Thursday, August 22

THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 2019

"Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.... For God is not a God of disorder but of peace -- as in all the congregations of the Lord's people." (1 Corinthians 14:1,33)


1 Corinthians 12-14 represents some of the most complete teaching on the functioning of the Church and its ministry. Notably, Chapters 12 and 14 review the gifts of the Holy Spirit and their function within the Body of Christ and during the worship gathering. Sandwiched in between, we have the great Chapter 13 on the nature of love.

From the letter's context, we sense that the Corinthians struggled to combat the power of sin, particularly given the challenging moral background of that lascivious city. The Greeks even developed a verb -- "to corinthianize" -- to describe the corrupting effects of that cultural backdrop.

The sandwich of Chapter 13 also indicates that the Corinthians may have struggled to exercise their spiritual giftedness in a spirit of love. Spiritual power exercised outside of love can devolve into a vain attempt or self-aggrandizement. As one author points out, 1 Corinthians 13 speaks of love (only realizable by God's grace), but the opposite of love is really self-centeredness.

Turning to 1 Corinthians 14, the chapter discusses how the Corinthians could best direct their gatherings in order to allow the spiritual power to be properly channeled. Paul thus emphasizes "order" (Chapter 14) and "love" (Chapter 13). Both of these traits take humility -- a trusting in God's greater plan and purpose.

I pray that we might see Acts 3:19 fulfilled powerfully in our midst: "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord... " We need to turn away from what doesn't matter so that we may embrace what does matter in light of eternity: God and His people. We need a fresh outpouring of the Spirit's power so that we may honor God and bless His people. "Do it again, Lord!"


Lord God, thank You for sending Your Son so that we might become adopted into Your family through His shed blood. Thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit so that we may become fruitful and able to honor You and bless Your people. Prepare us for another move of Your Holy Spirit. We confess that we have clung to much lesser things out of comfort and pride. Give us clean hands and pure hearts, and bring Your Spirit's power to bear in our midst. In Jesus's mighty Name, amen.



________________________________________________________________________
596 Glenbrook Road, Unit 13 | "Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection
Stamford, CT 06906-1423 | and the life. He who believes in me will
(C) 203.820.1741 | live, even though he dies; and whoever
(H) 203.355.9374 | lives and believes in me will never die.
(E) swe@edwa.info | Do you believe this?'" -- John 11:25,26