Freedom For Today

Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 16 before reading the devotional below.

In this final chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul is wrapping up and giving instructions for how they should receive coming missionaries. He talks about his plans loosely, always willing to say that his steps are determined by God. We also find out that Paul did not physically write his own letter, but instead dictated it to a scribe of some sort. In verse 21 the handwriting changes and Paul’s large, messy scrawl is apparent in the original letter.

Let’s zoom in on verses 13 and 14. These brief verses have a feel of urgency to them, laid right in the middle of a variety of practical instructions. “Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything with love.” Paul is summing up the entire letter here, and it’s a great reminder of how we are to live the Christian life. Stay in the supernatural battle. Don’t forget the Gospel. Take spiritual risks. And just in case you have forgotten, if you don’t love then the whole thing is useless.

Here’s your freedom for today:

You can go beyond the ordinary.

There are so many books, movies, and themes of humanity that revolve around stepping out into another type of world to do something brave. These plots have the ordinary people doing their mundane thing, but behind that is a world that has much more at stake. Paul’s words here remind us that choosing to follow Jesus carries you into a world that is far beyond ordinary. Battles are fought and wars lost and won. You were made for more. You have supernatural weapons, the most powerful one being love. Is this what you think about when you wake up in the morning? Is this how you are living your life? Don’t settle for ordinary — step into something bigger.

Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 15:35-58 before reading the devotional below.

Do you ever wonder why we’re here on this earth? And what happens when we die? Is there really such a thing as eternal life? As we mentioned in an earlier post, not all early Christians believed in resurrection. No afterlife, no heaven. This was not the good news of Jesus, so Paul is correcting their theology in this letter. One of the biggest issues with the afterlife was that some couldn’t quite picture it — “Okay, if we are resurrected, what do our bodies look like?”

Paul turns this question upside-down and calls it ridiculous. Talk about missing the point. He uses the metaphor of a seed and a plant, which is a pretty awesome description of how to think about your eternal life. The difference between a seed and a full-grown tree is pretty big! That’s how much you can’t imagine what eternity is like with God.

Here’s your freedom for today:

You are becoming someone amazing.

If who you are now is only a tiny seed of who you are becoming, what do you imagine might be possible for you in eternity? When a seed dies, that is when real life can spring forth and the seed’s ultimate purpose is realized. You were made for heaven. You are becoming someone amazing — almost incomprehensible to you now. No part of you is ever wasted, and everything you do that has eternal value will be the soil you grow into.

Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 15:24-34 before reading the devotional below.

Paul wrote this letter not long after Jesus’ time on earth, which was about 2,000 years ago. He thought the end of the world was imminent. He risked his life daily for the cause. Yet here we are, two millennia later, and Jesus has not come back to earth. Was Paul right about the end of the world, or was he all wrong? Did he risk his life for a cause that wasn’t all that urgent?

Perhaps a more important question comes from the rest of what Paul says in this passage: how are you living your life? We don’t know when Jesus will return to earth, but we need to live like Paul and assume it could be at any moment. Because once he comes, it’s too late to change.

Here’s your freedom for today:

It’s not too late to change your life.

There’s a lot we don’t fully understand about what Paul is saying in this passage. Jesus is reigning now, and he will reign until all his enemies have been brought down. Then he’ll turn control back over to the Father. There’s an interaction within God himself that we can’t fully grasp. But understanding everything isn’t required for following Jesus. If our attitude is, “Eat, drink, and be merry” we are acting as if Jesus death and resurrection don’t matter. We’re acting as if there is no end to this world. What do you believe about the end of the world? What makes you have that view? How does that impact the way you are living your life?

Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 15:12-23 before reading the devotional below.

Today Paul talks about the resurrection of the dead, and the resurrection of Jesus. You might be wondering what the issue is — why even address this? We know from other stories in the Bible that some Jewish sects, particularly the Sadducees, did not believe in any kind of afterlife. When you die, that’s it. The good news of Jesus, however, is that Jesus died and came back to life. Not only that, but he did that in order to give us eternal life as well. Resurrection is a key supernatural phenomenon to these ideas.

The only way our sins are forgiven is if Jesus overcame the death that is the required payment for our sins. In Genesis 3, we can read about Adam and Eve and their deal with Satan. He promised them the knowledge of good and evil if they ate from the tree. But they already had the knowledge of good — they were intimately connected with God. So ultimately all he really had to give them was evil. They gave away their God-given authority over all the creatures in the Garden to a creature that brought them nothing but evil. They sold their souls for a false promise.

Here’s your freedom for today:

You have a new chance at life.

You might think it’s unfair that Adam and Eve’s choice to give away their authority to Satan means you have a death penalty. And you’re right. It’s not fair. But Paul makes the point in this passage that Jesus made things right by saving us all. One guy screwed up the world, and another guy came to fix it. One brought death, the other brings life. Jesus overcame death to give you a new chance at life.

Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 before reading the devotional below.

If you don’t know Paul’s backstory, read Acts 9. He has a complicated past, and God had to knock him off his horse, blind him, and give him a new name and a new focus in life. He was a force to be reckoned with, and not in a good way. In today’s passage, Paul reminds us that he was the worst… and he’s not kidding.

The Corinthians were also sliding down some bad roads. We can only infer certain things from reading this letter, but Paul seems to indicate that they had some problematic people in their church (bragging about their unique sins), they had some chaos happening in their worship services, and they were forgetting the truth of Jesus and his resurrection. It’s easy to get off course when we don’t watch out who we listen to. Paul is reminding them to stay on track — it’s what changed his whole life.

Here’s your freedom for today:

God will guide you onto the right path.

Have you forgotten the Good News of Jesus? Have you started drifting away into normal life, forgetting the significance of your salvation? Have you forgotten where you would be without God? Take a moment to think about these things. I don’t have a complicated past like Paul, or maybe like you, but I have a pretty clear picture in my mind of who I could be if Jesus had not rescued me out of a life of self-reliance and spiritual mediocrity. Jesus died and came back to life to save you — never forget what that means for you and for the world.