Week 15, Day 1: Simplicity in Christ

Today’s Reading:  2 Corinthians 12:1-13:14

Some thoughts from Friday’s reading…

Paul wrote to the brethren at Corinth that he was afraid for them that they might be deceived by Satan and their minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3).  Surely this is still a danger in the world today!  Think of how many people are trying to find the truth of the gospel message, but allow themselves to be deceived by Satan into believing that they have to do things in a much more difficult manner.  Sometimes, people are confused by all of the various teachings in the world concerning the Bible.  It is certainly not God who is propagating such confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), but rather it is Satan at work!

I am afraid that many of us are susceptible to the dangers that Paul warned of in this verse.  Many people are constantly looking for some new thing to teach from the scriptures.  If we come up with something new, 2000 years after the revelation of Christ was completed, then we most likely are adding to the scriptures.  There is nothing new to be found, and nothing new to be taught.  We need to stay with the simple message of Christ, and teach that same doctrine as what was taught in the first century.  We have no need to prove our intellectualism, or our scholarly abilities.  We should be content to go forth with the same message as those apostles of old!

If we teach the same message, then we will be the same kind of bride that Paul sought to deliver to Christ with the church in Corinth.  We will be a part of that bride that will be presented as chaste and pure, without spot or any such thing!  if we are not a part of that church, founded on the simplicity of the message of Christ, then we will not have a place in Heaven!