Grace: Don’t Take It For Granted

Oh, my heart is heavy for our generation. Why does it seem as time continues to go on, the children of God are becoming more and more content with the bare minimum? Why does it seem like, we talk more about the latest movie or last night’s basketball game, more then we talk about the Lord with each other? And even more then we talk to the Lord in prayer? Why do we study harder our textbooks, then we study the Word of God? Everything we have comes from the Lord. So why do we so often place them above the Word of God and our relationship with the Lord? Why do they so often become idols and draw our affections away from the Lord?

As I studied the Word today, this verse hit me hard. 1 Corinthians 6:1, “Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” Why is Paul appealing to the Corinthian church not to receive the grace of God in vain? Remember in my first post on this blog, we defined Grace as, “unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.“ The Corinthians, just like us have been saved all because of God’s grace. It is completely unmerited, there is absolutely no reason besides the love of the Lord that we are even saved. Therefore, Paul wants to remind the church of Corinth, don’t take this for granted. He wants the church to stop placing things of this world above the Lord. The end of chapter 5, clearly lays out what we are called to as children of God.

1 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” The moment we place our faith in Christ Jesus’ death on the cross we become a new creation. Then in verse 20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” Because we have become a new creation and a child of God, we are also a ambassador for the Lord.  God wants the same grace that He has poured out on us, to be poured out on many through us. He wants the Corinthians to stop looking to their own wants and desires and to start seeing the bigger picture of God. That God wants to work with and through each of us. He has called each of us, and therefore wants to use each of us to bring attention and glory to Him rather then to ourselves.

My heart aches for my generation to learn from Paul’s letter to Corinth.  As Paul continues his letter, he says in 6:2, “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” We all know this world is not going to be here forever. We also know for a fact, we will not be here forever. Let us not waste the short life that the Lord has give each of us. The same urgency that Paul shared with the Corinthian church can be applied to us! As David Guzik says in his commentary on this verse, “This is no time for Christian lives (to be) all about ease and comfort and self-focus.  It is time to get busy for the Lord, and to be workers together with Him!” (1)

Paul closes out this section in verse 12-13, “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.” Paul wants to get across that it is nothing he has spoken to them that is hindering them from living their lives completely for the Lord. He wants them to stop looking to things of the world but widen their hearts and seek full heartedly after the Lord!

My biggest burden is that we as a people of God not seek after things of this world or our careers more then we seek after the Lord and his Word.  Don’t forget that the Lord has given you your job, school, sports, entertainment, etc. Let us not live our short lives content doing the bare minimum. But let us seek after God more and more each day through the study of His Word.  Let us seek the Lord through prayer more each day. Let us seek to obey God’s command to us to be ambassadors for Him. God’s desire is to see our generation serve Him more then we serve ourselves and wants to use us in great and mighty ways to spread his Grace to those around us!