Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Today's verse is one that's very powerful to each and every one of us. Think about the words you just read. They hold a lot of power.
The reason they hold power is understanding what's happening, because that verse starts with the word "but," which means there's something that happened before. There's a context to that verse. Basically, the church at Corinth had a lot of things going on. They wrote to Paul because they were having an argument about food, of all things.
They're arguing. They reach out to Paul, and he had this to say: "The person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes."
Missing the Focus
They were concerned with who's right and who's wrong, but they were focused on the wrong thing. If we're thinking about this, we can easily get caught into arguments.
I'll be quite frank and honest, there's a lot of people who can delve into different things that you see on social media and online, and those things all just become distractions from what really matters most and who really matters most.
While we're busy talking about this and that and what's happening and engaging in frivolous debates, Paul is reminding us that love is the root of this verse. What if your focus was on truly loving God? That's powerful.
If our eyes are on Him and His love and loving Him, He makes a powerful promise back to us all. That promise is covenant language. He says, "You will be known by God." That covenant is a promise.
Being Known by God
Do you know how good that feels to be known by God? The precursor to that is, I just have to love Him. When you think about even your own community, even your own family, and sometimes things can get a little heated, you know why? Because we're human. Our churches are not too dissimilar to the church at Corinth. We can easily have frivolous debates and fight over things.
If we focus on loving God, then God made a promise to us that He's going to know us, and that knowing is the greatest gift because it empowers us to know that God—the literal foundation, the Rock of ages—says, I see you. I see what you're going through.
Don't Let Distractions Deter You
Don't let those things deter you or distract you, or bring you down a different path that you don't want to go on. It's about having a spiritual maturity to understand who God is so that He knows who you are.
If you think about this, what Paul was teaching them is that we're not measuring maturity the way you guys are measuring—who's right and who's wrong with this information in this great debate. Real spiritual maturity is centered upon loving God, the one who gave you life, the one who gives you hope in the future, the one who has beautiful, great plans for you.
Focus on loving Him and loving the others around you. Then you get the privilege of knowing that God in heaven knows you. What a powerful gift that is.
