"For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?" - I Corinthians 3:3
Read that verse and look inside yourself for a while...look at the interactions you have with people - people you live with, people you work with, people you associate with...are jealousy and strife driving forces behind your interactions with the people around you. I am going to be honest here...they are for me. As much as I try to hide it on the outside, my mind is constantly working through a series of progressions...Where do I stand with them? Have I gotten the upper hand? Am I better? Look better? Speak better? Funnier? More athletic? Do they owe me? Do I owe them? Am I getting what I deserve out of this relationship? These toxic and selfish thoughts often worm their way into my mind, impacting the way I interact with the people around me. I may have flesh on my bones and I may be a human being, but I am certain that when Paul says, "Are you not flesh and behaving only in a human way" he is not giving us excuses to live such self-serving lives. He is saying that those of us who allow jealousy and strife to drive us are living "less than" lives...we are living lives that are less than they could be...we are living damaged and twisted lives compared to the freedom that we could have if we chose to live in the Spirit and behave in a godly way. That is what I want to do...that is who I want to be! I don't want to rank everyone around me on an importance scale to figure out where I fit in an insane effort to bolster my own self-worth. I want to know who I am according to God and I want to be comfortable in my own skin with my own giftedness...I want to be holy as God is holy...I want to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. God please help me do this!
He has given us the help we need..."Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" - I Corinthians 3:16...I do know God...help me to trust in that knowledge and live boldly through your Spirit.
2 comments:
Excellent post. Often it can become easy to get caught up in what other people think (or what we think they think) rather than on relying on who God says we are and who we are in Christ. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks for the thoughts!
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