Scripture: 1 Corinthians 8: 12
Key Verse: (12) But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
Reflection: One Christmas, my brother and I got boxing gloves. I loved it! He is younger than I am but has always been bigger and we compete at everything. Boxing was a way my dad encouraged us to work out our aggression. My mother always said, “It is all fun and games, until someone gets hurt. “ She had to say that a lot in our house growing up…..and every summer when we get together with our own children. We are still competitive. We compete at spades, banagrams and even in our arguments. We like it when there are right and wrong answers and when there are winners and losers. Don’t most of us?
But when we insist on being right, it is our relationships that suffer, especially family. There is more to consider than always being right. This might be at the heart of the problems of the church in Corinth. Yes, they struggled with different traditions but for Paul relationships matter most. God is God of all of us and the basis of our identity in Jesus Christ.
The issue is always relationships, seen in the context of God’s will of wholeness for all of God’s people. It can never just be about being right or winning.
Prayer: God,
Show me the love in the center of my brothers and sisters.
Show me the love in the center of myself.
Show me the love in the center of this world.
In the name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.
Author: Michelle Thomas-Bush
[Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved].