GPS Guide – April 9, 2019
WE ARE EQUIPPED
Tuesday
Read: 1 Corinthians 3:3-9
“3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? 5 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.6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.” NIV 1 Corinthians 3:3-9)
Study: The young Christian churches in Corinth were splitting into factions. The apostles Paul and Peter, an early Christian preacher named Apollos, even Christ himself (!) were being invoked to “bless” one group’s superiority over another (1 Corinthians 1:11-12). Paul “walked his talk” about the value of each Christian’s gifts. He wrote that, although he and Apollos had played differing roles in building up the church in Corinth, they both served God, and any glory for what they had done was God’s. How many different people or events drew you to faith, and nurtured and grew that faith? In what ways did God work through all of them? In what ways has God equipped you to be a difference-maker (in overt or subtle ways) for Jesus?
Pray: Dear God, I love you. I want to honor you. Sometimes I forget the link between how I treat other people and how I honor you. Help me draw people together rather than driving wedges. Amen.