In my youth, I moved to a rural town to work for a few months. The first man that my boss and I were to meet was a local dignitary. His distractedness during our brief meeting felt less than welcoming. Apparently, his mind was on an accusation made about him by one of the other locals. The next man we met was the site foreman. He was so surly that he could hardly bring himself to thank us for pushing his car out of the mud. And sadly, the guy who ran the fast-food shop was of similar calibre. The list goes on, but I would be misrepresenting the many good citizens that I later met if I suggested that they were all as unwelcoming, surly or mean as these men—they were good souls. I was a New Kid in Town who was merely seeing some typical Monday-Morning-Blues through out-of-town eyes. The residents would have taken everything in their stride.
If 2000 years ago you had moved to the Corinth Church of Christ just before Paul’s letter had been delivered, what surprises would have greeted you on your arrival? Obviously, as a “New Kid in Town” you probably would have had to be told about the divisiveness, and the man sleeping with his father’s wife, but the drunkenness at the Lord’s Table, and the chaos in worship, would have been on open display. Undoubtedly, your out-of-town eyes would have suddenly had Sunday-Morning-Blues!
However, the Corinthian church would have been your brethren—bought and paid for by the same Blood of Christ. That same love that drew your brokenness to the cross would have been the same love that drew their brokenness to the cross, too.
Thus, every Christian (then and now) shares the same “Physician of the Soul.”
“Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
John Staiger
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