Back to Corinth: 2 Cor. 6: 1-18

Verses 11-12: “O Corinthians! We have spoken openly to you, our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.”

In the 1965 Pink Panther cartoon, Pink Ice, the Panther is running a diamond mine in South Africa. However, all his diamonds continue to be stolen by rival mine owners, Devereaux and Hoskins. When the bumbling duo attempts to get rid of the Panther, he uses good ol’ fashioned cartoon tricks to ultimately make them distrust each other and have them at each other’s throats, all the while taking their diamonds in return. This was one of those rare Pink Panther cartoons where the Panther actually spoke (the voices of the Panther, Devereaux, and Hoskins were provided by the legendary voice actor, Rich Little.)

Though very humorous to watch how the Panther gets Devereaux and Hoskins to begin sniping at each other and eventually antagonize each other, there are people today and back in Biblical times who would set people against each other. This happened in the case of Paul and the Corinthian church; false prophets had filled the church with lies about Paul, and the church didn’t return the affection back to Paul that he had honestly and openly shown them. Paul correctly admonishes them, telling them that they are their own worst enemy; that Paul and his company of missionaries are not restricting them, but they are hurting themselves.

How many times have we allowed our own misconceptions or groundless beliefs about something to get in the way of the Lord’s work? We need to listen to the truth from Jesus Christ, He who is the Truth. Think how much the church could do today if all its members were united in following God, and not trying to add a comma where God put a period?

Something to think about.

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Back to Corinth…1 Cor. 1: 1-10

I checked recently, and I last went through the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians sometime around 2009 (wow, almost a decade). After I completed the last study, I felt called by God to revisit those twin set of letters from Paul. You see, back when my church did a summer reading walkthrough of Psalms, I started sharing revelations that God showed me through the study. When we finished, I had several friends on the list ask me, “Well, you’re not going to stop now, are you?” The very next study we went through in this almost 10-year-old ministry was the Corinthians. Seeing how God’s Word is “active and sharper than any two-edged sword”, I thought it might be interesting to revisit these books to see what God wants to show us. So…back to Corinth!

I Cor. 1: 1,2,9:
“Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,”
“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:”
“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We answer calls in different ways; take the following 2 examples:

The other morning, I logged into my work computer to find out (so I thought) that I had to report to the Disaster Recovery drill we hold twice a year. “Oh, great.” I thought. Not only was I not prepared, I thought it was someone else’s turn at this. So, I trudged over to the building to report to the drill room, not looking forward to spending hours in this room until our responsibilities were discharged. I vented to the Lord on the way…but He was already ahead of me. Turns out the tag-team oncall who took the first watch for our team had already verified all that we had to do (he had just not told me!) Furthermore, my manager later apologized and told me my name was listed for DR by mistake. As I left, I looked heavenward and prayed, “Thank you, Lord…and I’m sorry I had to the wrong attitude about this.”

Contrast that with Eugene Judd, a bouncer for a Canadian bar. He and the bartender had observed one of the waitresses getting manhandled by a couple of punks, so he went over to correct them. The punks laughed at first, because Judd was a dwarf, only a few feet tall, However, Eugene Judd was also the secret Canadian operative code-named Puck! He soon manhandled the two punks right out of the bar! No sooner had the dust cleared than a hypersonic signal came across a device implanted behind one of Judd’s ears. “The call”, he whispered, “THE CALL!” He went happily cartwheeling out of the bar and down the street. You see, the call was from the Canadian super-team known as Alpha Flight, whom Judd thought had disbanded…but now, with the call, he knew it would be time for action against some menace. (This was from my recollection of Alpha Flight #1 from Marvel Comics).

2 different calls, one real, one fictional. Both were answered, but the attitude was different. You’ll note in the Scripture verses above the verbs “called” and “call”. Paul and the Corinthian church were called by God, and they in turn call on the name of Jesus Christ. Both calls are important, laden with responsibility. Paul was reminding the church about how important it is to “answer the call”. And, we Christians know, that at all times, Jesus is just a call away in prayer.

Have you answered the call today? Have you already answered the most important call you could get (to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior)? If not….better answer that call before it’s too late!

Something to think about.

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