City Life Starter

By Stefan Johnsson

Writing on the first book of Corinthians has been a great reflection and reminder to me about how God works through imperfect people. It is a constant reminder that we need each other, we need counsel and guidance from those who walked the walk before us. One of Paul’s main points that he makes is that if you love God and others more than yourself, usually the problems and sin can more easily be overcome. We have to seek our identity in Christ rather than through the culture around us and the sinfulness that so easily entangles.

Just a couple weeks ago I sat in a staff training to go over customer service skills and I did not pay attention well, thinking that I knew what I was doing and understood everything. Pride overcame me. It was not more than 24hrs later where I failed miserably in providing the right service to a student. God taught me a lesson and humbled me once again. I sometimes feel that I may never learn or overcome my faults, which can be depressing. All I have to do is remind myself and pray that God can use a broken person such as I to reach those around me. It is usually when I am at my weakest, that God is at his strongest within me, and my testimony is at its best.

If a broke person like me can be a witness to others, so can you, so could the church in Corinth and so can anyone else who calls on the name of Jesus. We have issues, we have problems, and we have to fight the sin and the devil daily. Satan wants us to lose our testimony to others, to dull our light and our faith. We often forget that we are in a spiritual warfare that requires courage, strength, and community to fight back.

You may think that Christians back in the time of the first century A.D. were perfect. Though, this thinking should have been removed after reading 1st Corinthians. They struggled through issues that we do as well today. So has the church in general throughout the millennia. How amazing is God that he can use the brokenness of sin in the early churches to be a continual guidance and tool for all churches throughout time to the present day. We are there to learn from others, but that by no means makes us better. Our unity, our love for each other is what draws people to church and is what we have to live out in our daily lives.

Let the 1st book to the Corinthians be a reminder that every church has its struggles and that society today is no different than society two thousand years ago. We are called by God to be salt and light to a sinful, lost and hurting society. Make the church a place for healing and for teaching, for reproof, and correction. A place to be encouraged in faith and to love those who are different than us. Let the peace that transcends all understanding guide us. Let us seek our hearts and find any sin that needs to be stamped out, to walk humbly with our God who is our love, our devotion, and our savior.