Why Me?

If you remember, last week I mentioned that on occasions the believers tend to fall in the enemy’s trap; on occasions, the believer tends to fall in the trap of self pity, which in almost all instances causes them to deviate from God’s path. This was certainly the case with the prophet Elijah during the time in his life that we explored last week, and it is definitively something that the enemy continues to use to detour God’s people. Now the question that we must ask ourselves is: Why can we so easily be detoured from God’s path? The answer is because in the majority of times, whenever we face difficult situations, we tend to forget who we are. That is to say, whenever we face difficult situations, we first look to resolve the problem by our own strength, and when this does not have the desired result, we then begin to drown in the “why me?” Therefore, to learn how we can stop being deviated from God’s path, today we are going to explore about who we are, and the why me? Let us now turn to the Word of God.

1 Corinthians 1:2-5 - To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: 3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge.

Like I always say, in order to have a better understanding of the message that God has for us today, it will be necessary to conduct a brief history review. Corinth was the most important city in Greece during Paul’s time. Corinth was a very important world commercial place, the culture was much degraded, and their religion was idolatrous. The evil that existed in Corinth was so great that to say “to act as a Corinthian” was synonymous with corruption and prostitution. What was happening is that this immorality and corruption was affecting the church. The immorality and corruption causes serious problems within the church, and it is something that is very evident en 1 Corinthians 1:11 when we read: “My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.” Therefore, as we can see Paul wrote this epistle as a corrective response to the news of the problems and disorder that existed within the church. In other words, this letter was designed to correct the inappropriate attitudes and to promote a spirit of unity between the brethren, their relationships, and their worship. Why do we need to know these things? We need to know these very brief details because through them we learn that although this letter was written in around 56 a.C., the reality is that people have not changed much, and the world finds itself in more or less the same situation. In other words, the majority of people on this earth spend their lifetime seeking pleasures, titles, and the material things, instead of seeking God. The majority of the people of this world are so connected to the evil current that runs through this world, that they have completely disconnected themselves from God. This is certainly the truth for all of those that do not yet know Christ as their King and Savior, that is to say the non-believers; however, unfortunately, there is a large group of people within the body of Christ, that just as back then, they are so involved in the things of this world that the only thing they do is cause division, arguments, and disagreements. Therefore, keeping these brief details in mind, let us no continue with our study for today.

In the verses that we are studying today we find three key words that will help us establish our identity, so that we can prevent from being detoured from God’s path. The first word is: “church”, the second word is: “sanctified” and the third word is: “enriched”. Let us now examine these three words a bit closer to discover the magnificent power that exists in our true identity.

The first word is: “church”. To have a better understanding of the powerful meaning that exists in this word, we will have to make a brief pause here to examine its origin. The word “church” is translated from the Greek word “ekklçsia”, which has a double definition as it can be defined as: “1. reunion or assembly of a group of citizens called out of their homes to a public place”; 2. reunion or assembly of Christians gathered to worship in a center; the body of Christ that is dispersed throughout the earth.” Therefore, using these definitions we find two things that are of the utmost importance.