What Are We Doing?

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

WHAT ARE WE DOING?

1 Cor 9:1-2

9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord? 2 Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you! For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

NIV

Alright who of us is or has known an apostle? Have any of us every seen Jesus our Lord? Are any of us the result of his work in the Lord? Do we serve as a seal to his apostleship? So then what can we learn from this for our life today? This section surely serves as a defense made by Paul that he has the authority of God in what he says, but again how does this all apply to us? It is true Paul did not travel around the land with Jesus while he was here, as the others did, but Jesus appeared to him after. Perhaps Jesus has appeared to some of us in various ways, but surely that does not make us an apostle. But we could ask ourselves are there any people who are believers as a result of our work in the Lord. If there are any who are believers because of our work in the Lord, are we then apostles to them? The word Apostle simply means a delegate, especially, an ambassador of the Gospel; officially a commissioner of Christ which includes having miraculous powers, of course. We could fit into that category to some people if we shared the Gospel with them and they turned from their life of sin and are now following Jesus. The question is are we doing that or are we just being a believer, going to church on Sunday, and living our own little lives without every doing any work in the Lord ? Are we going out where it is messy and making a difference in anyone’s life? Or do we have the attitude it is us four and no more? Even if we are not out in the messy parts of the world sharing the Gospel message, are we even making a difference in anyone’s life inside the church, or once again, are we just going about our own lives, doing our own thing? If we learn anything at all from this passage we should be out there, somewhere making a difference in somebodies life, other than our own.  If we are too timid to speak up, maybe we could write a letters, create a blog, write a book, or reach out some other way. If we are too timid to speak up, maybe we should ask God, in the name of Jesus, to give us the miraculous power to say the words we need to say in order to make a difference in someone’s life. We really need to ask ourselves, “What are we doing”?