OUR FATHER DISPLINES THOSE HE LOVES

In 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 7 - 8, the Apostle Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, says this;

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have begun to reign—and that without us! How I wish that you really had begun to reign so that we also might reign with you! 

The apostle Paul compares the lives of the believers at Corinth with the lives of the apostles. 

Whereas the believers in Corinth were rich, politically powerful, wise and strong, Paul describes the apostles as condemned prisoners who were put on parade as a public spectacle of weak, dishonorable fools and that they were brutally treated and left destitute.

Nevertheless, the apostles were still expected to model exemplary conduct even towards those who treated them so harshly.

The members of the church at Corinth, being the spiritual children of the apostles, were blessed abundantly and some had began to believe that the advantages they had were as a result of their own merit rather than the blessings that they had received from others and from the Lord.  

The Apostle Paul reprimanded them for boasting about their condition as though they had earned it rather than humbly acknowledging that they were recipients of spiritual blessings by the works of others.

Proverbs chapter 3 verse 11 says; 

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, 

In matters of the spirit, it is wise to heed the discipline of those with spiritual authority over us such as our fathers in Christ for they can guide us away from spiritual errors and faults that can curtail our growth and maturity in the things of God.

Amen.