We live in a culture that despises singleness once a person crosses a certain age. Person’s worth is measured by marriage, and marriage is often seen as the only remedy for singleness. But in Christianity, God never bestows value or declares a person’s worth based on their marital status. God bestows his value and worth on people simply because of His undying love for them. In this passage, we learn how God bestows his value on singles in the church and what he expects of them.
As Christians we often misunderstand mission as going only to foreign lands, but overlook the immediate context where the Lord has put us. We change careers, places and take major decisions either because of external pressure or because of our internal desires. We’re prone to make too many changes without really understanding God’s will for our lives. In this passage we learn how God calls us to be faithful in our calling wherever he has placed us.
What does the Bible say about divorce? What does it say about remarriage? Before we seek answers to these reasonable questions, we need to ask – “what does the bible say about marriage?”. When we know what marriage is meant for, can we really understand how to deal with divorce. Not only does this passage help us understand about marriage and divorce, but it also helps us understand about singleness (widows and widowers).
We live in a culture that both glorifies sex and abstains from it. We see young people indulge in all kinds of sexual immorality where marriage has become a joke or unnecessary, we also see married couples being indifferent towards each other and it makes everything mechanical between them. In this passage, we see how the gospel has an answer to both singles and married couples in the church.
Sexual Sin or adultery are not something you try to tackle with or negotiate; you just flee from them. If you don’t flee from these sins, they will destroy both your body and soul. Most importantly, we learn from this passage to flee from sexual immorality because they’re also the sins for which Christ was crucified so that we could be saved; our body and soul were bought for a price.
Christians are called to handle conflicts (to whatever extent) in a different way and in a different place called Church. In other words, Christians are forbidden to take their brothers to court. Why are they forbidden? Because of the gospel! In this passage, we learn how the gospel becomes the basis on which we deal with conflicts and forgive one another, regardless of the kind of sin committed.
Last week we considered the importance of Church Discipline in God’s community to maintain the purity of doctrine and purity of life. The greatest obstacle to maintain purity in our lives is our own sin. In this passage, we continue on the same topic and learn the importance of holiness and the danger of sin.
Church Discipline is disciplinary act from the elders of the church to rebuke, correct and restore a person from a sinful lifestyle in order to prevent the soul from further damage. It is a way of bringing back the prodigal into the fellowship of God and believers. In this passage, we learn why and how we need to practice church discipline.
Making disciples is not a commission given to just Apostles only but to every Christian as well. It implies that every Christian’s greatest calling in life is to work for the extension of God’s kingdom by joining with other believers in this endeavor; discipleship is a community project. In this passage, we learn how to make disciples for Christ by first becoming a disciple of Christ.
God already showed us in scriptures what it means for us to be His children, and what it costs us to follow Him. In many ways, the Cross of Jesus Christ is the way of Christian Life. He humbled Himself to the cross and sacrificed His own life for us, He suffered for our sake, He endured all kinds of rejection from His own people. In this passage, we see how the Cross becomes the model for christian life.