Good morning all! Father, we know when children grow up, they are a reflection of their upbringing and their family. Lord, we pray that we would bring You glory through a life lived, that we would be a reflection of You. May the world see that we are the extension of Your truth and mercy in Jerusalem and Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth, Amen.
1 Corinthians 6
14 And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power.
And God will raise us from the dead by HIS power, just as He raised our Lord from the dead.
15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make [them] the members of an harlot? God forbid.
Don’t you know that you are actually part of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a harlot? Never!
16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a harlot, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.
17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
Bottom line –By God’s own power He will raise us from dead…spiritually speaking. How does God raise us to a new life? [Jas 2:26 KJV] For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. When we live life without faith we’re dead, we need to be resurrected to a life of faith and not just believing but putting that faith to WORK. How hard do we work to live by faith? [Gal 5:6 KJV] For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. Faith chooses to love others even when our feelings say something different. God isn’t nearly as interested as we think with all our religious rituals or what we believe if we don’t love one another. This is the message Paul is writing to the Corinthians, we are all MEMBERS of the body of Christ. When God speaks of not being joined to the harlot it means we have been unfaithful to the body of Christ, again this is spiritual. You know
how are joined to the harlot? Unfaithful? We stopped loving one another that is the expression of the harlot, we are unfaithful to love. But he that is JOINED…married…to the Lord is ONE spirit. Let me ask you a question, if we don’t love each other is that One body? One spirit? [1Co 12:25] That there should be no schism in the body; but [that] the members should have the same love for one another. Paul had to write 2 letters to the Corinthians, you know why? They kept fighting, causing divisions with one another so he would write over and over that they be ONE. This is the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, His prayer was that God would send the Holy Spirit to comfort us and that we would be one with Him. The one spirit, the holy spirit is the spirit of love. Is there any greater comfort than when you are loved? The Lord is ONE spirit, one is one. [Col 1:8 NKJV] Who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. Are you part of the body of Christ? Are you joined to the Lord? How strong is your spirit? [Psa 107:1 NIV] Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. What makes the Lord GOOD is He will NEVER stop loving you!!! Call me crazy but that is what makes our God strong. Seriously love don’t mean much if you stop loving me, right? The spirit of love was created to be forever, in fact, I would say that is the most important aspect of love…FOREVER, right? But life happens and things get difficult and we think we can’t love one another which Paul also addresses using the picture of the body again. [1Co 12:21 KJV] And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Do you need your eyes? Do you need your hand? None of us would say I have NO need of thee, right? So then why do we say we don’t need one another? We say I have no need of you when we choose not to love one another. What would Christ say? [Eph 4:15 KJV] But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, Christ: The head of this one body is Christ and what He would tell us is to GROW UP and speak truth to one another which is love…that sounds like maturity, sounds like He needs us, sounds like faith, sounds like when we GROW up we’ll love just like Jesus.
Point to Ponder – Have you grown up yet? [1Co 13:11 NLT] When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Whatever our reason for NOT loving one another it’s childish, time to grow up.
Let’s all look more like our Father, In Him Phil Faith – Family – Friends