Seeing the inconceivable

Truth be told, the church in Corinth had come off the rails a bit. Paul had spent a long time living there during his missionary journeys, and you can hear the disappointment in his tone as he rebukes, warns, challenges and corrects the way the Corinthian Christians are living and worshipping.

The easiest way to walk in a straight line is to keep your eyes firmly fixed on a point in the distance. If your eyes drift from side to side, you will stray from the path very quickly – and this is exactly what the Corinthians had done. Instead of seeing themselves as God’s children, they squabbled about belonging to Paul, Apollos or Peter. Instead of seeing the power of the cross of Christ, they sought ‘wise’ words and clever arguments. Instead of seeing their life as a gift from the Father, they boasted as if they had earned it themselves. And so on...

How easy it sounds to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus... but how easy it is for them to stray off the point.

This series is about seeing the inconceivable, having our eyes opened, our perspective changed so that we see and understand the mysteries of God: unthinkable, unknowable, inconceivable without the power of the Spirit. It is about seeing things as they really are, not as they appear – and then living appropriately in response.

As you prepare to read this week, you might find Psalm 119:18 a helpful verse to pray: ‘Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.’