The Hope for Messy People
The past several weeks we’ve been discussing the messy Corinthians and Paul pointing out their messiness. They had all kinds of disagreements about which spiritual gifts were more important, family disputes, church leadership, etc. Paul pointed out to them that they needed to clean up their messes.
We are still the same kind of messy today.
We are sucked into disagreements about things that we’re passionate about. It’s not that these things aren’t important topics to the world that we live in. But often these are things that have little or nothing to do with where we spend eternity.
This is why, in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, Paul tells them to be alert, stand firm, be brave, stand strong, and that everything is to be done in Agape love. Back in chapter 15 verses 1-11, he clarifies the message when he reminds them of their acceptance of Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, I want to call your attention to the good news that I preached to you, which you also received and in which you stand. You are being saved through it if you hold on to the message I preached to you, unless somehow you believed it for nothing. So then, whether you heard the message from me or them, this is what we preach and this is what you have believed.
He goes on in verses 12-17 to point out the importance of the resurrection.
So if the message that is preached says that Christ has been raised from the dead, then how can some of you say, “There’s no resurrection of the dead”? If there’s no resurrection of the dead, then Christ hasn’t been raised either. If Christ hasn’t been raised, then our preaching is useless and your faith is useless. We are found to be false witnesses about God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, when he didn’t raise him if it’s the case that the dead aren’t raised. If the dead aren’t raised, then Christ hasn’t been raised either. If Christ hasn’t been raised, then your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins…
We are messy, dirty people.
We can use soap to wash the dirt from the outside of our bodies, but if we don’t get wet, pick up the bar of soap, go scrubbing and rinse off, we will still be dirty.
The same thing is true for our souls. Jesus is the soap that can wash our spirits clean. But we have to accept Him to be washed clean.
