Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

  Warnings From Israel’s History 10  For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.   2  They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.   3  They all ate the same spiritual food   4  and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.   5  Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Paul continues to teach the Corinthians on the dangers of idolatry.  He cites the example of their Jewish ancestors.  Although they had received so many blessings from God and His protection, provision and very presence they still rebelled.  They also experienced the presence of Christ himself.  But despite all of those blessings the people of God still chose to rebel and not obey God.  The Jewish Christians should have remembered this example and realized

Paul’s Rights as an Apostle 9  Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?   2  Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.  3  This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me.   4  Don’t we have the right to food and drink?   5  Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas [ a ] ?   6  Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living? As in all of his letters to the churches, Paul is addressing another issue brought up by the church.  In this case he is addressing the claim by some who thought he was not a "true apostle", because he was not an ORIGINAL apostle.  Technically an apostle was someone who had seen and been with Jesus and preached the gospel, which led to conversion.  So Paul counters the false claim by pointing o

Concerning Food Sacrificed to Idols 8  Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up.   2  Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.   3  But whoever loves God is known by God. Paul addresses another question asked by the Corinthians regarding food offered to idols in the marketplace, usually meat.  Paul starts out by contrasting love and knowledge.  Though knowledge was important, especially knowledge about God, love was more important.  Just because someone had knowledge didn't mean they should use it in a unloving way that tore people down.  A person with a lot of knowledge has to be careful that their knowledge doesn't lead to pride, or thinking they are better than someone else.  We have all been around people who thought they were so much smarter than anybody else and always looked down their nose at others.  Paul then says that more important than our own knowledge

Concerning Married Life “ Now about the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a wife. But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfil his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.   The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but yields it to his wife.   Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.   I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another that. Paul turns from warnings about sexual immorality in chapters 5 and 6 to instruc

  Sexual Immorality 12  “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.   13  You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.   14  By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.   15  Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!   16  Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” [ b ]   17  But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.  8  Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.   19  Do you not know that your bodies

5  It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.   2  And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?   3  For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this.   4  So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,   5  hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. Today Paul talks about a very specific sin which has been reported to him.  The NIV translates this as "sexual immorailty", which is the Greek word "porneia".  This where we get the word "pornography" today.  In a broad

8  Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you!   9  For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings.   10  We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!   11  To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless.   12  We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;   13  when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment. In chapter 4 Paul is again dealing with the biggest character flaw in the Corinthians ... pride.  T

The Church and Its Leaders 3  Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ.   2  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.   3  You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?   4  For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? Paul cites as one of the main problems is that the Corinthians are spiritually immature.  Instead of living by the Spirit they are living by the "flesh".  He also says they are still "worldly".  The bottom line is that although they are born again by the Spirit, they are still acting as children, and not growing up to maturity in Christ.  As Paul encourages us in Romans 12, "Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your