Friday, May 29, 2026

1 Corinthians 16 - Final recommendations


This is the last chapter with final recommendations. The Greek culture valued the spirit but Christianity prays that the will of the Lord may be done here on earth, i.e., earth matters too. Paul called the Corinthians to collect money for the saints (in Jerusalem).  
He wrote:
13 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 All that you do must be done in love.
As a soldier, he expects that a Christian is strong, but also that he loves. Generally, it is very difficult to find a strong person that loves - in general, the stronger wants to dominate the weaker; and a loving person is generally seen as weak. Certainly Jesus in earth was a loving and strong person.
In verse 22, Paul used a word in Aramaic: "Maranatha!". I always thought that it meant "May our Lord come!" (a prayer), but now I saw that it may also means: "Our Lord has come" depending on how the Aramaic Syllables are divided (but the text is in Greek). The gospel is all about "Our Lord/Savior has come!".

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