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CONNIE: OK, what would Jesus drive? Should Christian faith impact how we live, where we live even how we get from place to place? Join us as we turn to the biblical book of 1 Corinthians for answers. Giving Gods trumpet a Certain Sound for more than 70 years, this is the Voice of Prophecy.

CONNIE: Hello, Im Connie Jeffery,

LONNIE: And Im Lonnie Melashenko. Were glad you’ve joined us today, as we continue our journey through the books of the Bible looking today at 1 Corinthians. One of the questions well be looking at is one that’s stirred quite a bit of controversy in recent weeks: What kind of car, truck, or SUV would Jesus drive if he were on earth today? And once we figure that out what impact should that have on what we as Christians drive?

CONNIE: Wait a minute. We’re talking about a book written nearly 2000 years ago. And we’re expecting it to tell us what kind of car to buy?

LONNIE: Well, I don’t think that the apostle Paul had that question in mind when he wrote this letter to the church at Corinth. After all, as far as we can tell, Paul probably went just about everywhere on foot just as Jesus Himself did. But I think as we study the book, we’ll discover that Paul was addressing himself to the same kind of questions that we face these days. Questions about what sort of impact becoming a Christian has on behavior, and on the many little every-day choices we make.

CONNIE: To launch us into our study of the Corinthians, we’ve invited Professor Ivan Blazen of Loma Linda University to join us. He’s a Bible teacher of considerable renown, and also well known as a preacher. Ken Wade spoke with him.

KEN: Dr. Blazen, you’ve been teaching about 1 Corinthians for many years in the classroom, in fact you and I collaborated a little bit when you were doing a book called, The Gospel on The Streets, which is about 1 Corinthians. In your mind and in a nutshell, what’s this book all about?

IVAN: Well, I am really interested in the book 1 Corinthians because it is like a revelation into the heart of the first century church, and one that was founded by Paul. I really believe that the problems that he dealt with there are similar to the problems that we deal with today.

KEN: People are about the same, aren’t they?

IVAN: People are about the same, and if I were to define the basic problem, it is the question of whether or not the gospel which came to these people will be maintained in its purity, or it will be tainted by their culture, former beliefs, and practices.

KEN: When you mention former beliefs and practices, what kind of people is Paul dealing with here in Corinth?

IVAN: Well, he’s dealing of course with Gentiles; and you realize that he was the apostle to the Gentiles, but they knew nothing about Christianity at all. I mean, Paul is the one who is bringing it to them for the first time.

KEN: So he starts them at square one introducing them to Christ. They don’t have this strong background in Jewish law or anything like that do they?

IVAN: No! They know nothing about this. This is a new group of people and as you know from the book of Acts, Paul spent a long time working in Corinth trying to bring out a church, about 18 months plus. So, he spent a lot of significant time, and the whole question is, that they who had heard the gospel message as he preached it, will they maintain their integrity with it in terms of their beliefs, and especially in terms of their practices. Will the way they live their Christian lives now jive with the gospel to which they’ve been made participants.

KEN: What are the particular challenges that they are facing?

IVAN: The particular challenges that this church faces; well as you go chapter by chapter through the book you see exactly. I mean, he begins the first 4 chapters about quarreling and jealousy and…

KEN: You know as I was reading through there it seems like Paul is saying, “Wait a minute you are all being led by one spirit, why are you going in so many different directions?”

IVAN: Absolutely! And why are you choosing earthly leaders even if those leaders be like Peter and myself, why are you choosing those when Christ is your Lord? Don’t look to us, look to Christ. But this was the standard because they were very party like people before, choosing various incendiary leaders to belong to and so on. So this was just like their culture coming forth, nothing much had changed even though they had become Christians.

KEN: Maybe that kind of Greek culture, the heritage of the small city states that were always warring with each other was coming into the church than you would say?

IVAN: Well, Sure! We have examples in this book like for example, in chapter 6, we’re hauling each other off to court, and this is Christian with Christian. Probably the well to do and the poor, and they were divesting them even of what they had, and here they are, Christians, and they are carrying out a practice that antedates their Christianity. So Paul has to straighten them out. He knows that the gospel requires instruction along with it.

KEN: So what is the solution that Paul sees?

IVAN: I think there’s a central chapter in the book that probably gives the solution and that chapter is 1 Corinthians 13.

KEN: So we go through a lot of discussion of Christian behavior, there are discussions of morality and immorality. There’s a place where he talks about our relationship to sexuality and prostitutes and that sort of thing, and incest.

IVAN: By the way, that’s a good one to pick out as illustrating how their former culture maintained itself while they were Christians. Imagine, here are these new Christians and a certain segment of them are visiting prostitutes thinking nothing of it, these are the males. What was the purpose of marriage? Well, in those days it was to have babies and your wife would keep the house, and so you find your sexuality outside and they were still doing that.

KEN: Plus worship in some of the religions practiced there had something to do with prostitutes too didn’t it?
IVAN: Absolutely!

Ken: Well we need to sum up now, but I appreciate you bringing us around to 1 Corinthians 13, because that really is what Paul is saying, isn’t it? It’s a love chapter and Paul is saying, “Look, if you really had the genuine love of Christ, the love of God in you heart, these other things would take care of themselves.

IVAN: Absolutely! You have to remember where 1 Corinthians is anchored. It’s anchored in a discussion of spiritual gifts, because they were not using their gifts correctly, they were using them in the interest of pride rather than the interest of building up each other. So he writes this chapter, which I think is the key to the entire book, about the supremacy of love. It’s greater than all their tongues, it’s greater than all of their prophecy, it’s greater than martyrdom, and it’s greater than all things.

KEN: And if they want to be truly great Christians it’s through that, it’s through letting the love of God work through them.

IVAN: Yes! When he says for example in 1 Corinthians, where says love is patient and is kind and is not envious or boastful, he actually is picking up on those earlier themes where they were envious of each other, boasting against each other and so on. So he really is addressing problems that began with the first part of this letter. This is the key to this book.

KEN: I appreciate you sharing that and listen; we’ll talk again in several weeks when we reach 2nd Corinthians, ok?

IVAN: We can do it!

KEN: Thank you very much, and have a great day

IVAN: Thanks.

CONNIE: The Holy Spirit was at work in the Corinthian church, and He’s at work in lives all over the world today as well. But as Christians living in a world full of temptations and troubles, we all need more of His power. Won’t you join us in the prayer expressed in the hymn Come, Holy Spirit?

CONNIE: That music was provided for us by The King’s Heralds. The recording was made more than fifty years ago, back in the early 1950s. But the prayer is just as up-to-date as it was then.

LONNIE: It certainly is, Connie. There’s not a day goes by that I don’t pray that prayer myself. Right now I’m working day and night, gearing up for our big evangelistic outreach that’s coming up soon, and believe me I sense the need of the Holy Spirit’s leading and power.

CONNIE: In todays program we’ll be taking a birds eye view of the message of 1 Corinthians, but there was a time a couple years ago when you spent a good deal longer looking at it, wasn’t there?

LONNIE: Yes, in fact we spent about four months going through the book verse by verse for our daily 15-minute broadcast. It was a fascinating study and gave us time to look at the message and make up-to-date applications as David Smith, our writer for that program, is so good at doing.

CONNIE: Those programs 80 in all form the basis of a book called Rock Solid Living in a Run-amok World, and if todays program whets your appetite for a more in-depth look at the message of 1 Corinthians, you’ll want to order a copy of this book.

LONNIE: To order Rock Solid Living, call our toll-free number 1-800-872-0055, and ask for it by name. The cost is just $15.00, and I think you’ll find it’s worth every penny. Here are a couple of the chapter titles: Are Only Dumb People Christians? and First you’ve Got to Barbecue. The book is great at taking the timeless message of the apostle’s letter to Corinth and showing how it applies to life in the 21st century.

CONNIE: The phone number to call to order Rock Solid Living is 1-800-872-0055, and we’ll also be sharing our mailing address a bit later in the program. But right now, let’s listen to Saint Lonnie’s message for today: 1 Corinthians: Called to be Saints.

1 Corinthians: Called to Be Saints

WAIT a minute there, Connie did I just hear you call me Saint Lonnie?

I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that title.

But, then again, when I turn to the biblical book we’re studying today, and read the second verse of Pauls letter to the Corinthians, I see that Paul addressed his correspondence to the holy people the saints in the church in Corinth.

Now, most translations insert the words to be in the phrase so it reads called to be saints. Here it is in the New King James Version:

To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours (1 Corinthians1:2 NKJV)

Now, that’s not a bad or incorrect translation, but literally the Greek simply says called saints. And throughout his writings in the New Testament, the apostle Paul often refers to all the members of the Christian church as saints.

The meaning is, holy ones, in other words, people set apart for a holy purpose. People especially dedicated to God. Notice that Paul first refers to the people as the church of God, then says they are sanctified in Christ Jesus, then calls them saints. The point is that these people who had accepted Jesus as their savior in response to Paul’s preaching, are a very special group set apart from the world. Destined for heaven. They are especially dedicated to God.

And in that sense, I don’t mind being called Saint Lonnie, I guess. Because my life, my ministry, everything about me is devoted and dedicated 100% to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

But I don’t really expect to be addressed as Saint Lonnie. In our culture, the term has come to mean something else a person who has achieved a very special status through the vote of a Roman Catholic Church council and it’s only applied to those who’ve already passed from this life. Believe me, I’m in no hurry to claim that status!

Having said that, though, I want to return to the biblical verse. Because it’s an important key to help unlock the message of 1 Corinthians.

This letter was written by the apostle Paul to a church that he had founded in the Greek city of Corinth, about two or three years earlier. Paul had spent a year and a half there probably in 50 and 51 AD while he was on his second missionary journey. He had begun by speaking in the Jewish synagogue every Sabbath proclaiming that Jesus of Nazareth was the long-awaited Messiah. Soon though, he had to move next door to the house of Titius Justus, because of opposition in the synagogue. But he continued to preach; to proclaim that Jesus had died for the sins of the world, and to offer salvation to those who would accept it.

I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, Paul reminds them (1 Corinthians 2:2, NKJV).

His preaching attracted the attention of both Jews and Gentiles, and the congregation at Corinth included people from many different backgrounds.

After 18 months of ministry there, Paul went on his way, visiting other churches that he had founded and evangelizing other areas.

A few months later he had taken up residence in Ephesus and was totally immersed in the work of starting a Christian congregation there, when reports began coming from Corinth indicating that all was not going well among the saints he had left behind.

In fact, things seem to have run drastically awry.

The church was divided into competing and opposing factions.

There were serious questions about the meaning of Christian liberty and morality.

Church services had deteriorated into a cacophonous babble of competing voices, many speaking in languages no one else could understand.

Pot luck suppers had become distinctively unlucky occasions for the poorer members of the congregation.

Paul must have been appalled at the news he received.

The church that was so dear to his heart the congregation that should have been united by the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying influence on their hearts had been shattered like an heirloom vase dropped on a marble floor. Was there any way that it could be put back together again?

Yes, there was. Paul knew there was. And the way to genuine church unity is hinted at in the way he addressed his letter. The letter was sent to those who were called to be saints called to be holy people, devoted 100% to God.

The solution is for the people to get back to genuine spirituality being led by the Spirit of God, not by their own individual spirits. In chapter 2 he writes:

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God. . . . These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. . . . But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:12-16 NKJV).

For Paul, the solution was plain and simple: All the people needed to come back into harmony with the mind of Jesus. But they had given themselves over to carnal fleshly thoughts, and were living according to the flesh, not according to the Spirit. He goes on to write:

I . . . could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? (1 Corinthians 3:1-3 NKJV)

Throughout the book of 1 Corinthians the apostle Paul is dealing with questions that were important to the church in his day, and that are just as important today.

The fundamental question is: Does becoming a Christian really make any difference in how you live?

In our day, some Christians have chosen to phrase the question in the words What would Jesus drive? The organization behind that question is using it as a call to Christians to be environmentally responsible. They believe that a commitment to Jesus Christ should include a commitment to preserving the environment and not using up the world’s resources at an exorbitant rate.

And the debate has taken some interesting turns. Some Christians have countered the question by saying that they think Jesus would have driven the biggest SUV He could get His hands on, because He needed to have room for all 12 disciples to travel with Him, and if they were going to go up on the mountain to pray, an SUV would be just the thing to get them there!

In Paul’s day the question had to be worked out on a more fundamental level what does a commitment to Jesus Christ mean as far as our interpersonal relationships go?

Does the gospel liberate us from having to live moral lives? Apparently some in Corinth thought so. They were practicing sexual immorality and bragging about it! (See chapters 5 & 6.) Paul was quick to burst their balloon, informing them that the spiritual freedom granted by Christ certainly did not mean that they could spend their time hanging out in the local brothels. They were called to be saints holy ones devoted to God. Their bodies could not, under any circumstances, be united to unholy prostitutes!

To the question, Should a commitment to Christ affect the way a Christian behaves in the world? Paul answered with a resounding Yes!

It’s a message that still needs to be heard in our world today. A recent survey conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics explored American high school student’s attitudes about honesty. Some of the answers they found were disturbing. For instance, the number of students admitting they had cheated on an exam has soared in recent years. 61% admitted to it in 1992. But in 2002, the number was 74%. The number who admitted to shoplifting had grown from 31% to 38%. But here’s the really disturbing part: While students who attend private religious schools were less likely to shoplift (35% vs. 39%), they were actually more likely to cheat on exams (78% vs. 72%) and lie to teachers (86% vs. 81%). The report went on to note that students who said their personal religious life was very important to them usually didn’t put their religion into practice when it came to honesty. The percentage who lied, cheated, and stole was almost identical with the national average.

And it’s not just kids that seem to have difficulty applying their personal religious convictions to the way they live. George Barna’s research organization has also found that most Christians even those who call themselves born-again Christians don’t let their religion heavily influence their moral behavior. The results of Barna’s research have led him to conclude that because the Christian faith is not associated in people's minds with a comprehensively different way of life than they would lead if they were not Christian, the impact of that faith is largely limited to those dimensions of thought and behavior that are obviously religious in nature.

In other words, people go to church, say prayers, and give offerings. But when it comes to moral choices about whether to cheat on their taxes, divorce their spouses, or live together before marriage, religion doesn’t enter into the decision-making process.

Do you see why I say that the issues raised in 1 Corinthians are still hot topics today?

Now, admittedly, most Christians probably don’t need an extended discussion of whether it’s all right to eat food offered to idols a topic that comes up quite a bit in 1 Corinthians. But the fundamental question the book centers around is, Does devotion to God make us different?

And of course the answer is Yes!

It makes us different because when the Holy Spirit comes into your life, He imparts spiritual gifts that enable you to serve God and build up the church.

Paul spends quite a little time in 1 Corinthians dealing with those gifts of the Spirit. And then he goes on to point out the one most significant thing that the Holy Spirit does in our lives. He imparts love. That’s the greatest gift.

Paul urges the church members to seek the gifts of the Spirit which include things like wisdom, prophecy, faith, and speaking in tongues. But, having said that, he goes on to point them to something even more important. It’s found in one of the most precious chapters in the entire Bible, 1 Corinthians 13 the love chapter:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians13:1-3, NIV).

Genuine love, you see, will solve all of the problems that Paul had to address in the Corinthian church. It will heal the rifts made by divisive attitudes. It will solve the potluck problem, because everyone will want to share and share alike. It will also solve the problems of immorality, for genuine love precludes selfish sexuality. And yes, it might even impact what you choose to drive if buying too expensive a car would divert funds that might better be used in helping others.

Does being a Christian make a difference in how we live?

Yes, of course it does.

Because it teaches us to love as Jesus loved. And that’s what in the final analysis the message of 1 Corinthians is to us today. Because we have accepted the love of God, as revealed on the cross, we now need to absorb, imbibe, engulf ourselves in that love. So that it can reach out and touch others through us.

That’s the way I’d like my life to be today. Wouldn’t you?