Tues., 2/17/15 Devotion (1 Cor. 4:17c)

Today's encouragement comes from the few words of 1 Corinthians 4:17c, which say this:

" . . . As I teach everywhere in every church."

Paul was consistent in his preaching, teaching, and instruction. All the church congregations everywhere—be they in Ephesus, Colosse, Thessalonica, Cor-inth, Philippi, Rome, or elsewhere—received uniform doctrine. This was par-ticularly true of the critically-important article of justification: that sinners are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone.

The individual parishes had peculiar (and unique) challenges, and Paul's let-ters reflect his concern about these things. But still, *every* church in his day, and ours, is to preach and teach certain things: foremost among them being the sufficiency and atonement of Christ.

[Puritan quote of the day: "[God] rewards His subjects in this life. He gives them inward peace and joy; a bunch of grapes by the way; and oft-times rich-es and honor.” —Thomas Watson, in, "A Body of Divinity"]