Two-wheel Therapy

Several years ago, a Facebook friend posted Today was a two wheel therapy day. No photo. No further explanation. A couple of likes, but no comments. Nothing else needed to be said. Even though we bikers are an incredibly diverse group of people, we all knew what he meant.

And because it was a weekday, we were all jealous.

Motorcycle riding is not for everyone, but when you get it, you really get it.

Non-riders feel this way about golf, fishing, hunting, mowing, ironing – you name it. You’ve seen the bumper stickers.

A bad day [fill in the blank with your favorite activity] is better than a good day at work.

We find our joy and it’s amazing that we can share it with kindred spirits by simply saying something like Today was a two-wheel therapy day.

St. Paul understood this and wrote about it to the Corinthians.

1st century Corinth was a large, heavily populated Greek seaport that had once rivaled Athens in wealth and power. Paul first visited the city in AD 49, eventually living there as a tentmaker for a year and a half, preaching the Gospel in the synagogue when possible.

After some initial success, the Jews in the synagogue came to oppose him, so he took his message to the Gentiles. After founding the Christian Church in Corinth at around AD 51, Paul left to continue his missionary work, eventually reaching Ephesus. It was there that he is thought to have written his first letter to the Corinthians.

The Church at Corinth was a diverse congregation, practicing a variety of Jewish and pagan traditions. There were different views on what Christianity really was. First Corinthians is Paul’s response to the Corinth Church which had become divided by a number of views and practices. They had questions and they sought advice from Paul, as their Church Father.

Paul addressed their concerns in this letter. In addition to clarifying key points of Christianity, First Corinthians provides us with a good source of information about 1st century Christian communities.

In Chapter 2, Paul tells his Church that they all participate in the Christian faith, understanding that the things of God can only be understood through the Holy Spirit, which they all possess. Paul explains,

Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. For who has known the mind of the Lord as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Paul reminds the Corinth church that their shared experience with God’s Spirit should unite them instead of divide them. This is an early church lesson that we can take to our own communities, even today.

Time to suit up. To borrow my friend’s Facebook post, today will be a two-wheeled therapy day.

And I’m sure you know exactly what I mean.

Further Reading …

This post references 1 Corinthians 2.