The Corinthians wrote a letter to Paul asking several questions about daily life as a follower of Christ. Questions about marriage, association with anything pagan, and resurrection, to name a few.
Today, nearly 2,000 years after their questions, we still have the same concerns about our involvement in a culture that doesn't honor God as the creator of all life.Truth is that there are plenty of scenarios that we are faced with that we don't have a clear-cut answer for. That seemingly ambiguous nature of God's will might actually be a big part of our dying to ourselves and learning to think like God (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Jesus explains this in one way in Luke 9:23-26, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."
What is it about "ourselves" that we need to deny? What is it about His ways that we may be ashamed of? Perhaps the temptation to put our desires over those of someone else. Jesus advocated that we be willing to even die for others (John 15:12-14, 1 John 3:7-10, Matthew 22:37-39).
This is at the heart of the matter: What does God expect from us concerning being unified with those who are not like us: ethnically, religiously, or any other way?
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