1 Corinthians 1-2: We Have The Mind of Christ

"But we have the mind of Christ." It seems every moment in these first paragraphs leads to this opening conclusion. Paul zooms in on the microscopic level of God's Kingdom and how it functions: relationships with one another. I'm not sure if it is necessarily "zooming in" because when Jesus first shows up to the public he says that the Kingdom of God has come near...physically in the person of Jesus. I think Paul realizes the magnitude of these relationships within the church at Corinth. The Kingom of God is actually made up of these relationships...families and friendships and people who annoy one another or who have seriously hurt or damaged one another. Relationships between people who are arguing over who to follow, like what's happening in Corinth.

Paul asks "is Christ divided?" This seems to be connected with Mark 3:24, "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." Jesus goes on down to an even more basic level, "If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand." In this context, Jesus is asking the teachers of the law, who are claiming he is driving demons out of people by the power of Satan, "How can Satan drive out Satan?" Jesus talks about tying up the strong man and plundering his house which is Jesus tying up Satan and taking back what is rightfully God's, the world. I think what Paul is getting at is the Corinthians are Christ incarnate, "called to be his holy people," and Christ himslef is not divided, so why should they? This is a call to reconcile relationships at the most basic level: with each other, the people around us. Paul implores them to "agree with one another in what you say," and to be "perfectly united in mind and thought." This recalls Jesus's prayer in John 17:20-23, a prayer for oneness with God and with eachother. Jesus prays, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you have sent me, that they may be one as we are one--I in them and you in me--so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know tht you sent me ndhve loved them even as you have loved me." Wow! There is some pretty outrageous stuff in this passage.

Jesus is saying its possible to be one, complete total inseperabele oneness, with the God who created the complexities of the universe like fusion and black holes, the God who came up with stuff like people and oceans and mountains and music and snow flakes and fractals....Jesus prays for us to be one with God. I can't seem to articualte this properly...it's kind of like the complexites of the Trinity, the relationship between God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit...kind of like if your mom, who is a mother and a wife and a daughter, was all of these as different people at the same time but one person, but all three very distinctly different...i'm not sure if that worked. Oneness...man! So this God, is choosing to live inside of the people of the Corinthian church (and all Christians) to reveal himslef and his kingdom to the world. Paul's trying to get the Corinthians back on track with this kind of thinking...Jesus's kind of thinking.

He goes on to dicepher human wisdom and God's wisdom. Attaining God's wisdom is made possible by the Holy Spirit. 2:10b Paul writes, "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God." So we have a direct link to God because of the work of Jesus on the cross and his sending of the Holy Spirit to us. Imagine a people each in deep communion and connectedness with God; in deep oneness with the character and thoughts and desires of God. Imagine those people getting together and acting on those thoughts and desires. Man! This is the church.

Today is wednesday. Yesterday I met with my two InterVarsity volutneers, Aaron and Kris. We had dinner and then took some time to talk about the upcoming academic year. The vision for UMass is very simple. We want to see witnessing communities formed in campus neighborhoods/dorms all over campus. This may start out with just two or three students studying scripture and praying together and sharing life together. We want to see students living the gospel in the culture that their in. Not to be in some nice happy little cocoon called a fellowship, but to be actively involved and vulnerable with the world around them...people in their dorms and classes, people they care about, people who make them nervous or people they are afraid of. This little family will be a microcosm of God's Kingdom, just an atom of it, but vitally important. When people see God's Kingdom in action and begin to experience it, crazy things happen. The reality of what God wants for us is revealed and unleashed into the world. People start getting saved and things start getting transformed, like families and entire groups of people. The tempest of a lot relationships are calmed and made possible through the saving grace of Jesus. I desire this for UMass. For students to get caught up in the gospel. To go from death to life.