"Remember Me"

1Cointhians 4:17  

"For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son,

and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance 

of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach 

every where in every church."

    Paul says an amazing thing. In effect he says, "I call upon my children to take after their father." It is so seldom that a father can say that. For the most part it is too often true that a father's hope and prayer is that a son will turn out to be all that he has never succeeded in being. Most of us who teach cannot help saying, not, "Do as I do," but, "Do as I say." But Paul, not with pride, but with complete unselfish-consciousness, can call upon his children in the faith to copy him.

    Then he pays them a delicate compliment. He says that he will send Timothy to remind them of his ways. In effect, he says that all their errors and mistaken ways are due, not to deliberate rebellion, but to the fact that they have forgotten. That is so true of human nature. So often it is not that we rebel against Christ; it is simply that we forget him. So often it is not that we deliberately turn our backs upon him; it is simply that we forget that he is in the scheme of things at all. Most of us need one thing above all; a deliberate effort to live in the conscious realization of the presence of Jesus Christ. It is not only at the sacrament but at every moment of every day that Jesus Christ is saying to us, "Remember Me." 
    There is a love which can ruin a man by shutting its eyes to his faults; and there is a love which can mend a man because it sees him with the clarity of the eyes of Christ. Paul's love was the love which knows that sometimes it has to hurt in order to amend. Jesus said, "By their fruits you shall know them." The world is full of talk about Christianity, but one deed is worth a thousand words. 
Amen!

Reading:(1Cor. 4:16-21)
Ref: (HG SB, DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry