watch how he he
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opens this letter. He says Paul called an apostle.
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Remember the 2B is added. So here's this apostle of Jesus
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Christ through the will of God and Sosthenese, our brother.
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So often Paul will seem to even though Paul is literate and he
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can write, he seems to occasionally use scribes to
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help. So it seems that that's the
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case. Either Paul's writing or
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Sosthenese is with him as he's writing, and they're both
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composing this letter together. It's a little bit like Joseph
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Smith and Oliver Cowdry in the early Restoration time period.
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And so now look at the audience under the Church of God, which
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is at Corinth. To them that are sanctified in
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Christ Jesus called Saints. Again, the to be as italicized
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late edition with all that in every place call upon the name
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of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.
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So that's his audience. He's speaking to Saints.
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He's not speaking to general population in Corinth in the 1st
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century. And he introduces once again, as
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he does with almost every single epistle, the theology the
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Godhead reference here grace be unto you, and peace from God our
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Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And then he he comes down to verse 10.
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Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus
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Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no
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divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together
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in the same mind and in the same judgment.
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You'll notice the definition of Zion is 1 heart.
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One mind dwelt in righteousness, and there's no poor among them
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for Moses 718 that that is not happening here.
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He's asking them to come to be joined together, and he uses the
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word in this context of same mind, same judgment.
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That's really hard to do in our current context.
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I don't know about you in in church callings where you've
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served in a presidency or in a bishopric or in any kind of a a
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committee assignment where multiple people come together to
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solve a problem and they bring with them their perspective,
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their backgrounds, their goals, their vision, and sometimes
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don't. Those don't always align, and we
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don't always have the same mind and the same heart.
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That's why I love the definition in the Restoration scripture of
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Zion being oneness, because it's in my mind.
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It's an easier thing to strive for unity and oneness than it is
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for perfect sameness. Because I'm I may not have the
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exact same thoughts or feelings or or goals as another person,
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but I can take differences in my opinion and my perspective and
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find unity in diversity with other people as long as we
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become unified or united in our common cause of building up the
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Kingdom of God on the earth and increasing faith in the Lord
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Jesus Christ. We have one of the slogans in
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the United States, a pluribus Unum from many one.
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It's the same idea that organizations, societies,
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institutions typically fare better when people are unified.
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And on a more personal note, Tyler and I have been friends
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since 2011. We have.
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Collaborated on lots of things and we've talked about a lot of
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things. And when we show up at every
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time to talk together, do we always have the same exact idea?
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And what we have learned both together in many other settings
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is that when you take the time when people are unified around a
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common goal of building the Kingdom of God.
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Usually you can talk through and find unity, even though people
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bring different perspectives and usually that's quite
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enlightening. And what an amazing thing in a
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in a council in the Church, President M Russell Ballard has
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spoken frequently on on counseling with our councils.
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And it's this idea of taking a group of people who come
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together and this is what we're striving to find, which is the
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the truth. And so you get different people
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coming to that council and they may contribute different
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elements to the overall conversation.
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And you can see what happens if one person feels like they're
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the only ones who have the correct ideas.
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Some of their ideas are actually wrong, some of them are right,
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but they're missing a lot. And it's beautiful when you can
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find all of this crossover and counsel with our councils and
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realize that if we will value that process, you can end up
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finding much of what the Lord would want us to to discover or
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carry the Kingdom forward in a much more effective way than if
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one group or a couple of people in isolation try to say Nope,
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mine is the only opinion that matters.
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So let's discuss a little bit of historical empathy here.
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The Corinthians, the Saints in that community, this is their
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first time being Christian. As far as we know, none of them
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had grandparents that were followers of Christ that should
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say something. So they're new at this.
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Imagine it's a brand new ward with people who are Jewish
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gentile, from different religious backgrounds, different
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languages, different economic status, different levels of
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education. And here's Paul, who isn't
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currently in Corinth. He doesn't have modern
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technology of of cell phones and satellite TV.
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He has to write a letter. So imagine you're Paul, inspired
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of God. You're trying to help this young
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group of Christians find unity and understanding in the gospel.
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What do you do? And you might have to write
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multiple letters if you've ever been.
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In a situation where people are in your charge, parents or your
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leader, have you ever had to repeat yourself to people?
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Paul has to do this, and he uses multiple examples of where the
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people had been driven apart by disunity and he teaches them how
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to come together. And we'll see this.
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Throughout First Corinthians he sometimes uses the concept of a
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body and eventually the idea is Jesus as a single body
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represents how we can be whole. In their communities, just like
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he is whole. So watch how he sets this up.
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As Taylor was describing this, he begins in verse 11 after
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talking about being perfectly joined together.
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Then he says, for it has been declared unto me of you, my
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brother, and by them, which are of the House of Chloe, that
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there are contentions among you. So he's basically saying I'm
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hearing that there's there's bickering and fighting and
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contending going on among you. And then some say now this I say
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that every one of you saith I am a Paul, and another saying, I
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have Apollos, and I have Cephas, or Peter, and I of Christ.
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As if it matters who baptized them into the Church.
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So. So Paul says, Is Christ divided?
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What? Was Paul crucified for you?
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Were you baptized in the name of Paul?
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I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius.
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So he spent 18 months in Corinth during his second missionary
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journey. You'll remember back in Acts.
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So he's he's been there for a year and 1/2.
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He knows most of these people. And he's like, oh, I I am so
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grateful that I only baptized Crispus and Gaius.
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And then you'll notice he says less than he should say that I
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had baptized in my own name. And then he remembers some
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additional ones for 16. Oh, and I baptized also the
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household of Stefanus. Besides, I know not whether I
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baptized any other. I was there a long time.
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I don't think I baptized others of you, but I think it's just
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that group. And I'm grateful that that's it,
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because I don't want you claiming that that I have more
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more to do with your salvation or with your path of of
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discipleship than what you might be claiming.
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It's kind of fun to see the train of thought.
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We haven't think of scriptures as just as this monolithic block
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of truth that just handed down from heaven.
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When you see this man dedicated to God, train of thought
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thinking through How do I convince these people that you
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shouldn't start division by who baptized you?
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It doesn't matter who baptized you, as long as it was done with
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the appropriate authority in the name of Jesus Christ, which
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implies that the part of their contention has to be somehow
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rooted in. Well my baptism is somehow more
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valid than yours because of Peter or Apollo's or Apollo.
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It's it's an interesting scenario that Taylor already
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prepared us to think through is they don't have the the ideal
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situation of generations of church membership.
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These are all members of the church for maybe a few years at
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the most. Most of them and all of that
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baggage of their culture and their history and their
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religious background coming to bear here.
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And quite frankly, there was a hierarchy in the pantheon of
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Roman Pagan worship of if your patron St. or your patron God or
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goddess is seen as more powerful than somebody else's.
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Or in the Jewish Christian perspective, there's this
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feeling of superiority that, well, I'm a good practicing Jew
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before I became a Christian, so I'm a better Christian than you.
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Pagan, who came in after so you can see the devil doesn't care
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what it is divides us. He just cares that we're divided
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and the Lord doesn't care what divides us.
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His whole mission is to unite us.
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His whole at one meant the process or product whereby we
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become one or unified not just with God, but with each other.
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That's what our message is to the world today, to to renounce
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war and proclaim peace wherever possible.
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So now you you begin in verse 18 down through 25, a fascinating
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sequence in in Paul's epistle here where he's describing
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something using kind of pejorative or negative terms to
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speak about what he and other missionaries and other apostles
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are doing. But it's not because he's saying
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it, it really is a negative thing, but because that's what
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everybody else is saying about them.
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Now watch how he sets this up, verse 18.
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For the preaching of the cross is to them the parish
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foolishness unto us which you're saved.
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It is the power of God. And then he quotes, for it is
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written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will
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bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
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So this is God who knows all saying, yeah, watch what I do.
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Jump down to verse 21 for after that in the wisdom of God the
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world by wisdom knew not God. He's speaking to people in
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Corinth who were again near the epicenter of of Greek, Greek
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philosophy and Greek learning. And the Greeks are all about
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Gnosis, or knowledge, and gaining intellectual prowess,
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learning wisdom. It seems that there are members
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of the community who've been infected is probably not the
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right word, but feeling the sense of pride and superiority
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that they're learning is makes them better than other members
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of the Christian community. And we don't know exactly what
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the learning is, but they have defined themselves as wise.
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And here it's interesting that Paul is trying to point out
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there's really only one wise person.
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And Paul then tries to point out how the how the missionaries are
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the foolish of all, which makes them the wisest.
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So there's kind of this irony. He's trying to bring down the
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wise that if you are wise in your own eyes, you will probably
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miss the real wisdom which comes from God.
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Such a a powerful rhetorical technique he's using here.
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So again verse 21. For after that in the wisdom of
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God. The world by wisdom knew not
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God. In all their learning they
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didn't come to know God. It pleased God by the
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foolishness of preaching to save them that believe, let's try
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something really foolish. Let's go out and preach for the
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Jews require a sign, but the Greeks or and the Greeks seek
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after wisdom. So the Jews want this evidence,
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this sign, and you see it going clear back to Sinai and clear
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back to Egypt. The 10 plagues to get Pharaoh
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convinced they come out and for 40 years out in the wilderness
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what are they getting? Sign after sign after sign that
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God is guiding them through Moses.
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And then later on through Joshua and later on multiple signs
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through the judges and signs through the kings, they've been
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kind of preprogrammed to expect that and.
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But even back then, it didn't always work.
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And still here, they're still struggling.
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We're waiting for a sign. It's like you had a sign you
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you've called. Jesus on verse 23.
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But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block
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and under the Greeks foolishness.
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Look at this. We're preaching that our God,
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that we worship who is our our Savior and our Redeemer, who's
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going to to exalt us someday, that he was crucified on a
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cross. Notice the qualifier here.
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To the Jews, it's a stumbling block.
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The Greek word there for stumbling block is Scandalon.
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Just scandal. You don't need a translation in
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English to know what a scandal is a scandal on.
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It's actually a trigger to a trap.
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If if you picture like a mouse trap, it would be that little
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plate that you put the the peanut butter or the cheese on
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that triggers the whole trap. So to the Jews they're saying
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no, that is a trap. Do not listen to this.
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These, these are apostate Jews from the leadership of the
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Jewish perspective. They see the the preaching of
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Christ crucified and then resurrected as this scandal on
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Why? There are a variety of possible
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answers to that, but one of them could be Deuteronomy chapter 21,
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verse 23. If you go back to their law,
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they have this very clear tradition.
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If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be
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put to death, and now hang him on a tree, his body shall not
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remain all night upon the tree. But thou shalt in any wise bury
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him that day. For he that is hanged is a
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cursed of God, that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy
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God giveth thee for an inheritance.
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So you can see how this if if you look at your footnote there
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23 a. It says, according to rabbinical
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commentaries, to leave a body hanging was a desert or a
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degradation of the human body, and therefore an affront to God,
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in whose image man's body was made.
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So you can start to see they're saying cursed of God is he who
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hangeth from a tree and you're telling us that your God was
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hanged from a tree. It's it's a scandal on it's a
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trap and it's going to destroy you from their perspective.
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Now what about the Greeks, the these Gentiles, they're saying
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under the Greeks that's just foolishness.
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Your God died on a cross. It was resurrected.
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Like, where's the rationality in that?
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Where is the evidence? Where is the logic?
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So Paul is putting himself at the epicenter of two major
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intellectual traditions, Judaism and call it Pagan wisdom.
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Thinking and Christianity violates the expectations of
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both, which you have. To add to this the Greeks.
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Not just their unbelief in resurrection because of the
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Greek philosophies, but it's their idea that your God could
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actually suffer, bleed, die. There is no God in the pantheon
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of the Greco Roman Pagan world that is going to die like this.
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And crucifixion. All of these Greeks are fully
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aware that Romans will save that death.
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Not for Roman citizens, but for the lowliest and the the worst
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criminals, the worst of the worst.
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Those are the ones that get that cruel form of death.
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So for them it's absolute utter foolishness.
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How could you believe this on any level?
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It makes no sense to them because it just doesn't line up
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with their knowledge. Their quote UN quote wisdom.
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Now watch what Paul does with that, but unto them which are
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called. Both Jews and Greeks, Christ the
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power of God and the wisdom of God.
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Joseph Smith changed the called in verse 24 to say but unto them
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who believe both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God
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and the wisdom of God. This is the wisdom of God to
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those that believe, whether you come from the Jewish or the
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Greek background, it's a it's a beautiful clarification that Joe
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Smith made there. Which brings unity.
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Now remember, he's trying to solve the problem of disunity.
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And what immediately is a solution.
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Jesus is death and resurrection. It is the ultimate wisdom, yeah.
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So if you if you see this he's saying, can you see the irony
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that his wording here this is the wisdom of God.
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This is where we find life. It's actually in the suffering
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and the death. Not a sacrifice of a man or a
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beast, but the sacrifice of a God and the resurrection of a
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God that this is God's power manifest.
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God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son.
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And isn't it fascinating that in his very own words, Jesus Christ
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speaking to the knee fight Lamanite disciples in 3527 when
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he comes down again? Because they've been wondering
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what are we supposed to call the name of this church?
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And he appears to them. And after teaching them the name
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of the Church being called after him and built upon his gospel,
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he then goes into that section there where he describes in
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verse 1314 and 15 of Second or of 3527, This is the gospel
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which I have given unto you. This is my gospel, and he
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describes it. And the very first thing he
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mentions is that he was sent into the world by the Father to
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be lifted up by men, and to be slain for the sins of the world
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to be crucified. So that so that he could bring
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all of us up to be judged according to our works.
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Ironically, he was already judged according to our works
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and found guilty and killed. Which once again, is a
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scandalous statement to the Jews and its foolishness to many of
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the Greco Romans other than those that obviously believe.
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This is really helpful Tyler, because I don't know about you
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guys. Sometimes when I read the
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scriptures, it's entering into a bit of a foreign country.
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The gospel is not foreign, but how Paul is trying to position
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truth and help people understand.
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Sometimes sounds different to our heirs because we don't live
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in those ancient circumstances, even though in our day we have
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enough disunity to fill a lifetime.
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Now watch verse 25 because the foolishness of God is wiser than
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men and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
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And then go down to verse 27. God has chosen the foolish
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things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the
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weak things of the world to confound the things which are
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mighty and base things of the world, and things which are
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despised. Hath God chosen yay, and things
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which are not to bring to not things that are?
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This is so interesting because, as you were pointed out before,
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the Greco Roma society is very stratified, very hierarchical,
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People know their place and Paul is actually discombobulating
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those expectations. He's inverting everything.
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We hear this phrase. The first shall be last, the
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last shall be first. He's essentially preaching that
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message that your expectations for how the world is ordered is
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different than how God himself orders reality.
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So if you if you're in a position where you're struggling
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to understand certain things in the gospel, or certain teachings
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or doctrines or even practices in the church, chapter 2 is a
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really powerful place to start. Because he tells these
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Corinthian Saints that when he came to them he didn't come with
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Excellency of speech or of wisdom to declare the testimony
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of God. He says, I only declared unto
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you Jesus Christ and him crucified verse 3 And I was with
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you in weakness and infern and much trembling.
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And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
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man's wisdom. Interesting because if you
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remember in his second missionary journey, right before
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coming to Corinth, like right before he was in Athens, and
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what did he do in Athens? He quoted their poets that
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they're the offspring of God. And it didn't go so well.
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He used their writings to try to teach the principles of gospel,
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and it didn't fly. And so when he got to Corinth,
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he's telling them, look, I I did not use in my speech man's
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wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, that
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your face should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the
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power of God. Brothers and sisters, you're
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going to notice throughout the scriptures that when a group of
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people or an individual, not just in the scriptures, but in
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real life as well. When people become convinced
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using methodology of the world, sources and resources of the
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world. When you convince somebody that
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the church is true, or that the gospel is true, or that the Book
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of Mormon is true, or that the church is whatever, it's just a
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matter of time before they get unconvinced.
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Usually deep conversion is rooted in preaching the gospel
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of Jesus Christ where the Holy Ghost can carry that message
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deep into the soul. It's not the convincing using
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the learning of the world. And to add to that, it's God
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definitely uses wisdom and intellect, but as Tyler is
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saying, we can't simply rely on that alone.
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We have this idea by study, that's the mind, and by faith,
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which is the heart. And technically, the heart
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actually doesn't do any thinking.
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Everything actually happens here in the mind, although the soul
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is part of the totality of your body and you can feel that
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spirit witnessing when you are encountering and living truth.
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So look at verse 14, skipping clear down towards the end of
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chapter 2. But the natural man receiveth
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not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
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unto the unto him. Neither can he know them,
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because they are spiritually discerned.
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If we're not careful, we'll take that verse that Taylor just
27:03
quoted by study and also by study we won't.
27:09
We won't be able to get to the by faith.
27:12
We will take, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart and
27:16
say no, I don't want to know in my heart.
27:17
I'm going to deny the spirit. Second, if I, 28 talks a lot
27:21
about this, about denying the power of the Holy Ghost and
27:25
relying on the intellect and on the strength of my arm, it's on.
27:29
It's on my money, my possessions and my knowledge that I put all
27:33
of my hope and my trust in the future.
27:36
And he's saying these things are not going to be discerned by the
27:40
natural man. It's only the things of the
27:42
Spirit are going to discern the things of the Spirit.
27:46
We have to make place in our soul, in our heart, to feel and
27:52
to to be meek enough and humble enough to allow the Holy Ghost
27:57
to teach both our mind and our heart.
28:01
Which now brings us to chapter 3.
28:03
And he says, verse two, I have fed you with milk and not with
28:08
meat, for hitherto you are not able to bear it.
28:10
Neither yet now are ye able. Did you notice this little
28:16
indicator here that Paul's acknowledging to the Corinthian
28:19
Saints, I'm not giving you the way to your matters of the
28:22
Kingdom here. I can't serve you meat because
28:25
it's going to choke you. You're going to, you're not
28:28
going to be able to swallow it and digest it.
28:30
So I'm giving you milk. And what is the milk he's giving
28:34
them in the beginning part of First Corinthians?
28:37
It's unity and Christ. It's until you get that I can't
28:41
talk to you about things of of more eternal import and things
28:46
that your mind, your intellect, are just itching to learn about.
28:51
I I'm not going to go there because we're struggling with
28:54
the basics of the gospel at this point in court.
28:57
This is an interesting pattern in rubric.
28:59
I sometimes ask myself when I feel like I don't want to deal
29:04
with the basics of the gospel. Am I really being aligned around
29:08
God's truth and His purposes? If I feel like I want something
29:13
that's mysterious or out there or esoteric, but I can't deal
29:19
with unity, I'm missing something.
29:21
And so I have to ask myself, am I really fundamentally focused
29:25
on what matters most, which is unity with my neighbors?
29:31
Because we're all lying to God. And once we do that, sure, God's
29:34
going to reveal other things. But if I ever find myself
29:36
distracted by something like, oh, I wonder about that, I
29:40
always have to ask myself. Where is my heart and for me
29:44
that the litmus test here is what are God's prophets and
29:49
apostles and and appointed leaders talking about currently?
29:53
I'm not talking about 20 years ago or 50 years ago or 150 years
29:57
ago. What are they emphasizing today
30:00
as a pretty good idea of what I should be focusing on
30:04
individually and collectively with my family?
30:08
To say, okay, these are kind of the the benefits of having a
30:12
profit on the earth today. But am I actually listening to
30:16
him? Or am I tuning my ear only to
30:20
writings from the past? So you come now to chapter 3 and
30:27
verse nine, He says. For we are labors together with
30:32
God, ye are God's husbandry and ye are God's building.
30:37
Now the we in there is Apollos, and by default Cephas or Peter
30:42
and all the apostles. We're all working together.
30:45
I don't care who does the harvesting, I don't care who
30:48
does the planting or who does the watering, because we're not
30:53
going to get up to heaven and say, look at what I
30:55
accomplished. We're going to get up to heaven
30:58
and love the Lord God with all of our heart, my mind and
31:02
strength and love our neighbors, our self, and be grateful that
31:04
we got to to have these relationships together.
31:07
We're not, we're not making sacrifices at the altar and then
31:11
standing around waiting for a receipt.
31:13
Like Elder Maxwell mentioned on one occasion.
31:15
We we're just grateful to be able to serve in whatever
31:19
calling, whatever capacity the Lord calls us and give him the
31:23
glory. Because he is the perfect
31:25
pattern of this. Anytime anyone gives glory to
31:29
the Savior of Jesus Christ, what does he do?
31:31
Doesn't say thank you. I deserve that.
31:34
He never takes it. He always reflects it to God the
31:39
Father and gives him the glory. What a beautiful pattern.
31:43
I love how Paul in the next couple of verses reminds people
31:46
that our works and deeds here will all of us be burned away.
31:50
Just like any material thing could eventually be burned and
31:52
you'd have to rebuild a house. The only thing that really
31:55
matters that needs to be burned is the Holy Spirit burning God's
31:59
truth and love in our soul. And this gets him into talking
32:03
about this temple that we have that needs to have the burning
32:07
of fire of God's love in our soul in the temple of our body.
32:11
Such a powerful analogy actually, that many of you have
32:15
have quoted this or or this will sound very familiar to most of
32:19
you. Chapter 3, verse 16.
32:21
He says, no, ye not, that ye are the temple of God and that the
32:27
Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Now a a little fun fact here,
32:32
the word ye, the preposition ye, is actually the plural form of
32:39
you in the Greek. So he's talking to the body of
32:43
Saints in Corinth. Didn't you know that you, all of
32:48
you, collectively you are the temple or the nouse of God?
32:53
This holy place back in Jerusalem in the big huge
32:59
heroine style of Greek temple, the nouse is the building with
33:04
the holy place and the holy of holies in it, where the presence
33:07
of God dwells inside of the holy of Holies.
33:11
And he just said to these Corinthian Saints, didn't you
33:13
know, you collectively you're the nouse, you're the the holy
33:19
place and the holy of holy place, where the Spirit of the
33:22
Lord can come and dwell in you. And.
33:25
If one of you creates disunity, if the temple loses its ceiling
33:30
or wall, it's kind of still a temple, but it's a bit of an
33:33
issue and it's actually hard to maintain the sanctity of a
33:36
temple if you lose, if you're missing half the building.
33:41
So we often do look at this about our own temples, which is
33:43
true, our bodies are temples, but we also have the collective
33:48
body of the community. And you think about the the
33:51
Spirit of God. Like a fire is burning that was
33:55
sung at the temple dedication of the Kirtland Temple.
34:00
If we want to have more of God's spirit burning in our collective
34:04
souls, we need to be unified. So lest some of you get really
34:10
disappointed and think, but I love the object lesson of my my
34:14
body being the temple, as Taylor's describing here.
34:18
Don't lose heart because Paul is going to bring that up in
34:21
chapter 6, verse 19, Speaking of you individually and your body
34:26
individually. So you get both here, the
34:29
collective, the the congregation of Saints, as well as the
34:33
individual, both being the symbolic temples for the spirit
34:37
of God to come and dwell. And he says verse 18, Let no man
34:43
deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to
34:45
be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be
34:50
wise. We we've touched on this before
34:54
it. It's not that learning and
34:56
gaining in knowledge and intelligence and in wisdom is a
35:00
bad thing. The Book Mormon clarifies this
35:02
beautifully. To be learned is good if there's
35:07
that two letter significant word, if they hearken unto the
35:12
councils of God, the problem becomes when our learning and
35:17
our quote UN quote wisdom puffs us up into a pride to the degree
35:22
where we feel like we're smarter than God and we're smarter than
35:25
His prophets, and we we need to correct His prophets or correct
35:30
people who aren't as wise as us in our own eyes.
35:34
That's the problem. I had this experience many years
35:37
ago when I was at Graduate School.
35:40
One of the graduate schools I was at had half a million books.
35:44
Published in the library about the Bible.
35:46
I once calculated that it would take me like 20 years.
35:49
I can't remember if that was the number just to read the titles
35:52
of all those books. So in school I read a lot of the
35:55
stuff and I remember walking across campus one day, just this
35:59
crush of overwhelming feeling that ever learning and never
36:03
coming to the knowledge of the truth.
36:04
Now, I appreciated learning about the ancient culture and
36:08
history of the Bible and the Bible writers and the Bible
36:10
people. Things that we share with you
36:12
here. But I started thinking about my
36:14
grandfather, David Balstead. He wasn't.
36:17
He was born in Germany, immigrated to the United States
36:19
around 1910. He never had much of a chance of
36:22
formal education. If I recall what my mom said, he
36:26
wanted to be a doctor, never had the opportunity, and he served
36:30
faithfully throughout his life in many different capacities.
36:33
And I saw him as somebody, and his wife too, my grandmother
36:36
Helen, as deeply faithful people, good people who love
36:40
their neighbor and love God and I often thought to myself.
36:43
I would call this, for me, the David Balstead test.
36:46
I would study all these things and I'd say that's interesting
36:50
and it might give me some insight to scriptures.
36:52
But do I need that to be saved? Would my grandfather David
36:56
Balstead need that to get into the suster Kingdom?
37:00
And the point here is that get all the learning you can.
37:02
We learn in the gospel. To be to be a member of the
37:05
God's Kingdom is to embrace all truth.
37:08
And this has been a good reminder for me that I cannot
37:10
get too wise in my own eyes. I can be very grateful for the
37:14
enormous work that biblical scholars of others have done to
37:17
bring truth and light to the world, but not let that distract
37:20
from the fundamental and most important truths.
37:22
Me knowing footnotes about Greek doesn't mean I love my neighbor
37:26
any better, but hopefully it would inspire me to do so.
37:31
Absolutely. So look at some of these little
37:33
phrases that come starting in verse 19 down through 23.
37:36
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
37:41
Verse 20 and again, the Lord Lord knows the thoughts of the
37:44
wise that they are vain. What's the significance of vain?
37:49
It's this deceptive, fruitless. They're so turned inward that
37:54
it's not going to produce anything other than more pride.
37:59
Look at verse 21. Therefore let no man glory in
38:02
men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or
38:07
Cephus or the world or life or death or things present or
38:10
things to come. All or you are yours, and ye are
38:14
Christ's and Christ is God's. There's a beautiful chain of of
38:21
relationship that Paul just set up right there at the end of
38:24
Chapter 3 for us to consider. In other words, if my learning
38:30
isn't serving to one way or another, connect me more with
38:34
Christ. And we're not just talking
38:36
spiritual learning, we're talking all of the secular
38:38
truths that you can get your your hands on out in the world
38:42
and to learn. Eventually, all of those things
38:47
should help us to be able to come more fully unto Christ.
38:51
And by default, Christ will bring us to God the Father, who
38:56
knows all things, and all things are present unto Him.
39:00
Our our religion embraces all truth.
39:03
Joseph Smith has said we don't care where we get it, We're
39:06
going to embrace it. If it's true, we want to know it
39:09
so that we can apply it because it makes us more free.
39:12
Know the truth, and the truth will make you free.
39:15
And that truth is meant to serve people, not to be used to beat
39:20
them with and hurt them with. Or say, look, I'm better than
39:23
you because I happen to know a little bit more than you about
39:25
this. But God doesn't have a problem
39:27
if you happen to know more than other people.
39:29
The point is, use every tool God has given you to give it away,
39:33
to serve other people, to uplift them that they might receive as
39:37
abundantly as you have. So now we get to Chapter 4,
39:41
where the Lord is asking for those who serve with Him and
39:49
under His direction to serve with this absolutely faithful
39:54
perspective, and to not be upset when things might go wrong or
40:01
when not everybody loves you, or when you might even get
40:04
persecuted in the process. Or stoned as Paul.
40:08
As Paul had been notice, he then shifts gears.
40:13
Here in verse seven he says, For who maketh thee to differ from
40:18
another? And what hast thou that thou
40:20
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
40:23
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?
40:26
He's saying everything you have has been given to you and
40:30
something like no, no, no, no. I deserve it.
40:33
I earned it. I I got a job.
40:36
I learned. I prepared my mind and my hands
40:41
and my ability to be able to get that job.
40:43
And I went and I worked really hard and I got that paycheck and
40:47
I bought all these things. Look what I have done.
40:49
I merited it on my own. And can you picture the angels
40:53
up in heaven saying, my, my, my, You think you did all of that
40:59
independent of God, all of that capacity to think, to read, to
41:05
learn, to study, to grow in your intellect?
41:08
You did that without any help from God.
41:12
And you got all of these opportunities without any divine
41:16
help. And you had the energy and the
41:19
breath. In your nostrils, even to go and
41:23
and perform this work. You did all of that without any
41:25
help from the Lord, huh? His point being nothing that I
41:30
have is really something that I did without any divine grace or
41:39
any divine help along the way. This is important point, Tyler,
41:43
because in the modern western world we have a couple of
41:46
concepts of the idea of merit. Now we don't want to say that
41:51
people don't demonstrate merit, it clearly people do.
41:55
But sometimes if we push this too far, the claim is that I
41:58
have merited this all off my own genius alone.
42:03
And I think we could multiply examples which we won't do here.
42:06
If people who have claimed the success they received was all of
42:10
their own doing. I merit this.
42:12
I deserve this. I've also heard people say I am
42:16
a self-made man or I'm a self-made woman.
42:19
Well, I love the fact that somebody worked and they took
42:22
the opportunities and they magnified their lives.
42:24
They grew themselves, but with the help of God.
42:28
So the idea here is we are on this earth to be agents unto
42:32
ourselves. We are intended to grow, to be
42:34
like God. But everything, every ounce of
42:37
growth we receive is not just because of us, it's ultimately
42:41
because of God. And we should always remember
42:43
that humility. And here's Paul, one of the
42:46
greatest Christian missionaries of all time, really one of the
42:50
greatest speakers and writers of all time.
42:52
And look at the humility where he continuously acknowledges
42:57
that all these gifts that he received are really things that
43:00
God gave him that he could then use to bless and uplift others.
43:03
It wasn't meant to aggrandize himself.
43:05
And and not just that, that he's lifting and building others, but
43:09
he's saying, look, we look at verse nine.
43:11
I think that God has set forth us, the Apostles last.
43:15
As it were appointed to death. For we were made a spectacle
43:19
under the world and to angels and to men.
43:21
We are fools, for Christ's sake. But you're wise in Christ.
43:25
He's saying, look, we are not in this to build our name or to
43:29
build our Kingdom. We're in this for the Lord Jesus
43:33
Christ, and that is the only purpose moving forward.
43:38
Would you say our modernday leaders, both up at the higher
43:42
level and many local leaders would be described by this?
43:45
Absolutely. In fact, look at his his plea in
43:49
verse 16. Wherefore I beseech you be ye
43:54
followers of me the the Greek word there for followers you
44:00
might not need a a huge help in the English translation here.
44:03
The Greek word is mime, ETS mime, ETS mime.
44:09
What does a MIME do? It copies what it sees.
44:13
It mimics. It mimics.
44:15
He's saying, I want you to follow me.
44:17
Why? No, because he wants followers,
44:21
but because he knows who he's following.
44:24
And if you'll follow him as an apostle Lord, he knows what path
44:28
he's on and he knows where it's going to leave.
44:31
I love that When we think of that phrase.
44:34
Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, think through the the
44:37
Greek lens. Of what it might mean to mimitis
44:42
the prophet mimic them. Look look to the prophets for an
44:46
example. Unfortunately, we have a world
44:49
that is inviting us to mimitis the the influencers of the world
44:59
from. A myriad of different
45:02
perspectives. They're all calling us different
45:04
directions. That's why it's so powerful to
45:07
me that God has given us prophets, sears and revelators.
45:11
So let's finish off chapter four with verse 20 and 21.
45:13
For the Kingdom of God is not in Word but in power.
45:20
That's an interesting thing to say in a letter written with
45:23
words to the Corinthian Saints saying look, the King of God is
45:29
not in Word. But it's in power.
45:31
Where do you get power? It's when you can take words of
45:34
scripture and words from the prophets, both ancient and
45:38
modern, and you can translate them into appropriate uses of
45:44
agency. That's where you gain the power
45:47
to to act, where you get more agency, more freedom, and more
45:51
knowledge because you've learned from your experiences how to
45:55
become more like the Savior. So in Chapter 5, Paul moves to a
45:59
difficult topic about one of the members of the church having
46:02
committed adultery and this is causing disunity in the
46:06
community. Remember, one of the key parts
46:08
of Corinthians is how to have a unified community.
46:13
So in the ancient world, actually in our day today,
46:16
generally people see a difference between what we might
46:19
say is the body and the spirit, that those are clearly distinct
46:24
entities. The ancient world didn't see
46:28
those as different, but actually on a trajectory that there are
46:32
different variations of the same element, if you will.
46:36
And Paul's influenced by this worldview.
46:38
They didn't have the modern scientific perspective that has
46:42
evolved since the 16, seventeen 1800s, particularly in the West.
46:46
And so he's talking about when somebody does a sin with their
46:51
body, it's a form of disease that ends up impacting the
46:56
spirit. And also if you have a disease
46:59
spirit, you might see that impacting your body.
47:02
Now sometimes you see in the Old Testament, New Testament, people
47:05
have disease and people say, well, they must have committed
47:07
sin. That's the worldview that if
47:10
your spirit is cankered, your body will represent that.
47:13
Or if you again commit sin in the body, it impacts the spirit.
47:17
Remember, we talked about the community is a body.
47:21
You have a body. If you're part of this temple
47:24
and you commit disease or sin with your body and you come into
47:29
the community, you're going to then disease the community if
47:34
you don't repent. That was the way they they saw
47:37
it. Now we see a little bit
47:37
differently. We want people to come to
47:39
church. We all show up sinful on Sunday
47:42
and we want to partake in the sacrament.
47:43
Paul was trying to deal with the fact that he didn't want people
47:46
who were purposely and in a non repentant way showing up to
47:51
church and possibly infecting the unity of the whole.
47:56
And if we had Paul here today, he wouldn't say, hate the center
47:59
and kick him out of church. That's not really his message.
48:01
It was appropriately help people who have sinned to repent.
48:05
And if they refuse, there are steps for how they should not be
48:09
part of the community for a time until they're willing to be
48:12
whole and not bring disease into the community.
48:16
It's very helpful. Now we come to chapter 6, and he
48:20
gives this this rebuke to the Corinthian Saints, because you
48:25
had. Among some of these contentions,
48:27
such as a sharp disputation that they decided to sue and they
48:32
would take their case before the earthly tribunals to be judged
48:37
of of the Gentile courts there in Corinth.
48:42
And he's telling them this is this is to your shame.
48:46
You should not do this. You should judge between the
48:49
brethren. You shouldn't go outside of the
48:52
church for these judgments. Doesn't Jesus to you to the
48:55
server of the Mount agree quickly with thy the adversary
48:59
while in the way? And it turns out, how often
49:02
could problems get resolved if people just kind of calm down
49:04
and said what really matters in this life and where are we
49:08
having a difference? And can we find a way to be
49:09
unified? And it turns out my experience
49:12
has been most people are centered on what matters and are
49:16
willing to respect one another, can find a way to resolve things
49:20
through good, loving communication.
49:23
So this chapter has some really beautiful little gems in it.
49:28
Look at verse 11 and such were some of you.
49:32
The such being this list in verse 9 and 10 of all of the
49:35
different kinds of of sins that can be committed.
49:40
He says And such were some of you.
49:42
But ye are washed. Paul saying, I know your
49:46
backgrounds, I know what many of you have done, but you're
49:50
washed. You're clean.
49:51
You're sanctified. But you're justified in the name
49:55
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
49:58
It's almost his invitation to say, guess what you're You're
50:03
fighting each other because you're you're trying to hold
50:06
each other hostage to past doings.
50:09
Well, guess what? You have all done bad things in
50:14
your past, and now you're clean. Christ was merciful to you.
50:19
Can you extend that mercy to each other?
50:22
Can you stop being so exacting and so judgmental that you're
50:26
going to choose to take each other to court over this?
50:30
And then he goes down to verse 15.
50:32
Know you not that your bodies are the members of Christ.
50:36
Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members
50:39
of unhearted, God forbid? Adultery was rampant in Corinth
50:45
up on the hill. Acro Corinth, where they have a
50:47
temple up there, a Pagan temple. It is centered around adultery,
50:53
and many of those Saints must have been struggling with that
50:58
particular temptation. And Paul's aware of it.
51:01
He's saying you can't do this with the body of Christ because
51:04
it's going to bring disease into the whole community.
51:07
You got to keep yourself clean. And then he says down in verse
51:12
19, What Know ye not that your body?
51:17
Is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
51:20
of God and ye are not your own. That verse 19 is so profound
51:25
when people say, look, it's my life, don't tell me what to do.
51:29
Here's Paul saying actually let's qualify that statement a
51:34
little bit. You are not your own.
51:37
Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost and verse 20 says ye
51:43
are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
51:47
body and in your spirit, which are gods.
51:50
And can I just say, using this analogy of body to spirit and
51:54
this this warring faction kind of contention inside of us
51:59
between our body and our spirit. Often we we portray that body as
52:04
as just evil, as bad and the spirit is good, without
52:07
remembering that Lucifer and all of the hosts of hell were up in
52:12
heaven without a physical body. And they committed sins so
52:17
serious that they are now condemned to outer darkness
52:22
forever. Apparently you don't need a body
52:25
to commit extremely serious sins, so maybe we would do well
52:32
to not put the body and the spirit in in competition or
52:37
contrast each other, but figure out how to find unity.
52:42
Between this incredible gift of our body and our spirit to
52:46
glorify God in all that we learn, all that we do, all that
52:51
we say, all that we desire, what a beautiful gift the Lord has
52:55
given us. And as we get to Chapter 7, Paul
52:58
continues his theme about what we might call chastity.
53:02
And he gives lots of instructions.
53:04
A small case examples of how a wife and a husband should treat
53:09
one another, somebody who's not married.
53:11
And there are some important principles here.
53:13
Sometimes people read a chapter like Chapter 7 and find
53:16
themselves a little confused or maybe upset or bothered, and we
53:20
understand from modern day revelation.
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We understand the law of morality, the law of chastity,
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and we can read through the Restoration perspective Paul's
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principles and not find ourselves disturbed.
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Give the specific advice he gave to his people at his time 2000
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years ago, who are dealing dealing with some pretty
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difficult situations. Maybe not every piece of advice
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needs to be brought into our own hearts, but the principles, yes.
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Now remember we mentioned that Paul not only wrote a letter to
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the Corinthians before this one, but he also received a letter
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back from them and. Look at verse one of Chapter 7.
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Now concerning the things wherever ye wrote unto me, it is
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good for a man not to touch a woman.
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Many have interpreted that to say, oh, so you wrote a letter
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to me and now I'm giving you counsel.
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It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
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Look at the Joe Smith translation.
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It's really helpful, they wrote in their letter saying.
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It is good. They're the ones who wrote that
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in their letter, and then he's giving them some of these, these
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instructions here. I love the fact that as Taylor
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was talking here, that that's the beauty of prophets and
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ongoing revelation and open cannon where the Lord can
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continue to give instructions reminding ourselves that Paul is
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not intending to give them meat. He's not intending to give them
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the end of the law here, he's just dealing with with struggles
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that they happen to be facing. In the came up in a letter, the
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way Elder Bruce R Mcconkey spoke of Chapter 7 is this would be
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similar to how a mission president might address in
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certain parts of this chapter missionaries who are called to
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go out and and minister to the work, but not to the general
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body of the Saints. That's one potential way you
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could look at some of these teachings here in Chapter 7.
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And as a warning to not read things out of context or just a
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proof text. There are people over the years
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who've read just this one verse and said that must mean total
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celibacy and no more families, no more children.
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And it's like okay if that's the only verse you had of all
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scripture, that would be a fair conclusion if you didn't look at
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anything else. But we know there's more than
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that, and that's why it's always important to contextualize and
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remember. As much as we want to draw true
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principles from the scriptures, we also have to curate our
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reading through the lens of the Restoration and modern day
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prophets and what they are emphasizing.
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Then he he gives a little insight here into certain types
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of relationships and keep in mind in the 1st century in
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Corinth. There would have been probably
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quite a few who fit this description in verse 1213 and
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14, he says. But to the rest, speak.
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I not the Lord. Did you catch that?
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To the rest of the people, not the ones that he's addressed
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previous to verse 12, speak I not the Lord, He's saying, look,
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I'm not speaking with any any major authority here.
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I'm. I'm just talking to you now.
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If any brother hath a wife, the believeth not, and she be
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pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.
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And he says the same thing in verse 13.
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If if a woman has a husband that doesn't believe, don't put him
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away. Why?
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Why would you stay in those kinds of relationships?
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And he gives the answer. For the unbelieving husband is
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sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified
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by the husband. Elsewhere your children unclean,
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but now are they holy? We can use this.
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Think again about this continuum of body and spirit.
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So imagine you have one spouse on one side, 1 on the other.
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One is believing 1 is not. You would think that commingling
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that unity would cause a degradation of the the body of
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the two people. But really, what policy in the
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opposite is actually the holiness or the person who's
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living in Christ will actually positively infect the other
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body, meaning that the unified whole will leaven itself into
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holiness. And this is a really beautiful
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principle that we can interact with people who may not believe
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as we do, and our love that we receive from God can uplift them
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and us together. Now obviously, if there are
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people who are a bad influence in your life who just flat out
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or going to take you away from God's love, then we have to be
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thoughtful about that. But Paul's not talking about
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this. It seems like we have two people
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who are in a loving relationship.
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One happens to be Christian, one is still Pagan.
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And Paul's saying, let that person who's a believer in
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Christ positively influence the life of those who are not yet
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Christian. And if they're keeping their
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Christian covenants, they will be loving the Lord God and their
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neighbor as themself, and their closest neighbor will be their
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spouse. That love will will be felt over
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time and. It's the most likely motivator
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for change. Not fear, not threats, not
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promises of of rewards, just love.
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Just loving somebody as purely as we possibly can is the
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greatest motivator. Let's be careful not to over
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stress Paul's teachings on family relationships in Chapter
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7 because he keeps signaling to us.
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Look, I I'm just kind of giving you my thoughts here.
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I'm not speaking for the Lord on a lot of this.
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I'm giving you proverbs or words to the wise, things to consider
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in in this realm. So as we conclude this lesson
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today, let's go back to chapter 6, verse 19 and 20.
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This idea the our body individually, and back to
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chapter 3 collectively, all of us being the temple.
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Where the spirit of God can come and dwell among us and now in us
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in verse 19. This idea we are not our own,
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for we were bought with a price. Therefore what do we do?
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Glorify God in our body and in our spirit, which are gods.
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What a beautiful place to end this this message from Paul to
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those 1st century Corinthians. That many of those lessons are
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just as applicable to us in our information age of the 21st
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century as they were in the Peloponnese of Greece 2000 years
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ago. Know that God lives, He sent His
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Son to save us, and He sends the Holy Ghost to dwell among us and
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in us, if we'll let him. And we leave that with you.
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In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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Know that you're loved. And spread light and goodness.