NT Come Follow Me 35
Introduction:
“Be Perfectly Joined
Together”
Acts 18:8 Crispus, his household and many others believed the gospel Paul taught and were baptized.
1 Corinthians 1:10–11, 20 Just like today, the early saints dealt with issues of pride and division.
That is the reason for Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (1
Corinthians).
He needed to take care of business, and help bring them into the right way
again, and had to hold off on teaching them higher spiritual things.
1 Corinthians 3:1–3 Aren’t we also babes, needing milk? If we want to receive more as a people, we need to learn to get along better with each other.
How ready are you to receive truth? Are you working towards
unity with God, with your family, with the saints, and with all others?
Personal Study: The members of Christ’s Church strive to be
united.
We don’t need to know
all about the lack of unity among the saints in Corinth, we just need to look
at our own lives. Is there a relationship that you have which could benefit
from more unity? (What are YOU waiting for?)
1 Corinthians 1:10–17 How can it help us to be unified if we are all looking to Jesus as the Author and Finisher of our faith? Our responsibility is to invite people to come unto Jesus and be perfected in Him.
Mosiah 18:21 No contention; hearts knit together in love.
4 Nephi 1:15–17 No contention, because the love of God dwelt in everyone’s hearts.
Doctrine and Covenants 38:23–27 Esteem your brother as yourself; be one, or you are not His.
D&C 105:1–5 Share what you have with the needy. Give others the chance to be equal in things that they need to progress.
Unity “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21).
We can be made one
through Jesus Christ:
“When we live the gospel, receiving the saving ordinances and keeping our
covenants, our natures are changed. The Savior’s Atonement sanctifies us, and
we can live in unity, enjoying peace in this life and preparing to dwell with
the Father and His Son forever.”
Personal Study: To
accomplish God’s work, I need the wisdom of God. (or wisdom from God?)
2 Nephi 9:29 It’s good to learn, as long as we are hearkening unto God’s word and counsel.
Doctrine and Covenants 88:118 See words of wisdom out of the best book, by study and by faith. Keep the Lord’s Spirit with you in your studies.
1 Corinthians 1:17–25 There must be humility in our learning, and the standard by which we should judge is the Spirit. We need to be armored with the word of God, so that we have the discernment we need. It is not a foolish doctrine that Christ was crucified and has risen again. Faith in Him is salvation.
1 Corinthians 2:3 As we are vessels to carry the Lord’s message by the Spirit, our own weakness makes the message even stronger.
1 Corinthians 2:1–5 Like Paul, we should be striving to trust in the power of God more than in the “wisdom” of men.
Doctrine and Covenants 1:17–28 The gospel is restored again. The weak of the earth will proclaim the gospel to kings and rulers.
Vs 28 And inasmuch as they were humble they might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time.
Personal Study: I need the Holy Ghost in order to
understand the things of God.
1 Corinthians 2:9–16
The things of God are spiritual, and if we want to gain an understanding of
them, we need to be humble and be taught by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Vs 11: even so the things of
God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
What do you
personally need to do to understand the things of God (spiritual things) more
fully?
Personal Study: My body is sacred.
1 Corinthians 6:13–20 Our bodies are temples. Husbands and wives are to be joined together as one. Sex outside of marriage ordained of God is a sin and will destroy us. Sex is not just for personal pleasure, but a way of expression of love to the one we have covenanted with and way to bring trust and joy.
Love and Marriage Sister Wendy Nelson: Marital intimacy is endorsed and blessed by the Lord.
What blessings come from intimacy found within the marriage
covenant of husband and wife? What sorrows come, from the improper use of
sexual desire as a means of personal gratification and lust?
Personal Study: Did Paul teach that it is better to be
unmarried than married?
Paul was teaching
other leaders and traveling teachers of the gospel. It is better for
missionaries not to be married for sure!
Joseph Smith Translation, 1 Corinthians 7:29–33 JST
supports what I thought, and that may be where I learned it to begin with. But
often in the scriptures, we need to discern whom is being spoken to, and/or if
it’s an eternal principle or applicable to one audience.
“The Lord has taught through His servants,
including Paul, that marriage is part of His eternal plan and necessary for
exaltation.”
1 Corinthians 11:11 Nevertheless
neither is the man without the woman, neither
the woman without the man, in the Lord.
Doctrine and Covenants 131:1–4 Those who
want to attain to the highest level in the Celestial Kingdom, or to eternal
life, through the grace of our Father and His Son, need to be married and
receive their temple covenants.
Family Study: Building
Unity
I gave ChatGPT a question for this section: What are some insights found in these verses, 1 Corinthians 1:10–17; 3:1–11, that can help me build more unity in my family, at work, and in my church congregation? (Refer to Blog)
Family Study: Milk Before
Meat
1 Corinthians 3:1–2 We grow in the gospel line upon line, according to what we are willing to receive.
“Be patient with yourself. Paul taught that milk comes before meat when we are learning the gospel. If you find that some doctrines are difficult to understand now, be patient. Trust that answers will come as you have faith and diligently study.”
Family Study: Missionaries
Plant Seed
1 Corinthians 3:4–9 All are needed in the gathering of Israel: the planters, those that water, the growers. We are all working for the same great harvest.
Family Study: Our
Bodies are Temples
“Paul compared our
bodies to the sacredness of the temple.”
Why are temples
sacred? How are our bodies like temples?
special edition about sexuality.
https://site.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/1-cor/1?lang=eng
True Saints are perfectly united in the same mind
and in the same judgment—Preach the gospel and save souls—The gospel is
preached by the weak and the simple.
Vs 9-10 We have been called of God to have fellowship with one another in
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
We are not to be divided or to esteem any leader higher than
another. Jesus is our only Lord and we are to be united under His name only.
Vs 17 We
shouldn't take pride or compare who is doing less or more as far as baptizing.
Jesus is the one who finishes that ordinance with baptizing us with the Holy
Ghost.
We have been called to preach the gospel and invited others to
come unto Him.
https://site.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/1-cor/2?lang=eng
The gospel is preached by the power of the
Spirit—The Spirit reveals all things to the Saints—The unrepentant natural man
cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God.
Vs 5 We are lost without God. His plan is perfect
and our faith should be in His power and in His Son.
Vs 7-13 Those things which
are a mistery to the world are given to us by the power of the Holy Ghost, which
teaches those who believe Spirit to spirit.
Vs 14 The naural man doesn't receive the things of God. He thinks it's all
foolishness. His spirit is not attuned to the things of the Spirit.
https://site.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/1-cor/3?lang=eng
Milk comes before meat in the Church—Men’s works
will be tried by fire—The Saints are the temple of God, and if they are
faithful, they will inherit all things.
Vs 6-9 We are all laborers working towards the same
goal, salvation for all through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Vs 10-11 We all must build upon the foundation of Jesus
Christ. It is His gospel, His Church, and salvation is through Him.
Vs 14-15 look at this again.
Vs 16-17 Our bodies are
temples in which the Holy Spirit may dwell, if we are faithful to Jesus Christ
and keep the commandments of God (especially in relation to our bodies and the
bodies of others).
https://site.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/1-cor/4?lang=eng
Christ’s ministers must be faithful—The Apostles
suffer, minister, and keep the faith—The kingdom of God is not in word but in
power.
I did an extensive
chat with Chat GPT for this section.
https://site.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/1-cor/5?lang=eng
The Church cannot fellowship sinners—Christ, our
passover, was sacrificed for us.
Vs 6-8 Don't be proud of wickedness, but of Him that can help us overcome
wickedness. Hold to that which is righteousness. a little leaven can raise not
just you, but those around you.
WIthin yourself, purge out the old leaven that is holding your
down and making you flat. Be a three-diminsional follower of Jesus Christ, the
passover. He was sent to raise us all.
Keep the feast with unleavened bread, with faith in Jesus our
passover, in sincerity and truth.
https://site.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/1-cor/6?lang=eng
Church members should not fight one another in
the courts—The unrighteous will not be saved—True Saints are the temple of the
Holy Ghost.
Vs 7-8 As brothers and sisters, we should work out our problems, and we
should forgive tresspasses. We also should not intentionally do wrong to
anyone, to provoke them to anger for the injustice we do.
Vs 9 The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Vs 9-11 The sins of that time and this time will keep
us from the kingdom of God, unless we repent and are baptized and justified in
the name of Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.
Vs 13-14 If we want to have the Spirit with us, we need to keep our bodies from
fornication and other sins. God raised up Jesus and He will also raise us up.
Keep yourself fit for the Lord.
Vs 15-20 We
have been bought by Jesus Christ, and as members of His church have become part
of His body. So we are set apart to be righteous and to refrain from all kinds
of evil. Fornication and adultery, any sexual activity outside of marriage in
the Lord's way, is an offense to God and to the Spirit that dwells with us. We
should shun becoming one with sin.
https://site.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/nt/1-cor/7?lang=eng
Paul answers special questions about marriage
among those called on missions—Paul praises self-discipline.
Vs 1-4 Marriage is ordained of God. But sexual purity
is also important in marriage. The husband should sexually please his wife and
the wife her husband. They should not do this for their own bodies (or anyone
elses).
Vs 5 If you agree for a
time to refrain, so that you can work on strengthening your spirituality, renew
your physical intimacy soon.
Vs 14-16 Family ties are important. We should be patient and loving, even
if someone is not on the same spiritual plane as we are.
Agency is important. But sometimes a good patient example allows
for the Spirit to teach and guide the unbelieving spouse.
Vs 19 Our past lives do not have
a bearing on our spiritual standing, when we repent and enter Christ's church.
But keeping the commandments of God from then on is what is important.
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