Read: 1 Corinthians 9-11
In those days, they believed that to be an apostle you had to have witnessed Christ’s resurrection. Paul is arguing that he is an apostle because he has seen the risen Christ with his spiritual eyes and that their conversions are a sign of his apostleship. So what is an apostle? In the Greek it is an official commissioned by Christ with miraculous powers. We have apostles today and will have more at the days grow closer to Christ’s return. We should honor our spiritual leaders and take care of them financially and with our moral support.
Chapter 10 holds some great mysteries. He talks about the children of Israel being under the cloud and passing through the sea as baptisms. Do they not represent being baptized with water and the spirit? Both are necessary for our walk. He reminds them that the Rock that followed them was Christ. In almost every story about the children of Israel there is a rock. Moses struck the rock and water gushed forth: he sat on the rock and held his hands up so they could win the war. When Moses asked God to show him his glory the Lord told Moses to stand on the rock and when His glory passed, God would hide Moses in its cleft and cover him with his hand. Ex. 33:18-23. God gave his laws on a rock. We learn from Paul that that rock was Christ. He is the Rock of Ages, the Word of God. All the trials that the children of Israel went through were written down for examples for us to use.
Paul gave them some practical advise about living the Christian life which all boiled down to doing everything to the glory of God.
In the last chapter, 11, Paul teaches that the man is the picture of God and the woman is the picture of man or the church. That is why the woman submits to the man and the man honors and loves the woman. Jesus as our head was broken and poured out for us. So, we need to be humble in heart but bold as a lion.
Lord, teach us to live our lives in a way that others will be drawn to our God.
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