Friday, November 30, 2012 - 1 Corinthians 1-4

Friday, November 30, 2012
1 Corinthians 1-4

"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. You are still worldly. For since
there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are
you not acting like mere humans?" (1 Corinthians 3:1-3)

These verses could not be more relevant for my life this week. On
Monday, I went out to eat with a friend – I'll call him Mark for the
sake of this story. Both Mark and I have strong outgoing talkative
personalities. We both love God and love teaching His Word. But
because of our strong personalities, we naturally clash in an
environment where we both want to teach because we'd both rather talk
than listen to each other – a flaw on both our parts no doubt. In
addition, we have some differing theological views – this coupled with
pride transpires into heated arguments when we refuse to accept each
others view. On Monday, Mark and I had one of these theological
arguments. By the end of it, we both felt awkward, insecure, and no
longer wanted to be in each other's presence. Mark and I are still
"mere infants in Christ," still drinking "milk," as the Apostle Paul
put it; not yet ready for "solid food" because of the "jealousy and
quarreling" among us.

Thankfully, after nearly three months of jealousy and quarreling (I
know, we're babies), Mark and I were finally able to humble ourselves
and speak plainly with each other about our thoughts and feelings. I
won't get into all the details, but I'll just tell you that honesty,
acknowledging wrongdoings, and love prevailed. It was not easy for
either of us to humble ourselves the way we did; in fact, it was
excruciating in many ways, but freedom was the resulted. We both felt
huge burdens lifted from our hearts and were able to look each other
in the eye and genuinely feel love for each other again.

Divisions in the body of Christ prevent growth. If you feel divided
from a brother or sister in the body, I encourage you to go and be
reconciled with them. "I appeal to you, brothers [and sisters], in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another
so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be
perfectly united in mind and thought." (1 Corinthians 1:10) Please,
don't submit to the will of Satan, but to the will of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Satan wants you to be divided because he knows that pride and
unforgiveness will keep you away from God and prevent you from being
an effective servant of the Heavenly Kingdom. Remember, Satan came to
steal, kill, and destroy. Satan knew that division between me and Mark
would steal our focus from God (as we would be focused on our own
prideful self-righteous all-knowing false greatness), kill our
relationship, and destroy unity in the body.

But Satan lost because Mark and I took the side of the Truth. When we
stand on the Truth of Christ Jesus, we can spot the deceitfulness of
Satan, the father of lies. When united in Truth, Satan can't have his
way in our lives. So I encourage you to follow Truth and His ways
today!!

God Bless,
Anthony