An Introduction to a Personal Bible Study - 1 Corinthians

I've been extremely flaky in my quiet times.

I figured I should be pretty honest about that from the get-go.

But I've been semi-reading through 1 Corinthians over the last week or so, and I wanted to actually READ it. So basically, critical reading, analytical thinking, practical application based understanding.

I'm just going to start over from the beginning of 1 Corinthians.

I'm also in the middle of Acts and Daniel as parts of series the BCM is currently doing. Acts is what we are studying in family group Bible studies, one of which I lead once a week, and Daniel is what we are hearing about at 6:33 - our large group weekly worship gathering. So I may from time to time throw in snippets from those two books.

Hear me out - if you want to learn alongside me, I am ecstatic. Just know that I do this for myself, so not everything I say is probably going to make sense. Also I don't follow through very well, so who knows how long this is going to last...

That being said, I'm ready to dive into 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

Divisions in the Church Condemned

v. 1-3
In the first few verses, I like that Paul is already putting emphasis on the importance of unity in Christ - that Jesus Christ died for all people, and all who will believe in Him have eternal, and because of that we (believers of that) have a love for Christ in common. 

v. 4-9
This is such a cool mini Gospel in a few short verses. It tells the story of God's grace, the fact that each of our lives are a testament to God's grace and well all have an important story to share; community is essential in growth as a believer, and endurance to keep the faith will glorify God so much.

Tangent: this reminds me of what we talked about studying Acts 17 tonight. How do our lives look different as Christians, in a culture that is so nonchalant about everything? How do our actions show that we are trustworthy and set us apart - make us holy? I think endurance is a huge part of that, and something I struggle with. I get burnt out too easily, because I don't commit to the hard parts of life as well as the initial easy/ glamorous parts. But doing a job well, when asked, without grumbling or complaining, to the best of my ability, will be a way that the world looks at me and sees something different. That's what I'm striving for in order to share the Hope I have in Christ with people. 

I think I'll stop here and pick up later. Until then...