Join us as we focus each day for nine weeks on a different part of 1 Corinthians 13.
Monday: Love is patient, love is kind.
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
I do all this for the sake of the gospel. 1 Corinthians 9:23a
Read: 1 Corinthians 9:7-27
Listen: 1 Corinthians 9
TODAY’S MESSAGE
The immature Jesus-community in Corinth asks Paul to settle an argument: Can we eat meat sacrificed to idols (1 Corinthians 8)? In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul continues his response by telling them they are asking the wrong question. It isn’t about what they have the right to do. It’s about what is the most beneficial lifestyle to draw people to Jesus. It isn’t about what they have the freedom to do. It’s about what giving up some freedoms might do to change other people’s lives.
Our western culture is probably even more focused on rights than they were. We talk about the Bill of Rights, human rights, civil rights, economic rights, political rights and animal rights. Our culture encourages us to be offended at the faintest slight. We often get defensive if someone appears to question our right to do something. We focus on how people fail to do things for us instead of asking what we can do to help others.
Paul doesn’t say that we don’t have rights. It is about setting aside our rights so people see Jesus through us and asking a radically different question to make radical changes to our relationships.
IN YOUR CHAIR TIME TODAY
Ask God to help you focus more on treating others well than making sure you get everything you think you deserve. Especially this Thanksgiving week, ask him for a heart that values others more than demanding your rights. Pray that God would help you ask the right question: What is the best way to respond here to draw people to Jesus?
Click on the photo below to “save image as” to set for the lock screen or home screen on your mobile device to cycle back to each phrase twice daily to remember to live a life motivated by love.
Download a printable PDF of the BTW week here.
