DEVOTION
THE 1ST
LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS
DO EVERYTHING IN
LOVE
1 Cor 16:10-14
10 If Timothy comes, see to it
that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the
work of the Lord, just as I am. 11 No one, then, should refuse to accept him.
Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me. I am expecting him
along with the brothers. 12 Now about our brother Apollos: I strongly urged him
to go to you with the brothers. He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will
go when he has the opportunity. 13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith;
be men of courage; be strong. 14 Do everything in love.
NIV
More of Paul’s closing
statement with some personal information about Apollos, but then this great statement seems to just be popped right in the middle. Be on guard; stand firm in
the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love. Why do we need
to be on guard? The Greek word here carries this meaning of staying awake,
being watchful, give strict attention. Being a Christian is not a ho-hum
life where we can just float through life doing whatever. Being a follower of
Jesus requires paying attention to the details of life, always being aware of
our thoughts, words, and deeds. As far as standing firm in our faith it seems
that would be a natural result of being filled with the Spirit, but maybe standing
firm requires some effort on our part as well. It is interesting the Greek word
is steekete, which we see in the English word Quikrete, a brand of concrete
mix, with is steadfast, solid, and will not be moved when set up. So then we are to
be steadfast in the way we think about God the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. Then we are to be people of courage, or act manly, as the Greek word
means. To have courage, not to shrink back, this is not about knowing we are
Christians by the footprints on our faces, but about being bold, standing up for
Jesus in the face of adversity, standing strong, and being a people with lots of
muscles would be strong. So then we need to exercise our faith, believing the
word of God, doing faith, actually believing what the word says, and acting accordingly,
so, as a result, our faith is strong, we have put the muscle to use to stand
strong, but at the same time do everything in love. This would be that Agape-type love, benevolent love, where we desire the best for others and live
with that kind of attitude and behavior. We would have to go back to chapter thirteen
to remind ourselves of the definition of this kind of love to get the fullness
of doing everything in love. The is going to take a lot of watchfulness, a lot
of firmness of faith, and much courage and strength to do everything in love.
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