Scripture:
1 Corinthians 4:18-21
18 Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again. 19 But I will come soon, if the Lord lets me, and
then I'll find out whether these arrogant people just give pretentious speeches or whether they really have God's power. 20 For
the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God's power. 21 Which do you choose? Should I come with a rod to
punish you, or should I come with love and a gentle spirit?
Observation:
The church in Corinth obviously has some issues, ok, a lot of them. The church was in one of the richest cities and a center of world trade. They were prideful and seem to find it hard to shake the attitudes of the world around them. Sound familiar?
Vs 18 seems to imply their maturity level was some what low, as they seem to think of Paul as an authority figure acting as children while "dad" was away.
Application:
Paul sum up this section by saying, "For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God's power." At some point actions and words must align in our walks. How can we openly allow and even brag about sin in our lives then turn to tell others to repent? I'm sure this topic is not new to many, we probably have all heard it many times before; walk the walk and not just talk the talk. It's something easy for us to understand. Walk don't just talk.
However, Paul also talks about living by power of God. huh? That is a tad harder to wrap our tiny little minds around. What's the difference?
Why do we spend so much time on trying to control what we are not suppose to do? The real answer is not to worry about "sin management" but to spend time with God, or "relation management". With more God time, you will live with God's power. With sin management, its the self trying to get the job done and guess what, we will fail.
So now we have gone from "walking to the walk" to walking in God's power because we spend time with God. We trust God, we rely on God knowing our fallen nature is just not enough no matter how big of house we can fill with adoring fans. Or in the case of the church at Corinth, how pretentious our speeches, it's still self power and not God power. And its our daily choice to make.
Prayer:
Lord thank you for a tad different way to look at a walk with you. I should not purpose not walking in sin, but purpose walking with you.