PRAY: Father, as I listen for your direction today, please show me your will that I may make it my own. Let my thoughts be your thoughts.

READ: 1 Corinthians 5:6–8

MEDITATE:
When the Church encounters a threat to the gospel and to its proclamation, she is called to a righteous response and to vigilance over the state of her heart. If the gospel and its faithful community are to remain pure, unconformed to the “pattern of this world” (Rom 12:2), both the message and its means of delivery must remain Christ-centered. Our calling must be to live in such a way that people see God, not us; hear his message, not ours; and are loved as he would love them.

It was both the method and the content of Christ’s message that brought me to faith—eternal truth offered to me in the hands of the chief servant. I believe that Jesus could have ministered in many ways, but he chose his methods with our salvation in mind. Take courage today to proclaim the pure gospel message to the world, never losing sight of Christ’s humility.

Questions and Application:

1. What does this passage say?
2. What does this passage mean?
3. If we boast while acting on what we are sure is true, we can have a destructive influence on each other and on our corporate ability to deliver the message of Christ with the means of Christ. How can we ensure that our corporate response to the crisis in the Church is Christ-like—appropriate while fully submissive to the heart of Jesus?

PRAY: As my lips speak your truth, Lord, empower me to offer it with it the hands of your son.