Year 5, Day 80: 1 Corinthians 12

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: In

• In: This is the word we use to express our relationships with our spiritual family.  These are often the people who hold us spiritually accountable.  They are the ones to whom we typically go for discussion and discernment.  These are the ones with whom we learn to share leadership.  They are the ones with whom we become family on mission.

Whenever I read 1 Corinthians 12, I am reminded of just how grateful I am for the few spiritual friends that I have in my life.  I’m not talking about the people with whom I talk about the Bible.  I’m talking about the people who take the time to genuinely talk to me about faith.  I’m talking about the people who genuinely take time to hear what God is doing in my life and how God is forming faith within me.  I’m talking about the people who share with me what God is doing in their life and how God is forming faith within them.

These are the people who mourn when I mourn.  They are troubled when I am troubled.  These are people that when their life is in turmoil I stay awake at night worried and praying about them.

But I think perhaps even the greater test is that these are the people who genuinely rejoice when God is on display in my life.  These are people that when God is on display in their life I am genuinely happy, too!  There is no jealousy in them or in me when God is at work. 

This is what it means to be In.  My In mourn with me.  They celebrate with me.  They allow me to mourn and celebrate with them, too.  They don’t evoke jealousy in me when God is in them.  They aren’t jealous when God is working through me.  The beautiful thing about In is that unity is fundamentally at the core because In is based on being connected to one another through God.

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