First Things
First
Preachers of the past that were
greatly used of God knew they had to keep first things first if God was ever to
be seen in His people. There has to be salvation before living for God,
learning and obeying before maturing, purity before power, and dealing with sins of the flesh before
there can be imparted gifts of the Spirit.
First Things
First
In First Corinthians, Paul begins
with the carnality among God’s people and then, later in the book, he gets to
the spiritual. But does this not seem counter to the modern philosophy of
“accentuating the positive” first? That if we emphasize love and the blessings of
God first, all the sinfulness, worldliness and fleshliness in the church will
vanish? If this modern approach is correct, then the Apostle Paul should have
started with the thirteenth chapter of the epistle. But Paul deals with first
things first. He deals with definite sins, following pet preachers, schisms,
immorality, and disorderly conduct at the Lord’s Supper; only then was he ready
to deliver instruction concerning “spiritual gifts,” preaching on love, the
resurrection and even take up a collection!
First Things
First
In the Christian experience, we
cannot move on to greater and deeper things until sin has been faced and dealt
with in our lives. The local body of believers also must put first things
first. We remember Joshua on his face praying, but that was no substitute for
obeying what he knew God had already said and the need to cleanse the camp of
the sinfulness of Achan. Prayer meetings cannot substitute nor compensate for
getting rid of the golden wedge, some silver and an expensive garment. If there
is to be power for victory even at Ai, God’s children must put -
First Things
First
