1 CORINTHIANS 1:10

I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I’ll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common. (MSG)

TO PONDER

When I was in my mid-twenties, I was moving from one house to another. I was moving to share a house with my younger brother and on the move in day my brother had around ten to twelve friends helping him, and I struggled to get four.

Sure, you could say maybe I didn’t have many friends, but I was part of the pastoral staff of a large church, and I still struggled to come close to the number of helpers my ‘heathen’ brother was able to muster with the promise of beer and pizza. 

Today’s verse is from a letter of Paul’s written to the Corinthian church to address a few issues he had heard about in this established church. The first topic he discusses in today’s verse is in regards to which denomination they belonged to, pretty much, they were arguing about whose teachings they followed. The people who made up the Corinthian church were allowing partisanship to cause division. Paul says in today’s verse “You must be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.” Paul was arguing that they should find what they have in common with each other rather than arguing about which man-made differences they were using to draw ‘party lines’.

A group of unchurched, heathen, non-Christian, alcohol drinking, (insert your chosen partisan bias here) philistines came together out of consideration for the need of one of their friend. They didn’t need to have a discourse about the intricacies of moving house, or what the underlying causes of homelessness were. My brother’s friends saw a friend in need, had a common goal to help and cultivated a life in common over beer and pizza.

Paul’s letter is reminding us that we share a life of grace together as the church, we share a commonality of eternal proportions or in the words of Jesus ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’

Imagine a house moving experience where there are too many people helping because the person moving was part of a church…

PRAYER:  Loving Jesus, I thank you for the sacrifice of your life, given for me a sinner, an act of incredible love. I ask you to help me, empowered by grace, to walk out your love daily.  Amen.

Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside.