There is not a lot to learn share from this chapter other than the fact that Paul truly loved the people he talks about. You can tell by the way he describes each of them that he truly cares for them. I hope I am the same way with the people I know and care about. There are times when I know I could be a better person and love others more. I am an imperfect being who realizes I need God more and more each day. There is not a single day that goes by where I do not need the strength He provides. It is the days I turn my eyes from Him where I fall flat on my face. Lord help me to remember how much I need You each day. Protect me and those around me from everything this world can do to harm us. Help us to be renewed each day so that we may serve You better. It is only through God’s strength and power we can be all He wants us to be.
2012 Day 184 – 1 Corinthians 16
02 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in Daily Reading
Daily Devotion 
I just heard Stan preach on generosity yesterday, and he specifically spoke about this chapter. There was an embargo on Jerusalem at this time, and the Christians in the city were literally starving to death. So at the beginning of the chapter when Paul is asking for donations for the Christians in Jerusalem, it was to relieve this suffering. This was actually quite a poignant and unifying moment in the church. The Jewish believers in Jerusalem weren’t really sure what to make of the gentile churches. Were they really believers? This message that had been brought to the Jews was now being given to the Gentiles? Could this be? And then the Gentiles weren’t really all that sure about the Jewish folks…I mean, there had been trust issues between Jews and Gentiles for centuries. But the Gentile church pooled their resources and gave an abundance for their Jewish brothers in Jerusalem. That kind of activity was unheard of. And to add another layer, the churches in Corinth and Galatia had to trust that Paul wasn’t defrauding them. They had witnessed so much corruption. That’s the main reason Paul constantly reminded them that he had never taken anything from them, that he had supported himself, that he’d never asked anything from the church. He was building the trust. He let them know he was not a fraud. And thank goodness he did that, because by this point he had built the trust enough that he was able to collect a much needed abundance of money to send to the church in Jerusalem.
The generosity lesson is a good one to learn, but one that I think is even more important to spend time on is the unity within the church. These two groups of Christians couldn’t have been more opposite. You had a group who had always been monotheistic, who had followed a moral law, who had a history with the Judeo-Christian God. Then you have another group who was just now coming to a knowledge of this God, of his Son, of this moral code. The Corinthians were polytheistic, some of them after coming to a belief in Jesus still struggling with the idea that there is only one God. They were sexually promiscuous. They treated their women horrendously. You couldn’t have two more opposite groups of believers. But they overcame that and gave. They showed unity. They showed love. If put in a room together would they agree on every doctrinal issue? Probably not. But the core belief of Jesus as Savior is what bound them. Something for us to remember and work towards in an era when we have a million different denominations. The church must be unified. The church must show grace between denominations (Harkening back to Stan’s devo in April). Jesus said the world would be impacted by our love and our unity. Boy, we are really sucking at that…