Today I intended to share some insights I’ve gotten from some of the psalms, but I felt the Lord lead me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 4. I believe that if the Lord led me here, then someone needs to hear something from it… so I read the chapter and nothing really stood out to me until I got to verses18-21, which say…
“Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again. But I will come-and soon-if the Lord lets me, and then I’ll find out whether these arrogant people just give pretentious speeches or whether they really have God’s power. For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God’s power. Which do you choose?’
This is coming directly from the NLT Bible Commentary…
Some people talk a lot about faith, but that’s all it is-talk. They may know all the right words to say, but their lives don’t reflect God’s power. Paul says that the Kingdom of God is to be lived, not just discussed. There is a big difference between knowing the right words and living them out. Don’t be content to have all the right answers about Christ. Let your life show that God’s power is really working in you.
Remember…Jesus said that the road to destruction is wide, and many people take it. He also said that the road to the Kingdom is narrow, and few find it. This makes me think of the parable of the Wheat and Tares (or Weeds), which is found in Matthew 13…
Jesus said the church is like a wheat field. When the crop began to grow and produce grain…weeds grew, and intermixed with the wheat. In the parable, the farmer’s workers asked the farmer if they should pull the weeds. The farmer told them not to, because by pulling the weeds, they would uproot the wheat. He told them to let them both grow together until the harvest, and then the weeds would be tied up into bundles and burned in the fire.
Jesus later explains the parable… He explained that the field is the world, and the wheat represents His true church. The weeds are people that belong to the evil one. At the harvest, just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world.
I’ve learned that there are true believers and false believers in the church. Going to church on Sunday is one thing, but what about Monday through Saturday? We can only see outward appearances, but God sees what’s in the heart. Yes there are hypocrites, but not everybody is one. People make up the church, and people aren’t perfect. It’s not up to us to judge. God says we will all exist together till the end.