January 31 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 15:1-11:

¹Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
²By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
³For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
⁴And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
⁵And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
⁶After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
⁷After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
⁸And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
⁹For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
¹¹Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

Devotional

Paul did not invent the message that he delivered to the Corinthians - the message on which their salvation depended. He tells us that he delivered to them that which he also received. And all that he preached to them was according to the Old Testament Scriptures. Likewise, the original apostles and the entire early church did not fabricate the Gospel that was transforming the world. What they taught had been received and was according to the Scriptures.

Unregenerate men think themselves wise when they engage in bizarre speculations. They pride themselves on "systems" of unbelief, which they think they originated. But those who are truly wise will look to the only source of truth, the living and true God. Given spiritual discernment by the Holy Spirit, they will seek to receive, through God's' revelation, truth known to God from eternity. They will seek to "think His thoughts after Him."

Today, may we all flee from the chaos of man's imaginings and receive the eternal truth of God. May we study that truth, confess it, teach it, and be sanctified through it. We want none of the "originality" of death, for God in His grace has originated new life in us, and we receive more, use and declare more, and profit more by His unchanging word of life.

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)