Saturday, April 3, 2010

Enriched in Christ

1 Corinth 1: 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way—in all your speaking and in all your knowledge— 6 because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 

Before life in Christ, the quality of life is based on survival and societal harmony. We live in a world where every man does that which is right in his own eyes.  The values of man are based on human gratification. There are many who seek meaning in life by obtaining power, prestige, and riches. And there are those who find life’s meaning by doing good things to make the world a more peaceful coexistence. Improving or enhancing the quality of life is not achieved by any efforts that man is able to accomplish, enrichment of life is found only through life in Christ. The former state of our life before Christ is one of depravity and hopelessness. Paul wrote to the Romans and said, “but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do”.  All our works are but filthy rags and come short compared to the value that is given to us through Christ. 
How is life made better in Christ? The scripture indicates that every aspect of our life is enhanced when Christ becomes part of our life. It is because of His grace that we can now look at life through different eyes. Before the enrichment of Christ, we lived our life to please ourselves. That is not to say that we still did not do “good works”, but life to the most part is centered around us. The transformation that Christ performs in our life is not done in one day, but daily he adds to our life enrichments that make us more into the image of Him. One of the things that Paul notices about the Corinthians was their speech was different. Words have meanings, and reflect what is in the heart of man. Jesus said, “From out of the heart a man speaks”.  Before I became a Christian, I remember using words that were laced with foul language and cutting remarks. My brother and I would write letters to each other that were filled with hurting and slanderous words. It was not until the grace of Christ reached my brother that I received a letter that was respectable. Christ had enriched his life in the way he now communicated.  It is always good to think before you speak. Are my words kind, helpful, true, and edifying? Are they words that you think Christ would use? By no means am I saying that we should be in bondage to this thought process, but the grace of God in our heart will often show us that the words we are about to speak do not conform to the image of Christ. 
We all have a testimony, a witness that will reflect the kind of life we live. Let our testimony speak of the enrichments of the grace of God that was given to us when we accepted Christ into our hearts. He wants to make us a lighthouse and a witness of His grace to a world that also needs to be enriched.

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