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.
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