This blog provides a meditation on the Episcopal daily readings along with a headline from world news:

THIS IS FRANCE: NO PRAYERS IN THE STREET!

The only country to ban prayer

1 Corinthians 4:1-7

4Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. 2Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy. 3But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. 4I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore do not pronounce judgement before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.

6 I have applied all this to Apollos and myself for your benefit, brothers and sisters, so that you may learn through us the meaning of the saying, ‘Nothing beyond what is written’, so that none of you will be puffed up in favour of one against another. 7For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?

Again, here for comparison is my own translation taken from my novel, “Paul: An Unauthorised Autobiography” (Kindle)

Think of us as Messiah’s workers, or as managers of God’s family business. (Just as in other instances, in this too managers are expected to prove trustworthy.) But it’s of very little importance to me that I may be judged by you or by any human tribunal: in fact, I don’t even judge myself. I’ve nothing on my conscience, but that doesn’t put me in the right; for my judge is the Lord. So pass no judgement before the right time, until the Lord comes, who will shed light on the secrets of darkness and expose the designs of human hearts. Then, you’ll each get your applause, from God.

I’ve illustrated this argument for you, brothers, with the example of myself and Apollos, so that you may learn through us, that nobody should inflate the reputation of one man over another. For who notices you?

Tax Protest: the rich think they've earned it

What do you have that you didn’t receive? And if you did receive it, why boast as if you didn’t? 

 Paul wants to stop the endless human process of self-estimation and comparison with others. It is both obsessive and deceptive. How could we assess our own lives? That’s a job for God alone. I guess Paul’s promise that God will applaud is ironic. Then his diatribe moves towards the crucial question, “What do you have that you didn’t receive?” It’s deadly. Almost all human beings like to imagine that they’re self-made taking credit for the qualities or achievements they think put them ahead of others and give them the right to judge others.

What do you have that you didn’t receive?

It’s a killer.

Amen.

 Matthew 5:17-20

17 ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Jesus as reported by Matthew indicates that the Jewish bible (Torah and Prophets) is not to be rejected as if it had all been a mistake, but rather interpreted through his own fulfilment, his own radical obedience to it. Jesus does not bring his disciples a new era of permissiveness but one in which obedience is to the God of the Law and not merely to the Law of God.

Jesus treatment of the Sabbath law is a good example. “The Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath.” It is to be used as God’s gift for the good of his people and not as God’s inexplicable imposition on his people. God’s creation of humanity is more important than his creation of the Sabbath; the second serves the first.

Through fulfilling the law as a beloved child of God, Jesus creates a new righteousness which exceeds that of the legalists. Reformation theology or rather popular versions of it, tended to lose Jesus’ teaching about righteousness, because it overemphasised the distinction between “faith” and “works of the law”. Nobody attending fully to Jesus’ commandments could think that obedience to them would be a “work of the law.” Rather they bring the disciple face to face with the goodness of God.