You Are One in Christ

Meditations in First Corinthians 

May 16, 2022

You Are One in Christ

God paid a high price for you, so don’t be enslaved by the world.

1 Corinthians 7:23

Read: 1 Corinthians 7:17-24

For me, some of the most beautiful words of Paul are Galatians 3:28, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Since Galatians was the first of Paul’s letters in the New Testament, I think he may have been remembering it when he wrote this letter to the Corinthians. Three times in our passage today, Paul makes the point that your status when you became a Christian is not important. (Verses 17, 20, 24)

What is important is who you are now. You are in Christ. Since all Christians are in Christ, all Christians are one in Christ. To make this point in our passage today, Paul discusses the same three groups mentioned in Galatians: Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For Paul, the overriding issue is quite simple: when we keep our eyes on Jesus, when we remember who we are in Christ, all the divisions, all the many ways we try to separate ourselves into our special little groups, all these disappear into the shadow of the cross.

My Takeaway: Paul was responding to specific issues raised by the church because these issues were important to establishing harmony and unity in their community. Paul’s answer is not a ‘command,’ but rather guiding principles based on the Godly wisdom that Christians are all equal, they are all one in Christ. I believe Paul’s counsel is as relevant and important to us today as it was to the Corinthian church.

Sē’lah

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(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.