Imagine you are making a batch of cookies. You mix the butter, sugars, and eggs together. You fold in the flour, salt, and baking powder. Next you stir in the chocolate chips. Lastly you add in a cup of mustard. You then spoon out your dough. Yes, I know, you are stuck back at the mustard. Why? Because it would ruin some perfectly delicious cookies!
Paul remind us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Once we enter into a personal relationship with Christ, the Spirit dwells within us. In 1st Corinthians 6, Paul is addressing the sexual immorality that has crept into the church there. It is the mustard that has been added to the mix. For Christians today, we all struggle with sin. No one follows the ‘recipe’ that Jesus provided 100% of the time. We all struggle. Our vices and temptations may vary, but we all struggle. Whatever our fancy, these sins add the wrong ingredients to our lives.
Paul also goes on to remind the Corinthians and us that we were all bought with a price. He calls us to remember the physical and emotional price that Jesus paid for the forgiveness of our sins. His body and blood were a gift to us all for the redemption of our sins. Paul wants the Corinthians and us to see our physical connection to Christ and to realize the price paid to keep that connection open. Once we enter into that relationship, our body is joined to Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He urges them and us to live to honor that connection. May we honor God in all we do and say, bringing glory to His name!
Scripture reference: 1 Corinthians 6: 12-20
Tag Archives: sacrifice
Call of Christ
Christ chose to come and live among us. God incarnate made the choice to walk in a human body. In the form of Jesus, God stepped out of heaven and down among us. The people who lived with Jesus and witnessed His life were blessed to be in His presence, as are we who read about Him 2,000 years later.
In today’s culture, we are impressed when a president of a big company spends time with the workers or when a celebrity athlete spends time in a school or hospital. At times we too are called to step out of or normal circle and to spend time ministering to the poor, the widow, the orphan, the prisoner. For some it is a similar step to what Jesus did, willingly offering self for other’s benefit.
Christ set the ultimate example of giving when He submitted to death for our benefit. Jesus Christ became totally powerless in order to gain ultimate power over death. He had to be weak and vulnerable in order to gain strength and glory. We are not called, in general, to give our lives for another, but we are all asked: what can you offer?
Scripture reference: Ephesians 1: 20-23
Called to the Same Standard
In Matthew 22 Jesus answers the Pharisees’ question about taxes by says to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. It is a concept we follow to this day. Like it or not, we realize that paying taxes is a necessary thing to keep schools open, roads maintained, police and such on duty…
Jesus also says to give to God what is God’s. Hmmm… Isn’t everything God’s? Technically speaking, if He created all of this, isn’t it all His? And this leads to the questions of how do we give to God and how much do we give to God? Do we go with the 10% tithe idea or do we give all of ourselves to God? Hard questions.
In Jesus, we see the goal. He gave his all for us. In his daily life, Jesus loved all he encountered, meeting the right where they were at, offering them what he could. We are called to the same standard. Ultimately He took the cross and death for our sins. What more could He give? In the end, Jesus continued to meet us where we were at and offered what he could – himself. To paraphrase John Wesley, may we too seek to do all the good we can for all those that we can in all of the times that we can.
Scripture reference: Matthew 22: 15-22
Good Questions
In the beginning it was Israel that was God’s chosen people. For the thousands of years before Christ, they were God’s only people. They are the people of the law, the covenant, the prophets, the temple, the history, and of Jesus’ ancestors. Yet they are, like us, a broken people. The law is ever before them as a testament to their inability to make it on their own. We too cannot walk out our faith on our own. God sent Jesus to establish a new way, to establish a new covenant with a people who became known as Christians. We are a people of the Jewish Bible but also a people of the New Testament.
In Romans 9 you can hear Paul’s pain and anguish. He was a former Jew hurting for his fellow Jews. Paul offers up his own faith – if Israel would just believe in Jesus Christ. That’s pretty amazing. It is very sacrificial. It is also something that I could see Christ doing.
So it begs the question in me – and hopefully in you too – what am I willing to do to bring a lost soul to Christ? What would I gladly yield up to save another? These are good questions to spend some time with today.
Scripture reference: Romans 9: 1-5
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