The Prime Timers Adult Bible Fellowship welcomes you to our weekly web page.

You can find us in the Payne Education Center from 10:10am to 10:50, rooms 207-209.  We have coffee and snacks and Paul's letters to the Corinthians waiting just for you!

Ben Welmaker is our teacher for July 30th as we continue our journey through Paul's letters to the Corinthians.

Prime Timers Good News

At the beginning of our class we set aside time for members to bring us their good news. For $1 you can have the floor!

Skip Allen began noting with mixed emotions his daughter's thirteenth birthday. Ah, the teenage years. Well, it was nice knowing Skip and Shirley! Just kidding.

Pam Chafin celebrated her daughter's birthday, and Linda Thompson her son's.

All for One

Skip Allen continued our exploration of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians with some history of the time. Corinth was at a trade crossroads in ancient times and consequently had material riches and diversity of population. Most of the Corinthians were Hellenistic pagans although not lacking in spiritual gifts. Paul today is clarifying the proper use of these gifts.

Skip recalled our earlier reading from 1Corinthians 1:4-7 "I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— 6 because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed."

Unfortunately, as Paul saw it, many of these spiritual gifts had led the Corinthians astray. For instance, among the valued Pagan spiritual gifts were prophesy, examination of entrails and also what was called mantic, affected by divine madness! The Oracles at Delphi were held in high esteem in Corinthian society.

Some of their impressive spiritual displays led to idol worship, self-worship and using spirituality to enhance their own prestige in the community. Paul, in today's reading explains that the source of all these gifts is all from the same God. Paul attempts to heal some of the schisms in the Corinthian Christian church in this way. As he has noted, people drift into "cults of personality" worshiping the preacher instead of the Lord Jesus, or falling into old Pagan practices.

Paul emphasizes that all these gifts are given by God to further the common good. Some of his examples seem strange to us now, such as speaking in tongues and the interpretation of these, although a member of our group suggested that we could compare this to the work of an interpreter. Paul uses the metaphor of the body, used often in the ancient world, to suggest that just as your body is made up of many parts, so it is with Christ, that we are baptized into "the body" of the Church and worship one spirit.

Paul says that Christ challenges us to use our talents to the best of our abilities. It is not just an evil life that will be harshly judged by this. Wasted talents and resources that God has entrusted us with would also be sinful in the sight of God.

Skip made references to relevant passages elsewhere in the Bible relating to today's lesson. Such as Luke 18:14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Also remember these instructions from Matthew 5:16 "In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Or this from Luke 12:48 "...From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." And finally this from Luke 19:26, at the end of the parable of the Ten Minas "He replied, 'I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away."

We concluded with a prayer and a benediction.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leader

The view from the narthex of the new St. Martin's Church. We invite you to come join us for services at 8, 9, 11am and 6pm on Sunday. Tours of the building are conducted weekly. See below for details.

Paul's journeys took him from what is now Israel, through Italy and Turkey, and right in the middle of everything is the city of Corinth.

This representation of St. Paul is from a stained glass window in the new church. You really have to see these windows in person to appreciate their true beauty. St. Martin's Episcopal Church conducts tours of the church every Sunday starting at 12:30pm, and then Wednesdays and Fridays from 10:45am to 12:30pm, with a formal tour from 11:00am to 12:00pm.

The Lesson for Sunday, July 30th is titled "Love Comes First"

Key Verse:  1 Corinthians 13:13

Focus of the Lesson:  Everyone needs to feel loved. How can we relate to each other in a spirit of love? Paul indicates that love should underlie the exercise of our spiritual gifts.

The reading is 1 Corinthians 13. This text is from the New International Version^®.

   1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

   4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

   8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

   13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

NIV®