05/13/2020 - Bible Study

Today is Wednesday, May 13th, 2020. Good evening to all.

As Californians gingerly tiptoe into the careful and gradual reopening of our State, measures continue in place to ensure the non-spread of the dreadful corona virus.

Opinions as to how to best go about the reopening are varied. Experts are worried that further extensions of the general lock-down may have negative consequences on lives and the economy, while opening essential businesses poses the risk of having a COVID-19 flareup. The old adage of being between a rock and a hard place well describes the positions of our Mayors, Governors and President. That said, let's choose to allow some common sense to prevail as we continue to don our face masks and practice social distancing should we have cause to leave our homes. Currently, our State is in its 2nd phase of reopening and depending on virus-related trends, churches may be allowed to reopen in the 4th phase. This could be several weeks or even months away. In the mean time, we are most grateful to the Lord for first of all, keeping us safe; secondly, for bringing us to the second phase of opening and thirdly, for providing FHG this means of communication.

Father, we thank you for all your wonderful blessings shown to us through this very difficult period.

The great epistles of 1st and 2nd Corinthians were the apostle Paul's written replies to a host of questions and misunderstandings sourcing from the Christian church in Corinth, Greece. At this time, Paul is in Ephesus, Asia Minor, (Now known as Western Turkey) where he will spend a little over 3 years preaching and teaching amidst tremendous opposition from the worshipers of the Greek goddess Artemis.

Let's close off this 16th chapter of 1st Corinthians by reading through the final verses 19 - 24. Please do so now.

The names of Aquila and Priscilla refer to a husband and wife who previously ministered with Paul in Corinth (Acts 18: 1-3) and are now living in Ephesus. During the 1st century, Christian church buildings were non-existent and believers met in homes . It would not be until the 3rd century that church facilities were erected.

Verse 30's "holy kiss" was a common Jewish and Middle East greeting in those times. This greeting is still practiced today, though I suspect it might have been suspended indefinitely because of the global social distancing requirement.

As the great apostle probably suffered from vision problems, he had a secretary (amanuensis in Greek) to write his dictation. Unlike the gorgeous penmanship of the pastor at FHG, it is true that Paul's actual handwriting was not particularly a work of art. In fact, some say that a man's penmanship is a reflection of his appearance. If that is true, can you imagine what deacon Carl's handwriting might look like? Now, back to verse 21. Here, Paul chooses to write the salutation (greeting) himself. Paul pronounces a curse on anyone who claims Christianity but does not love Jesus Christ. "Anathema", the Greek for accursed has very strong implications. Three levels of discipline could be imposed upon church offenders. The first level was a 30-day exclusion from the synagogue, during which, if there was no repentance, could be followed by an undefined time to repent with warnings concerning the possible imposition of the third level. Finally in the third stage, an irreversible excommunication from the gathering of believers was imposed. This is the "anathema" state when the offender was no longer even considered to be a Jew.

Along with "anathema", another very commonly used word among the early Christians was the Aramaic word "Maranatha." Marana Tha is a compound word meaning "O Lord, Come." Paul uses this word at the end of his 22nd verse which, once again, may indicate

the apostle's belief that Jesus would return during his lifetime. The great apostle to the gentiles ends his epistle with a blessing of Grace and Love from Jesus and himself to the Corinthians. His entire letter was essentially about Jesus and so his last word before amen is the name of our Lord.

Thus we conclude our extensive and exciting study of 1st Corinthians. I trust that each of you enjoyed it as much as I, and although our study of the last two chapters had, of necessity, to be in the form of distance learning, it was a pleasure for me to share my understanding and ideas with you.

Clearly, had I been teaching you in person, I would doubtless have had much more to say, with some of it even being comical, but this forum does not allow for such. We have to be extra careful in recognizing that internet sites are globally accessible and should therefore contain carefully crafted material.

I am pleased to let you all know that our pastor Brinker's knee is healing well and quickly enough to allow him the ability to play the drums when we resume our usual church services. This is of course, given that sister Norma refrains from hammering another nail through her husband's knee while he is asleep.

Finally, I trust that despite the COVID restrictions, all the mothers at FHG enjoyed a wonderful Mother's Day celebration last Sunday, and that they recognized that it was fathers who made Mother's day possible.

Pastor Chandroo