What Is Your Focus?
It was clearly a life or death matter!
Reference: “By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:2 NIV
Explore: Our senior pastor was telling us that during the Spanish Plague in the early 1900s some churches moved away from using one communal communion cup to using lots of little individual cups. He believed there would have been a lot of discussions (and disagreements) in the church before making such a bold move.
He then spoke of a church he knew where congregation members almost came to blows around a discussion as to where the communion table should sit. Whether it was positioned in the middle of the platform or to the side of the platform was clearly a life or death matter!
We look back now and marvel at how something so menial could have held such importance but the same thing happens today.
We judge other Christians on the denomination they attend, the songs they sing, the version of Bible they read. We so easily forget the things Jesus fought for and focus on aspects that should not matter.
Application: Paul reminds the church in Corinth to stay focussed on the gospel. It’s interesting that when our faith is based so firmly on Christ, how easily we can get distracted by everything else in religion.
Looking to the life of Jesus is a pretty good indicator of what we are to focus on. If he mentioned it or gave guidance on it, then it’s pretty good to go on. However, if it’s something that didn’t rate on Jesus’ radar then we need to use our Godly wisdom to discern what Jesus would have done.
Let’s not get distracted by minutia but stay focused on Jesus and how He calls us to live.
Prayer: Lord, keep my eyes fixed on You so I don’t waste my efforts on things that will not matter in eternity. Amen.
What often takes up your time but lacks importance?
This article was written by Linda Bailey
Linda started theological studies in 1999 in Australia. After working for ten years in various church ministries, she now works as the breakfast producer at 89.9 LightFM - the Christian radio station in Melbourne, Australia. She writes blogs every day about passages she is currently reading in the Bible. Follow her on Google Plus +Linda Bailey or Facebook by clicking the like button on the right of this page.