1 Chron. 1-3
Boy, the genealogies are tough to read! So many names!! But they must be important, because the Bible includes them multiple times. I know that being able to follow the line from Adam to Jesus is important, but it must be more than that, because the genealogies cover much more than simply that line. Still, over time, you do start to see some interesting tidbits and connections in all of it. For instance Ham, the son Noah cursed after the flood, being the father of the Canaanites and Shem, his blessed brother, being the father of the Israelites.
There are several more like this – some I have mentioned before. But one I noticed this morning is that Jesus line came through King Jeconiah, whom Chronicles notes as “the captive” (1 Chron 3:17). Maybe not important so much, but just interesting to me. Also in this line between Jeconiah and Jesus is Zerubbabel, who rebuilt the temple after the Babylonian captivity. Perhaps there is some intentional connection in this to Jesus, who raised up the temple of his body (see John 2) in order to save us all from captivity.
1 Cor. 6
Paul talks a lot about unity in the Church. Here he makes it clear that, as believers, we should be able to work out our differences with fellow believers without the need to take them before unbelievers in court. With God’s Spirit guiding us, we should be able to determine right from wrong. But this is more than that. If we are truly living in that Spirit, we should also be willing and able to humble ourselves enough to restore peace between us. And if it comes down to it, “Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?” (1 Cor 6:7b).
Granted, as believers, we shouldn’t be wronging and defrauding others in the first place. But if we have been wronged, let’s not add wrong to wrong. If we stand righteous before God, we will inherit His Kingdom. What does it matter if we are wronged here and now? It is sad to me that we, as Christians, do not do a better job of embracing these truths. Pride is a powerful thing and we fight the need to be right and to get what we believe we deserve. As a result, we run roughshod over the relationships involved and disrupt our fellowship in and with Christ. Nothing on earth should be worth that!