Daily Devotion with Pastor Tong Liu: Today's Passage

1 Corinthians 3:1-5

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe-as the Lord has assigned to each his task.

Paul divided Christians into two categories: one is spiritual and the other carnal. The so-called "carnal" Christian is a baby in Christ, because eating solid food requires a process of digestion, it is costly. Here we see that the believers of the church of Corinth is like a baby, unable to distinguish between good and evil, so often fall into envy and strife. This is the case for babies, and is a reflection of the carnality of man. In the church, some people say I belong to Paul, or that I follow Apollos. They feel that Paul is more powerful, so they want to follow these leaders and feel very proud about it. The church today is exactly like that as well. People often say that I follow a certain pastor, or that this certain church is more spiritual. People always love to compare! In the midst of the envy and strife, Paul says that we are still babies, we are carnal people. We do not really live out the truth of Christ, but we fall into envy and strife, which is not the way to manifest Jesus' beauty. Being able to live out what we hear in the Word, is the true spirituality. It does not matter how many equipping lasses we have taken, and it does not matter how many Bible verses we have memorized. If we cannot live out the life style of Jesus Christ, we are still babies, and carnal human beings.

There was a pastor from Argentina who only preached four sermons in a year. He said if Christians cannot live out the message, he will repeat the same message. One Sunday he preached his sermon, and when the next Sunday came, he preached the same sermon again. Everyone said, "Haven't you already preached this message?" He said, "Well, I preached it last week, but none of you lived out what I preached, so I need to keep repeating it until you live out what you have heard to your lives. From this incident, we can see that living out God's Word is extremely important.

Pray with Pastor Tong

Lord, we pray that you forgive us, because in many instances, we live in the flesh, just like babies. Lord, help us see the reality of our own condition. Help us live a life that is more like Christ each time after we hear your Word, and to become a truly spiritual Christian. We thank you and pray in the victorious name of Jesus, Amen!