Experiencing Christ

We have all we need spiritually. We have the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and the word of God to experience the riches of God. In 1 Cor 1:4-9 this is what Paul was trying to communicate to them. Paul is edifying them in the areas in which they are weak and have fallen short in their experience of living out what God has done for them.

Some of the Corinthians had stopped experiencing who Christ had made them to be. They had allowed sin to interrupt the riches of Christ in their experience. They allowed worldly wisdom, speech and knowledge to be more important than the Holy Spirit power and the mind of Christ (1 Cor 1-2). They couldn't handle the meat of God's word but only milk because of their carnality (1 Cor 3:1-2). They judged Paul who was their father (1 Cor 4:1-5). They allowed fornication to take place in the church (1 Cor 5). We could go on but we won't. Some of them weren't experiencing their position because of sin.

Sin had interrupted their experience of Christ in their daily walk. The problem was not with their position in Christ but was that they allowed their fellowship with him to be hindered. Their problem was not with what God had done for them spiritually but with sin.

This serves as a reminder to me that the reason I become self-centered, prideful, hurtful and promote myself is not because of my position in Christ, the word of God or because of the Holy Spirit, but because of sin in my life.

God's divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). We have great and exceeding precious promises that we might be partakers of the God's divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). We then add to that faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and finally to that we add charity (2 Peter 1:5-7). Peter then says if these things be in us and abound we will never be unbarren or unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Meaning, we have the fruit of knowledge in our experience.

So, Peter is saying a similar thing that Paul says in 1 Corinthians. They are both telling us to experience the richness of our position in Christ and not let sin make us blind and make us forgetful to the fact our sins have been forgiven (2 Peter 1:9). It's a good thing to remember we have been forgiven a multitude of sins and are always going to need God's forgiveness. Remembering that we have been forgiven keeps us humble, thankful and appreciative. As a result, I don't want sin to interrupt my fellowship with Christ.

Let's experience the wonderful Lord Jesus Christ and who He has made us to be as his children.