Lives That Are Rooted In God’s Character

Meditations in First Corinthians 

May 6, 2022

Lives That Are Rooted In God’s Character

It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.

1 Corinthians 5:12

Read: 1 Corinthians 5:6-13

Paul makes it abundantly clear that the people of Christ are called to live lives that are rooted in God’s character. The heart of this life is revealed in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  Jesus’s life and teaching beckon those who follow him to a lifestyle that participates in God’s mission.

This life in Christ is not by human control. Rather, we trust God and do not try to manipulate outcomes.  This lifestyle is unconventional as we allow God to work in us to reconfigure our behavior according to Jesus’s teachings, especially in the areas of wealth, sex, and power.

Paul believed that their lifestyle, their embodied behavior, was intended to reflect their love for Christ. Their behavior said what they believed; it was an enactment of their message of God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ.

My Takeaway: The life in Christ is hopeful; it entrusts the future confidently to God. The life in Christ brings to Christians the life of the Beatitudes and the life of love that Paul celebrates in 1 Corinthians 13. This can be another point of quiet meditation; in what ways does my lifestyle reflect the Beatitudes and the life of love?

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.