Be Curious BUT Wise
There's nothing wrong with being curious, but be curious about the right things! By the way, please help us grow. If you like these devotions, please share them! Thanks
I wanted to take it apart to see how it worked. It was an old alarm clock and my mom really loved it. But, my curiosity got the best of me and I took it apart. Here’s my problem, I didn’t know how to put it back together again. The xclock never worked again. And I got I in such trouble!
Curiosity isn’t a bad thing until it is! In fact, it’s a good thing to want to know HOW something works. But it is a better thing to know WHY it works. Knowing purpose is deeper than just knowing the mechanics of things. And knowing the purpose and the WHY of something requires deeper discipline and humility that has to be trained and developed.
It’s natural, and I believe a God-given gift, for us to be curious as to HOW something or someone “works.” This drive of curiosity and inquiry is both good and useful. We wouldn’t have the medical world we have today without it. However (I bet you saw that coming!), as with all our passions, unless our curiosity is disciplined, it will take us to an unhealthy place!
Let’s look at our lesson today in 1 Corinthians 15:29-38:
Brethren, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why am I in peril every hour? I protest, brethren, by my pride in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesos? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Come to your right mind, and sin no more. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. But some one will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
Our precious Corinthian parish is filled with a lot of “fun” people. Of course, the city is a sophisticated and cosmopolitan blend of all the people from all over the Empire. It truly is an ancient wonder of a gathering from all sorts of cultures, languages, and people groups. And it’s a hot mess!
The whole of 1 Corinthians 15 is about the Resurrection of the Dead. And some “highly educated” among the Corinthian parish dismissed this idea as “impossible.” “Once you’re dead, you’re dead!” as one “highly educated” friend once told me. But Paul answers back that if the dead aren’t going to be raised from the dead, then WHY are you in a Church that proclaims that Jesus rose from the dead? Makes sense.
Paul appeals to three very strong arguments to combat this silly notion of the dead staying dead. First, he insists that if the dead aren’t raised, why would he endure the stuff that happened to him? All the problems, persecutions, and even life-threatening situations Paul faces with faith BECAUSE he believes that physical death isn’t the end of his story! Next, Paul insists that this is causing a problem there in Corinth because these folks have forgotten some timeless wisdom about who you hang around with. My maw maw would say “Don’t be surprised if you have fleas when you lay down with dogs!” If you folks there in Corinth are going to fellowship with people who don’t even believe in the foundational truth of the Christian faith, then you have to expect that this is going to cause problems among you! Finally, Paul reveals an insight that is central to our Orthodox Faith. He tells these Corinthians that you only reap a harvest if the “seed” is planted and dies there on the earth. THEN, the seed produces what the Creator intended and designed to produce.
Paul also says something interesting at the beginning of the passage, and yes, I saw it. Too bad the devotional is too short to do it justice. Let’s say Paul finds it interesting when people do things out of nostalgia and religious habit without appreciating just what their actions are really saying!
St. Pimen the Great is a hero of the Faith who was born in Egypt around the year 340 AD. He was a powerful monastic in the Egyptian desert and his reputation as a seriously focused monk produced such insight in this man that he was sought after for his advice and instruction. His dicsernment was fired by his love for Christ and his deep desire to take seriously the call to truly repent. He once was told of a monkl who fasted from all food for a week, but became angry with one of his brothers over a small thing. St. Pimen lamented that this monk could fast for a week, but was unable to fast from anger for a single day! St. Pimen leaves us with a life that was cirious to know God and know himself so that he could know God better!
Today, do you find it easy to dismiss the more “unbelievable” parts of the Orthodox Faith because of your unhappiness with the answers about “how” something happens? “How do the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ?” “How are the dead going to be raised?” All legitimate questions, mind you, with an answer that is meant to heal you from pride and arrogance. Are you willing to be healed, or will you persist in stubborn insistence? The answer to THAT question determines whether you’re living a Normal Orthodox life!
P.S. With the rivers of your tears, you have made the barren desert fertile. Through sighs of sorrow from deep within you, your labors have borne fruit a hundred-fold. By your miracles you have become a light, shining upon the world. O Pimen, our Holy Father, pray to Christ our God, to save our souls.
Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack.
