The Devotional

Papa J's rules for Livin #160

Socialism is a religion without “One God” since it is okay for you or me to be god. Some of us are more prettier to look at, they can be god too! Is there a problem with this? Matthew 23:24-27.

One day I was showing an elderly couple an apartment unit where I worked. They were nice people, charming and I was hopeful that they would take the apartment since we were a new complex and not all of the apartments were filled. After they left, one of the tenants approached me and said. &ldquoo you know that, that elderly man is trouble? Not to long ago, he destroyed the pastor of a church and even the church members split, many who use to be friends no longer talk to one another because of that man”. I said, “no, I know nothing about him other than I am interested in having them move in.” It seems that the pastor of the church changed from using the King James Version of the Bible, to the New American Standard Bible. The man I had interviewed and showed the apartment to, sued the pastor for making that decision and the church fell apart. That was in 1994, times have not changed except to become worse.

1 Corinthians 6

1 Corinthians 6:1-11 Without the presence of Christ, life is meaningless and this is so evident to those of us who are in a right relationship with Him. Being able to judge is not some complex system of courts and legal action. Judging is simply a determination of “right and wrong”. 1 Kings 3:25 is a correct way to deal with hard issues, but it is also very harsh. All to often we let things get so out of hand that the only way out is to make the matter to a legal issue, but this should never be the case in our churches apart from crime.

Crimes against one another within the church need to be dealt with at the church level, but additional action can be needed. Most of the things that go on within the walls of any church can be handled by the members of the church and in order for everyone to be treated fairly there are instructions within the Word of God to encourage one another to esteem the other person more important than oneself. Philippians 2:3.

So it is an utter failure when believers in Christ go to court over matters within the church. When the fleshly attitude of one person tries to override the spiritual attitude of another the war between the two can be very intense, very painful and very destructible in the eyes of those who are watching. If the church membership survives it will never be the same since fear and doubt will always lead the way for further troubles. As 1 Corinthians 6:7 clearly states it is and utter failure. We should accept the wrong and move on. Tomorrow we will look at the root cause.