Monday, December 5, 2016
1 Corinthians 12 and 13 NLT
VI. Instruction on Public Worship (11:2;14:40)
1 Corinthians 12 NLT
1 Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding
your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you
to misunderstand this.
2 You know that when you were still
pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless
idols.
3 So I want you to know that no one
speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is
Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are different kinds of spiritual
gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all.
5 There are different kinds of service,
but we serve the same Lord.
6 God works in different ways, but it is
the same God who does the work in all of us.
7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us
so we can help each other.
8 To one person the Spirit gives the
ability to give wise advice ; to another the same Spirit gives a message of
special knowledge.
9 The same Spirit gives great faith to
another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing.
10 He gives one person the power to perform
miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the
ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another
spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown
languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.
11 It is the one and only Spirit who
distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should
have.
12 The human body has many parts, but the
many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.
13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles,
some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body
by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
14 Yes, the body has many different parts,
not just one part.
15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of
the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the
body.
16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of
the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the
body?
17 If the whole body were an eye, how would
you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell
anything?
18 But our bodies have many parts, and God
has put each part just where he wants it.
19 How strange a body would be if it had
only one part!
20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one
body.
21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I
don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
22 In fact, some parts of the body that
seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.
23 And the parts we regard as less
honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect
those parts that should not be seen,
24 while the more honorable parts do not
require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra
honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity.
25 This makes for harmony among the
members, so that all the members care for each other.
26 If one part suffers, all the parts
suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.
27 All of you together are Christ’s body,
and each of you is a part of it.
28 Here are some of the parts God has
appointed for the church: first are apostles, second are prophets, third are
teachers, then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those
who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership, those who speak in
unknown languages.
29 Are we all apostles? Are we all
prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles?
30Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all
have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to
interpret unknown languages? Of course not!
31 So you should earnestly desire the most
helpful gifts. But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.
1 Corinthians 13 NLT
1 If
I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others,
I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If
I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and
possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains,
but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.
3 If
I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast
about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love
is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or
rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no
record of being wronged.
6 It
does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins
out.
7 Love
never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every
circumstance.
8Prophecy
and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless.
But love will last forever!
9 Now
our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals
only part of the whole picture!
10 But
when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become
useless.
11 When
I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up,
I put away childish things.
12 Now
we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we
will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and
incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows
me completely.
13 Three things will last
forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Saturday, December 3, 2016
1 Corinthians 11:2 to 34 NLT
VI. Instruction on Public Worship (11:2;14:40)
1 Corinthians 11 NLT
2 I am so glad that you always keep me in
your thoughts, and that you are following the teachings I passed on to
you.
3 But there is one thing I want you to
know: The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head
of Christ is God.
4 A man dishonors his head if he covers
his head while praying or prophesying.
5 But a woman dishonors her head if she
prays or prophesies without a covering on her head, for this is the same as
shaving her head.
6Yes, if she refuses to wear a head covering,
she should cut off all her hair! But since it is shameful for a woman to have
her hair cut or her head shaved, she should wear a covering.
7 A man should not wear anything on his
head when worshiping, for man is made in God’s image and reflects God’s glory.
And woman reflects man’s glory.
8 For the first man didn’t come from
woman, but the first woman came from man.
9 And man was not made for woman, but
woman was made for man.
10 For this reason, and because the angels
are watching, a woman should wear a covering on her head to show she is under
authority.
11 But among the Lord’s people, women are
not independent of men, and men are not independent of women.
12 For although the first woman came from
man, every other man was born from a woman, and everything comes from
God.
13 Judge for yourselves. Is it right for a
woman to pray to God in public without covering her head?
14 Isn’t it obvious that it’s disgraceful
for a man to have long hair?
15 And isn’t long hair a woman’s pride and
joy? For it has been given to her as a covering.
16 But if anyone wants to argue about this,
I simply say that we have no other custom than this, and neither do God’s other
churches.
17 But in the following instructions, I
cannot praise you. For it sounds as if more harm than good is done when you
meet together.
18 First, I hear that there are divisions
among you when you meet as a church, and to some extent I believe it.
19 But, of course, there must be divisions
among you so that you who have God’s approval will be recognized!
20 When you meet together, you are not
really interested in the Lord’s Supper.
21 For some of you hurry to eat your own
meal without sharing with others. As a result, some go hungry while others get
drunk.
22 What? Don’t you have your own homes for
eating and drinking? Or do you really want to disgrace God’s church and shame
the poor? What am I supposed to say? Do you want me to praise you? Well, I
certainly will not praise you for this!
23 For I pass on to you what I received
from the Lord himself. On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took
some bread
24 and gave thanks to God for it. Then he
broke it in pieces and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this
to remember me.”
25 In the same way, he took the cup of wine
after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his
people—an agreement confirmed with my blood. Do this to remember me as often as
you drink it.”
26 For every time you eat this bread and
drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.
27 So anyone who eats this bread or drinks
this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood
of the Lord.
28 That is why you should examine yourself
before eating the bread and drinking the cup.
29 For if you eat the bread or drink the
cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s
judgment upon yourself.
30 That is why many of you are weak and
sick and some have even died.
31 But if we would examine ourselves, we
would not be judged by God in this way.
32 Yet when we are judged by the Lord, we
are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the
world.
33 So, my dear brothers and sisters, when
you gather for the Lord’s Supper, wait for each other.
34 If you are really hungry, eat at home so
you won’t bring judgment upon yourselves when you meet together. I’ll give you
instructions about the other matters after I arrive.
Friday, December 2, 2016
1 Corinthians 10 NLT to 1 Corinthians 11:1 NLT
V. Instruction on Questionable Practices (8:1;11:1)
The Principles Involved (ch. 8)The Principles Illustrated (ch. 9)- A Warning from the History of Israel (10:1-22)
- The Principles Applied (10:23;11:1)
1 Corinthians 10 NLT
1 I don’t want you to forget, dear
brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of
them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked
through the sea on dry ground.
2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them
were baptized as followers of Moses.
3All of them ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all of them drank the same spiritual
water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that
rock was Christ.
5 Yet God was not pleased with most of
them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 These things happened as a warning to
us, so that we would not crave evil things as they did,
7 or worship idols as some of them did. As
the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they
indulged in pagan revelry.”
8 And we must not engage in sexual
immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day.
9 Nor should we put Christ to the test, as
some of them did and then died from snakebites.
10 And don’t grumble as some of them did,
and then were destroyed by the angel of death.
11 These things happened to them as
examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the
age.
12 If you think you are standing strong, be
careful not to fall.
13 The temptations in your life are no
different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow
the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will
show you a way out so that you can endure.
14 So, my dear friends, flee from the
worship of idols.
15 You are reasonable people. Decide for
yourselves if what I am saying is true.
16When we bless the cup at the Lord’s Table,
aren’t we sharing in the blood of Christ? And when we break the bread, aren’t
we sharing in the body of Christ?
17 And though we are many, we all eat from
one loaf of bread, showing that we are one body.
18 Think about the people of Israel.
Weren’t they united by eating the sacrifices at the altar?
19 What am I trying to say? Am I saying
that food offered to idols has some significance, or that idols are real
gods?
20 No, not at all. I am saying that these
sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you to
participate with demons.
21 You cannot drink from the cup of the
Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at
the table of demons, too.
22 What? Do we dare to rouse the Lord’s
jealousy? Do you think we are stronger than he is?
23 You say, “I am allowed to do anything”
—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but
not everything is beneficial.
24 Don’t be concerned for your own good but
for the good of others.
25 So you may eat any meat that is sold in
the marketplace without raising questions of conscience.
26 For “the earth is the LORD ’s, and
everything in it.”
27 If someone who isn’t a believer asks you
home for dinner, accept the invitation if you want to. Eat whatever is offered
to you without raising questions of conscience.
28 (But suppose someone tells you, “This
meat was offered to an idol.” Don’t eat it, out of consideration for the
conscience of the one who told you.
29 It might not be a matter of conscience
for you, but it is for the other person.) For why should my freedom be limited
by what someone else thinks?
30 If I can thank God for the food and
enjoy it, why should I be condemned for eating it?
31 So whether you eat or drink, or whatever
you do, do it all for the glory of God.
32 Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles
or the church of God.
33 I, too, try to please everyone in
everything I do. I don’t just do what is best for me; I do what is best for
others so that many may be saved.
1 Corinthians 11 NLT
1 And you should imitate me, just as I imitate
Christ.
Thursday, December 1, 2016
1 Corinthians 9 NLT
V. Instruction on Questionable Practices (8:1;11:1)
The Principles Involved (ch. 8)- The Principles Illustrated (ch. 9)
A Warning from the History of Israel (10:1-22)The Principles Applied (10:23;11:1)
1 Corinthians 9 NLT
1 Am I not as free as anyone else? Am I
not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Jesus our Lord with my own eyes? Isn’t it
because of my work that you belong to the Lord?
2 Even if others think I am not an
apostle, I certainly am to you. You yourselves are proof that I am the Lord’s
apostle.
3 This is my answer to those who question
my authority.
4 Don’t we have the right to live in your
homes and share your meals?
5 Don’t we have the right to bring a
believing wife with us as the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers do, and as
Peter does?
6 Or is it only Barnabas and I who have to
work to support ourselves?
7 What soldier has to pay his own
expenses? What farmer plants a vineyard and doesn’t have the right to eat some
of its fruit? What shepherd cares for a flock of sheep and isn’t allowed to
drink some of the milk?
8 Am I expressing merely a human opinion,
or does the law say the same thing?
9 For the law of Moses says, “You must not
muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” Was God
thinking only about oxen when he said this?
10Wasn’t he actually speaking to us? Yes, it was
written for us, so that the one who plows and the one who threshes the grain
might both expect a share of the harvest.
11 Since we have planted spiritual seed
among you, aren’t we entitled to a harvest of physical food and drink?
12 If you support others who preach to you,
shouldn’t we have an even greater right to be supported? But we have never used
this right. We would rather put up with anything than be an obstacle to the
Good News about Christ.
13 Don’t you realize that those who work in
the temple get their meals from the offerings brought to the temple? And those
who serve at the altar get a share of the sacrificial offerings.
14 In the same way, the Lord ordered that
those who preach the Good News should be supported by those who benefit from
it.
15 Yet I have never used any of these
rights. And I am not writing this to suggest that I want to start now. In fact,
I would rather die than lose my right to boast about preaching without
charge.
16 Yet preaching the Good News is not
something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for
me if I didn’t preach the Good News!
17 If I were doing this on my own
initiative, I would deserve payment. But I have no choice, for God has given me
this sacred trust.
18 What then is my pay? It is the
opportunity to preach the Good News without charging anyone. That’s why I never
demand my rights when I preach the Good News.
19 Even though I am a free man with no
master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ.
20 When I was with the Jews, I lived like a
Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish
law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did
this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law.
21 When I am with the Gentiles who do not
follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to
Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.
22 When I am with those who are weak, I
share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to
find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.
23 I do everything to spread the Good News
and share in its blessings.
24 Don’t you realize that in a race
everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!
25 All athletes are disciplined in their
training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an
eternal prize.
26 So I run with purpose in every step. I
am not just shadowboxing.
27 I discipline my body like an athlete,
training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to
others I myself might be disqualified.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)