Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Saints Together

READ 1 Corinthians 1-2
February 23, 2016

Again, as so often happens in my readings, one word grabs me and stops me cold with implications that are profound. It happened this morning in v.2.

“To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:”

Before I move on, do you think you can pick out the word that stopped me this morning? Could it be church, sanctified, saints, Lord, Jesus or Christ? Well, all of those would have been great ones to meditate on for a while, but none of them is the word this morning. No, the word that stopped me was “together.” Actually the whole phrase must be included. Paul said that he was writing to a group of Christians who were “called to be saints together.” Immediately my thinking went to the church born out of the Day of Pentecost in the 2nd chapter of Acts. Luke tells us, “And all who believed were together and had all things in common.” (Acts 2:44)

That’s it. That’s the church! We are not called to be saints in isolation; we are called to be saints together. Why? Because we really do need one other. We must love one another and build up one another and be kind to one another and bear one another’s burdens and all the other one anothers of the Bible. The church is the context in which we live out these wonderful, encouraging commands.

So let’s do it. Let’s be a part of one another’s lives and live together in love and harmony in the Lord.

Prayer: Father, thank you that in your marvelous plan for us you gave us the church. Though we know that each of us is an imperfect saint we know that in your grace we can build up one another. Help us to consider others as more important than ourselves and to be the body of Christ to one another.