Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

Continuing with counsel about matters that were specifically affecting the Corinthian saints, Paul encourages the saints to not take each other to court over “the smallest matters.” In one way I understand this because outsiders looking in might see church members as petty, vengeful, or greedy and that’s a bad look for any group of people. Also those who are constantly caught up in litigation over relatively insignificant matters keep themselves in a state of victimization and negativity. These feelings are not conducive to a growing relationship with God.  It seems that Paul is asking the saints settle the matters with each other between themselves, saying, “is it so, that there is not a wise man among you?, no not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?” I don’t think that this necessarily means that Paul was advocating for a legal panel for the church members, but that’s how the Jews handled their legal problems, with a theocratic judiciary, so it would make sen...

The dilemma that a bishop must have is how much weight to put into rumors of misbehaviors and at what point and how to confront the accused about them. That must be really difficult. But why would he have to initiate a conversation about misdeeds if that person wasn’t ready to bring it up themselves? Is there even a point? Is there a benefit to holding someone accountable for their actions before they are ready to give them up and repent? Let’s take a specific scenario, let’s say that a married man in the ward is having an affair, or better yet, let’s consider the situation that Paul spoke of specifically, in which a man is having a sexual relationship with his stepmother. It doesn’t say whether or not that man is married, so I’m not going to make any assumptions here. But Paul is unhappy that the church leadership in Corinth hasn’t brought formal disciplinary charges against the offending man. If the man himself didn’t come to the church leaders to confess, then what would the be...

There was more than one issue with the church member who was having sex with his stepmother, Paul also “reproved the Church in Corinth for failing to take disciplinary measures against the sinning member.” This begs the question, why is it important for consequences to be dished out to sinning members? It doesn’t seem like this member was coming to the Church leadership, confessing what he did and desired repentance. So would it be the place of the “bishop” of the church in Corinth to take the hearsay or rumors and confront the alleged offender?  Thinking about how we do it modernly, I was always under the impression that if the person didn’t come to the bishop to confess, then the bishop just kind of minds his own business, but it seems like that isn’t the case, and honestly, now that I think about it, I can’t think of a single time in which that has been the case. It must be such a delicate balance between what a bishop hears and what they talk to their members about. I would ...

Moving in to chapter 5 is a really interesting change of topics because Paul goes right into his receiving reports “that there is fornication among you.” Sex is such a remarkable subject because there is nothing else like it in this life, I don’t think. A sexual relationship can be absolutely incredible and hugely fulfilling. In fact, it is so important that Dr. Phil once said, and I agree with him, if the sex life is healthy then it’s only 10% of the relationship. But if the sex is unhealthy, then it is 90% of the relationship.” On the other hand, sex can be weaponized, traumatic, and horrifying. That is a lot of power for just one aspect of human behavior. Let’s imagine a line where “0” is in the middle and to the left of “0” is marked by  negative numbers with the highest value being “destroying a life,” as in the case of rape, molestation, and assault. Then on the right side of “0” we have increasing positive numbers with the a value of “intimate connection with your eternal...

Interestingly, Paul moves into a darker topic, saying, “for I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death.” I didn’t really understand what the significance of that statement is, especially considering it is in the middle of all the talk about judgment. But the world “last” is cross-referenced with 1 Nephi  11:34  which says, “And after (Jesus) was slain I saw the multitudes of the earth, that they were gathered together to fight against the apostles of the Lord.” This cross-reference really puts into perspective the significance of the death of the apostles that will come up later, or I guess we’ve already seen some, with James being killed already. It must be because it’s been 2,000 years since all this happened, and it’s really difficult to really understand all of it, but I’ve never viewed the “great apostasy” as that big of a deal because it happened and the human species survived. But surviving is different than thriving, I guess ...

1 Corinthians is an interesting book because the chapters are relatively short and not as overly abstract like Romans was, but there is still so much in Paul’s writing that is difficult for me to understand. I’ve been thinking about Paul a lot lately though, and his “adventures” and he’s pretty inspiring, when we have hard things to do, and wonder if the Lord will help us, or to even consider what kind of lengths God will go to in order to preserve his servants. It’s interesting to think about. The overview of chapter 4 is summed up nicely in verse 2, which says, “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.” Perfection isn’t possible, but trying our best is. Paul goes on for several verses about judgment, not only judgment between each other but also judgment that we inflict on ourselves. I think there are two ways to look at this, first is that our spiritual progress or faults are honestly none of our business. I remember thinking about something once and say...

I really wanted to finish out chapter 3 before I head out of town for the weekend. Paul has just compared sharing the gospel with constructing a building or growing plants, it takes a lot of work from different people, but ultimately, it is not any of the people who convert others, it is through the Spirit of God that others may be converted. Paul then makes an interesting statement, one that is popular among Christians but also doesn’t seem to fit this train of thought. He says, “know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” This is a well known quote among Christians, but it is usually in terms of our physical bodies. The IM explains, “in this verse, Paul used ye, a plural pronoun, to refer to the Corinthian Saints collectively as God’s temple. Paul’s point was that the congregation of the Church functioned as temples where the S...

Along with the metaphor of planting and watering, Paul also gives a metaphor about building structures, saying that he “laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.” The end result is a building that all can enjoy, or in the case of the metaphor, a person who’s testimony can grow and strengthen all around them. But again, the reward for the builders isn’t the building, because it might not work out like that. Likewise, our reward for building the foundation of the gospel in others isn’t their conversion, that’s not guaranteed or really, any of our business. Our reward for our labor in the vineyard is our own strengthened testimonies and other blessings that the Lord has for us. The IM explains, “Paul used the metaphor of planting and harvesting to illustrate that missionaries are instruments in the hands of God, but it is ‘God that giveth the increase,’ meaning that God causes the changes in people’s hearts and souls th...

The concept of spiritual vs. logical learning might be relatively simple to us, but to those who might not understand or appreciate spiritual learning, it is probably a more difficult idea to accept. That is why the Spirit speaks to us all individually, so that we can all be taught in our own language and on our own levels of understanding. This begs the question of why? Why does the Spirit take the same concepts or words and convey different messages to different listeners? I guess it comes down to the fact that too much knowledge at the wrong time is detrimental to one’s personal growth. For instance, if I put my son in a calculus class, not only would he fail the class, but he would be so confused that any further attempt at even simpler math would be difficult. It’s much easier to teach someone by building on previously understood concepts than it is to give all the information up front and then try to sort through it all. When we’re talking about human concepts ...

I purposely waited until I had properly functioning brain power to write about the next verse because I thought that it was really profound and spoke to what I’ve been dealing with lately. Paul has been talking about how the gospel is taught through “wisdom” and “mystery,” by people who are considered “weak” in our human societies. But those who are ready and open to hear the gospel message will hear it, and those who are not open and ready will not hear it, even though both types of people can hear the same words. But it can be hard to give up what you have known all your life for something new, even if you are open and ready. In order to assure us that the transition will be worth it, Paul says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Recently I’ve been struggling with a… I don’t know, maybe exhaustion or restlessn...

What makes the difference between someone who is wise who thinks the gospel is “foolishness” and someone who is “unwise” or simple by society’s standard, who does accept the gospel? What’s the difference in the message? Paul says “we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” This makes it sound like the gospel is some sort of supernatural, hocus pocus kind of stuff, but it’s not that it’s foreign or unusual, it’s just that it speaks on a different level. There is absolutely no reason why someone who is knowledgeable can not accept the gospel, and in fact many of them do. But it’s a mind set that must precede being taught in order to be open to the message. So when Paul says that they speak of “God in a mystery,” he...

We’ve just considered the type of people that the Lord calls to participate in the work of his gospel and have determined that for the most part, we are just regular folks doing our best. It seems that Paul is self-deprecating when he tells his audience that when he was there preaching previously that he “came not with excellency of speech or wisdom… and I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” This is contrary to what we know about Paul though, because as the IM reminds us “Paul was exceptionally intelligent and well educated. He could have impressed the Corinthians with rhetoric, philosophy, and secular learning.” Even though God uses “weak things” to spread his gospel, that doesn’t mean that we are weak willed or weak in mind or anything derogatory like that. Paul was called to preach the gospel and we know that he was very educated in the scriptures and trusted by other Pharisees to carry out important a...

One of the issues that both the Jews and gentiles has with the gospel message is that of the crucifixion of Christ. Because of the general way which this method of death was viewed, many people didn’t recognize the Savior’s teachings because they couldn’t get over that perceived “weakness.” This concept was a “stumblingblock” to them. Many of the people who heard the gospel being preached perceived it as “foolishness” but Paul teaches, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” Surely God has no foolishness or weakness because he is omnipotent and omniscient. But the sentiment of that statement is that any foolishness or weakness that people perceive God to have is still wiser and stronger than anything people can have on their own. It’s like all those times when Satan tries to thwart the plan of salvation, like when he tried to turn us against God’s plan and to...