Of First Importance

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

OF FIRST IMPORTANCE

1 Cor 15:3-8

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

NIV

First things first, seem to be a point being made here first. It is rather useless to have any conversation about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and anything which is commanded in the scriptures or about any of the truths of scripture with anyone who is not a believer. The only thing which is of first importance that we should speak to an unbeliever is that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures and that he appeared to all those people enumerated here. Of what value is any of the truths of God if a person does not first accept this truth? So why should we brother having any discussion about the truths of God or the validity of the Bible, in fact, with anyone unless they first receive what we have and have passed that on to them? That which is of first importance is accepting Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and as Lord and Savior. Then we can instruct, encourage, and comfort them as fellow believer.  The second thing we need to realize is that if we received that truth, we have an obligation to pass it on. Sure, it is a great thing that we have received salvation, that we are saved, that we are born again, and we see the Kingdom of God, both the one which exists within our midst and that which is to come. But do we have this “it’s us four and no more” mentality? If not then we should be passing on this gospel message to as many people as we can. If we are not then what are we doing? Why are we not passing this truth on? True, maybe we have tried to pass it on and it was rejected firmly and we get this attitude of “not casting pearls on swine”. But all people are created by God, and He sent His Son to die for them, because He loves them as much as He loves us. So then we should pass this truth alone, to as many as possible, whoever we come in contact with and spent time with. Sure it may not be possible to stand on the street corner, or in the mall, yelling at people about getting repenting and be saved, but we live among unbelievers as neighbors, we work with them, we exchange greetings with some on a daily basis, and we need to pass on that which is of the first importance. We surely pass on all sorts of other useless information to others, but why not that which is of first importance?