Saturday 12 Apr 2014

April 12: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 2:2
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Devotion:
If there is only one thing that you are going to take into a discussion about God then it should be that Christ was Crucified for you. When Paul went to teach the Corinthians about Christ he did not take a huge bible with him, nor a multitude of sermons, nor the biggest worship band, just the knowledge that Christ was crucified. Paul did not try and show people how good life was with Christ, nor how amazing it could be, nor that people would be rich, just that Christ loved them enough to die for them.

This may sound like such a simple truth that we should not think of it, but this is a truth that I fear many people are forgetting about. What better time that around Easter to make sure that people remember what actually happened! We don’t have to go into all the gory details about how much they punished Him or how much He suffered or how much we should be sorry for what happened; how about just reminding people about the simple truth of the matter. Christ died for us.

Why should we worry about being able to tell the greatest story or make the most riveting speech when Christ has reminded us that we should be giving people the simple Gospel truth? We can plant the seeds and demonstrate to people that we do actually believe what we are telling them. God will be the one who changes the hearts of the people who hear His Word and He will draw them in. Don’t depend on your own wisdom or on you own strengths because God will level you if you do.

Paul came to the people of Corinth with a humble spirit to open his own heart to them in love. We need to show that same level of love to others so they can start to get the picture of how much more Christ loves us because of what He has done for us. We may give our time, money and sometimes more to give other people the Gospel, but we also need to give them our love without limit; when we limit our love we limit the effect of the Gospel message we are trying to deliver.

Points to Ponder:
How open are you with the Gospel message?

Do you love others enough to be totally honest?