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I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children… I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

We might think that as Christians we don’t follow man… that’s true and not true at the same time. We do follow men and women who follow after Jesus. If you are in a position to influence people, look at what Paul did. He calls people to task, but is careful that they know he’s not just coming down on them to be negate, it’s for a reason. His remedy to their problems is to follow his example. Leaders, that means we have to be walking the walk, not just talking the talk. We follow Jesus, as well as those good examples who go before us, a long chain of followers of our Lord all the way back to Christ himself. Press on, speak up, follow Jesus!

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.

The “new atheists” are incredibly arrogant. Don’t get me wrong, some Christians are too, but for the Believer, the proper attitude is humility and a reliance on “thus saith the Lord” not “thus saith myself.” I’ve talked with so many people who believe they have God (or the idea there is no God) so concrete… that’s not very humble. Christians, however, don’t think they’ve got it all figured out, we just have access to revealed truth, revealed in God’s word. That may seem foolish to some, but so it goes. We need to be careful where the Bible is not clear, we need to be less dogmatic. Where something is “logical” and yet not expressly stated in the Bible, we need to back-off on making that a boundary line of “true belief.” Our clever systems and nice and neat depictions of God in our very own boxes is often times very different than the One True God revealed in Holy Scripture. Real wisdom is humility in the face of revelation.

my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

It’s important to be sure we clearly and effectively share the gospel with people, but we don’t have to make the message “catchy.” It is easy to think that the receptiveness of someone to the good news depends on the quality of our presentation. Though, I do believe a poor and disorganized communication of the gospel doesn’t help the cause, it is by the Spirit the truth of Jesus Christ is truly imparted. We don’t have to be cute or overly creative, it is not up to us to make God’s Word more compelling… we just need to do our best to be clear and to present Him well. God is the one who does it.

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.

One of Paul’s major encouragements, even pleadings, for the church was that they remain unified. What brings unity is having a common purpose, a goal you all agree on. For the church, it is the mission of the gospel. We need to agree on what is important and let everything else go. We have all seen so many people divide, debate, and deteriorate over issues that really don’t matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. Jesus is what matters, the message of His death for our sins, His resurrection for our hope, that’s the main thing. How can we work together to get that word out… everything else is peanuts.

And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

“Do I need to be ‘baptized’ again?” a common question Pastors are familiar with. My answer… “it depends.” I’d say that you really only need to be baptized one time. If it’s genuine, once is enough. However, if you didn’t understand it the first time, just like those believers in Ephesus didn’t, then the first time it wasn’t a genuine “baptism” you just got wet. Perhaps you were an infant or a young child and didn’t truly understand the gospel, if that’s the case, it may have been a very meaningful ritual for your family, but baptism is something believers do. If you came to faith in Jesus AFTER you were ‘baptized’ then you do need to (genuinely) be baptized as a Christian.