Happy Sunday! Hope you're having a wonderful day, revelling in the wonder of being a part of the Body of Christ and enjoying the fellowship of other believers in your churches!
Again, I have to admit nothing really caught my eye about the passages in 1 Chronicles. The three chapters review for the Jews David's rise to the throne and retell some points of interest about his army of devoted followers. One verse interested me though, 12:22: "Day after day men came to help David, until he had a great army, like the army of God."
Realizing again this book is written with the benefit of hundreds of years of hindsight, this one little comment gives us a hint of not only how highly revered David and his band of "Mighty Men" were, but how unopposable and unstoppable a force they were when they were doing God's bidding. Looking back at all their conquests, the writer can see how God used what started out as a small band of outlaws, grew them into a formidable national army, and used them to shape not only Israelite history, but WORLD history as well! I just found that to be a really cool commentary on David's army.
Then in the eighth chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul continues with his responses to the questions the new believers in Corinth have written him about. Here he addresses food sacrificed to idols in particular, but in the grander scheme of things, he's continuing to address the issue of social upheaval, which I mentioned in Friday's post, but he introduces a couple of new concepts: LOVE is what limits our liberties, not a list of rules and regulations, and ~ tied to that concept ~ believers are responsible for building up each other's faith and being careful not to hamper it.
There are two approaches to liberty in Christ and one is to say that grey areas don't exist according to the Bible and that if it isn't specifically addressed there, it's absolutely WRONG. The other is the opposite extreme that says because the Bible doesn't specifically address it, and because I'm "free" in Christ (and/or because I'm covered by God's grace), there's nothing wrong with any of it.
Paul cautions against both of these beliefs and instructs the believers rather to remember that it's love for God and reflecting that love to others that should govern our actions. We need to be mindful of who's watching and how our words and deeds will affect their spiritual growth. In this day and age of extreme selfishness, this isn't a popularly-held practice, especially in our churches. We have adopted the attitude that our individual takes on Christianity are strictly between us and God and that it shouldn't matter to anyone else and it's no one else's business, but here in this chapter, we see the exact opposite is true. It DOES matter and it IS someone else's business!
We have a responsibility to build up other believers and we need to be especially careful with new or weak believers. We need to try and make sure that everything we do ~ knowing that something in and of itself isn't necessarily sinful, but might fall into one of those dreaded GREY areas ~ doesn't confuse other Christians or cause them to do something they feel IS sinful. Believers are not just responsible for their own spiritual growth and personal holiness; we need to remember we are a fully-functioning part of the glorious Body of Christ.
The spiritual growth, purity and holiness of the Church needs to be our priority, too.
Tomorrow's passages: 1 Chronicles 13-15; 1 Corinthians 9
3 comments:
I loved this:
"We have adopted the attitude that our individual takes on Christianity are strictly between us and God and that it shouldn't matter to anyone else and it's no one else's business, but here in this chapter, we see the exact opposite is true. It DOES matter and it IS someone else's business!"
This seems to be a theme that has stuck out for me this the readings this year. We do not function in isolation but our actions affect those around us.
Loved that part too Pam.
Great post Tammi, thanks so much.
Loved this part too...
"LOVE is what limits our liberties, not a list of rules and regulations, and ~ tied to that concept ~ believers are responsible for building up each other's faith and being careful not to hamper it."
Appreciated your thoughts on David's army too.
Last year was the first time I had noticed, and it stood out for me once again this time, that Uriah the Hittite was one of David's Mighty Men - which makes David's betrayal of adultery and murder just that much worse. And yet, he was forgiven, and became known as the man after God's own heart - because he was truly repentant. What hope for us!
Post a Comment