The Therapeutic Bible – 1 and 2 Corinthians: Acceptance • Grace • Truth

By Sociedade Bíblica do Brasil and Jairo Miranda

The Therapeutic Bible is an original edition, perhaps unique in the world today. A group of highly regarded Christian mental health professionals — supported by the Brazilian Body of Christian Psychologists and Psychiatrists and by the Bible Society of Brazil — have dedicated themselves to the task of commentating the therapeutic content of the biblical text, using their gifts and professional experience to explain how the Holy Scriptures foster our physical, mental, and spiritual health. This volume is the first fruit of this work in the English language, in the hope and prayer that the Wonderful Counselor will use it to help bring rest and relief to many souls who seek comfort from God's Word.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sociedade Bíblica do Brasil
• Release date: Mar 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9788531115714

Book preview

Good News Translation. The Therapeutic Bible. Acceptance, Grace, Truth

1 and 2 Corinthians

The United Bible Societies is a world fellowship of National Bible Societies, joined together for consultation, mutual support and action in their task of achieving the widest possible, effective and meaningful distribution of the Holy Scriptures and of helping people interact with the Word of God. Bible Societies seek to carry out their task in partnership and co-operation with all Christian churches and with church-related organisations. You are invited to share in this work by your prayers and gifts. The Bible Society, in your country will be very happy to provide details of its activities.

The Therapeutic Bible - 1 and 2 Corinthians

© Bible Society of Brazil, 2016

P.O. Box 330 06453-970 Barueri, São Paulo – Brazil

email: [e-mail]

All rights reserved

Bible text

The Good News Translation

© 1992 American Bible Society

All rights reserved

Presentation

We are pleased to present The Therapeutic Bible to you. It is the fruit of the loving reading of the Word of God in the midst of our families. We, the authors, are Christian mental health professionals committed to a personal testimony of the grace and truth manifested in Jesus Christ.

We believe in personal salvation in Jesus Christ, the incarnation of his life, the Son of God the Father, the first fruits of the biology of resurrection by the powerful action of the Holy Spirit who inspires us, draws us close, and enables all of our relationships: with God, with others, and with ourselves.

Our professional task, psychotherapy and counseling, puts us in daily contact with the faces of our patients. It is in them that we have witnessed the daily mystery that reveals itself in their gaze. In this mystery we testify that God is indeed present.

The comments accompanying the sacred text originate from these meetings. They are rooted in wonder: consultation with our patients is scheduled by grace. In this sense we are happy to meet in our offices with the envoys of the Lord, who were sent to experience kinship with the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ and become part of a new family that is the Church. They speak words in everyday language that testify to the decisive importance that faith has in our lives and professions.

These comments, thus, are written as prayers, designed to encourage listening of the text. The decisive turn is in the text that gives itself to us and that the Holy Spirit allows us to receive. The joy and satisfaction to awaken this wonderful experience is the goal of The Therapeutic Bible.

The authors

Preface

A group of eighteen Christian mental health professionals, members of the Brazilian Body of Christian Psychologists and Psychiatrists (CPPC) and supported by both the CPPC and the Brazilian Bible Society (SBB), have worked with great effort to identify and explain the various fostering elements of mental, physical, and spiritual health that exist in the Holy Scriptures. In 2011 the New Testament commentary was published in Brazil. What you have in your hands, though, is being published for the first time in any language: the New Testament commentary combined with commentary on the Book of Psalms.

We pray that God blesses all the readers of the biblical text, the commentaries, and the explicative boxes — and hope that this work helps each reader to grow in physical, emotional, and spiritual health. We would appreciate any comments or suggestions that readers have so that we can improve our work — after all, our objective is to cover the entire Bible, and there will certainly be much that needs improvement as we tackle this difficult yet enriching task which has blessed our lives so far. We solicit your prayers for our editorial team, that The Therapeutic Bible will be an instrument that brings acceptance, grace, and truth on the part of God to our people in need.

Jairo Miranda (team coordinator)

Karl Kepler (editor, The Therapeutic Bible)

About the CPPC

The Brazilian Body of Christian Psychologists and Psychiatrists (CPPC), an active organization since 1976, researches and promotes the dialogue of the science and practice of psychology and psychiatry with the Christian faith. Through the years we have noted that in spite of occasional tensions, it is not necessary to give up either scientific truth or the truth revealed in Scripture — we believe that both originate in God.

We promote conferences, meetings, fellowships, lectures, and agreements with educational as well as ecclesial institutions. We publish Psychotheology magazine and make ourselves available to our readers on our Internet site: www.cppc.org.br, where one can access diverse texts of our authorship, find professionals in every region of Brazil, and get to know us better.

The CPPC supports the initiative of The Therapeutic Bible, and hopes that its collaboration with this project will lead more people to encounter a path of wisdom and health in their lives, not only in the physical dimension, but also in the emotional and spiritual.

Index

Cover

Colofon

Presentation

Preface

Thematic Box Index

1 Corinthians

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

2 Corinthians

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Writing and Translation Teams

Thematic Box Index

Church Discipline

Renewing Our Sexuality in Christ

Christian Life and Secular Customs

The Lord’s Supper

Showing Our Feelings

The Church as Therapeutic Community

Complexes and Self-Image

Altered States of Consciousness

Paul's First Letter to the

Corinthians

Go to chapter index

Many times we go through difficulties in life and do not know the reason or purpose of it all. According to this letter, the church in Corinth had many problems, was making many mistakes, and had a lot to learn. Paul faces the task of educating these Christians and correcting the problems, and because of this paternal care for his children in the faith, many Christians and churches today are blessed with his precious teachings, which otherwise would not have been recorded in God’s Word — such as, for example, the love chapter (13). At the same time, by nature of having to deal with problems specific to that particular church, some teachings are equally specific, directed to the reality of Corinth in the first century AD, and require a great deal of wisdom to be applied to our context today. The reader is thus invited to learn the deep truths of God and to value them, knowing that many people suffered so we could have access to these inestimable spiritual riches.

Paul founded the church in Corinth during his visit to that city (Ac 18.1-8). After he left, he wrote a letter to the church, but this letter was not preserved (1 Co 5.9). Later, the Christians in Corinth wrote Paul a letter, asking some important questions (1 Co 7.1); in response the apostle wrote the letter that we call First Corinthians. Paul then makes a visit to the church, but apparently they did not get along well, and Paul came away hurt and shaken from the visit. From Ephesus, he wrote a hard letter (2 Co 7.8-12), which probably has been lost as well (but some scholars think that it might be 2 Co 10-13). From Ephesus, Paul went to Troas where he hoped to meet up with Titus, who was returning from Corinth. Since Titus didn’t show up as planned, Paul went to Macedonia to find him, and finally found him (2 Co 2.12; 7.5-7). Titus brought good news: the Corinthian church wanted to reconcile with the apostle. So Paul wrote Second Corinthians, which was probably delivered personally by Titus, returning to Corinth at Paul’s request.

1 Corinthians 1

¹ From Paul, who was called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Sosthenes —

1.1-3 May God … give you grace and peace. Grace is God’s unconditional acceptance of our lost humanity. Everything that we are capable of doing as believers is because God welcomes us through Christ. Nothing is more therapeutic than knowing we are welcomed, especially by God himself. This word grace refers to God's own character, God’s distinctive mark. It is because of grace that God is the Father of our health, in every sense of the word, including the emotional and the unconscious. Peace is an expression that has to do with the salvation we were given. More than the absence of war, peace is the initiative God has taken to live with us in good relations. God is autonomous and welcomes us by his personal decision. God is good, and decided to treat us well. For this reason Paul calls the Corinthian Christians his brothers (v. 10). It was not a mutual sense of liking one another, or cultural affinities, which bonded them, but the action of God who called them to be brothers. The text has a unique focus. Nothing that Paul subsequently writes to them — and there are several harsh reprimands — will change this. On the contrary, everything confirms these introductory words. And nothing that the Corinthians had said or done could change this fact. So Paul welcomes them without restriction: May God … give you grace and peace! This brings psychological and spiritual health.

² To the church of God which is in Corinth, to all who are called to be God's holy people, who belong to him in union with Christ Jesus, together with all people everywhere who worship our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

³ May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Blessings in Christ

⁴ I always give thanks to my God for you because of the grace he has given you through Christ Jesus.

1.4-9 I always give thanks to my God. The bonds that united Paul and the Corinthians were divine and not human. you have become rich. Paul saw that their wealth came from God and not from his efforts as a missionary: the gift of the Word was given to them by God, as well as spiritual wisdom, which is the possibility of assessing and looking at things from God’s viewpoint, not their own. They also received other spiritual gifts, and Christ himself kept them strong to the end. Therefore, they could live without fear and insecurity before God.

⁵ For in union with Christ you have become rich in all things, including all speech and all knowledge. ⁶ The message about Christ has become so firmly established in you ⁷ that you have not failed to receive a single blessing, as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. ⁸ He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be faultless on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is to be trusted, the God who called you to have fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.

1.9 God is to be trusted. God is trustworthy because he always does what he says and says what he does. And what God does is to keep people linked to his son Jesus, in fellowship with him. This is his goal, and he will not deviate from it. This is what inspired Paul to be full of confidence and hope, and served as the foundation of his faith. The pagan gods could not be trusted because they were fickle. Their worshipers never knew how they might react. But the God of Paul was who he said he was: warm, friendly, and favorable. who called you to have fellowship with his Son. Paul is telling the Corinthians that they were Christians not because they had somehow made this possible for themselves, but because God had called them to enjoy union with his Son and with himself.

Divisions in the Church

¹⁰ By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ I appeal to all of you, my brothers and sisters, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united, with only one thought and one purpose.

1.10-17 so that there will be no divisions. Exclusive groups, which act as parties to differentiate themselves from others, are a threat to the health of the church. I follow Paul … I follow Apollos … I follow Peter. The church belongs to Christ, and he is one. Psychologically, the more mature and healthy we are, the more easily we will be able to find ways of living together without disagreements, quarrels and divisions; disagreements will be resolved and a path will be found to agreement and coexistence between parties. On the other hand, the more immature we are, the more we hold fast to our personal opinions. Even so, Christ will not let his body perish because of our weaknesses. It is good for us always to maintain our strong confidence in Christ’s power to hold us together.

¹¹ For some people from Chloe's family have told me quite plainly, my friends, that there are quarrels among you. ¹² Let me put it this way: each one of you says something different. One says, I follow Paul; another, I follow Apollos; another, I follow Peter; and another, I follow Christ. ¹³ Christ has been divided into groups! Was it Paul who died on the cross for you? Were you baptized as Paul's disciples?

¹⁴ I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius. ¹⁵ No one can say, then, that you were baptized as my disciples. ¹⁶ (Oh yes, I also baptized Stephanas and his family; but I can't remember whether I baptized anyone else.) ¹⁷ Christ did not send me to baptize. He sent me to tell the Good News, and to tell it without using the language of human wisdom, in order to make sure that Christ's death on the cross is not robbed of its power.

1.17 Christ's death on the cross is not robbed of its power. This has been little explored and understood in Christian circles. The fact that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our failures is the essence of the gospel, and the more we strive by our own means — whether in words or in actions — the more we run the risk of obscuring the importance of Christ’s death to our lives.

Christ the Power and the Wisdom of God

¹⁸ For the message about Christ's death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God's power.

1.18-31 the message about Christ's death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost. In this passage the apostle teaches that Christ is, at the very least, an intriguing person, if he is not seen in the perspective of faith in God. In fact, Paul says that without faith, the message of Christ's death on the cross is utter foolishness. But the importance of faith is that through it we see in Christ the personification of God’s wisdom. This is what gives substance and foundation to the message that Christ's death on the cross inspires us. It is this presence of Jesus that makes the message be a manifestation of power — a different power from the devastating and destructive power to which people were accustomed. The power of God in Christ's death consists of him accepting human violence against his Son, so as to save from death those who believe in him. This will be evident in the resurrection (ch. 15), but it will not happen without our participation in what is fundamental, the power of Christ's death on the cross for us (see v. 17, note).

¹⁹ The scripture says:

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise

and set aside the understanding of the scholars."

²⁰ So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skilful debaters of this world?