1st Corinthians pt 1

1st Corninthians

Another letter from Paul, this time to the church in Corinth. Whatever else you can say about Paul, he's a great ranter. It's like reading a first century livejournal.

10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, F4 by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. F5 12 What I mean is that each of you says, "I belong to Paul," or "I belong to Apollos," or "I belong to Cephas," or "I belong to Christ." 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
14 I thank God F6 that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

Chloe. Another girl!

He can't remember who he baptized? Well, I suppose maybe he wouldn't.

Anyway, he seems to be trying to hold the church together by reminding them that they should be following Christ.

Ch 2:6-10
6 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. 7 But we speak God's wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him"— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

Here he is hinting that there's more than what is generally taught in church. I have found this to be true, in both the Gnostic sense and the practical sense. There are things that get taught in seminaries that are not imparted to the average churchgoer, and there are things known by scholars that are not told to people in seminaries. Why? I don't know, but I know it's true. And there are truths that only mystics and prophets can know, because normal minds can't handle it without a certain amount of preparation. That's why so many mystics and prophets seem a little unbalanced. Sometime the wrong people get ahold of these "secrets" and cause a ton of trouble for those who are uneducated in the finer points. It happens quite often in the pagan/occult world, and if you think the world isn't affected by it you'd be sadly mistaken.

Take Crowley for example. His published catalogue of writings is available at any major bookstore, you don't even have to show ID to buy them. Naturally, this results in millions of flaming idiots getting ideas. Now, sometimes the world gets lucky and the person who buys it is a David Bowie or a Jimmy Paige, who just ends up writing rather esoteric song lyrics that are beautiful in their own way. And having witch wars with each other that they will be really embarrassed about twenty five years later. But sometimes the person who buys the books is a future L.Ron Hubbard.

Dion Fortune said that it's fine for these books to be published, because they don't actually reveal anything significant. But she died before the time when you could buy the Sepher Yetzirah on Ebay. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the idea of popular availability of important occult books- because if it weren't for that I wouldn't know anything at all, I'm just saying. That I had a point somewhere in this. If someone could retrieve it for me I would be ever so grateful.

You don't have to *get* something to make a total pig's ear out of it.

3:16
16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

Someone please explain to me how this is different from the neo pagan idea that everyone has a bit of God in them, or the Hindu idea that everyone has a bit of "Divine Spark". Because from my pov, there is very little difference, people just like to deliberately misunderstand it so they can claim those gods have nothing to do with their own god.

Paul doesn't say that this only happens after you agree to worship Jesus.
6:9

9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

I already linked to all the refutations of the whole "gayness is wrong because the Bible says so" thing. But you know, a lot of people think Paul had some serious issues with his own sexuality?

He seems to abhor the idea of sex with a woman. He doesn't seem to actually hate women, because he seems to have a number of platonic female friends. But he goes on to say that it's better for a man to get married than to torture himself with his urges. He doesn't seem to want to admit that there's any in between option, and frequently rants about gay men, which says to many people- "huge, giant, closet case!"

6:12

12 "All things are lawful for me," but not all things are beneficial. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything.

For example, go ahead, smoke. But a smart, spiritually mature person knows that smoking's a painful, expensive habit and will avoid it. Things like drinking, smoking, drugs, sex, porn, driving really fast, eating too much, those are all things that sometimes you just have to do, or at least, sometimes it can be fun to do them. But it's so easy to get caught up in those things. IMO, looking at porn is fine (although porn for porn's sake has begun to bring out regretful emotions in me after I look at it, in a way that fan fiction and explicit but legitimate media doesn't). But it's not fine to look at porn when there are more important things you should be doing, like your writing assignments, your housecleaning or your exercising or your religious observances. Here there's an interesting point brought up about fundamentalist Christians and sex, and the myth of "pornography addiction".