Getting Over Ourselves

DEVOTION

1 CHORINTHIANS

GETTING OVER OURSELVES

1 Cor 6:7-8

7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.

NIV

Well we should have included this with the preceding thoughts about lawsuits, but we did not and so we must find some truth for our lives within these words. It certainly appears those who lived in Corinth were already defeated and in a dreadful condition as believers. It would seem the root cause of all this conflict and turmoil between those believers was self-centeredness. If wronged or cheated their sense of self was so overwhelming strong they just had to seek justice and retribution for being treated in that way. Surely we are not like that. Surely we never feel like we would like to revenge our being wronged. That is the question we must ask of ourselves in this truth here. Do we ever think when we are wronged as to how we might exact some form of retribution? How about when our ideas are refuted and challenged, do we try to find a way to repay our fellow believer in the same manner at some other time? No matter how we feel we have been wronged, the root of that feeling is self-righteousness or self-centeredness or said in another way, thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to. If we are so concerned about our own self than perhaps like those in Corinth we are already defeated. Should we not be making every effort to live in peace with all men? How can we do that if we have any feelings at all about repaying or seeking justice for what we think is a wrong against us by a fellow believer. Would it not be more appropriate to go directing to who we think wronged us and seek forgiveness for creating an atmosphere which caused that person to act in such a manner? Would that not bring peace instead of retaliation and more hard feelings, and more wrongs? We know two wrongs do not make it right. Isn’t is just a simple matter of getting over ourselves?