To Be Seen and Heard #10

Thursday, March 27, 2025

“But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,…” (Matthew 23:5 KJV).

Should we be in attendance at the “Desperate-for-Attention-and-Relevance Conference?”

Romans chapter 12 encourages proper thinking, the renewed mind. We should reason about ourselves as God the Holy Spirit would have us think: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (verses 1-5).

As is readily apparent from the Epistles of 1 and 2 Corinthians, aberrations (a multitude of sins and scandals) plagued the church of Corinth. Why? These saints had departed from the basic standard of grace living—the Epistle of Romans! In other words, they were not presenting their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is their reasonable service. They have been conformed to this world, and they have not been transformed by the renewing of their mind. Being man-oriented, these Corinthians depend on human wisdom because they have spurned God’s wisdom.

Romans instructs believers “not to think of [themselves] more highly than [they] ought to think; but to think soberly….” Also, it admonishes them to think about spiritual gifts in a mature, correct way (see Romans 12:6-8). One of the several disgraces in the Corinthian church, as seen in 1 Corinthians chapters 12–14, involved the abuse of spiritual gifts. Yes, like those hypocrites in Judaism of today’s Scripture, the Corinthian Christians wanted to be seen and heard….