Thursday, January 30, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 1 Corinthians 5-6
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 13
Key Verse
1 Corinthians 6:4 — “If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.”
Devotional Thought
Paul has barely finished addressing the Corinthians when a report reaches him that would stagger any pastor: a man in the congregation is living with his father’s wife, a sin so brazen that even the pagan Gentiles of Corinth would have recoiled from it. Corinth was a city famous for its temple prostitutes and loose morals, yet here the church was tolerating what the world itself condemned. Worse still, the congregation was puffed up rather than mourning. They boasted of their liberty while a member of Christ’s body was entangled in scandal, and Paul, though absent in body, pronounces judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus. His remedy is severe—deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh—but his aim is merciful: that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Paul then turns to lawsuits, another symptom of the same disease. Believers were dragging one another before pagan judges over matters that should have been settled quietly among the saints. He reminds them that they will one day judge angels, and yet they cannot judge the smallest disputes among themselves. His words sting: “Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?” Then comes the great turn of chapter six. Some of these very Corinthians had been fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, thieves, drunkards—”and such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.” The gospel does not merely pardon sinners; it transforms them.
And so Paul presses to the heart of the matter: your body is not for fornication but for the Lord. It is a member of Christ, a temple of the Holy Ghost, bought with a price. The Corinthians lived in a city that said the body was merely a vessel for appetite, that what one did with it was of little account. Paul says the opposite. Because God raised the Lord and will raise us by His own power, the body matters eternally. To join one’s body to a harlot is to drag Christ’s own members into uncleanness. To flee fornication is not prudishness; it is reverence for the One who purchased us.
The psalm appointed for today, Psalm 13, gives voice to the other side of this same faith. “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever?” David cries, and then, in the very same breath, “But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.” This is the shape of the Christian life in a fallen world: honest lament, then quiet trust. In the cold, dark days of late January, when the year still feels new and resolutions may already be faltering, we do well to remember that the same God who sanctifies His people will not forget them. He has dealt bountifully with us in Christ, and He will keep us unto the end.
Reflection
- Is there any sin I am tolerating in my own life—or in my church family—because I have grown comfortable with it rather than mourning over it?
- If my body is a temple of the Holy Ghost and a member of Christ, how would that truth change the way I use it today?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we confess that we have often treated sin lightly and our bodies cheaply. Forgive us for the leaven of malice and wickedness we have allowed to remain. Wash us again, sanctify us again, for we were bought with a price. Teach us to flee fornication and to glorify Thee in our bodies and our spirits, which are Thine. When we are tempted to wonder how long Thou wilt forget us, remind us that we have trusted in Thy mercy, and let our hearts rejoice in Thy salvation. Deal bountifully with us, O Lord, for Thy name’s sake. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 13:1 — “How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?”