Tag: God

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Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

We will read of sowing and reaping, the attitude of the heart in giving, the abundant provision from God and an eternal perspective on giving. However it all speaks of and points to verse 15 and the title of this blog today.

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: “They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” 10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. 12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. 14 And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9 v 6-15)


The exclamation mark: strong feelings, an indicator of high volume like shouting and raising your voice. Let’s use the exclamation mark today!
It starts here. The gift of God. The gift being Himself, Jesus.
It is indescribable. It is inexpressible. There are not enough words but it is more than that. There are not the right words. So this gift is unutterable, unexplainable and incomprehensible. Of the over 6,500 languages in the world, it is the same. Could we find words in Arabic that best describe this gift? No. Or Mandarin Chinese or Japanese? No. It is impossible. It sits in a whole new undiscoverable language. It is lavish but it is more than that. It is unbeatable because it is everything.
Did He give reluctantly? I have seen people give even though they really would have preferred not to. I have heard people say “if I didn’t give I would have so much more”.

Did He give under pressure? I have squirmed at the lengthy pleading from the pulpits not for souls but for cash. I have seen manipulative campaigns to move those easily moved to give that bit more.

But He didn’t do either of those. The indescribable gift is the surpassing grace of the verse before.
The gift is grace.
And we don’t understand grace either!

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When the tent falls down – a message for the Christian’s funeral.

Following on from yesterday, there comes a time for us all, when our bodies will collapse, as a tent falls to the ground, so will we. If we live our lives without that thought in mind then we have lived foolishly. But Paul reminds us that this is something not to be feared but rather to be embraced.

“For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” (2 Corinthians 5 v 1-5)

For we know.

  • As a Christian we know. Not everyone. But we who follow Christ as disciples, we know. This is not a wish, or a worldly hope, it is a knowing. It is certain.
  • We have 2 homes. A temporary one (the tent) and a permanent home (the house).
  • When the tent collapses it is the best thing that has happened to us because it is then when we move into our eternal forever, never to be destroyed, house.
  • Our bodies groan, are longing, and are burdened, wishing to be in this heavenly dwelling, to be clothed with a different body.
  • The tent may collapse under the weight of physical or mental disease, emaciated perhaps, wrinkled definitely! But the longing within us for a perfect, resurrected, forever body will be realised.
  • It may look like our bodies are overtaken by death but the truth is are wasting bodies will be overtaken by life.
  • We are fashioned for this, all our difficulties in this life are preparing us for this.
  • The Holy Spirit, our helper, continually reminds us, points us in the direction, is the sign in our life that all that Paul has said will happen not to only others but to us, to you.
  • The Holy Spirit is a guarantee. A word which means ‘an engagement ring’ pointing to the wedding. Engagements are wonderful but they only reveal that something greater is coming, the marriage!
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The juxtaposition

Though a lovely sounding word it is something so profound yet disturbing, enlightening yet dark, that we would rather not welcome the 2 contrasting elements in our life. We would have one or the other but surely not both. What am I talking about?

“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.” (2 Corinthians 4 v 10-12)

  • If you want the life of Jesus to be experienced and seen in you then it is crucial that you experience pain and suffering.
  • If we truly come to the cross in full surrender then what we are doing is welcoming the death of Jesus not as something that took place but that is actually happening spiritually in our lives.
  • If we want to know life then we need to allow the suffering to shape us into His image, so that others see Christ and His work in us.
  • The impact on others from our own suffering is incalculable. You are far more effective as a broken vessel than a perfect one.
  • Victorious living is not to live without suffering. It is to see how others benefit from the life of Christ that flows through our suffering.
  • Praying to be free from our difficulties may end up being a desire to be free from the place where the life of Christ becomes most evident.
  • All this isn’t some form of spiritual masochism but rather it is to follow the strategy of Christ and to create the space for His power to flow through us.
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The Evidence for the Resurrection part 9

Paul is continuing on from his metaphors of earthly and heavenly bodies and moves us to think of Adam and Christ.

“If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.” (1 Corinthians 15 v 44-49)

We are now of Adam, we bear his image, we have Adam’s weakness and his mortality. But through the resurrection we will bear Christ’s image and characterised by a body of glory, wholeness and immortality.

What does this mean?

  1. Our physical reality is not abandoned for some ghostly existence in the after-life but rather a perfecting of what is now.
  2. Our limitations now with regards to weakness and decay give way to strength and glory.
  3. We become something greater because we bear the image of Christ not Adam.

At the time of Paul the world had thoughts of some disembodied immortality. But Paul knows differently. His gospel is the complete transformation of our bodies to that of Christ’s.

The gospel isn’t about simply eternal life but entering into something completely transformative and gloriously new. Whatever current limitation you have it is temporary. Whatever decay and disappointment you are experiencing Paul’s teaching offers a compelling alternative – bodies transformed by the power of resurrection. Amen!

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The Evidence for the Resurrection  of Jesus part 8

I am preparing this devotion having received the following message from an Elim Global Pastor in India:

“We are in great pain at this time we are building church in Gollaigudem village near Eluru town where pastor Abraham is pastoring the construction has come to roof level and all of a sudden some fanatics came and warned us to stop the church construction in this area we approached government authorities and asked help to reduce from fanatics but they gave deaf ear and next day yesterday morning 4 am some 15 people came and with machines and demolished all the building. We are so much pain please pray for church in India to be protected by God and please pray for our local church pastor Abraham and for his family.”

These messages from Paul on the resurrection of Jesus and us are of enormous encouragement to the persecuted and suffering Christians around the world. The story above of what is being experienced in India reveal the painful experience of being under persecution. But what the enemy destroys God will raise. Whether that happens to buildings or not it definitely happens to the bodies of Christians who die.

“But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendour of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendour, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendour. 42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15 v 35-44)

My father has sadly had to move into a care home because his Alzheimers means he regularly falls to the floor. It is a struggle right now. But there will come a day when his earthly body will no longer fall to the ground for he will be raised imperishable, in glory and power, as a spiritual body. There will come a day when what breaks now will break no more; what is diseased now will be healed; what is destroyed now will be indestructible. There will come a day where there will be no limitations that the earthly body has now.

Evidence?

Paul gives an agricultural metaphor for the evidence. Just as a wheat seed bears little resemblance to the full plant it becomes, our resurrection bodies will be dramatically transformed from our current state to something glorious while still maintaining a continuity of identity.

Inside every acorn is an oak tree ready to come forward and inside every born again Christian is a heavenly body ready to be raised on that final day.

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Distinguishing between spirits

“discernment of spirits [the ability to distinguish sound, godly doctrine from the deceptive doctrine of man-made religions and cults]” AMP.

“the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit” NLT.

“the power to know whether evil spirits are speaking through those who claim to be giving God’s messages—or whether it is really the Spirit of God who is speaking” TLB.

Is this God? Is this genuine? Or is it in fact demonic and more from the spirit of the world than the Holy Spirit? This is the gift that unveils the answer to those questions.

“….to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.” (1 Corinthians 12 v 10)

We need this gift. To be able to distinguish what is true and what is false is needed. To know what is good and what is evil is needed. To know whether a person is full of the Holy Spirit or is carrying a damaging spirit is needed. Seek this gift. You need it.

John told us to test the spirits and see if they are from God.

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” (1 John 4: 1-3)

… do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

  • Not everything you hear can be trusted and believed blindly.
  • Not everything that is inspirational is from Him even though it might make you feel good.
  • Not everything that is false looks false at first otherwise there wouldn’t be a possibility of being led astray.

    … This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.

    • Everything must be filtered through this one test: Jesus is the Christ in flesh sent from God.
    • Every religious experience must come under the submission of the orthodox teaching of and about Jesus Christ.

    … This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

    • Everything the Spirit of Christ does points to Jesus and if it doesn’t then it is the spirit of the antichrist.

    If you’re not sure then speak to a trusted person. See what they think.

    Last week I was speaking with a Church leader and his wife. He told me how his wife could see the truth in people far more than he could. He described how she had warned him about a certain leader a long time before he had betrayed him. I said that it was because she had been given the gift of discernment. This is the gift and we need it.

    Satan can appear as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).

    Sometimes your friends may speak words that are not the words of God (Matthew 16:23 – ‘get behind me satan’ as Peter was trying to prevent Jesus going to the cross).

    We are warned by Paul that we will know a time when the devil will do miracles and that a powerful delusion will come on unrighteous people (2 Thessalonians 2: 9-10).

    We need this gift!

    Holy Spirit, I seek discernment. Help me to hear the words and see the actions of people through your heart and mind. Give me this gift so that I can discern your voice from the many opinions around my life. Show me how to compare the truth of your Word with other people’s truth and to know the difference. I cannot discern without you. I need to know what is true and what is false; what is good and what is evil; what is you Holy Spirit and what is another spirit. May Jesus be seen and glorified in my life as I discern what is good, what is from you and the direction I should take.

    Amen.

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    Just stay as you are whether married, single, divorced, widowed, remarried or whatever …

    When I get married I will walk with God. If I was only single then I would walk more closely with the Lord. I’ll wait for the divorce to come through and then I will be free to see God use me. If I get remarried then I will back on track and God will start to work through me again. Nonsense. Just stay as you are. Stop playing around with whatever circumstance you find yourself in. Ignore whether others are more happier than you. For you, right now, you can have a walk with Jesus no matter your circumstance. That’s the pastoral advice from the Apostle.

    “Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. 18 Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. 19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts. 20 Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. 21 Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. 22 For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. 24 Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.” (1 Corinthians 7 v 17-24)

    So embrace your current situation, the season you are in, who you are. Just stay as you are. God can use you right now as you are. Stop trying to change to prove or earn favour. It’s just tiring.

    Of course Paul isn’t saying remain in a sinful profession or continue to live sinful lives. We are called out from such. Neither are we being forbidden from changing our status whether married or single. This is about motive.

    If you’re waiting for something perfect to come along to begin to live out your faith and work for God then you will be waiting a long time.

    Afterall transformation happens not because you have changed your external circumstances but by allowing God to work through them.

    One more important thing to ponder on is verse 23. In a culture where everyone was used to seeing men and women in the market place with price tags around their necks, Paul says ‘do not become slaves of human beings’. This command is pertinent to us not because of the threat of literally being a slave but because of the various potential masters that overshadow our lives:-

    • The opinion and expectation of others.
    • Cultural pressures and societal norms.
    • Religious legalism and human traditions.
    • Unhealthy relationships.
    • Material possessions and the pursuit of them.
    • The approval of others.

    Just stay as you are. That list is nonsense. It is degrading. It is enslaving. You belong to Christ. He bought you for a price. It cost Him. So stay as you are.

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    The human body does matter

    “Everyone does it”

    “It’s not a big deal, it’s just fun”

    “I was just being honest”

    “The ends justify the means”

    “Life’s too short to be nice”

    “This is my life”

    “Gender is who you are and sexuality is who you want”

    How do we live out our Christian walk in a world full of slogans that indicate that everyone can do what they want, morality is not important and there are no rules?

    This is not a new problem. This is what Paul was addressing to the Church in Corinth. His words are relevant today as they were two thousand years ago. Even then his world had slogans they lived by and in this section he addresses them.

    “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies. (1 Corinthians 6 v 12-20)

    The slogans, (v12):-

    • I have the right to do anything – I can have sex with whoever I want. This is still the message today.
    • Food for the stomach – You’re hungry so you eat and therefore you crave sex so you go and get it.

    Paul’s response is this (v12):-

    • The real question isn’t, ‘Can I do this?’ but rather, ‘Does this benefit me and others?’
    • True freedom includes the wisdom to recognize what might control us.
    • The human body does matter.

    It is not a mere shell or even a prison for the soul which some philosophies still declare today. Our bodies matter to God.

    True freedom is found not in doing whatever we want but aligning our lives – both spirit and body – with the purposes of God.

    If we truly believed that our bodies were not our personal property to do whatever we wanted with and God had our spirit but that our bodies were members of Christ’s body on earth, how might our lives look? Especially if we then look through Paul’s list of: “sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers” (v9-10).

    This was Paul’s argument. The human body and what we do with it does matter to God.

    • Our physical bodies will be raised with Christ, v14. Our bodies matter eternally. They will be perfected in a resurrected form. They have spiritual significance. We are members of Christ’s body (v15) so why go to a prostitute to unite with her? Why use Christ’s body to steal and cheat others?
    • Our physical bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and we are meant to glorify God in every aspect of life, v19. If sex is happening within that temple then don’t cheapen it. That was not what it was created for.
    • Our physical bodies do not belong to us, v19. We are not the owners. We are the tenants of our bodies. We don’t do what we want. We don’t sleep with whoever we want.
    • Our physical bodies and our spirits were purchased (with the blood of Jesus). Understanding of all this is given when we come back to the foot of the cross.

    So we see, the human body does matter. We rise today as the living, breathing, deciding, acting, member of Christ’s body in our world today. Let our world see Jesus!

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    Why should discipline occur in Church?

    Most arguments around sinful behaviours are because of specific use of certain texts.

    Yesterday we saw how Paul was directly challenging the Church to put out of fellowship the man who was in an affair with his step-mother. Perhaps like me you would be thinking of backing up the decision of excommunication with a Scriptural verse. For example, Leviticus 18:8 says, “Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonour your father.” But Paul doesn’t do this. Not that it would be wrong to do so but he shows us another way.

    “Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5 v 6-8)

    He doesn’t use the Leviticus text but focuses on Christ and Him being the Passover lamb. On the night of the Passover the people of God ate bread free of yeast (which usually spreads in the bread like a fungus in cheese).

    The lesson was this: be separated/different from the world you live in.

    That’s why this man should be put out of the Church. “You are Christ’s people, you are Passover people, don’t tolerate the yeast.”

    Keeping the festival was to partake in the Passover celebration or maybe the Lord’s Supper and they must make sure the Church is pure, undefiled, otherwise the sin will spread. This is the cultural story that we must pass on to each generation. It is not only about Biblical texts but the story of the Bible itself being lived out in our lives today.

    Be separated/different from the world you live in.

    So discipline this man because his lifestyle is not the standard set by the Passover lamb, that is Christ. Discipline this man because his actions are not compatible with who he actually was, Paul says “as you really are” v7. Discipline this man because this is not about external behaviour. That would be easy to rule. This is about authenticity. It is what is in the heart. Is it ‘malice and wickedness’, v8? For that is what was being shown when our hearts should be revealing ‘sincerity and truth’.

    1. What needs to be addressed in your life and in your Church?
    2. Don’t turn a blind eye to sin.
    3. Our identity is not found anywhere but in Christ.
    4. The heart of the Church/Christian is more important than the externals but the heart will reveal all things eventually so we need to fill our lives with sincerity and truth.
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    How to approach people who are in the wrong, part 2!

    I have come to realise as I’ve got older not everything is what it seems.

    A numerically growing church doesn’t mean all is well backstage.

    A Christian who quotes the Bible doesn’t mean the Bible lives through their life.

    I think of a lady I used to Pastor who passed away many years ago. I can picture her in my mind right now standing in worship with her hands in the air and yet at the same time her head revolving around (not quite 360 degrees) watching everyone else, it was quite amazing to see. Was she worshipping? In one sense we could say she was. Was she being nosy? Again in one sense yes! This wasn’t synergy. This was 2 activities working against each other.

    I see that today in Christians and the Church. I see it in my own life.

    There were things in this Corinthian Church that were not healthy. These Christians were wrong and yet there were aspects that were true and right: they were saved, they were filled with the Spirit and they operated with the gifts that the Spirit brings.

    This letter did not start from verse 10 but verse 1.

    What I mean is Paul didn’t start addressing what was wrong with their lives. He does and he certainly has a good go but he shows us how to get there.

    This has become a very important leadership principle for me recently. Last week I was advising a Pastor caught in the middle of a difficult confrontational matter to firstly talk about Jesus; talk about all that Jesus has done for them; talk about the common ground; talk about the good. For starting with the positive is a good springboard to address the negative. 

    As with the opening verses you would not believe that the following verses were to a Church that was anything but healthy. Paul does this deliberately.

    “I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way – with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge – God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

    So how do we approach people who are in the wrong, part 2!

    1. Point out the good that you see in them.

    Paul reminds them that God has been generous to them. He can see that. He can see the grace that was given and experienced in Jesus. He sees the blessings that Jesus has given them. Jesus has given them everything they need. Paul builds a platform of thankfulness. He is attempting to lift them back on to that stage so that they themselves can see how far they have fallen from it.

    • Point out the growth that you see in them.

    Paul says that the good he sees has come about because they responded to the testimony that he and his team had given them about Jesus. “I see the growth in your life. I see the lessons you have learnt. You were really listening to my advice/to my preaching!” This is a challenge to us preachers to preach for long-term growth not short-term response. It is also an encouragement knowing that even the Apostle’s preaching didn’t bring about a perfect church!

    • Point out the hope for tomorrow.

    Everyone needs a future to live for. Paul is keen to show how God is faithful to them. They have hope because of God and it is found in Jesus. They are kept by Jesus. They have the presence of Jesus. Paul expects them to make it and so should we.

    What a beautiful way to confront?!

    One more thing. Let’s read the whole 9 verses again and let me identify something to you. Again this is Paul about to confront this Church for things that are not consistent with their faith.

    “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: 3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge— 6 God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

    Every sentence contains God, Lord or the name Jesus. There are at least 16 references that are to do with Christ Jesus, God, Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, God our Father, Christ, He, Son and Jesus Christ our Lord. So finally maybe the best way to approach people who are in the wrong if they are Christians is to get their eyes off themselves and others and get them on Him alone who can help to bring about any change that is going to be needed.