The Devotional - 1039 - Foot Steps in First Corinthians, ongoing

The Devotional – 1039 – Foot steps in First Corinthians, ongoing

Once in a while it crosses our minds that when dealing with people we may be a slave to them instead of a friend, or brother and/or sister in the LORD. You may or may not know what I am seeking to say, but if one were to be a public scribe it should be required that the person would first show him or herself to be friendly. Proverbs 17:17 or Proverbs 18:24. Yet with scriptural backing one can say this or that about public speaking and believe they are doing the LORD’s Will and yet be somewhere outside the playing field. With so many variations and textual changes within the Holy Bible itself it is a wonder that we understand one another at all! And with over 400 variations of Christianity this tends to prove the point that communication is one highway where most people are lost for words and what they say proves it. 

CHALLENGES & COMMENTS – 1 CORINTHIANS 7:17-23

The apostle Paul is ordaining (directing) the church (all churches) to acknowledge the walk of every man within that congregational framework. That God Himself has distributed to each one a positional part of the work and fellowship. He will have more to say about this in chapters twelve through fourteen and we will look deeper into this as we get there. I believe that our first allegiance is to the high calling of God in Christ and that our second allegiance is to the authority of the church. 

I say this in that God is perfect in His calling, we His children are not perfect in carrying out His call or His Will. Therefore we are subjected to the imperfect will of man which is not always a pleasant experience. One of the main issues in the apostles’ day was to legalize the male population of the church by having them circumcised. To cut off the freedom of living life under the power of God, or to curb the liberty we have in Christ by keeping the commandments of man rather than God’s.

The apostle basically says to the “churches” because the same thing was happening in Galatia too. He says “STOP IT” Stop forcing the commandments of men on the liberty we have in Christ. Circumcision is nothing and neither is uncircumcision. Let every man abide (stay) in the same calling wherein he was called as he will stand or fall by God’s decree, (Romans 14:4). Whether slave or free, a career change is not necessary we all belong to the household of God and not to a den of demons who say one thing and do another.

We are all purchased out of the world with a price that none of us could afford. We were purchased with the precious Blood of Christ. The purchase of God for your soul goes beyond words like silver or Gold. The Blood of Christ is eternally more precious since He alone is the sacrificial Lamb of God. The message of the cross is OFFENSIVE to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved it is the Power of God. Galatians 5:11 and 1 Corinthians 1:18.

2 Corinthians 10:10 speaks well of the need of speaking boldly as well as does the context of verses 1 - 11 of Second Corinthians 10. Yet if what we are doing as scribes of the Word is a selfish expression of arrogance then there is a mandatory need to STOP. The bottom line to this is if what we say and believe from the Holy Bible is offensive and sometimes convicting or forcing people to be legalistic (circumcised) or liberal (uncircumcised) than we are no different than the other 399 versions of Christianity and should all be confined to a church with no doors or windows.