Sometimes we feel we cannot serve the Lord as well as we should due to physical infirmities or limitations. At other times discouragement may hinder us when people don’t respond well to our love and sacrifice for them. Paul dealt with both of these potential obstacles as he poured out his heart and life for the Corinthian church. Still, he gave them 100% because ultimately it was Jesus that he was serving.
The Corinthian church had a tendency to judge spiritual things by earthly standards. Therefore Paul, a godly man if ever there was one, did not seem to measure up in the eyes of some of them. In this chapter Paul tries to clarify the issue for them. They need to begin seeing things from God’s perspective rather than through the eyes of this world. Why? For starters, in the unseen, spiritual realm a serious war is raging. Our duty is to take up our weapons and fight.
Giving is a much abused and, therefore, often misunderstood aspect of the Christian life. The Bible clearly tells us we should give, but so do a lot of con artists who pretend to be servants of Christ. We need to avoid being taken in by charlatans, but we don’t do this by ignoring what God really wants us to know about giving as part of the practice of our faith. Along with chapter 8, which we did a couple of weeks back, this chapter is one of the more important chapters that teach us how and why to give.
What’s the point of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? What’s the purpose of it, the sense of it? What does it mean? Why did it happen? Why did Jesus Christ rise from the dead – and why should we care whether He did or not anyway? These are the questions we will explore in the message today.
Central Reflections 