Ezra 10:1-44, 1 Corinthians 6:1-20, Psalms 31:9-18, Proverbs 21:3
Today is the 10th day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio
Bible I am Brian and it’s a joy to be here with you today as we get into this
week, continue our journey together, and just…just come around the Global Campfire
and let it go and just take a break, take a break from all the chaos that can
be all around us and just let God’s word speak into it. And, so let’s dive in.
We’re reading this week from the English Standard Version. Ezra chapter 10.
Commentary:
Okay. So in the…in the book, the letter known as first Corinthians, Paul is continuing to speak…speak to the people of the church in Corinth to the issues that they have brought to his attention, the questions, the kinds of things that they’re asking. And he’s being very direct in his responses and it’s really easy to go, “wow man, this guy’s really going for it, heaping the condemnation on in a big way.” But that’s really not what he’s trying to do. What he’s trying to do is say, “lift your eyes, raise the bar, you’re better, you’re bigger, there is a bigger thing going on, you’re a part of something way larger, you need to look way above it all. And, so, he’s like…like taking people to court. In this time in Corinth you had a problem, well, you went before a judge to get the matter sorted out. Sounds pretty much like today. Paul’s trying to say like, “look a little bit higher. Look at who you are and who you are becoming. You are becoming a judge of the world. You will judge angels. Like where this is all going is a lot bigger than a little disagreement that you got to run off to Small Claims Court about in front of unbelievers and you too are brothers or you are brother and sister or you are sisters, like whatever. You can sort this out, can’t you? Isn’t there some way you can sort this out so you can remain being examples of the light instead of children of the light fighting over each other bringing the darkness?” He has a whole bunch of different behaviors that they’re…that they’re apparently asking about. And, so, he’s like condemning certain things and saying, “look higher, bigger, this is a bigger story. Yes, Jesus has made you completely free. You are free. Do you want to use that freedom to engage in bondage? Like do you want to use that freedom to shackle yourself in bondage.” Like one of the questions that we are asking is like, “well…since we’re free, can we…like how do we handle sexual ethics? Can we sleep with anybody that we want to, whoever we want to, however, we want to because were free? We’re free and we’re to be looking higher, we’re to…we’re to be looking at the world from a spiritual perspective. And, so, why…why can’t we just have sex with whoever we want to because what does it matter? Like it’s just our bodies?” And Paul’s basically going like, “yeah, the thing is, sex isn’t like having an ice cream cone together. It’s not just like, your body having some kind of transaction with somebody else’s body. Like there’s a spiritual exchange involved here. Look bigger, look higher.” And you can see some of the exasperation from Paul coming through in the tone of voice that he’s using. And he sums this up really succinctly in a way that we can carry around in our pockets and purses and remember. He says, “all things are lawful for me”, right? So, in other words, “I am totally free, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.” And then he talks about food, which is another one of things they’re talking about or asking about. Like, he’s saying like, “all the bodily things that you’re trying to get away with, like you’re trying to say we’re spiritual beings who are completely free and so it doesn’t really matter what we do to or with our bodies anymore. That’s not true. Your body is the temple of the Spirit of God with you. It all matters. And the reason it matters is because you died. You are not who you were. You were bought with a price. You were brought back to life. So, glorify God in your body.”
Prayer:
Jesus, we look at this and it’s a constant, it’s been a constant wrestling match about how to live spiritually while engaged in a…a fleshly body in a culture where there’s all kinds of things going on. It’s not always clear. And, so, we wrestle with our freedoms and we wrestle with…we wrestle with the things that would be bondage to us and we are constantly almost on a wheel where it just spins around and around and around but what we’re being told here in the letter to the Corinthians today is that it’s a bigger story than this. We can lose the plot of the story and it gets really confusing very fast because it’s not clear what’s happening anymore. But when we are clear, when our eyes are open, when we can see then we do become aware of Your presence in every decision, but we also become more and more aware that You aren't…You aren’t the magic super sauce for our lives. Like we don’t just apply You to our lives and then things get easier and smoother. What we are actually doing here is surrendering to You leaving behind who we were, which means we’re leaving behind the patterns and the choices that we used to make because we are aware that that persons gone and this person, this new creation doesn’t have to live that way and we don’t need to use our freedom to get ourselves into bondage even though we can, even though You permit it. We were bought with a great price. And, so, may we glorify You may You come and show us what that looks like for each of us today. We ask this in Your precious name. Amen.
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And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.