Daily Devotionals

“Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards
of the mysteries of God”
(1 Corinthians 4:1).

There are three sections in chapter 4 of first Letter to Corinthians.

• In the first section (vv. 1-10), Paul addresses those who are responsible for the gospel ministry: pastors, elders, and other leaders. They were not to be heading factions, parties in conflict. Chirst gave His workers the responsibility to share His Word with the world. They are not to preach and teach human opinions and beliefs, but are responsible for presenting the pure message of salvation, not adulterated by human philosophy. They must be faithful and trustworthy.
• In the second section (vv. 11-13), Paul reminds them that those who serve God will suffer, but they must bear it with courage. In the face of lies, they must bless; in the face of persecution, they must endure; in the face of disputes, they must seek reconciliation.
• Finally, the rhird section (vv. 14-21), Paul writes as a father to his children. He poses the challenge to them of imitating his behavior. And, as a good father, he draws their attention by saying that they should not be arrogant.

Those who take the gospel of Jesus Christ seriously are called to be examples as administrators and servants. Not only is it necessary to teach, speak, and guide, but it is also very necessary to show the power of the gospel through example.

Talking is easy, but to set an example is to act or behave in a way that others can immitate. An example is a person or thing worthy of being imitated for their good qualities. “For example” is the expression used to present a specific case of what we are explaining, and to “use someone as an example” is to act or behave in the same way as another person.

In the text, moreover, Paul mentions servants. Originally, rowers in war galleys were designated with that term to distinguish them from soldiers fighting on the deck. It then began to be used for any subordinate who did heavy work or the orderlies who served the commander. Hence, Paul believes that these servants are the orderlies of the great Commander-in-Chief, Jesus, thus being the official human representatives of Christ and the royal officials of His kingdom.

For their part, the administrators are the stewards. The Greeks applied this word to the slaves or the freedmen to whom they entrusted the care and management of the house and land belonging to their master. The minister of the gospel – to minister is to serve – is in charge of God’s church on earth and must provide everything necessary for its well-being.

Lors, help us to be faithful servants and administrators
of Your church, seeking to save sinners,
because “the Bible does not command sinners
to seek the church, but commands the church
to seek sinners” – Billy Graham.

God bless you, be a good servant…

“Surely you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit
lives in you! God will destroy anyone who destroys God’s temple.
For God’s temple is holy, and you yourselves
are His temple”
(1 Corinthians 3:16-17).

Metz says that there are several ways a person can conside their body: pamper it and idolize it, look at it with disdain or shame, use it as a machine to produce work, ans use it as a weapon to gain power. One can also dedicate it to carnal pleasures and use it as an instrument for vice. Or, like Paul, one can see and care for it as a temple, a sanctuary where God wants to dwell.

Paul, like other biblical writers, argues that God has the right to claim His “copyright.” We belong to Him:

• By creation, because He made us.
• By redemption, because He bought us with His blood.
• By adoption, because He transformed us from His creatures to His children.

God’s original plan was a body that could live forever, healthy and happy. Because of sin, deterioration, sickness, and death arose. Adam did not die immediately after his sin; he lived a total of 930 years. His son Seth lived 912 years, and his grandson Enosh lived 905 years. Methuselah was the man who lived the most: he lived 969 years.

These are not fictious figures. They lived near the time of Creation, so they had a nearly perfect constitution, were free of hereditary diseases, had a very good diet, and lived in an environment free of all contamination.

Because of sin, longevity began to diminish. Noah lived 950 years; his son Shem, 600 years; his grandson Arphaxad, 438 years; and his great-grandson, Salah, 433 years. Five generations later, Abraham lived “only” 175 years. Already in the days of Moses the average lifespan was around eighty years.

When Paul wrote this to the Corinthians, the Greeks had a habit of placing an image of their gods inside the temple. Paul says that God dwells in the collective temple that is the church, and the individual temple that is our body (1 Cor. 6:19). The reasons for respecting our bodies as a temple of the Holy Spirit are:

1. Glorify God, accepting the will of the Creator.
2. Achieving personal well-being.

It is not a question of quenching the thirst of pegan deities; on the contrary, as with all the directions of God that are followed, it is the believer who receives the blessings.

Whether we “eat or drink,” or do anything elese, let us do “everything
for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). To do it for His glory
is to do it for our own well-being, present and eternal.

May the Lord’s blessing be with you…

“According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder
I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one
take heed hw he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay
than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ”
(1 Corinthians 3:10-11).

Paul uses several figures to illustrate the role and mission of church. In this case, he uses the image of a building and he presents himself as the builder, architect, and servant who builds upon an unmovable foundation.

The foundation is Christ Himself. It is not a physical person, but His gospel, His message, and His revelations written by prophets and apostles. The architect does not manufacture the foundation. It is Christ who defines and lays tha foundation, and no one can lay another, nor improve on it.

The apsotle now refers to materials that can be used in contruction (1 Cor. 3:12). There are expensive, permamnent, and durable materials (such as gold, silver, and precious stones) and cheap, unstable, and perishable materials (such as wood, hay, and straw). With the first we build for heaven; with the latter, for earth. With some we build the house of God; with the others, the house of men.

While the construction is underway there may be no differences, but when trials come, either one thing or the other will be exposed. As in the parable of the two foundations recounted by Jesus, one house is built on the rock and the other on the sand remained apparently “equal” until they were tested by stormy winds (Matt. 7:24-29; Luke 6:46-49).

The fire will test the work of each person, and show, on one hand, mature Christians who are stable, anchored on a rich experience in Christ, of “sound doctrine” and a consequential life (1 Tim. 1:10; 2 Tim. 4:3; Tit. 2:1). The same fire will show, on the other hand immature and unstable believers, based on their own dissatisfied opinion and human wisdom.

The same sun that melts the butter hardens the clay. Depending on the material, the same fire refines and purifies some; but consumes and destroys others. Paul uses three verbs in 1 Corinthians 3:13-15. The first is “become clear,” or “be shown”; the second is “reveal,” that is, to find out or be uncovered; and the third is “test” whether it is genuine or false.

It was not easy to build in Paul’s days. “One after another the foremost of the builders fell by the hand of the enemy. Stephen was stoned; James was slain by the sword; Paul was beheaded; Peter was crucified; John was exiled. Yet the church grew. New workers took the place of those who fell, and stone after stonewas added to building. Thus slowly ascended the temple of the church of God” (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 597).

It is not easy to build today, either, but it is worth it.
We are still a building under construction.
Let us move forward together, using the right materials,
and finish building the Lord’s church.

May God bless you today, may He give you the necessary strenght…

“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field,
you are God’s building”
(1 Corinthians 3:9).

As a collaborator with God, Paul presents in this chapter some very clear and exceedingly profound teachings:

1. Leave superficial knowledge aside (vv. 1, 3) in order to obtain the most complex and deeper knowledge. After all, we cannot spend our lives drinking milk; that is for children.
2. Discord and negativity (v. 3) are not Christian behaviours; these are behaviours of those who do not know God.
3. Act as faithful collaborators with God (vv. 4-9), integrating others into that team of collaborators. That is why there is no point in arguing about who is better or who is older; who preaches best, or who knows best. We are all collaborators with God.
4. Christ is the only and sufficient Foundation (vv. 10, 11). Nothing and no one can or should replace Him (vv. 12-15).
5. Remain holy and healthy because we are the temple of God (vv. 16, 17).
6. Christ gives meaning to our lives (vv. 18-23), because He is the only and sufficient Foundantion. When we understand and live that, we become cooperators with God in preaching the gospel.

Ora et labora (Pray and work), the motto of the Benedictine Confederation, was also the motto of Amanda Barriounuevo’s life. She is a simple, dedicated, hard-working, and dream-filled woman. Thanks to her efforts, the help of friends, and spiritual strenght, she left the squatter settlement where she lived next to a cementery and learned how to work as a restorer.

And also it was, by virtue of her dreams and her new trade, that she was part of the team that restored the famous Colón Theater, in the city of Buenos Aires.

With joy and sparkle in her eyes, she said the following at the inauguration celebration: “It’s like bringing back to life something that was dead.” Trust in God and hard work allowed Amanda Barrionuevo to be part of the restoration team of one of the most important cultural centers in the world, which had deteriorated by the passage of time.

We also live in a “cementery,” “dead in trespasses and sin,” because “the wages of sin is death” (Eph. 2:1; Rom. 6:23; Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:13; 1 Pet. 2:24). But we were called to be collaborators with God in order to restore lives.

We have the privilege to restore life  in something that was dead,
to partake of the “inauguration celebration” in the kingdom of God
and to be part of that kingdom forever. We are called
to be collaborators with God so we can be “fishers of men,
not keepers of the aquarium!” (Mike Francen).
Therefore, Ora et labora.

May the Lord bless you with His strenght today…

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those who love Him”
(1 Corinthians 2:9).

Marco Polo (1254-1324) was a Venetian merchant and explorer, who along with his father and uncle were among the first Westeners to travel to China. Upon his return to Venice, he was arrested and taken to Genoa. It was there, in prison, that he dictated the memoirs of his faboulous journey.

The book became popular under the title A Book of the Wonders of the World. Marco Polo’s friends thought he had gone crazy because of the incredible things he told. He said that he had traveled to a clean and shiny city (referring to silver and gold), that he had seen black stones burning (he was talking about coal), that he had seen fabrics that were not consumed in a fire (he was referring to asbestos). In addition, he told about nuts the size of a man’s head: coconuts. Many mocked his stories. Years later, when Marco Polo was dying, a religious man by his bedside urged him to retract his lies. “No, in no way,” he said. “It is all true. What’s more, I didn’t even tell the half of it.”

Similarly, Paul mentions that there are things, all of them true, that the unconverted do not want to understand. The wisdomand power of God are unimaginable to the sinful heart. The apostle quotes Isaiah 64:4:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man
the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Physical eyes are insufficient to perceive spiritual truths, and they cannot be understood only by the intelect. Spiritual eyes are needed. To transform a sinner into a saved person, a guilty man into a forgiven one, a justified person into a sanctified one, is something far beyond imaginable.

In the future, God will continue to do so much more, until He definitively grants us deliverance from this world, so that we may be partakers of the wonders of the eternal kingdom of God. There, pain will not exist. No cancer, no heart attacks, no arthritis, no fevers, no fear, nor any kind of pandemic. Every consequence of sin will disappear forever.

Our relentless quest for that source of eternal youth will at last end.
We will enjoy perfect bodies and unlimited energy
to explore the wonders of God’s universe; refreshed
by the river of life and fed by the tree of life.
Abundant, exuberant, and eternal life,
far beyond our imagination, awaits us.

God bless you all…

“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature,
yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age,
who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God
in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the ages of our glory”
(1 Corinthians 2:6-7).

An older man was traveling by train reading a book with a black cover. Next to him was a young college student reading a science book. When the college student realized that the older man’s book was the Bible, he interrupted him in his reading and said, “Do you still believe in that book of stories and fables?”

“Yes,” replied the older man, “but it is not a book of fables, it is the Word of God. Am I wrong?”

“Of course!” replied the young man. “You should study world history to discover that the French Revolution demonstrated the shortsightedness and folly of religion. Only people without any studies or culture can believe that God created the world in seven days. You should know about the great discoveries of our scientists.”

After a moment, the older man asked, “And what scientiest say the Bible is a book of fables?”

Smiling, the young man said, “Since I’m getting off at the next station, I don’t have time to explain. But leave me your card with your address so I can mail you scientific material as soon as possible.”

The humble older man gave his card to the young man. When he read what the card said, he got off the train with his head down. On the card it read: “Dr. Louis Pasteur, Director. Pasteur Institute, Paris.”

This event, which dates back to 1892, is reflected in the autobiography of Dr. Pasteur, who stated that “a little bit of science distances on from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him.” Paul says that it is not the wisdom of the world that we should value, but the wisdom that comes from God. “In the face of divine wisdom, Aristotle is no better off than Julius Caeser” (Trenchard). The wisdom of God contains God’s plan of salvation for all humanity, a mystery hidden in God’s grace which we can only know because it is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

Without God one can be wise according to the world, a scholar,
and a great professional. But, to be wise according to God,
we have to cry out for wisdom, be instructed in the Word,
and, submissively and humbly, submit to the will of the Lord.
“Our Father in heaven is the source of life, of wisdom, and of joy”

Seek His Kingdom and Righteousness today, may the Lord bless you…

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence
of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God”
(1 Corinthians 2:1).

Paul was a great theologian, teacher, and preacher. But when he went to visit the brethren at Corinth, his stance was of humility and simplicity. What we notice is that Paul’s preaching was not based on ostentation of reasoning or wanting to impress with his learning; it was based on philosophical arguments. He went to the brethren with the power and wisdom of God, whch surpass those of the world, and which are the real agents of true change.

However, the apostle recognized that people do not always accept the wisdom and power of God. People often believe that what comes from God seems strange or foolish. The problem is that many people want to understand God’s ways and His will from the naturalistic perspective, from their limited vision, when things concerning God must be understood from a spiritual and eternal perspective (see 1 Cor. 2:14).

Paul argues that understanding and accepting God’s ways and His will is possible as long as we have “the mind of Christ” (v. 16); that is, being united to Him by the Holy Spirit, whose presence is equivalent to that of Jesus. By way of the Holy Spirit, Jesus dwells in the believer and grants us His wisdom and His unexhaustible power. Thus,

“we have been given Christ’s way of thinking.”

The petrolium available to us needs to be prudently and wisely used so that it does not run out, and we need to look for new substitude resources. More than just ecological concerns, the issue is linked to strong social, political, and economic interests. Oil provides energy that is indispensable for daily life. From our food being produced, transported, and packaged, to any other activity, we are processing energy. Energy moves the world. It is impossible to live without energy. To have energy is to have power. Few know it and many suffer.

On the spiritual level, it is also impossible to live without energy. We need live-giving oil. There are no substitudes or additional sources. There is only one Source of power, full and abundant, and at zero cost for all users. Paul went to the Corinthians in the name of that power.

“When Christ abides in the heart by faith, His Spirit becomes a power to purify and vivify the soul. Truth in the heart cannot fail of having a correcting influence upon the life” (Counsels to Parents, Teacher, and Students, p. 223).

The power of God is within our reach today
to awaken and liven up our nature.
Grant Him permission so He can act.

May the Lord fill your life with His power…

“But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block
and to the Greeks foolishness”
(1 Corinthians 1:23).

Martin Hengel wrote a book called Crucifixion, which recounts the torments suffered by a crucified person. The information he shares allows us to understand that the sufferings were much crueler than we could imagine. We usually have a distant idea of what a crucifixtion was really like. Painters and sculptors began to capture paintings of Jesus crucified long after such a practice of execution had been abandoned. Certain archaeological findings show that the portraits minimized the actual situation.

Those condemned to crucifixtion were first cruelly whipped. The scourging whip was an extremely inhumane instrument of punishment. The whip they used consisted of four or five lead balls, attached to a wooden handle by means of chains. Small pieces of iron stuck our of each ball. The blows not only ripped the skin, but also shattered tissues and muscles. The executioners limited these floggings, for they could cause even death, and the intention was to prolong the torment: they wanted them alive and conscious to suffer the agonies of the cross.

After the whipping, completely bloddied, the condemned were taken to be executed in a crowded public place. They were subjected to public ridicule and shame. They were completely stripped of their clothes and exposed to criticism and ridicule. The artists, in a pious and compassionate way, partially covered the bodies in their works. The Father, through dark clouds, mercifully hid the unseemly scene of His Son from the impudent eyes of the multitude.

But it was not the previous floggings, nor the torments of the cross, nor the spear of the soldier that caused His death. Despite the humiliation and pain, even on the cross He still thought and acted on behalf of others. He commissioned John to take care of His mother, prayed and forgave His wrongdoers, and gave hope to the thief at His side.

“It was not the dread of death that weighed upon Him. It was not the pain and ignominy of the cross that caused His inexpressible agony… His suffering was from a sense of the malignity of sin… Upon Christ as our substitude and surety was laid the iniquity of us all” (The Desire of Ages, pp. 752-753).

If you could extend your arms out to your side, as Jesus did on the cross,
how long would you endure? One minute? Two?
Jesus spent six hours crucified, unable to even wipe the drops of blood
that trickled froom His head because of the crown of thorns.
It was all for the love of you, of me,… of everyone!
May gratitude and commitment be our response to His sacrifice!

Know that you ARE loved, God bless you…