We Can Choose Broken or NOT
We’re continuing through Paul’s letter to the people in Corinth. We’ve discussed how the people in the church have been fighting amongst themselves and missing their mission. The world is messy and broken but doesn’t have to be if we’re in alignment with God.
This week Paul is giving it to them again. In 1 Corinthians 4:1-5, he reminds them again that they are servants of Christ and are supposed to be faithful in sharing God’s ways. Then in Chapter 5, Verse 1, he tells them they are behaving worse than unbelievers. As Christians, they are held to a higher standard. He continues this message through the rest of Chapters 5 and 6.
Paul’s rant is telling them and us that we live in a broken world.
We are all broken in some way. Things that cause our brokenness are –
- Unforgiveness – we like holding grudges and staying mad, it’s easier than forgiving someone who has wronged us
- Self-righteousness – we think we’re right, we don’t want to apologize, we remain indignant
- Damage from the past – we all have past damages, some worse than others, we become broken when we allow it to control our lives
- Manipulation, controlling others – we like to be in control, so we say things and make threats to people trying to control them
- Depression – we get used to it, we snuggle down into it, when we’re sad we cling to this feeling, we don’t want to get out, it’s a place to hide
- Anxiety – similar to depression, it can be a place to hide, it’s easier to stay here rather than dealing with hard things
- Worldliness – we can get sucked into the world and what we see, this is especially true with the bombardment of information through social media, internet, television, etc.
- Sin – we know we’re sinning and we just don’t care, repenting means change and we don’t want to change
These things are vices, and we like clinging to our vices. Just like the Corinthians who Paul was writing to didn’t want to change, we push back against change. This is why the world doesn’t like Jesus, because He requires change.
The world likes us being broken.
Jesus repairs our brokenness and makes us whole.
He offers us wholeness through His Holiness. We need to choose to let Jesus make our brokenness whole. But it’s up to us. We can choose to be broken or not.
We need to let Jesus fix our brokenness.