Once your heart is cut and healed by the message of the cross, you begin to see it everywhere! Please take a moment and read our passage for today and see if you spot an illustration of the gospel in it:
“I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. 15 Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17 For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church”
1 Corinthians 4:14-17 NIV
Question 1. Did you see a picture of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 4:14-17? Please share.
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In 1 Corinthians 4:14-17, Paul does not write to shame the Corinthians for their behavior but to warn them as his dear children. He is a loving father, not an abusive one. Shaming someone never produces a heart change in them. However, presenting the gospel, which speaks of Jesus taking their sin on Himself and removing their shame from them, encourages love and growth in them.
In verse 17, Paul, as a loving father, sends Timothy to minister to the Corinthians. He calls Timothy "my son whom I love." Paul's language and his giving up the one he loves for the good of others is intentional to remind the Corinthians of the gospel and encourage them to imitate him in this way of living. He wants them to know that he lives what he teaches - the gospel.
Paul's sacrifice of sending Timothy to the Corinthians demonstrates his love for them and illustrates the message of most importance. The loving father sends the son, whom he loves, to them. Paul speaks and acts with such tenderness and love in sending his beloved son to them. The NLT Study Bible summarizes it this way: “As his beloved children, the Corinthians should listen to their father and imitate his example and teachings.”
Paul is purposefully living out the gospel. In this particular situation, he is living out John 3:16-17:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”
John 3:16-17
See the Eternal Father's love for His people? So great is that love that He sends His only beloved Son to die for their sins and rise again to save them and rescue them from condemnation. Paul imitates this fatherly love when he sends Timothy, "my son whom I love," to them.
There is another beautiful illustration of gospel love in the life of Joseph found in Genesis 37:12-28.
In Genesis 37, we see the Father (Jacob) sent his beloved son (Joseph) to check on his other sons because he is interested in their welfare. He sent Joseph from the "Valley of Hebron," which means "Valley of Fellowship." When the son (Joseph) arrives, the brothers reject him, plot to kill him, and sell him into the hands of Gentiles for pieces of silver.
This account should remind us of how the Father, Son, and Spirit were all fellowshipping in heaven together and how they made a covenant in eternity past for the Father to send the Son from this place of fellowship to the earth. The Son's mission was to come, be rejected, sold for pieces of silver, and die for your sins to remove all your guilt and shame, rescue you from Satan's kingdom, and give you eternal life.
Scripture is intentionally replete with gospel illustrations like these to give us faith to believe the gospel, take our stand on it, and continually see it so that we can then imitate it in our own lives. As we do, we grow and mature in the gospel.
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