In his letter to a confused and some might say worldly Corinthian church Paul focusses on one thing: “I decided that while I was with you, I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified”.
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When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan. 2 For I decided that while I was with you, I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.
I thought about the lads in prison who are trying to reach for Jesus and I thought about our message. Jesus: the Son of God who loved us and descended from the throne of heaven:
* came as a baby
* lived amongst us (the only truly “good man” who has ever lived)
* tempted and tried in every way that we are but without sinning
* provoked by sinners to the point where He could have justly called on His Father to send angels to destroy the world
* suffered death for everyone, paid the debt of sin for everyone who would believe
* rose from death on the third day and made it clear to all the powers in heaven, on earth and under the earth that He was victorious for us
* returned to the Father and sent His Holy Spirit to live in all who believe and truly ask Him for this new life
* returning to earth one day to judge the living and the dead and receive all His followers to be “with Him” forever – with a promise that we will know Him as He knows us
This is a great and profound story with a glorious ending! Prophesied in the Old Testament, and fulfilled and discussed in the New Testament, the lynchpin of which is Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
In his letter to a confused and some might say worldly Corinthian church Paul focusses on one thing: “I decided that while I was with you, I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified”. This wasn’t though a mere matter of words; indeed, Paul says that He avoided “trying to be clever”, the words were backed up with a demonstration of the power of God, clear for all to see. Likewise reading about followers of Jesus in previous generations to ours - they retained a simple faith in the gospel, didn’t always agree on the detail, and didn’t have the benefit (if that is what it is) of our up-to-date education, learning, research and resources. What they did have though was spiritual authority and a demonstration of the power of God.
Jesus clearly lays out what the Kingdom of Heaven is and what it means to be part of it. Paul spends a good amount of his letters trying to undo the work of those who had come into the church and contaminated or added to the gospel – robbing people of their Christ- given freedom and putting unnecessary burdens on their shoulders.
More than once (see Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 10) he has to get into things like what people are eating, and what days they celebrate as “special” or don’t. For example, he talks about some followers of Jesus who realise that meat bought in a marketplace and placed before them by a host, might have been purchased from idol worshippers.
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So, we see two principles at work – what is and what is not the practice of idolatry and care for a “weaker” brother or sister who cannot distinguish between the two.
It seems that we have the ability to complicate everything and Paul goes around in his books in the New Testament like a spiritual “whack-a-mole” – every time he has addressed a problem in one place, another one – or the same one leaps up somewhere else.
John Westley wrote:
“I have thought: I am creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God and returning to God; just hovering over the great gulf, till a few moments hence I am no more seen. I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing, the way to heaven -- how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach the way: for this very end He came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price give me the Book of God! I have it. Here is knowledge enough for me.”
The full gospel of Jesus Christ is the epicentre of the Word of God and faith for all those who follow Jesus. It is the whole reason for the bible. Let’s focus on that and let the Word and Spirit do their work?
Author: Chris Pearson
May God bless and enrich your life
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