Bible in One Year Day 332 (Acts 11, 1 Corinthians 3-4, Proverbs 27: 23-27)

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Agape Bible Study Acts

 Chapter 11: The Church Supports the Mission to the Gentiles

Acts 11:1-18 ~ Peter Defends the Baptism of Gentiles into the Church

Peter repeats the story of his vision, repeated three times, the three men who arrive to see him and the two times three brothers who accompany him to meet the Gentiles in Caesarea.

Question: What potential crisis does Peter face after his return to the Jerusalem community?
Answer: The six Jewish-Christian brothers who had accompanied Peter to Caesarea told the other members of the Jerusalem community about the baptism of the Gentile Romans. The community, still feeling bound by the Old Covenant ritual purity laws, is scandalized to hear that Peter would allow himself and the others with him to become ritually defiled by entering a Gentile house and eating with Gentiles. 

This is the first of many challenges Peter will have in bringing Jews and Gentiles together as one community in Christ. Addressing the concern of the Jerusalem community, Peter carefully retells the events that led to the baptism of the Gentiles and quotes Jesus' promise of baptism by the Holy Spirit verbatim that is found in Mark 1:8. Fortunately, the Jerusalem community accepts Peter's leadership and welcomes the entrance of Gentiles into the Church. The introduction of this controversy prepares us for a similar issue that will arise later that will require a formal council of Peter and the Apostles to resolve the controversy in chapter 15.

Acts 11:19-26 ~ The Christian Community at Antioch

Jewish disciples from the island of Cyprus and the North African city of Cyrene founded the community of believers in Antioch. Antioch was the chief city of the Roman province of Syria and one of the most prominent cities in the Roman Empire "the third most important after Rome and Alexandria, Egypt. The city was located in a fertile plain by the Orontes River some seventeen miles from the sea. It had access to the trade routes from the East and the West, and according to the Roman historian Pliny the elder (d. 79 AD) in the 1st century AD had as many as 600,000 residents (Natural History 6.112).
The faith community in Antioch was the first mixed community of Jews and Gentiles. They called themselves "Christians" because their Gentile members enable them to stand apart from other Jewish communities who believed in Jesus and called themselves "The Way."

Acts 11:27-30 ~ The Antioch Community's Response to Aid Faith Communities in Judea

Like the Old Testament prophets, the New Testament prophets are charismatics who are inspired by the Spirit to speak for God. Christian prophets seem to occupy the second place after the Apostles in the order of charisms (1 Cor 12:28-29; Eph 4:11). They are anointed witnesses of the Spirit (1 Thes 5:19-20; Rev 2:7) whose revelations they communicate (1 Cor 14:6, 26, 30; Eph 3:5; Rev 1:1). It appears that the prophet Agabus was sent by the Jerusalem community to ask for help in advance of the predicted famine. Evidence of the spiritual vitality of the Antioch community is their immediate decision to aid the churches in Judea. Roman writers Tacitus and Suetonius mention famines in the empire during the reign of the Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD). The famine began in Greece and later spread to Rome and other parts of the Empire. Jewish priest/historian Flavius Josephus also mentions a famine in Judea during the reign of Claudius (Antiquities of the Jews, 20.2.5; 20.5.2). 

Agape Bible Study 1 Corinthians 3-4 

Chapter 3: Problems within the Community

1 Corinthians 3:1-4 ~ Children of the Flesh versus Children of the Spirit

Paul presents a contrast between "spiritual people" and "fleshly people." By "the flesh" Paul is referring to human nature without the inspiration of the Spirit of God (1 Cor 5:5; 2 Cor 7:1; Col 2:5).

Question: Why does Paul say that he could not preach a deeper spiritual wisdom to them while he was with them, and what metaphor does he use as an example of their unfitness for deeper spiritual preaching?
Answer: He tells them they were not sufficiently mature and compares them to infants can only drink "milk" and who were not ready for the "solid food" of a deeper teaching.

Like infants, the Corinthian Christians, although baptized and reborn in the Spirit, were still spiritually immature in their perceptions and in their behavior that was still too attached to their former lives. Proof of his charge, Paul says, is that they developed factions in expressing their attachments to those who ministered to them that caused jealousy and rivalries.

1 Corinthians 3:5-9 ~ The Role of God's Ministers

St. Paul uses agricultural and architectural metaphors to explain the role of God's ministers. In other New Testament teachings, the "field" is often a metaphor for the world, but not in this case (for example see Jesus' parable of the weeds and the wheat in Mt 13:24-30, 38). Paul's fertile "field" is the Church (the "Kingdom of Jesus Christ) that God prepared for those who respond to God's grace in coming to faith in Jesus Christ:

• One minister "plants" in founding the Christian community.
• Another minister "waters" by preaching and teaching the newly formed community.
• The result is the "growth" of the community through the grace of God in "building" the Body of Christ that is the Church.

God's ministers labor in service to the Church, and they are accountable to God.

Question: What are the "wages" God's ministers will receive in proportion to their labor? See Rev 3:5.
Answer: They will receive a heavenly reward. 

1 Corinthians 3:10-15 ~ God's Plan for the Growth of the Church

Paul continues with his "builder" metaphor. He laid the foundation of the community's faith in salvation through the Cross of Jesus Christ (verses 10-11), and Peter, Apollos, and others built upon it. St. Peter's influence is mentioned in the Corinthian community (four times in 1:12; 3:22; 9:5; 15:5). As the Vicar of Christ, there is evidence that St. Peter often traveled, visiting many Christian communities. Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea writes in His 4^th-century Church History that Pontus and the neighboring regions of Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Galatia were dependent on Peter' leadership.⁽¹⁾And a letter from Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, in the mid-second century mentions Peter's connection to Corinth (Danielou and Marrou, The Christian Centuries, 51).

Question: What warning does Paul give in verse 10b-15?
Answer: The day will come when every Christian will be held accountable for the "work" he adds to the foundation of the Church. God will judge his "works." He will destroy by fire all the "bad works," and only the "good works" will remain. 

The Catechism teaches: "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death, they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven...The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned ..." (CCC 1030-31).

Before the advent of Christ, the souls of both the righteous and the wicked that died went to Sheol/Hades, the abode of the dead (CCC 632-33). There the righteous awaited the coming of the Messiah while the sinners suffered for their sins. See Jesus' description of Sheol/Hades in His parable of the Rich Man and Poor Lazarus in Luke 16:19-31. From the tomb, Jesus descended into Sheol/Hades where He preached the Gospel of salvation and led those souls who received Him out of Sheol and into Heaven (1 Pt 3:18-20, 4:6; Apostles Creed; CCC 635). 

With the Resurrection of Christ, all blessings and judgments become eternal. All the wicked that reject Christ's gift of eternal salvation consign themselves to the Hell of the damned (CCC 1033-37). The righteous that die in a state of grace enter the gates of Heaven that had been closed since the fall of Adam (CCC 536; 1026). Sheol/Hades remains until the Last or Final Judgment when there is no longer a need for a final purification, and when it is emptied of its dead and destroyed (Rev 20:13-14). However, in the meantime, it continues as a place of purification by the fiery love of God for those souls destined for Heaven who are in need of a final purification for unconfessed venial sins or for atonement for mortal sins forgiven in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (CCC 1030-31). The Church now calls this state of final purification by the Latin word Purgatio, "cleansing, purifying" or in English, Purgatory.

1 Corinthians 3:16-23 ~ The Christian is the Dwelling Place of God

Paul urges the Christian community to live in holiness because they are individually and collectively the "temple of God." In verses 16-17, Paul refers both to individual Christians and to the Body of Christ that is the Church. The Church as God's temple is a favorite simile of St. Paul's in his letters to the Corinthians (1 Cor 6:19-20; 2 Cor 6:16), in which he reminds the community that God the Holy Spirit dwells within the holy souls of the faithful believer in Christ Jesus. If harm comes to any of them, God will bring divine justice against their oppressor because they belong to Him. 

Chapter 4: No Place for Human Pride in the Life of the Servants of Christ

 

1 Corinthians 4:1-5 ~ God will Judge His Servants and Stewards

St. Paul defines the role of all disciples of Christ as "servants of Christ" and "stewards of God's mysteries." This ministry puts those called as disciples beyond the reach of grudges and petty arguments. Christ entrusts His servants and stewards with His teaching and His Sacraments. They are honor bound to protect these treasures faithfully and, acting as Jesus' agents, they are not just to manage these gifts, but they must pass them on (verses 1-2).

1 Corinthians 4:6-8 ~ Paul and Apollos as an Example

The words "to go" are not in the Greek text but are added to the translation to give a better sense of the message. In 4:6-8, Paul accuses the Corinthian Christians of the sin of pride (CCC 1866, 2014, 2317, 2514, 2540, 2728). Paul warns the Corinthians: so that you may learn from us not (to go) beyond what is written, so that none of you will be inflated with pride [puffed up] in favor of one person over against another. 

Question: What is Paul's point and what is the "what is written" to which Paul refers?
Answer: Paul's point is that the Corinthians should avoid speculating about the worth of those who ministered to them. He is probably admonishing them to focus on the message that Christ is the fulfillment of God's promises that are "written" in the Old Testament, which he has already quoted several times. 

Paul makes it clear that he, Apollos, and other ministers have behaved responsibly. It is the Corinthians extensive pride and immaturity that have caused the factions in the community by exalting one preacher or another above others and also exalting themselves above their ministers. However, the Corinthian boast as though these gifts are theirs through their own efforts and they "possess what they have not received." If they have received these charisms, Paul asks, why are they boasting as though it wasn't a gift of grace?

In cutting irony, Paul names three negative traits that stem from their pride and parallel these three traits with questions:

1. They are complacent like the satisfied.
2. They are indolent like the rich.
3. They have become a law unto themselves like kings.

1 Corinthians 4:9-13 ~ The Apostles: Fools for Christ

When a Roman king or general returned home to Rome, he led his army in a triumphal procession in which he paraded his captives that were condemned to fight to the death in the arena with wild beasts. Paul compares the apostolic ministers to those captives. They belong to Christ the victorious King, and they are a spectacle to both the physical and spiritual world because God made them to be gazed at and made sport of in the arena of the world. 

In this passage, Paul catalogs the difficulties of the apostle's existence in service to Christ and His Church, contrasting their sufferings with the Corinthians' overconfidence:

• Fools to their wisdom
• Weak to their strength
• Held in disrepute to their status of honor

Question: What are the sufferings of Christ's ministers that Paul lists in verses 11-13?
Answer: They go hungry, are thirsty, badly clothed, treated roughly/persecuted, homeless, slandered, treated like rubbish, and they work with their hands to support themselves.

St. Paul supported himself by the trade of tent-making/leather-working (Acts 18:3). He makes the point that he works to make his living here and in 1 Thessalonians 2:9 and 2 Thessalonians 3:6-8. All Jewish males learned a trade in their youth, whether rich or poor or even those destined for the priesthood or scribal service (Aboth de Rabbi Nathan, 11). 

After listing their hardships, Paul uses another triplet in explaining the kind of response he and the other authentic apostles give to those hardships. 

Question: How does Paul contrast their bad treatment with the responses of Christ's ministers?
Answer:

1. When they are ridiculed they bless.
2. When they are persecuted they endure.
3. When they are slandered they respond in gentleness.

We have become like the world's rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment.
In the final paradox of Christian ministry, Paul writes that worldly standards judge Christ's ministers as without worth. This view is in spite of the fact that, as Christ's emissaries, they hold the keys to eternity in their authority to forgive sins (Mt 18:18; Jn 29:22-23). Their continuing faith in the midst of hardships is in contrast to the Corinthians unfounded pride. Concerning the constant peril of the apostles in fulfilling their mission to preach the Gospel, in 2 Corinthians 1:9, he will write: ...we were utterly weighed down beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, we had accepted within ourselves the sentence of death, that we might trust not in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.

 

1 Corinthians 4:14-17 ~ Paul is the Corinthians "Father in Christ"

Paul wants the Corinthians to know that he admonishes them because he loves them and not simply to shame them. 

He uses the metaphor of a father who not only gives his children life but also educates them, telling the Corinthians that he is a father to them in the same way.

The Corinthians may have many preacher-guides, but they will only have one father in Christ, and that is Paul. He gave "birth" to them by leading them to baptism in the family of God and founding their community. Then he educated them in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, like all children who should imitate the life of a good father, they should imitate Paul. 

Paul plans to send them Timothy to help set the church in Corinth back on the path to unity. Timothy is a "beloved son" who imitates his "father," Paul. Like an elder brother, he will help his younger brothers and sisters in the Corinthian community by reminding them of the "ways in Christ" that Paul taught.

Question: Who is Timothy and what is his history with Paul? See Acts 16:1-3; 18:5; 19:22; 20:4; Rom 16:21; 2 Cor 1:1; 16:10-11; Phil 1:1; 2:19; Col 1:1; 1 Thes 1:1; 3:2; 2 Thes 1:1; Phlm 1; 1 Tim 1:2-3; 2 Tim 1:5-7 
Answer:

• Timothy was born at Lystra in Asia Minor, the son of a Greek father and a Jewish-Christian mother and grandmother.
• Paul had a deep fondness for Timothy and considered him a "son."
• He was a missionary team member on Paul's second and third missionary journeys.
• He ministered at Corinth served as the Bishop of Ephesus.
• He is the co-sender of six of Paul's letters.

Timothy's name is Greek and means "to honor God." His feast day is January the 26^th, and according to tradition, he was martyred at Ephesus. 

 

1 Corinthians 4:18-21 ~ Paul's Promised Visit

Evidently some of those "inflated with pride" deny that Paul will come and he writes: 20 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 

Earlier Paul wrote that the Cross of Jesus Christ was the power of God shown in the conversion of the Corinthians. The salvation that Jesus brings is more than simply words; it is an event in real time with real consequences.

His words also carry a sense of the power of his authority as an apostle. It is a "power" Paul intends to use in bringing the Corinthian community back to humility and unity. His meaning is apparent in the next verse.