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From 1 Corinthians 4

Paul encourages the Corinthian Christians to emulate him after saying things like “we have become, and are still, the scum of the world, the refuse (trash) of all things.”

What?!

Thankfully, he then provides some clarity as he encourages them to remember the ways of Christ and to live in those ways. Sometimes we need that simple reminder, so let this devotion be that for you today.

Remember the ways of Christ.

Strive to live as He instructs you to.

Consider yourself a servant of others and a steward of the Gospel.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses of the simplicity of the Gospel.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to remember the instructions Christ left for us.

Topics to Pray About                                                           

• Thank God for the foundation we have in Christ.
• Confess to God the times you have ignored the impact your faith ought to have on your life.
• Ask God to guide you in His ways.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From 1 Corinthians 3

In these verses, Paul rebukes the Corinthians for a practice that the modern church can resonate with (probably more than any of us would like to admit). The Corinthians are struggling with division that comes from their identification with specific leaders in the church. This has caused them to lose their focus on the calling that God has put in front of them and on the foundation of Jesus Christ. Now you might be thinking to yourself, “I don’t think we struggle with this – sure, some people put too much focus on their favorite celebrity preacher, but I don’t think it’s a really widespread issue.” But I want to reframe this a little bit, the Corinthians were too focused on the people who had impacted them the most, and they stopped thinking about the larger body of Christ like they should have. When we frame Paul’s concern in that light, it challenges how we think about some pastors today but it also challenges how we think about our churches sometimes. I’ll use the churches in my own life as an example – Christ the King planted, Mt. Calvary watered, but God gave the growth. We forget that we aren’t just a bunch of individual churches, we are individual instances of the Church. As such, we should work to support and build one another up – rather than looking at one another as rivals or opposition – in support of the Gospel message that is our one foundation.

This does raise another question about the division that we see in the Church regarding denominations. This too is a sinful division; however, it is less simple than a focus on individual leaders or churches. The core of the division between denomination is the plethora of theological differences that set us apart from one another. We should actively work to resolve those differences, but we cannot operate as if they do not exist for the sake of nominal unity. Overcoming these divisions is difficult, and we should strive for true reconciliation with one another, not just ignore those things that divide us to pretend we are united fully.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses that we are build on an unwavering foundation of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to view the Church more holistically than we usually do.

Topics to Pray About                                                              

• Thank God for the foundation we have in Christ.
• Confess to God the times you think of the world divided by things that have impacted you personally.
• Ask God to bless His Church with genuine unity.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From 1 Corinthians 2:6-16

Our understanding of who God is and how He works is completely limited by one thing. There are other things that can further limit our understanding, but ultimately we are limited because we can only understand the things that He has told us about Himself. This is what Paul is talking about in these verses from Corinthians. The wisdom and authority of the world cannot lead us to understand God. Take, for example, the central event of all Scripture – the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That doesn’t look like victory, that doesn’t look like salvation, that doesn’t look like something an almighty being would do – according to the wisdom of the world. But the wisdom that we are given by the Spirit looks at the crucifixion, and many other things about God, and concludes that they do make perfect sense.

This means a couple things for us today. First, it should instill in us a sense of humility. There is no place for us to get inflated egos about how much we know about God, or how familiar we are with Scripture, or how experienced we are with church. Any understanding or knowledge or wisdom we have spiritually is a gift from the Holy Spirit, it doesn’t come from us and we have no reason to boast in it. Second, it should encourage us to put ourselves in the path of the Spirit. If we want to understand God and His will for our lives better (and I’m assuming those reading this do have that desire), then we should regularly put ourselves in those places that He has promised to be – in the Word, in the community of believers, in church, and in participation with the Sacraments. We put ourselves in those places and pray that through the Spirit’s work we would grow closer to God.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses that the Spirit blesses the people of God with transcendent wisdom.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to have a humble attitude in all spiritual things.

Topics to Pray About                                                           

• Thank God for the wisdom of faith that He has given you.
• Confess to God the times you think of things through a worldly lens or get an inflated sense of your own abilities.
• Ask God to bless His people with faithful wisdom.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Let me tell you a little bit about Paul. Paul was well educated. Before Paul was Paul, Paul was Saul and he was a rising star in the temple among the Pharisees. Paul was a Roman citizen and had access to more education than most. He would’ve been familiar, at least on some level, with philosophy and rhetoric. Paul was not a fool, he was ignorant, he was not stupid.

So when Paul writes “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” that is a decision. He knew more, and he make the intentional move to rely only on the incredible reality of what Christ did.

When we talk about bringing people to faith sometimes we get sucked into gimmicks or strategies or convincing approaches – instead of relying on the incredible nature of what Christ did and the amazing power of the Holy Spirit. Don’t underrate the power of Jesus’ sacrifice, it’s enough to give us eternal salvation – just imagine the impact news like that can have if we really focus our lives and witnesses around it.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses that Jesus was crucified for us.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to focus on what Jesus did for us.

Topics to Pray About                                                              

• Thank God for His Son.
• Confess to God the times you get sucked into things that aren’t centered on Jesus.
• Ask God to bless His people with faithful wisdom.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

A little bit of context is helpful for these verses. Corinth and other cities that had been influenced by Greek culture had an emphasis on philosophy, wisdom, and debate. As a result, the attitude towards these things could be described as idolatry. This created problems because the way God instructs His community to act, the way that Jesus Christ accomplished everything that He did do not conform to how fallen humanity conceives wisdom. So Paul warns and encourages the Corinthians with these words, reminding them that “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” In a little bit of a shift, Paul then reminds the Corinthians that they came from humble beginnings as a way for God to humble the wise, the strong, and the proud.

These truths still resonate for us. I don’t know how accurate it is to say that our world elevates wisdom – that’s highly debatable. What our modern world does seem to idolize at times is information, intelligence, and debate. As with the Corinthians, the way God works and the way He calls us to live can conflict with these values. We can receive the same encouragement, remembering “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” So we stay humble and focus on the cross.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses that God graciously elevates us beyond what we used to be.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to not idolize wisdom or intelligence.

Topics to Pray About                                                              

• Thank God for wisdom and intelligence that brings you closer to Him.
• Confess to God the times where you elevate your own understanding above the Word of God.
• Ask God to bless His people with faithful wisdom.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Later in Corinthians we will read about the challenge and call for the church to be holistically unified, a similar topic as these verses if you only look at the heading for the section. Paul’s instruction here is slightly more specific in scope. In these verses, Paul rebukes the Corinthians for being divided according to their human leaders. Some claim to follow Paul or Apollos or Cephas or Christ, and Paul rhetorically asks if he was the one crucified for them or if they were baptized into his name. The obvious answer is “no,” because Christ was the one crucified for them – and He is not one among many. In fact, God has a long history of suffering no rivals. The Corinthians have fallen to the temptation to elevate human leaders, human leaders who were undoubtedly excellent in their roles, to a status higher than was appropriate.

This temptation is not something that we are exempt from in modern times. If anything, the advent of different communication technologies has made celebrity pastors more common. Now, Christians might not fight over the different pastors or leaders they prefer in the church (they might, but it’s not something I’ve personally experienced), but they will still leave one church to follow a pastor to another or refuse to engage with their community because of one leader. These are just to ways that we still elevate leaders higher than they ought to be at the expense of our Christian communities and what they are called to be. It is appropriate to be thankful for leaders in your church and to appreciate them for the things they do well, but we always need to remember that they are only humans, and they are ultimately servants alongside us.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses that God graciously blesses His church with good leaders.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to not put leaders in the church on a pedestal.

Topics to Pray About                                                              

• Thank God for your church and its leaders.
• Confess to God the times where you elevate leaders higher than they should be.
• Ask God to bless His church with faithful and humble leaders.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

This devotion is the first in the next series we’ll be going through with these written devotions, and we’ll be focusing on the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians.  Today our verses are simply Paul’s greetings and thanks for the Corinthian church. It provides us with an opportunity to give some rudimentary background on Paul and these epistles.

Paul was not always a Christian. In fact, he aggressively persecuted Christians as a leading member of the Jewish political scene at the time. While he was doing that, God confronted him and he converted to Christianity. Paul was a Roman citizen and well educated. These traits allowed him to make his way around much of the ancient world, planting churches and sharing the Gospel wherever he landed. He also wrote extensively, authoring many of the epistles (letters) in the New Testament. Corinthians was an influential city at the center of an important trade route of the ancient world. The city had a reputation for sexual immorality, religious diversity, and corruption. In many ways, the concerns Paul addresses in the Corinthian church are concerns that we can also see to varying degrees in the American church today.

Paul writes to the Corinthians to address some issues they are facing that have come to his attention. In addition, he writes to the young church to help them as a community figure out what it means to live as Christians. Regardless of your role in the congregation, these letters contain wisdom for how we live in community with other Christians and with the world around us.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses that God graciously blesses His church with intentional wisdom.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to work for our communities to reflect God’s will for how we relate to one another.

Topics to Pray About                                                              

• Thank God for your church.
• Confess to God the times where you don’t live up to His standards for Christian living.
• Ask God to bless His church with faithful community.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From 2 Timothy 4:9-22

At the end of Timothy, like so many of Paul’s letters, we see a long list of people he wants to greet specifically. This speaks to the relationships that Paul built when he was in the different places where early churches sprouted. In fact, if we look at the larger body of Paul’s ministry and the ministry of Jesus and the ministry of the early church, it had an incredibly relational focus.

Today, there is a temptation to take a “just me and God” attitude towards our faith. We want to put the focus on just our relationship with God and figure as long as we take care of our own Bible readings and devotions that’s enough.  But it’s not just about you and God, it’s about the community. That’s part of what makes joining a church and being actively engaged with it so important. We are called to live and believe and grow together as a community, so whenever you can, take the opportunity to build relationships with your pastors and with the other Christians at your church.

Focus on God

We are reminded that God has graciously blessed us with a community.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to be actively engaged in a church.

Topics to Pray About                                                              

• Thank God for His Church.
• Confess to God the times where you don’t take the opportunity to build Christian relationships.
• Ask God to bless His church and its mission.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

On a non-devotional note, we are now at the end of Timothy. The written devotions will be going on a short break (the rest of this week and next week) because of my schedule and some professional development I have coming up. Video devotions, podcasts, and other materials are still available at edgewaterlutheran.org even during this break, so feel free to check those out.

From 2 Timothy 4:1-8

We are called to proclaim the council of God to the people in our lives. We believe that Jesus loves us enough to die for us. We believe that He did die for us and that His death and resurrection give us the gift of eternal life with God. We believe that we receive that gift by faith. We believe that His Word and the instructions we find there are for our benefit.

So if you genuinely care about someone in your life, why wouldn’t you share that with them.

Why would we withhold the promise of eternal life, the love of almighty God, and the wisdom He has given us for life in His creation from the people we care about?

We live in a world like the one Paul describes here, surrounded by people who won’t endure sound teaching and want to find a teacher that suits their own passions. We should not be discourage and should strive to continue to speak the truth.

Focus on God

We are reminded of the power of God and the love He has for us.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to talk about the truths of God with the people we care about.

Topics to Pray About                                                              

• Thank God for His Word.
• Confess to God the times where you don’t share about God with others.
• Ask God to bless His church and its mission.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious

From 2 Timothy 3:10-17

The instructions in these verses apply to every Christian, from the newest convert to the most seasoned pastor. Paul encourages Timothy to continue in what he has learned and firmly believed, lifting up the value of Scripture for teaching, reproof, correction, and training.

Stay in God’s Word, as regularly as you can. Find space in your day and consistently strive to make more time for it. If you haven’t read the Bible cover to cover, it can seem like a monumental task – I assure you it is worth it. Find someone to keep you accountable, read with your significant other or a close friend. Be in the Word, it’ll keep you rooted in the Gospel.

Focus on God

We are reminded in these verses of the incredible gift of God’s Word.

Function in Our Lives

We are encouraged to stay in the Word.

Topics to Pray About                                                              

• Thank God for His Word.
• Confess to God the times where you don’t read the Bible as regularly as you should.
• Ask God to bless His church and its mission.

In His Service,

J. LeBorious