Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Attitude”
Our Bible verse for today: “Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?” 1 Corinthians 6:7 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Sometimes it really doesn’t matter.”
Recently I heard some women good-naturedly talking about one of their husbands having a “man cold”. He had a touch of the flu and was pretty miserable. The general consensus among the women was that a man having a cold is the rough equivalent of a woman giving birth – or at least that’s how the man acts when he’s sick.
That’s funny, and probably true to some extent. Some pain and discomfort is fairly minor compared to other pain and discomfort and therefore we shouldn’t treat it as a more serious matter than it really is.
The other day I read a statement that proclaimed, “Not all pain matters”. In one respect the author meant that minor bumps, bruises, and discomforts need to be shrugged off. But in another respect he meant it in the context of offenses. When people commit offenses against us, most of the time the offenses do have the potential to cause some level of pain. But even then, most of the offenses are really just annoyances and fall into the same category as the “man cold” and should therefore be treated the same way.
This is what Paul was writing about in 1 Corinthians 6:7. In context, the passage was about believers bringing lawsuits against one another in civil court proceedings. Paul’s point was that the Body of Christ ought to be able to police itself. We should be able to come together as a group of spiritually mature believers and help each other to iron out the differences between us, rather than slugging it out in civil court in front of the non-Christian world.
And, if for some reason you and the one you are in conflict with are not able to resolve the issue within the church setting, then Paul’s advice is to just suck it up and allow yourself to have been wronged, rather than making a big deal out of it by taking another believer to a civilian court. (There could be special exceptions to this but that is a general Biblical principle).
In a larger context this same principle applies to all of life in general. Most offenses really are not that big a deal and don’t warrant being made into a big deal. Not all pain matters. Most of those things are just annoyances not real problems, and therefore they should be shrugged off rather than pursed. Why not just allow yourself to have been wronged and turn your attention instead to things that really do matter?
A spiritually mature person learns to distinguish between little deals and big deals and is content to keep the little deals little. Most of the things we find “offensive” don’t really matter much at all.
So don’t make something that is essentially the equivalent of a “man cold” seem like childbirth. Shrug it off and focus instead on the things that really do matter.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 