17th January 2021
Second Sunday After the Epiphany
Title: Glorify God as Disciples
(1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51)
By Heeyoung Lim
Today’s text is about learning to use the human body for the right intention and purpose. What is the body for? For the Lord!
The Corinthians believed that they were free of all rules governing their behaviour and Corinth was stained with sin and soaked in a corrupt culture. Their dualistic notion that God would destroy the body but save the spirit led them to believe that sexual behaviour could not count as sin.
AII things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. (1 Corinthians 6:12)
Paul tried to teach them about the freedom to follow God and love others as Christians in this situation, and he insisted the freedom came from belonging to Christ like the mention of “you are not your own.”
Belonging to Christ means we should orient our behaviour towards glorifying God, and everything we do needs to be beneficial in the Christian communities according to Paul. It is not principally to individuals, but to the fellow believers and faith communities of which we are part.
God’s law is far much bigger and greater than that of humans, and God does not depend on satisfying the law.
We are not attached to live only for life matters such as personal career, wealth, power, reputation, etc. These things are influential in our lives, but everything needs to be extended into a broader context such as community, social justice, and the kingdom of God. I think human life is well fitted when it is opened toward the larger reality of God and God’s glory, because life itself is within God’s plan.
Today’s text contains my life confessions, one is “not all things are beneficial”, and the other is “I will not be dominated or enslaved by anything”. (12)
In fact, our bodies are members of Christ that will not be destroyed but will experience resurrection as Christ was. (15) God raised Jesus and will raise us too.
Anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him, and His body becomes “a temple of the Holy Spirit”. (17,19) Christian’s relationship with the Lord Jesus is not just spiritual, but also physical. There could be lots of temptations regarding our body in our society.
God allows us Christian freedom, but we are put into the right relationship with God by grace in Christ anywhere and anytime. The whole church is also God’s new temple, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, which makes people into believers and helps them to live as such Christians and Christian communities.
For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body. (20)
We are not our own, conversely, we are God’s. This is the reason why we live and die for him. Our lives are given by God and we are called to worship and glorify God. I hope we can commit to God so that His wisdom will lead and rule all our words and actions, and I believe we can live out the Gospel to glorify God in our existence. All the parts of our life belong to God, and we are “to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice”. (Rom. 12:1) One of the ways for glorifying God is to be responsible to God, we are the ones who love and worship God. We are in the house of God when we are with Jesus, and we can glorify God in our body. I hope we can all discover how to live the human life which brings glory to God.
The story of the Gospel of John is not just about John, Peter, Andrew, Philip, and Nathanael, it is about Jesus. Jesus here is deciding not just where to go next but whom to take with him. He is selecting followers.
Jesus invited Andrew and Peter to go to Galilee with him and Jesus “found” Philip and more. Philip followed Jesus straightaway, then told Nathanael
Jesus finds Philip, and Philip finds Nathanael, and Philip makes the best possible invitation for spreading the Gospel, and he takes Nathanael (also called Bartholomew) directly to Jesus and says to Nathanael, “Come and see.”
Gospel is basically passed person to person, and now we have more ways to spread Gospel in this media environment.
Jesus calls many not just one, He calls our church and faith communities.
In the middle of today’s text, there was Nathanael’s question: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. (46)
Nathanael is honest enough to express his amazement that God’s Messiah could come from an insignificant village.
When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” (47)
Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” (48)
Jesus knows everything and we are witnessing that Jesus calls us. He sees and knows us, and He can read our hearts as Jesus saw him under the fig tree, and He knew who he was and noticed him.
Nathanael declared Jesus the Son of God and added, “You are the King of Israel.” (49)
Jesus seems surprised since he responds and said, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree?”
What is our declaration? We do not know what exactly and suddenly transformed Nathaniel’s view of Jesus from doubting to great confession, but we know the epiphanies of Christ come to different people in such different ways. Epiphanies can be a transformation period through meetings and conversations with Jesus. May we be able to please our Lord through the transformation of faith and life.
Jesus said, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)
Most of us are people with shortcomings, but Jesus is perfectly honouring us, and he calls and makes us disciples. We do not need to worry about being disciples and fishers of men, because Jesus will make us, and He can accomplish great things in any situation even in this COVID affected life.
We believe we will be saved if we believe in Jesus, but it is not enough to believe in Jesus, discipleship consists in following him as Phillip and Nathanael decided to go with Jesus. (51)
“You will see heaven opened, and angels ascending and descending” (51). The disciples will see the divine glory. What will we see in the future?
All believers are all different, and they can be all models and examples of Jesus’ disciples, but we need to be sure people understand we are only a messenger, not the message itself. It is also important for us to remember that people come to Christ through us, not to us.
Our Lord, Jesus calls us to work with him every day, and He begins his ministry by calling people to be his disciples and entrusting his work to them. Jesus exactly knows us and unconditionally loves us to do God’s important work in our lives. Jesus wants us to believe in him and follow him, doing the work that he commits us to do.
We have been gifted and entrusted to be God’s workers in many ways such as leaders, elders, musicians, readers, visitors of the sick, offerors of hospitality, lay preachers, helpers and carers. All roles and responsibilities are significant.
Whatever we do, we need to be in a relationship with God and need to have conversation with Jesus first. I hope we will transform in God’s will and follow Jesus, because Jesus wants us to believe in him and follow him.
Our task is to say, “Come and see.” and our response is to follow Jesus as disciples. I hope we will all stand up for justice, peace, and truth as disciples of the Lord, and I believe our fears, anxiety, and worries will begin to go and disappear.
I believe that we are ready to face anything, because God will be at our side in His perfect plan and big picture. God’s greatness exceeds what we have already seen and what we can imagine, and God’s power is much more than what we expect.
The disciples will see the divine glory when the work of crucifixion and resurrection is completed. The unveiling of the glory of God occurs in the life, death, and the resurrection of Jesus, and the hidden glory comes between present suffering and future glory. We are in the conjunction of crucifixion and God’s glory. I hope and pray we are ready to follow Jesus anywhere and we can try to glorify God in our body as disciples all the time.
Thanks be to God! Amen!
(Ref. Bible, commentaries, theological books, UCA materials)
