Category: devotional

2 Corinthians 1:9 (ESV)

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

            When we struggle with the hardships of life, we need to recognize that there are biblical truths that counter our pains. We will see this in multiple places in the letter of 2 Corinthians.

            In the above passage, Paul has been telling the Corinthians about the hardships that he and his fellow workers had recently faced. IN fact, these men had suffered so greatly that they despaired of life. These guys felt like they were going to die under the oppression and the hardships that came into their lives.

            Now, stop and think. What do you do when you fear death? What do you do when it looks like the life you have is coming to an end? How do you continue to serve God? How do you continue to make it?

            In the verse above, Paul clearly finds hope in one simple truth: God raises the dead. This truth gave Paul and his fellow evangelists the hope that they needed to press on through the struggle. IF God raises the dead, then they need not fear even death.

            What would change in your life if you remembered very clearly the fact that God raises the dead. Take this beyond a simple doctrine that you ascribe to. Take it deep. What happens if you really believe, deep down in your bones, that God raises the dead?

            If you do not know Jesus, you had better let the fact that God raises the dead sober you. If God raises the dead, then this life is not all there is. If this life is not all that there is, you would be wise to think about where you will spend your eternity. If God is the One who raises the dead, then it is with God that you need to be right. And if you need to be right with God, there is only one way, by coming to God through Jesus (John 14:6).

            If you are a Christian, the fact that God raises the dead should change what you value, what you live for. If God raises the dead, we should be more passionate evangelists. If God raises the dead, we should be more willing to give up our comforts in the here and now. If God raises the dead, then we should be willing to take risks that others find absurd. If God raises the dead, we should be able to face suffering and death with hope.

            Paul was able to handle unbelievable pressure because he relied on God who raises the dead. Countless Christians today find hope in the fact that this life is not all there is. Today, why not consider what it really means that God will raise the dead? Why not consider what might change in your life as you come to truly take hold of this massive truth?

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (ESV)

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

            God allows us, at times, to suffer hardships. God comforts us. The question that we often ask is, “Why?” What is the purpose that God has for our hardships? What is the purpose that God has for what he allows us to go through?

            Look above at the opening verses of 2 Corinthians, and see a purpose for our pain that many fail to recognize. Paul, in writing to the church in Corinth, lets the believers know that God comforts us in our afflictions so that we too might comfort others with the comfort that we have received. The simple truth here is that, when we suffer and then receive the comfort of God, God is shaping our lives in such a way that we will then be able to help others through similar pains.

            The point that I would have us grab this morning, then, is that we need to not waste our pain. We need to not waste our grief. When we suffer, we will not like it—that is, of course what suffering is. However, when we suffer hardships, God is preparing us for a ministry. God is shaping us for a mission. As we walk through pain, we are made able, by the grace of Christ, to help others who will walk a similar path to ours.

            What pains have you experienced? What hardships have you suffered? How might God use your pain and comfort to help others to be comforted in their pain? How might your struggles be used by God to help others to receive the grace of Christ? You are a tool in the hand of the Father. He intends to use how he has shaped you—even through trial—as a way for him to touch other lives with his grace. 

1 Corinthians 15:16-17 (ESV)

16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

            In the early 20^th century there was a common movement to take the supernatural out of the Scripture. This was the beginning of the modern theological liberal movement. The idea behind such a change was not to destroy Christianity, but to “rescue” it from the ridicule of a scientific world that no longer accepted the concept of supernatural acts.

            However, a peek at 1 Corinthians 15 shows us that there is no way to rescue Christianity from the supernatural. The section above is a conclusion from Paul in a very simple piece of deductive logic. Paul was dealing with some in Corinth who were claiming that dead people do not live again—that there is no resurrection. Paul points out that, if they make such a claim, then they cannot claim that even Jesus came back from the dead. Then Paul concludes by telling the Corinthians, if Jesus is not alive—back from the dead—our faith is futile, useless, worthless, and we are still in our sins.

            The truth is, Christianity is not a faith that we can ever rescue from the ridicule of the world around us. This is because we believe things that the world cannot fathom. At the heart of our faith is the understanding that God the Son came to earth, that he died on the cross to pay the penalty for the sins of God’s children, and that he rose from the grave. As I told my daughter yesterday, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead proves 3 things to us:

1.      It proves that Jesus is who he claimed to be—Only God could come back from the grave, not an ordinary man.

2.      It proves that those who believe in Jesus really are forgiven—If the wages of sin is death, and if Jesus came back from the dead, then we know that the wages of sin are fully paid out to Jesus for anyone who is under his forgiveness. Thus, anyone who trusts in the resurrected Jesus is truly forgiven, his sin-penalty has been paid.

3.      It proves that those who trust in Jesus will live forever with God, even if they die—Jesus’ resurrection is a reminder for the people of God that, even if we die, we too will come out of our graves just like Jesus did so that we can live forever with God in the new heavens and earth.

But none of these things, none of these proofs, are available to a person who denies that Jesus has truly come back from the grave.

            One thing to learn here, Christians, is that we must not try to make our faith more acceptable to the world. We believe things they do not. That is what makes us different. We are not different than the world because we are better. We are different because we have been brought by God to trust in a miraculously risen Savior. We have been given a faith that is reasonable, but which is well beyond scientific proof. We have been brought by God to a faith that is supernatural, and which only makes sense to us once we have it. Let us not hide that faith, but share it with those who need the mercy of our Lord.

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1 Corinthians 9:15-18 (ESV)

15 But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. 16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18 What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

            What do we tend to want to boast about? In general, it is true that we boast when we do something that costs us greatly. We do not boast about doing something we have to do, but when we do something that goes beyond. So, for example, a person does not boast about how well they breathed today or how they never gave up sleeping last night. No, we do not boast about what we have to do, that just would make no sense.

            The flow of Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 9 is interesting. He spends time answering the question of why he chose not to receive payment from the Corinthians, but instead chose to take a job as he preached to them. I intend to comment on the sacrifice that Paul made and what that says to us in a future post. But for today, I am fascinated with the “boasting” that Paul does right here.

            Paul says in verses 15 to 19 that he does not want to be deprived of his boast. I’m guessing that he is speaking in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way here. Paul has something to be proud of, and he does not want to lose it. Paul’s pride does not come in preaching the gospel to the Corinthians. Instead, his pride comes in the ability he has been given to preach to them without charge.

            It is not the joy that Paul expressed in preaching without financial benefit that I want to focus on today. Rather, it is what Paul says about preaching to the Corinthians that got my attention. Paul says that he can take no pride in preaching the gospel to them. Why? Paul says that he can’t take pride in preaching the gospel, because he could not stand it if he were not preaching the gospel to them. Sharing the message of God with the people of Corinth is so essential to who Paul is and what he does that he cannot imagine what life would be like did he not make gospel proclamation is mission. That is why Paul says, “For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!”

            Draw some personal application from Paul’s statement. Paul said it was a necessity, a drive, an unquenchable urge he had to preach the gospel. Paul says that he would experience woe, hardship, desperate sorrow if he were not to preach the gospel. Paul took no pride in his preaching, because preaching the gospel, telling the truth of the good news of Jesus, was life and joy to Paul. And telling the truth of Jesus to others can be, and should be, life and joy to us as well.

            God has given you and me a calling and a mission. We are called to make disciples of the nations (Matthew 28:18-20). We have been told by God that we are to be part of how he impacts the world with the gospel. We do not take pride in telling the world the gospel. Instead, we should tell the world because we love telling them about Jesus. We should tell them about Jesus because we find ourselves compelled by God to do so. We should have a drive, an urge, a passion for making the Savior known to those who do not know him.

            So, what if you don’t have that passion? Pray. Ask God to grant you the desire that your heart should have. Look to Scripture, study the gospel, and se its compelling beauty. Love Jesus, and watch as God stirs in you a desire to make Jesus known. Share your faith, and watch as God gives you a more full understanding of all the good we have in Christ (Philemon 6).

            Paul felt a drive to tell the world about Jesus. Today, ask God to give you that same drive. May it be true of you and me that we find no grounds for boasting in our evangelism. Instead, may it be true of us that we find it a necessity to tell others about Jesus. May we have hearts that cry out, “Woe to me if I do not share the gospel!”

1 Corinthians 8:1, 11 (ESV)

1 Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.

11 And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.

            It is fascinating to see how Paul speaks of knowledge in 1 Corinthians 8. As we see in verse 1, knowledge puffs us up with pride. On the other hand, love builds up the body of Christ. Paul speaks this way about knowledge relating to the issue of food sacrificed to idols. However, we, if we will be wise, can apply it to many issues in Christian life.

            As Paul builds his argument in chapter 8, he starts with the groundwork that knowing and loving are different things. He then establishes what the knowledgeable Corinthians know: There is only one God, and thus food sacrificed to idols is not food sacrificed to actual gods. Many Corinthians have concluded, with their superior knowledge, that they should be able to eat food that had been sacrificed to an idol without any qualms.

            However, Paul continues, not every Christian grasps the fact that idols are nothing. Some who were saved out of idolatry struggle mightily with the concept of eating food sacrificed to idols. If those people see “strong” Christians eating food which, with their “weak” knowledge, they assume to be offered to false gods, the weaker brothers can have major problems. In fact, the weaker brothers might be led to throw over their consciences and to do other things they believe to be wrong because they have seen other Christians crossing what they assume to be similar lines. Thus, as verse 11 says, the strong brother hurts the weak brother because of his living out of superior knowledge rather than living out of love.

            OK, it is far too easy to grab hold of this issue and make some sort of case about modern Christians and alcohol, and I don’t have any interest in doing that today. It has been done many times, and often with different conclusions being drawn. So how about we dig down to the principle instead of seeking simplistic application? Sometimes, if a mature believer is not careful, he can, with his knowledge, do damage to the local church. Sometimes a person can stand and spout his or her understanding of an issue with great passion and strong arguments. Sometimes the person will even be correct in what he or she is saying, at least correct so far as the rule of law goes. But, in making the argument, in unloading his or her knowledge, the “strong” Christian can hurt others who are not ready to receive such knowledge.

            Christians, if you are honest, you will acknowledge that you have not always been as mature as you are now. You know some things to be true now that you did not grasp earlier on in your faith journey. You grow, at least you should be growing. When you were a younger believer, a baby Christian, you were not ready to grasp the implications of issues of Christian liberty, intricate eschatology, studies of soteriology, and all the rest. In fact, had you, when you were just saved, been dragged into an argument between two “mature” Christians about some of the more complex issues of your faith, it probably would not have done you good.

            Please do not hear me saying that hard issues are not important. Of course they are. However, there is a wisdom that we must use in throwing knowledge around. Parents are careful how much detail about the real world they let their children see. It can hurt kids to give them too much knowledge when they are not ready. Similarly, we can hurt the local church if we flaunt all the knowledge we receive.

            So, the next time you have grasped a hard doctrine or come to understand your Christian liberty in a more free way than have other Christians in your local church, will you be careful? Your newly-acquired knowledge may not be the key to building up the body of Christ. No, knowledge, even if it is real truth, might only puff you up with pride. If you want to build up the body, love is what does that. Sometimes loving others means that you don’t flaunt every freedom you have in front of them. Sometimes love means that you don’t correct every error in a person’s thinking—of course with wisdom understanding that some errors are devastating and some are not. Sometimes you do best for the body by closing your mouth about the new thing you have learned and just caring for others who have not yet made it to your conclusion.

            I can’t say how this must be applied for you for sure. There are too many possible applications. I also know that legalism and false doctrine are very big deals, and I do not support letting those things go. But God’s word is clear that we need to be wise and not merely have knowledge. We need to love and build others up, and we need to be careful that our knowledge does not get in the way of that. So, pray, examine yourself, and do what you can to build up the body of Christ, in love, for the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (ESV)

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

            We live in a culture in which people believe that privacy and personal rights are everything. We assume, because it has been handed to us by others, that we have full right to personal autonomy. We are taught to be true to ourselves above all things. Sure, we are taught to be good to others and that to harm others is wrong, but we are also taught that, when it comes to ourselves, we are the masters of our own ships, the captains of our own souls.

            Contrast the view that we are handed by the world with the declaration of Scripture, and you will see why, to some people, Christianity is so very strange. One truth of being a believer is the fact that, in Christ, we are not our own. This is not to say that we lose all concept of personality. Rather it is to say that, in our relationship with God we are servants to a Master, children under the authority of a Father. Or, in this passage, redeemed slaves, purchased to serve a perfect Lord.

            Before we turn up our noses at the sacrifice of such human freedom, let us remember that God has created us in his image and for his glory. He has designed us in such a way that to serve and honor him is the source of ultimate happiness. When we obey God and show the world around us his greatness, we do the thing for which we exist. Nothing can truly satisfy our souls like doing the thing for which we were created. Thus, being a servant to the Master is joy, not begrudged duty.

            Remember, believers, that we are not our own. Freedom is not the ultimate to the Christian. Yes, we love political freedom, freedom to worship God without government control or restriction. However, we dare not think that we are free to dishonor God in our lives. God has not granted us that freedom. God has called us to serve him, to obey him, to be his. He bought us at a price. We are his. We owe him glory. And, the best news of all, when we give him that glory, he grants joy to our souls, because our souls are then doing the very thing for which they exist.

1 Corinthians 4:7 (ESV)

For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

            If the above verse is not a perfect call to humility, I don’t know what is. Why boast? The proud person boasts as if he somehow brought about his own good. He boasts as if his own strengths and abilities are to be praised.

            How things change when we take a step back and remember God and his grace. All that we have, every good thing, is a gift from God. We cannot boast. We did nothing to make our good. Even if we have worked hard and fought long for where we are in life, God is still the giver of all good things. God is still the one who made us, who shaped us, who gifted us, who opened doors of opportunity for us, who protected us from evils we could never have seen, who determined our times and places, who gave us everything. We have no place to boast, because God is the ultimate source of all the good that we have and all the good that we are.

            Perhaps it would be good to take a moment today to thank God for all the good things you have. Perhaps today would be a good day to remember that nothing good in your life has come apart from God’s grace. Perhaps today is the time to remember that all your strengths, all your learning, and all your accomplishments are gifts from God. Ephesians 2:8 reminds us that even our faith is a gift from God. Let this humble you toward gratitude for the glory of the God who graciously gives all good gifts.

1 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)

I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another.

            For the first 3 chapters of 1 Corinthians, Paul has been teaching the church in Corinth to stop bickering with each other about which teacher they follow. Some bragged about following Paul. Others claimed Peter or Apollos. Some claimed to be beyond such men and to simply be followers of Christ. Paul wanted to stop such divisive in-fighting, and he addressed it in a variety of ways over the first chapters.

            Now, in chapter 4, Paul pulls his argument together, and we see a bit of the conclusion in verse 6. Paul says that he has written about himself and Apollos in order to stop the people from being so prideful about the teachers they follow. But Paul does not merely admonish them to stop what they have been doing. He also gives them in verse 6, a key to true, biblical humility that will allow them to hear their teachers, but without the divisive pride of choosing sides based on personality or oratory. Paul calls the people not to go beyond what has been written. He calls them to Scripture.

            The point that God has for us here is simple: the word of God trumps any delight in human personality or teaching skill. There are many who follow one pastor or teacher over another because they are drawn to his communication style or appearance. Maybe they like the way that a guy throws humor into a message or how another weeps while telling touching tales. But God does not call us to follow people based on these things. Do not go beyond what is written. God’s word is the standard.

            Do you have a pastor who teaches the word of God, really teaches the word of God? Love such a leader. Even if his style or persona is not what you like best, it is a treasure to have someone who stands before you, opens the word of God, and clearly lets the people of God know what God has said. Such teaching is more valuable than any skill in management, any talent in preaching, or any gregarious personality.

            We should add, in our learning, that the Scripture is super valuable for us all. If the church is not to divide over personality, but is to not go beyond what is written, then we too ought not go beyond what is written as we figure out what we believe to be true about our Lord. Let our doctrine, our rules, our standards for living be from the word of God. Let our grasp of how to help people change and how to make churches grow come from the word of God and not the world of business or secular psychology. May we love the living word of God and trust that the God of that word will change lives and change the world for his glory as we hold high his perfect revelation of himself to humanity.

1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (ESV)

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

            In his call for the Corinthians not to elevate one evangelist or Bible teacher above all the rest, Paul shows how each man contributed to the faith of the Corinthians. Paul originally preached the gospel in their city. He planted the seed of the gospel in their lives. Apollos, like one watering a seed, continued to share with the people the truth of God.

            Which man was more important? Which man really did the ministry in Corinth? The answer is clear; neither man was more important. If a seed is never planted, nothing will grow. However, a planted seed without water will also not grow. Both men contributed. Both were important.

            But notice what Paul says about them. Paul says that the one who plants and the one who waters is nothing. Why? God is the one who causes real, spiritual growth. It is God, not men, who brings the increase. It is God who saves souls.

            I would like to draw two points of application for myself and for whoever might happen upon this. First, each of us plays a role in the process of evangelism. And, in truth, evangelism is a process. You might share the gospel with someone who appears totally disinterested. That does not mean, however, that you have not planted a seed by the grace of God. Or you might get into an argument with someone about their beliefs that leaves you feeling like you have done more harm than good. However, you do not know that God might not be watering the seed of the faith through your inept attempt. You have a role to play. Do not despair. Take part, even if you do not see a harvest right away.

            A second point that I will make is that God, not man, brings the increase. It is God who makes a seed sprout and grow. It is God who saves souls, not me in my cleverness. Thus, I need not fear to share my faith, even with my shaky and halting efforts. God brings the harvest. God breaks through the hardness of men’s hearts. God brings life where we think it impossible. And if God does this work, I need not fear that the work is impossible. I simply must tell the truth, trust God’s providence, and leave the results in his capable hands. I might plant a seed. I might water it. God will truly be the one who does the work. And it will be God who is worthy of all the glory and praise for the results.