Wednesday after the Tenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on August 7, 2024 by under
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:11-17 (NKJV)
3:11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
Devotion
The Old Testament temple was no longer necessary after our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified and risen. He has established His temple in the one holy Christian and Apostolic Church. We don’t have to go to one place or one city. However, we do have to hear and observe His Word if we are to abide where His faithful Church is established! His Church is found where faithful people are gathered around His Word, clinging to the wisdom of the Law and the forgiveness of the Gospel. It is found where they actually teach, confess, and practice according to that holy Word.
God works whenever and wherever He chooses, but His forgiveness and true righteousness are found in the faithful preaching and administration of the Sacraments in His Church. He works through other institutions to provide earthly blessings and spiritual warnings, but these do not provide salvation. Earthly things complete their purpose and time runs out on the warnings, but the sure foundation of Jesus Christ is where we find life and salvation.
He calls His faithful people to observe all He commands and live according to His truth. If we defile ourselves with dishonesty and disobedience, then we fail as members of His holy Church. His discipline and His correction are good, because they call us to always repent and return to the foundation of Christ so that He alone may be glorified as the source of grace and mercy for those who believe.
Collect: O God, Who declarest Thine Almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of Thy grace, that we, running the way of Thy commandments, may obtain Thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of Thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
