Denying Self

Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world? [1 Corinthians 3.1-4]

Paul chided the Corinthian believers of still being controlled by their sinful nature. He went on to tell how he knew that their jealousy and quarrelling was proof of their indiscretion.

Here, we see jealousy and quarrelling (results that proved the presence of sin) so we must ask ourselves, "what was the sin?"

Paul said, "...you are still controlled by your sinful nature." And, that was the root cause of the jealousy and quarrelling.

If "I" am controlled by "my" sinful nature, there is not much room there for Jesus and His Spirit. The problem was simple: the Corinthians Paul was scolding were focused on themselves and not on Christ. They were being self-centered instead of Christ-centered. They were following "self" instead of Christ.

Again, I point out that Paul didn't just "guess" this was taking place, but he knew it for fact because jealousy and quarrelling were the glaring symptoms of the sin.

"Self" is a real problem that must be dealt with. I am beginning to realize that there may be no circumstance where "self" should be pandered to. It begins to makes sense to me that denying and dying to "self" should be a daily practice in the life of anyone who truly wishes to be a Christ follower.

Father, I believe You are speaking to me today about how I see and yield to my "self." Help me to get it right - that I would seek Your Kingdom first and that "my" plans would fall far behind that... if not fall away altogether.