The Daily Word

 

Paul’s letters to the various churches that he or one of his fellow missionaries had founded all fall into a broad pattern. At the beginning there is usually a greeting and words of exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He then deals with any specific practical, spiritual or doctrinal issues that have come to light and as we get towards the end of Paul’s letters, there are words of general exhortation. The first letter to the Corinthian church is no exception and I want to look at 1 Corinthians 15 and v 58 for a short while.

“Be ye steadfast……”. We don’t use the word ‘steadfast’ much these days, we find other words to describe the word. But we have here the word picture of someone on a journey who will not be deterred in either time of distance from the route they are following. Or in personal relationships, absolute loyalty and reliability.

This surely should describe our life for the Lord Jesus Christ where we have the goal or prize of the high calling of our Saviour. We have embarked on a journey that will end in heaven, but which requires total commitment and unswerving loyalty to Him. Our biggest problem to this level of ‘steadfastness’ is if we don’t really feel inside that we have to be that loyal or that our journey allows for some level of compromise and we can take a break whenever we feel like it. 

Jesus has saved us from an eternity in Hell. He has given us the indwelling Holy Spirit to give us the strength to live the life He requires and by playing hit and miss with our Christian life, we grieve the Holy Spirit and we fail our Saviour. In itself, this is sin, but it can also lead on to further failure, and we become ineffective for God and dissatisfied even with our salvation.

Let us re-look at where we are, spiritually, and seek to get back on that steadfast journey, continually “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church