Before you begin today’s reading and reflection, take a few minutes to create or find a “sacred space”. If you’re in your room, make yourself a small space with as few distractions as possible. Put aside any books, music, magazines; turn off your phone; get away from your email/facebook; turn off your music; etc.
Now, pull out your Bible, and as you take some deep breaths, pray this short prayer: “Lord, help me be still and listen to your voice now and throughout this day and the next. Amen.”
(You can choose to read the whole chapter, or just the passage that is shown)
1 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
REFLECTION
- In chapters 1 and 2, Paul focused on the gospel—the true wisdom from God. In this chapter he focuses on God’s servants and reminds the Corinthians and us of our true identity in Christ.
- Paul told the Corinthian Christians that they were immature, worldly and quarrelsome and could not be addressed as spiritual people because they misunderstood the gospel, the church and its ministry (vv1-4).
- Paul used two illustrations to explain that he, Apollos, and others were only servants of Christ each serving in his own way and area under God’s direction. In cultivating a field, Paul explained that he and Apollos were fellow-workers for God, planting and nurturing. But, God is the source of all spiritual growth and accomplishment (vv5-9). In the illustration of the building (vv10-15), Paul stressed that Christ is the foundation of the church. Paul founded the church and laid the foundation of the Corinthian church by preaching Christ and Him crucified. Other preachers added walls and continued building on that foundation.
- What about your church and your leaders? How would the illustrations of a field or a building under construction describe your church?
- Boast about your pastor, someone might come to hear him, and be impressed.
Boast about your church building, someone might come to see, and compliment you.
Boast about Jesus, and someone might realize his need, and be saved.
Prayer & Journaling:
Stay with God for a little longer. Continue to converse with God and listen to what he wants to tell me.
If you have a prayer journal, as you listen to God, write down a few thoughts, questions, words, names, drawings, or anything that has come to your mind during this time.
Family Time (Begin this time by reading the passage above using a children’s Bible. If your children are younger, you may read v16 only.)
You are God’s temple. God’s spirit lives in you. What difference do you think this ought to make in your life-style choices? If God’s spirit lives in you, what difference will He make in the kind of person you will be? Have a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to control your life.
Proverbs for Today 17:11-14
11 An evil man seeks only rebellion,
and a cruel messenger will be sent against him.
12 Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs
rather than a fool in his folly.
13 If anyone returns evil for good,
evil will not depart from his house.
14 The beginning of strife is like letting out water,
so quit before the quarrel breaks out.