Although in
Christ, there was evidence among the Corinthian church that carnality was still
being given place. This can be true of a lot of believers and it is this
condition, of lacking in total spiritual commitment and reflecting at least in
part the world and its ways, which has caused more problems for the church than
possibly any other. It is mostly based on this complaint that the cries have
risen against believers, cries that hypocrisy and insincerity are rife in the
church. The defence is made that ‘Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven’. While
it is true that even as believers we are in the process of change, that God is
still working on us and we are not yet where we should be, this should never
become an excuse for continuing indifferent and unconcerned, in poor,
un-consecrated and fleshly service unto the Lord! In fact it is the express
will of God that we are sanctified for his service, and Jesus made it very
clear that perfection (at least in the sense of being complete) is certainly
something we should strive for and make efforts towards, in all aspects of our
lives. The problem is that developing such perfection is hard work, requiring
spiritual discipline, the diligence of daily studying God’s Word, along with
much prayer and soul-searching. These tasks are not pleasing to the flesh and
so, many Christians capitulate to mere religiousness, which is a half-hearted,
at best lukewarm effort towards God. They belong to a church, but they do not
belong to God! This inevitably results in carnality reigning. Four times in as
many verses, and raising examples of their behaviour and treatment of each
other, Paul points out the open carnality and fleshly mind-set of the church he
was addressing. Lest we should rise in criticism of the Corinthians, and seeing
God’s Word and principles apply just as much to us today, how do we rate when
aligned to the same values?
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion
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