COVERING OUR FATHERS

”So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.“ 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 NLT1 Corinthians 3:21-23 NLTSo don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you— whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God

Every man and woman called by God to do the work of ministry must never be held on such a high pedestal or exalted beyond reason that they could derail you, the believer, from the ultimate privilege of having our Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

We honor these men, we submit and learn from their spiritual wealth, but only to the end of being fully furnished in matters ethical and divine that your own discernment is honed and reliable. In 2 Corinthians 4:7,2 Corinthians 4:7Cast Down but Unconquered 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.Paul reminds us that the treasure we possess by virtue of having received Christ is still in earthen vessels, frail vessels that are susceptible to sin and the failures known to mankind.

In our theme scripture, he caps his counsel with a simple exhortation: “do not boast about following a particular human leader” because he foresaw that some individuals might end up exalting a man beyond the message he preaches and Who it is about.

He also lays this instruction that we may be not just takers from those whose altars feed us, but hedges of prayer surrounding them, brethren that restore them and not ostracize them when they err, and mostly show them love and double honor that the favor of the Lord may continue to rest upon them.

Child of God, always remember to take a moment and look back to every man that has planted and watered a seed in you. Thank the most High for giving the growth which you benefit from, and thank Him that He did not hide your teachers (Isaiah 30:20Isaiah 30:20And though the Lord gives you The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, But your eyes shall see your teachers.) — in the end all that is Christ is yours for in Him you live, move and have your being (Acts 17:28)Acts 17:2828 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’. Hallelujah!

Prayer: Father, we thank you for this wisdom. We honor those you have entrusted the responsibility to steward our souls into wisdom yet remain prudent not to glory in man. Give us the grace to know how to intercede, and minister unto them even as they remain available to be spent for the Gospel’s sake, in Jesus name. Amen!

CI.