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,…