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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
September 8
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Today's Pathway:
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Yesterday we saw that Paul considered himself to be unworthy of the honor of being called to the office of an apostle of Jesus Christ. Today we see that he did not allow God's grace to be given to him "in vain". The end result of God's grace in his life was not emptiness or purposelessness. Paul was appreciative of what God had given to him, and thus he took advantage of God's gift of grace and worked hard to please His Savior. He writes that he labored more abundantly. The word "labor" does not simply mean "to work". The root idea of the word is "to be fatigued". In other words, he labored to the point of exhaustion. He did this more abundantly than others did, because he understood what the Lord had done for him.
Jesus addressed this issue in Luke 7:36-47. He was in the home of Simon the Pharisee, and a woman came in and washed His feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, and anointed them with ointment. Simon thought to himself that if Jesus was a prophet He should know that this woman was a sinner, and thus stop her. Jesus then asked him the following question in verses 41-43:
"There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged."
In verse 47 Jesus concludes,
"Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."
Paul had been forgiven much. Because of this, he loved the Lord much, and he worked tirelessly to serve Him.
However, at the end of verse 10, Paul adds that, in spite of all the labor that he had done for the Lord, he was undeserving of any praise or glory. Anything that he had accomplished as an apostle was because of the grace of God enabling him to carry out the work. When teaching about the vine and the branches, Jesus said,
"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).
The fruit may be found on the branches, but without being connected to the vine the branch would produce nothing. Paul may have seen much fruit produced through his ministry, but had it not been for the grace of God flowing into his "branch", he would not have been able to accomplish anything. Albert Barnes pictures Paul putting it this way,
"I do not attribute it to myself. I would not boast of it. The fact is plain and undeniable, that I have so laboured. But I would not attribute it to myself. I would not be proud or vain. I would remember my former state; would remember that I was a persecutor; would remember that all my disposition to labour, and all my ability, and all my success, are to be traced to the mere favour and mercy of God."
In verse 11 Paul writes that it doesn't matter whether it was he or someone else who preached the Gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. All those who preach the truth do so by the grace of God, and they all preach the same message. That message includes the bodily resurrection of the Lord which must be believed in order to be saved. In spite of all their problems, the Corinthians had believed this message, and Paul is going to base the remainder of this chapter on that belief.
Two final questions: How much do we appreciate the grace of God that saved us? Are we allowing His grace to enable us to serve Him?
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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