Devotions from October 2024

Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 6-7 Meditation Verse: 7:22 "He who was called while free, is Christ's slave." Several times in these two chapters Paul teaches this concept in different ways. He who belongs to Christ should no longer live for his own agenda, but be…

Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 8-9 Meditation Verses: 9:25-27 There are actually some who preach the Gospel but do not obey it or the Lord they preach about. They are called hypocrites. They may preach and teach correct things about the Lord and His Gospel and…

Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 10-11 Meditation Verse: 11:16 This issue of men and women and their differences in life and specifically in the church has been a source of contention from the beginning of the Church. For Paul to mention that if anyone wants to…

Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 12-13 Meditation Verse: 13:8 Love, agape love in this passage, is not a spiritual gift, but a spiritual discipline. It is learning and choosing to care for the needs, especially the spiritual needs, of others. Spiritual gifts can certainly be a…

Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 14-15 Meditation Verses: 14:36-38 This is so true, not just in regard to Paul's teaching on the role of women in the church, but in every matter about which he taught. The Word of God did not originate with me or…

Passage Read: 1 Corinthians 16 - 2 Corinthians 1 Meditation Verse: 2 Corinthians 1:7 Those whom God has chosen, He will also preserve in Christ. Those whom God has chosen, when they suffer for Christ, they will also receive from God His comfort, so that…

Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 2-3 Meditation Verses: 2:6-8 This is likely in reference to the man in 1 Corinthians 5, but whether him or some other brother, the point remains. Church discipline is not for the purpose of eternal rejection, but to impress on the…

Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 4-5 Meditation Verse: 4:2 Anything that brings shame, instead of hiding it, covering it, continuing in it but claiming freedom, deceiving people about it, Paul renounced it. If he could not practice it publicly because it was shameful, he did away…

Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 6-7 Meditation Verse: 6:3 This is a tough statement to process. Paul determines to give no cause for offense in anything. How does he mean that? Certainly not in his teachings, because the Gospel has offended many Jews, and his other…

Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 8-9 Meditation Verses: 9:13-14 Receiving gifts from others should result in praise to God for the true faith of the giver and their generosity. It should also result in prayer and longing for the giver because of the amazing grace of…

Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 10-11 Meditation Verses: 10:3-6 Sometimes the answer to a question is so obvious that I can't see it. Here Paul talks about weapons that destroy strongholds and take captive every thought. He talks about spiritual weapons, not fleshly. Divinely powerful weapons!…

Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 12-13 Meditation Verses: 12:20-21 Paul fears that there may yet be all these unrighteous behaviors in the Corinthian church. Which means he expects them to have conquered all these sinful behaviors! Things like jealousy, arrogance, slander, anger, strife—all kinds of disunity,…

Passage Read: Galatians 1-2 Meditation Verses: 2:11-14 Two things here: One, how easy it is to be pulled back into old ways when others who are in the grip of those old ways come along; two, leaders who fall into sin need to be publicly…

Passage Read: Galatians 3-4 Meditation Verses: 4:22-24 God promised to give Abraham an heir through Sarah, but He delayed in fulfilling it, knowing that Sarah would become discouraged and suggest using Hagar, and Abraham would agree. This would become an illustration for our spiritual state…

Passage Read: Galatians 5-6 Meditation Verses: 5:18-24 The war we're in is not a war between the Law and the Spirit, but between the flesh and the Spirit, and the battleground is our moral behavior. It is not a war of circumcision or holy days…

Passage Read: Ephesians 1-2 Meditation Verses: 2:1-3 We all formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air who is still working in those who disobey the Lord. We all formerly lived in the lusts…

Passage Read: Ephesians 3-4 Meditation Verses: 4:13-15 Jesus Christ Himself is the goal and the likeness into which we all should be growing. And there is only one Jesus, so there cannot be multiple likenesses to which men attain. Yet Paul makes clear here that…

Passage Read: Ephesians 5-6 Meditation Verses: 5:27-30 Jesus loves the Church so much that He is always working at making her as beautiful to Himself as possible! He began with the sacrifice that paid for her sin, cleansing her from the stain of former sin…

Passage Read: Philippians 1-2 Meditation Verses: 2:14-16 This is a letter of thanks for a gift sent through one of their number, Epaphroditus, but in it, Paul has some exhortations, including a call for humility and this instruction to do all things without grumbling or…

Passage Read: Philippians 3-4 Meditation Verses: 3:15-16 The NASB chooses the word "perfect" to translate Paul's idea here: "As many as are perfect." As many as are mature or complete in Christ, as many as have attained perfection according to the standard preached in Christ.

Passage Read: Colossians 1-2 Meditation Verses: 2:16-18 I am not to allow anyone to judge me in regards to food or drink or a festival or holy day, including the Sabbath. These things all were important at one time, separating the Israelites from the surrounding…

Passage Read: Colossians 3-4 Meditation Verses: 3:22-25 This chapter begins with a command to set our hearts on things above, not on earthly things, to seek the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. But then here is this command…

Passage Read: 1 Thessalonians 1-2 Meditation Verses: 2:4-6 The Gospel is a hard thing to accept. It can provoke a hostile reaction almost as often as it draws some to believe it. It is so offensive to many that those who preach it can be…

Passage Read: 1 Thessalonians 3-4 Meditation Verses: 4:9-12 It sounds like Paul is saying that a next step up in their love for the brethren is to lead a quiet life, minding their own business and working with their hands, so that they would behave…

Passage Read: 1 Thessalonians 5 - 2 Thessalonians 1 Meditation Verse: 1 Thessalonians 5:14 This is important enough that Paul didn't just encourage the Thessalonians to do these things, but urged them to admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak and be patient…

Passage Read: 2 Thessalonians 2-3 Meditation Verse: 2:15 Paul, in effect says that the only defense against the deluding influence coming on the world to prepare the way for the Antichrist is to hold fast to the traditions and teachings that he spoke or wrote…

Passage Read: 1 Timothy 1-2 Meditation Verses: 1:6-7 The goal of all Christian teaching and discussion should be to promote love from a pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith. But some stray from these things, the result being that they are caught up in…

Passage Read: 1 Timothy 3-4 Meditation Verse: 3:6 One of the greatest enemies of faith is pride. To encourage someone in such a way that promotes their own pride, that causes them to inflate their own view of themselves, is not the act of a…

Passage Read: 1 Timothy 5-6 Meditation Verse: 6:1 All believing slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and Paul's teaching may not be spoken against. Whether their master is a believer or not, whether…

Passage Read: 2 Timothy 1-2 Meditation Verses: 2:3-5 Paul is again imprisoned, possibly for the last time, yet he doesn't hesitate to call Timothy to suffer with him, like a good soldier of Christ. He is not afraid to call Timothy to care more for…