{"id":2778,"date":"2007-04-26T16:19:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-26T16:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/?p=2778"},"modified":"2007-04-26T16:19:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-26T16:19:00","slug":"is-christ-divided-session-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/?p=2778","title":{"rendered":"Is Christ Divided? session 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Week two, beginning Sunday 22 April: 1 Corinthians 1.18 &#8211; 2.5<br \/>Click &#8216;full post&#8217; for text.<br \/><span><br \/>Introduction of major theme: the folly of the cross<br \/>cross is absolutely counter-cultural &#8211; it is the verdict on the culture, judgement on the world (Jn 12.31) &#8211; three sections<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>the message (1.18-1.25): a reversal of worldly values &#8211; consider Psalm 37.25; Deut 28.1-8 &#8211; how does this link with the &#8216;prosperity gospel&#8217; (God&#8217;s rewards are in this life)?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>the recipients (1.26-31): gospel is for the marginalised and weak, not for the high and mighty; the things which are not &#8211; we are the &#8216;nobodies&#8217; &#8211; are we nobodies who still want to be &#8216;somebodies&#8217;?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>its proper medium (2.1-5): not by worldly power but by spiritual &#8211; what is spiritual power or God&#8217;s power? how do we know what is of God?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>what is the &#8216;wisdom&#8217; of the Corinthians? wisdom of the world? wisdom of Mersea?<br \/>issue of eloquence &#8211; what is the effect of Paul&#8217;s own rhetoric?<br \/>what is rhetoric? in philosophy, contrasted with &#8216;dialectic&#8217; &#8211; big argument in ancient philosophy, which is the background for Paul&#8217;s own argument here &#8211; can truth be discerned solely by logical analysis (dialectic &#8211; Plato, &#8216;philosophy&#8217;) or is it important to consider the context (rhetoric &#8211; the poets, the &#8216;sophists&#8217;)? rhetoric is concern with the form of an argument, the eloquence of the words<br \/>was Paul effective as a person (charismatic)? as a speaker? see 2 Cor 11.6<\/p>\n<p>why counter cultural? what is being opposed, ie what wisdom &#8211; Greek &#8216;sensibility&#8217; (moderation, balance, beauty) &#8211; Jewish law(?) &#8216;cursed be he that hangs on a tree&#8217;?<br \/>in what ways can we see the church pursuing worldly renown? when in history? when today?<br \/>1.18 &#8211; those who are perishing\/ those who are being saved &#8211; what does it mean to be _being_ saved? (NB Paul doesn&#8217;t talk of those who have _been_ saved)<\/p>\n<p>1.23 &#8211; the stumbling block &#8211; <span>crucial Christian concept<\/span> &#8211; consistency often obscured by being translated in different language each time &#8211; we&#8217;ll return to this!<br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>compare Ps 118.22 (quoted in Mk 12.10\/Lk 20) Isaiah 8.12-15, 1 Peter 2 4-10<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>literally &#8216;skandalon&#8217; in Greek &#8211; something which causes offence (scandal)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>if we can be &#8216;not offended&#8217; by the cross &#8211; then we are saved<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Mt 11.6 &#8211; &#8220;blessed is the one who takes no offence at me&#8221; &#8211; ie is not scandalised by Jesus<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Jn 6.53-61 &#8211; teaching about communion &#8211; &#8220;Does this offend you?&#8221; &#8211; communion shares in the scandal of the cross<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Mt 5.29 &#8211; if your right eye causes you to sin, literally &#8216;if your eye causes you to be scandalised&#8217; pluck it out <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Mt 9.42 &#8211; whoever causes one of these little ones to be scandalised&#8230;.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Jn 16.1 &#8211; &#8220;these things I have told you so that you will not be scandalised&#8221; (go astray)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>scandal is the expression of worldly values &#8211; Satanic &#8211; Jn 12.31 &#8211; consider the nature of gossip &#8211; devil is literally &#8216;the accuser&#8217; &#8211; contrast with the spirit, the &#8216;paraclete&#8217; &#8211; the defender (both legal terms)<\/p>\n<p>1.29 &#8211; so that no-one may boast &#8211; priority of grace &#8211; to boast is to boast in the Lord, not in anything human, especially wisdom, power, wealth &#8211; in what do we rest our own sense of self? what is it that matters the most to each of us &#8211; worldly value, or God&#8217;s scale of value?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Week two, beginning Sunday 22 April: 1 Corinthians 1.18 &#8211; 2.5Click &#8216;full post&#8217; for text.Introduction of major theme: the folly of the crosscross is absolutely counter-cultural &#8211; it is the verdict on the culture, judgement on the world (Jn 12.31) &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/?p=2778\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3npsc-IO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elizaphanian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}