Devotional 1 Corinthians 4: Faithfulness and the Authority of the Bible Reflection on 1 Corinthians 4: the call to be trustworthy leaders and the importance of not going beyond what is written in God's Word. Topics: Devotional, New Testament.

Devotional 1 Corinthians 4: Faithfulness and the Authority of the Bible

Today’s devotional is found in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 4, and this was what happened.

Synopsis: In this chapter, Paul, in his letter addressed to the church in Corinth, explains the following things: those who are given a trust must prove faithful and trustworthy, and we must not go beyond what is written in the Holy Scriptures.

Observations

These were my observations.

1. Those who have been given a trust must prove faithful and trustworthy. This observation makes total sense not only in spiritual terms, but also in general life terms. We all perceive this in a professional context when we are promoted to a position that demands more of us (e.g., being promoted from technician to manager). For we receive more responsibilities and are no longer just responsible for our own tasks, but also the tasks of those who report to us. Therefore, our evaluation will take into account our performance and the performance of those under our responsibility. The same occurs in the spiritual realm, and the consequences are even more serious. For being entrusted with a leadership position in the church requires us to be true imitators of Jesus Christ. Our conduct must align with our words. For God is observing how faithful we are with the position He gave us. And others are watching to see whether we are hypocrites or not. Therefore, we must be very careful not to become a stumbling block to others who seek God (Matthew 18:7).
2. We must not go beyond what is written in Holy Scripture. This is an extremely important observation. For there are many people who consider themselves Christians but do not realize that they are taking away the authority of the Bible when they accept human opinions and theories about the creation of the universe, etc. I say this because I used to make this mistake as well. Whether we want to admit it or not, we live in a society where most people think science and Holy Scripture are in opposition. This happens because we were educated that way in the school system. We were influenced to think that when science discovers something new that contradicts the Bible, science is automatically right and we discard what the Bible says. But what we forget is that science and the Bible complement each other. Because the only reason we have the intellectual capacity to perceive and understand the universe is thanks to God, for we were created in His image and likeness (Genesis 1:26–27). That is to say, since God is an intelligent, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent being, He created the universe with millimeter precision that allows us to comprehend it. In other words, doing science is only possible because we assume the universe has order. And the universe can only have order if it was created by an intelligent and all-powerful Being. The same happens with contemporary cultural customs. If we truly believe in God and that the Bible was inspired by Him, we cannot pick and choose what we want to believe and what we do not believe. For God is a Perfect Being, and we cannot place ourselves in a position of intellectual and moral superiority relative to God. For this was the original sin committed by Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1–6). Therefore, the correct order for interpreting the world, as Christians, is to place the Word as the maximum authority and be guided by it when investigating scientific theories, etc. We must never place human knowledge above the Word of God (Proverbs 2:6 and 1 Corinthians 3:19). Because when we Christians do so, we give reason to people who do not believe in God to discard the truthfulness of the Bible.