Category: 1 Corinthians

Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 14:1-25 before reading the devotional below.

How often do you ask God to give you an ability to prophesy? Most of us probably don’t think about that much, and some may not even know what that means. Paul is talking about those supernatural skills and abilities he referred to earlier. Prophecy isn’t telling the future; God’s prophets are those who deliver messages from him. When this is truly from the Holy Spirit, the message will be accurate and transformative.

Paul also talks about “speaking in tongues.” This means having a prayer language that is supernatural. When the Holy Spirit gives you this gift, you pray aloud in a non-earthly language and the Spirit can pray through you without a filter. Praying this way helps your own faith, and it might help those who don’t yet follow Jesus to believe in his power. They see a supernatural act that is miraculous. However, prophecy is something that followers of Jesus will recognize and understand more than non-believers.

Here’s your freedom for today:

God’s tools are for specific purposes.

I would encourage you today, as Paul did, to pray for gifts of prophecy and tongues. Ask the Holy Spirit to use you to build up the church. Ask the Holy Spirit to enhance your prayer life. But also ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom and discernment to know how and when to use your gifts. God gives us tools for specific places and people. When we are careless or attempt these supernatural acts on our own, we harm the work of the Spirit and we harm others. I have seen many people speak words of “prophecy” that were either completely incorrect or spoken at a wrong moment. These gifts are meant to be used in a context of authority and order, as we will see in tomorrow’s post. Today, let us seek these gifts and seek a careful understanding of how to use them well.

Take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 14:26-40 before reading the devotional below.

As we discussed in yesterday’s post, Paul encourages all followers of Jesus to seek special gifts from the Holy Spirit, including praying in a non-earthly language and prophesying. Much of the time, these gifts would be used in a church service, and today’s passage helps us see the rules for how to best use them. In a church gathering, people should not be shouting out in languages no one there can understand. If someone can interpret what is going to be said, then it can be shared aloud. If not, the prayer language may be used silently. Also, it’s confusing to have multiple people shouting out prophecy at once. Order is necessary for everyone to get the most out of it.

Along those same lines, if someone has a question in the middle of a sermon, it’s not the time to ask the preacher. In those days, women were often less educated and perhaps the Corinthian church had some instances of women asking questions out of turn in their meetings. They likely also had problems with shouting out prophesies and spiritual prayers as well. The issue isn’t really about women here, it’s about order.

Here’s your freedom for today:

God makes sense.

Paul reminds us in today’s passage that God is not a God of disorder but a God of peace. When church is a chaotic place, people don’t feel safe. It’s hard to invite friends and help others start following Jesus when it’s not safe to invite them to church. Our gatherings should be useful for both Jesus-followers and those who are not yet believers. In the Corinthian church, some women played a role in the disruptive nature of their church services as did some of the men. Taking turns, holding a question until you get home, or operating under the authority of a pastor during a service are all important parts of what it means to keep our focus on God when we gather. Let’s keep the main thing the main thing.

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.

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 15:24-34 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?