What the MZ Generation's Turn to Buddhism is Teaching Us

When the Church Looks More Like Corinth 1 Corinthians 5

Open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. A man in the Corinthian church is in a sexual relationship with his stepmother. Paul says even the pagans around them found this shocking — Roman law actually prohibited it. The church knew. And they had done nothing. If anything, they seemed proud of their restraint. Paul says: "Shouldn't you rather have gone into mourning?" (1 Corinthians 5:2, NIV) Somewhere along the way, the Corinthians had mistaken silence for grace. Paul sees it as something else — not sophistication, but a failure of love. The Problem. The church was puffed up. The same pride that drove their theological factions had now shown up in their moral passivity. They had a name for it — grace, tolerance, not judging. Paul had a different name for it. There is a difference between genuine grace toward sinners and a silence that leaves people undisturbed in patterns that are hurting them. The Purpose. Paul calls the church to remove the man from fellowship. That sounds severe — until you read the reason: "that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord." (1 Corinthians 5:5, NIV) The goal is not punishment. The goal is restoration. And if you read 2 Corinthians, you find it worked. The man repented. Paul then urged the church to welcome him back warmly. But Paul doesn't stop at discipline. Right in the middle of these instructions, he breaks into Gospel: "Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch — as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." (1 Corinthians 5:7, NIV) As you really are. Not: become holy so God will accept you. Rather: you already are a freed people — now live like it. Christ is the Passover Lamb. The sacrifice has been made. The deliverance is done. Holiness flows from that reality, not toward it. The Parameters. Paul closes with a clarification. He is not asking the church to avoid immoral people in the world — you would have to leave the planet. The church is called to be fully present in the world, bringing the Gospel to people in all their complexity. What he is describing is something more specific — the integrity of the covenant community itself. When someone claims to follow Christ but shows no interest in what that actually means, the community's silence is not neutral. It sends a message. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. The old leaven can be purged because the feast has already begun. Here are three questions to sit with — from Coach Brian: The Problem invites us to ask: is there something in your life you have quietly made peace with, that deserves a more honest look? The Purpose invites us to ask: when someone has cared enough to tell you something hard, what made it possible — or difficult — to receive? The Parameters invites us to ask: what shifts when holiness begins with what God has already done, rather than what you still need to do? Take those with you into your day. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2601934/support]

1 Corithians 4

Let me ask you something. When you wake up in the morning — what's the first thing you think about? For a lot of us, honestly, it's something like: What do I have to do today? What do people expect of me? What will they think? We carry that weight everywhere. In the car. At work. Even at church. And here's what's interesting — the church in Corinth, two thousand years ago, had the exact same problem. They were fighting over which leader was the most impressive. Whose team were you on — Paul's? Apollos's? And through their leader, they were really saying: Look how spiritually advanced I am. Look how much I know. They were using their faith to manage their image. Sound familiar? Paul stops them cold in chapter 4. He says — look, here's what we actually are. We are servants. We are stewards. We don't own any of this. We're just managing something that belongs entirely to someone else. And the one thing required of a steward? Not brilliance. Not results. Not a big following. Just faithfulness. Then Paul says something that's almost shocking in how free it sounds. He says — your opinion of me? It's a very small thing. I don't even judge myself. The Lord is the one who judges me. Do you know how liberating that is? You are not the audience. Your critics are not the audience. Even your own conscience is not the final court. God is. But then Paul turns the mirror around — and this is where it gets uncomfortable. He looks at the Corinthians and says, with stinging sarcasm: Already you have everything you want. Already you're rich. You're already reigning like kings. And he means the opposite. They had confused receiving gifts with achieving glory. They thought they had already arrived. Crossed the finish line. Done. But Paul says — look at us. We're hungry. We're homeless. We're being treated like the garbage of the world. Right up to this moment. The way of the gospel is cross-shaped before it is crown-shaped. That's not bad news. That's actually the most freeing thing in the world — because it means you can stop performing. You can stop pretending you've arrived. You can be exactly where you are, exactly who you are, and let God be the judge. And at the end of the chapter, Paul's tone completely shifts. He says — I'm not writing this to shame you. I'm writing this as a father writes to his children. Because that's what grace does. It doesn't just correct us. It holds us. Today, what kind of steward am I living as? That's the question for today. When you get a chance to sit down — ten minutes is all you need — the full meditation on 1 Corinthians 4 is waiting for you at jubileecoach.com. Head to the Life Blog section, and it's all there: the full study text, reflection questions, and a journaling guide to take it deeper. I'll see you there. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2601934/support]

1 Corinthians 3

Think for a moment about the people who have shaped your faith. Maybe it was a pastor whose sermons opened the Scriptures for you in a way you had never experienced before. Maybe it was a mentor who walked alongside you through a dark season. Maybe it was a teacher, a book, a podcast, or a small group leader. These people matter. Their work is real. Paul never says otherwise. But here is the question chapter 3 is pressing on us: Has the servant become the source? The church at Corinth was fractured along exactly those lines. Some said, "I follow Paul." Others said, "I follow Apollos." They had taken gifted, faithful teachers — and turned them into tribal identities. Their spiritual lives had become organized around human figures rather than around Christ. Paul names the diagnosis bluntly. > "Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly — mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready." — 1 Corinthians 3:1–2, NIV Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2601934/support]

1 Corinthians 2

Daily Meditation | June 4, 2026 1 Corinthians 2:1–16 — Nothing Except Christ Crucified > "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." — 1 Corinthians 2:2 (NIV) Paul had just come from Athens. He had stood on the Areopagus, delivered a philosophically sophisticated address, and watched most of his audience walk away (Acts 17:32–34). When he arrived in Corinth, something had crystallized in him. He would not try to out-argue the culture. He would not dazzle them with rhetoric. He came, as he puts it, "in weakness and fear, and with much trembling" (v. 3). That is a startling admission from the greatest Christian theologian who ever lived. But Paul is not apologizing. He is making a theological point that runs straight through the heart of this entire letter. The Foolishness That Is Wisdom Corinth was a city in love with eloquence. Traveling sophists were celebrities. People paid to hear brilliant speeches the way we might pay for a concert. Into that world, Paul walked in with one thing: a crucified Messiah. From the vantage point of Corinth, this was absurd. And yet Paul says:  > "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power" (vv. 4–5). This is not anti-intellectualism. Paul is one of history's most brilliant minds. He is making a point about source and foundation. If the Corinthians came to faith because Paul had out-debated them, their faith would stand on Paul's cleverness. But faith grounded in the Spirit's conviction — faith that has encountered the risen Christ through the proclaimed cross — stands on something no argument can dismantle. John Stott once described this as a triple weakness: a weak message — Christ crucified — proclaimed by weak preachers full of fear and trembling, received by weak hearers, socially despised by the world. And yet through that triple weakness, God demonstrated his almighty power (Stott, as paraphrased in Woodley, Preaching Today, Christianity Today). Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2601934/support]

1 Corinthians 1

Where do you find your significance?  We build our answers so carefully—out of résumés, reputations, academic credentials, and ministry accomplishments. But in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul lands like a stone in still water, completely flipping the world's value system upside down. Before Paul addresses a single problem in this messy, fractured church, he does something radical: he reminds them of their identity. Because lasting transformation is never driven by shame or fear. It is driven by knowing who you are in Christ. Identity always precedes behavior. In my latest blog post, we dive into 1 Corinthians 1:1–31 to explore the difference between a "try harder" spiritual life and a "trust deeper" faith. Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2601934/support]