Don't mix your past with your present - 1 Corinthians 12-14

When it comes to worship we seem to have a lot of opinions about what is right and what isn't. You can wear a pair of jeans in one church and be cast out, but look like the pastor in another. You can sing one song in one church and everyone thinks you just left heaven, but in another that same song would cause seasoned believers to be frozen at the mouth. In one church no one would be allowed to touch the serving trays of the Lord's Table and NO ONE would eat the "meal" without waiting on the others. Yet, in some churches the Lord's Table is an individual time of reflection, as though no one else was in the room. Our forms of worship (or functions, depending on your bent) seem to take on strange and different cultural norms. As one church goer said, "I guess it depends on what your used to!" Yet, that was the very problem in Corinth and Paul's reason for addressing the worship of the Corinthian believers. According to 12:1-2 of Paul's letter, the Corinthian believers were being lead astray in true worship by their past pagan rituals. They were mixing some pagan with some Christianity. Paul wants them to stop it and to realize that worship of the True God is different and calls for different elements and structure. We do the same thing today. We try to turn our worship into a mall or entertainment experience, hoping to entice the pagan rituals in our minds that allow us to feel comfortable. Part of being a "new creature," however, is that we have "new" desires and ways. Don't get caught up in your form and function of worship from the past. Allow God's Word to teach you what He wants you do to in worship without the pagan rituals you may or may not have grown up with.