1 Cor 1:9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Col 3:11 Where [in the new man, the Body of Christ] there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.
[Part 2 of 2] I believe that as Paul was writing this Epistle to the Corinthian believers, he was saying, "Dear brothers and sisters, you need to realize that neither Paul, Cephas, Apollos, nor any other person is the unique center among the believers. This center is not even a narrow Christ, the Christ of your preference. The Christ who is the unique center of all believers is the One who is both theirs and ours." If we see this, we shall not care for persons, localities, or nationalities. Instead, we shall care for Christ as the unique center of all the believers. We all have been called into Him, called into the fellowship, the enjoyment, the participation, in Him. We have been called into a mutuality in which we are one with Him. Only this can swallow up divisions and eliminate all the differences and preferences among the saints.Consider the situation among Christians today: there is preference after preference. Some prefer to be Presbyterians, whereas others prefer to be Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, or Pentecostals. Some say, "I like this," and others say, "I like that." Some declare, "I like this pastor," and others say, "I like that minister." "I like...I like," is commonly uttered by believers today. You may like a certain thing, but God may not like it. God is only pleased with Christ. God has one center--Jesus Christ--and He has called you not into the denomination of your choice, but into the fellowship of His Son. No individual or group must be our preference. Our only preference, our one choice, must be Christ as the unique center, the Christ who is theirs and ours, the Christ into whose mutuality we have been called by God. Oh, we all must see that God has called us into the fellowship of such a Christ! (c) Living Stream Ministry.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of 1 Corinthians, pp. 28. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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