As we read Paul’s penetrating statement in today’s scripture, two things are present. First is the affirmation – “You were running well.” The Apostle Paul does something else. He asks a soul-searching question of spiritual accountability – “Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” Today’s Nugget explores this passage and our willingness to do two things in our relationships with other Christians: love them without conditions and invest in their spiritual lives.
Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ
Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ
Ministries
The Christian life is filled with many spiritual dangers. Not a day goes by we are not confronted with spiritual foes seeking our destruction. It is an unwise and ill-prepared Christian who simply rushes into each day oblivious to this reality. And the evil tactics of our foes are many, subtle, well-crafted, and easily trip us up.
People hurt people. Yes, we live in a society of rampant physical domestic abuse, but I am referring to emotional hurt. Family relationships are strained, people who once were so called “friends” now live in bitterness, even slanderous, with one another. And the last place such pain should occur is among Christians, but it happens. Too much.
1 John 3:14, 18 – We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers and sisters. Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. THEME OF THE DAY: THE EVIDENCE OF BEING A CHILD OF GOD. All Christians experience seasons of doubt of whether or not they…
Living a privatized Christian life is simply disobedience to the Lord. The church is God’s idea, not ours and He created it to be a living community in His Son for the purpose of us growing and doing His work together. He did not suggest our active and sacrificial participation in His church. He commanded and expects such participation from us. The pattern from the early church is still in place as the pattern for today’s church.
Why We Love the Church is a wonderful look at the value of the church, its importance in Christian growth, and the beauty when imperfect people commit, through thick and thin, to build a community of Christ-centered love right in their literal community.