"Actions speak louder than words"
Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don’t know God at all. (1 Corinthians 15:34 NLT)
The Corinthian church is a difficult church to study. In one sense, we get great comfort in the imperfection of the church because we ourselves are imperfect & in deep need of grace. In another sense, they have deep rooted, complicated issues. Things that have gone on at Corinth are looked down upon by unbelievers (1 Cor. 5:1). The things they do are not even done by pagans.
And Paul comes to this conclusion about some of them in 1Corinthians 15. "For to your shame I say that some of you don’t know God at all." Paul has seen the division, immorality, arrogance, selfishness, & lack of love that typifies the Corinthian church & is questioning if many of them know God. And this is a fair question.
Our behavior is always an indication of belief. What's on the inside makes its way to the outside. Whatever kind of tree you have, it bears the corresponding fruit. The Corinthian church was bearing fruit of lost people & showed very little fruit of knowing Jesus. And so Paul made this clear to them, he was not sure if some of them were even believers.
We should examine our lives as well. Not examine our confession but our lives. Where are our lives? What is the fruit we are bearing? What do our actions say about where we are with Jesus?
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