Monday 18 Jan 2021

January 18: 1 Corinthians 5:6-8
 
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 5:8
Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
 
Devotion:
This chapter may be a hard read for many because it is dealing with a case of incest in the community; but what is more disturbing is the attitude of the other people around in accepting this behaviour as OK and using some excuse to uphold what is going on. Paul’s comments are hard hitting, and I would like to focus on the humility of the submission Paul is suggesting.
 
Paul is trying to cut off this behaviour in the bud, before it takes over the community and destroys peoples moral code. It does only take one instance of something which is accepted to bring about a change in the whole community. If that acceptance is for something which is not good, then that behaviour may well spread throughout the community, destroying what God has tried to build up.
 
As Christians, we need to be the lights in our communities, holding up the light as high as we can and not covering it or hiding it. Just like letting in a little of a bad thing in to the community, letting in a little of a good thing to the community can bring about changed for the good!
 
Allow God to guild you and protect you as you step forward allowing His light to shine through you. Allow Him to guide you and counsel you to bring about a small, good change in your community; one which will be accepted over time and adopted as part of your community. This is how God gets into the broken communities we call home...
 
Points to Ponder:
Are you willing to start a change?
 
Are you willing to uphold that change for God?