Christianity is a very earthy and physical faith. We express our relationship with the invisible God through our very visible human bodies, and in relationship with other human beings.

For example, in the middle part of the Book of 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses practical issues such as: a godly sexuality (1 Cor. 6:12-20); marriage (1 Cor.7); eating meat offered to idols (1 Cor.8); the financial support of church leaders (1 Cor. 9); the proper conduct at the Communion Table and; the proper exercise of spiritual gifts through the members of Christ’s Body, the Church (1 Cor. 12).

Recognizing Christ’s Body

There is definitely an invisible spiritual realm that Christians inhabit and that we need to relate to in a God-honoring way. For example, in 1 Cor. 11:17-34, the well-to-do members of the Corinthian Church were humiliating the poorer and working class believers. As a result, their coming together was causing more harm than good (1 Cor. 11:17).

They were sinning against Christ’s body and blood by humiliating the less well-off Christians (1 Cor. 11:27). Because of this spiritual malpractice, some members of Christ’s Body were getting physically sick and some were even dying, as a form of God’s discipline and judgment (1 Cor. 11:29-32). Spiritual disease was manifesting itself in physical disease and death.

In order to further understand what was happening here, we need to know that the early churches didn’t have church buildings to meet in. Instead, they would meet in people’s homes to have worship services. And it was the more well-to-do members who would have big enough homes to host the church services. A further point of clarification, for our 1 Cor. 11 passage, is that Communion in the early church was celebrated as part of a full agape meal.

In the Corinthian Church, it seems that the well-to-do Christians were gorging themselves on food, and then when the poorer field workers came in, they were given scraps, if anything at all (see 1 Cor. 11:33-34). This violated the unity of the Spirit in Christ’s Body, and elevated the worth of some members over others. No wonder that the LORD swung into action, and started bringing judgement on some of the offending believers.

When we celebrate the LORD’s Supper, we are handling physical elements like bread and juice, and we are relating to other visible human beings. But there is a spiritual reality that we express in how we handle the bread and juice elements, and how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Being Faithful Stewards Of Tangible Goods

In Christianity, the spiritual cannot be divorced from the physical. Instead, we express the health of our spiritual state in our very earthy and practical day-to-day lives.

For example, the Apostle John says this: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him (1 John 3:17)?” And in 1 John 4:20, he says: “If anyone says, ‘I love God’, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” In the Christian faith, the physical world is the arena we play out the reality of our faith in the invisible LORD. We can’t hide our spirituality.

QOTD: Do you honor God with your body and with the physical goods He blesses you with?