Receive First

1 Cor 4:6b-7

"learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. ⁷ For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?"

The Corinthian church had real trouble with factions. They loved to identify with Apollos, or Peter, or Paul, more than they loved Jesus. We can have the same problem today, if we love Reformed theology, or homeschooling, or the family integrated movement. We love those things as they bring us closer to Jesus, and walking in His ways, but not for their own sake, apart from Christ.

That’s why coming to this table every week is so important. This Supper binds all Christians everywhere together in unity. Repentance and faith are expressed here. We know we need food, we need fixing, and we can only get it in Jesus, so we eat, sacramentally speaking, His body and blood, to be united with Him in His death and resurrection. We must receive Jesus.

We are receivers. Our most fundamental act is to worship God. We do that by hearing or reading His Word, by taking bread and wine into our bodies. We act, we work, we do, we sing, we believe. But only because we first receive. We receive life and we live it. We receive faith and we believe. We receive the Word and we do it.

Let us be more receptive to the truth. Then we will differ from one antoher less. We will resemble Christ more.

4/28/13