Sunday 6 Feb 2022

February 6: 1 Corinthians 15:1-2

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 15:2
By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

Devotion:
What is faith? Some describe it as believing in the unseen. Others as trusting in a deity. Others may try to give a longer explanation so they feel like it is more worth while… But I think these couple of verses sum up what faith is all about – but don’t read these verses incorrectly! This is not a warning telling us if we don’t believe it’s all a waste of time!

When the apostle wrote this letter to the churches in Corinth, he wanted them to be encouraged by what they were doing and he wanted them to continue their walk of faith in Christ. He had taught them about Jesus and how they too could be freed from their own sin debt by believing Jesus died for them too. He wanted them to trust entirely in the truth as he had given it to them.

The people in the churches believed what the apostle had taught them. They trusted it as the whole truth and they stood firmly by that truth. I wonder whether there had been a person casting doubt and this was to dispel that doubt. It is by the gospel story these people were saved – in other words by what had happened, how Jesus had given His own life in their stead. This is the gospel they heard and believed.

The call was not to continue believing in this truth, because if they turned their backs on this truth, they would be saying their own journey of belief had all be for nothing! But the more they trusted in Christ, the more they knew this truth was definite and worthy of holding on fast to. This is the same call to us – we need to continue believing in the gospel truth and share it with others so they too can get to have hope in God!

Points to Ponder:
Do you continue to firmly believe the gospel?

Will you trust your belief to be exercised?