Daily Devotions: Picking on Paul

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.

It’s very theologically fashionable these days to bash Paul and his writings. I come across many people who want to discard any of Paul’s statements and just concentrate on the Gospel. After all, these people insist, “why should I listen to Paul when Jesus can tell me everything I need to know?”

What they really mean is that they want to practice their faith on very loose terms. Their whole theology tends to be summed up in two neat phrases: ‘Jesus loves me this I know’ and ‘I’m OK ,You’re OK.’ It’s a very infantile form of faith and one that has no merit in God’s Kingdom.

You see if our faith was very simple and agreeable to everyone, Christ would never have been crucified and people like Paul would not have been martyred. We need to take seriously what Christ and Paul both have to say, because they’re working off the same page. Christ dies to save the world and then chooses Paul to spread the Gospel. What Paul writes doesn’t come from him alone – it all originates in Christ.

That’s why when we read a statement like ‘by the gospel you are saved’ with the condition ‘if you hold firmly to the word I preached’, we have to take them both together. The Gospel is not just a collected bundle of holy stories about Christ, the Gospel is an invasive forceful word of God that challenges our lifestyles and changes our souls for all of eternity.

Paul also gets it right when he states “otherwise you have believed in vain.” People are constantly diluting the Gospel to suit themselves and end up with no salvation. They believe what they want to accept, and end up with a cozy version of an uncomfortable faith.

So the challenge for us today is this: what Gospel do we believe in? Our own or Paul’s?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we are so fiercely independent these days that we become indignant when Your teaching or Paul’s writings interfere and meddle with our lives. We sometimes resent the constraints that the Gospel places upon us, but instead of accepting Your words, we make up our own ideas and opinions. Forgive us, Lord, for disrespecting and disassociating ourselves with You and Your Chosen Apostle. Help us to honestly reevaluate our commitment to You, Your Church, and Kingdom. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

4 Minute Daily Devotions: The Least

1 Corinthians 15:9     For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Yesterday, I was sharing some laughter with a few church members. We were talking about God’s sense of humor and how funny we all must appear to Him at times. I also stated that I could prove God had a great sense of humor – after all, He had made me a pastor!

I think that I understand how Paul feels about his own ministry. He calls himself the least of all the apostles because he feels so unworthy. His past career as a persecutor of the Church stings his conscience from time to time. H realizes that it is only by the grace of God that he has been forgiven and redeemed, pardoned and remade. Paul’s past mistakes could have cost him his salvation; instead, the mercy of God and Christ’s great intervention has turned his life around.

I guess we all feel unworthy at times to be Christians. It’s a struggle to be good people everyday. We all fail through things like anger, greed, pride, and lust – and yet God keeps coming back to us, to allow us mercy and grace through Jesus Christ, His Only and Holy Son. A lot of people think that Christians are perfect, holy, and self-righteous people, but honestly, I believe that Christians are people who make mistakes, confess their sins, and look to Jesus to forgive them, restore them, and encourage them day after day.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, without Your grace we could never be restored to God’s favor and love. We know that at some point, we’re going to fail You today and we wish that we could avoid being sinful. However, we are glad that Your Goodness and Holiness, Your Sacrifice and Sovereignty allows us the opportunity of forgiveness and reconciliation, of pardon and reunification with God. In Your Holy Name, we humbly and thankfully pray. Amen

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.