Hello, good people. Welcome to daily bible

refresh with doctor Brad Miller. We come to you from

voice of god daily dot com.

This is a daily reading of the bible. We take the

bible selected verse for this year for the revised

comma lectionary, wherein year c, the epiphany season,

we offer you a bible study reading that we believe is

refreshed because it is understandable, relatable,

and applicable to your life.

We make it understandable by reading from the from the revised

standard from the revised common lectionary, then we also

read the message translation of the bible, the new testament

reading only. We make it relatable by offering you a

couple of points to ponder, things to think about regarding the scripture.

And applicable, I give you an action step. We have a prayer. We do

all that in less than 10 minutes. Our reading for the day

is from 1st Corinthians 1 3 through

17, reading from the message. May all the

gifts and benefits that come from God, our father, and the master,

Jesus Christ, be yours. Every time I think of you, and

I think of you often, I thank God for your lives of

free and open access to God given by Jesus.

There's no end to what has happened in you. It's

beyond speech, beyond knowledge. The evidence of

Christ has been clearly verified in your lives.

Just think, you don't need a thing. You've got it all. All

God's gifts are right in front of you as you wait

expectantly for our master, Jesus, to arrive on the scene for

the finale. And not only that, but God himself

is right alongside to keep you steady and on

track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus.

God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us

the life of his son and our master, Jesus.

He will never give up on you. Never forget that.

The cross, the irony of God's wisdom.

I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority

of Jesus, our master, I'll put it, as urgently as I can. You must

get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate

of one another, cultivating a life which is

uncommon. I break this up because some

of Chloe's family brought a most disturbing report to my

attention that you're fighting among yourselves.

I'll tell you exactly what I was told. You're all picking sides

going around saying I'm on Paul's side or I'm on Apollo's

or I'm or Peter's my man or I'm in the messiah group.

And I ask you, has the messiah been chopped up in

little pieces so we can each have a relic all our

own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a

single one of you baptized in Paul's name? I

was not involved with any of your baptisms except for Christmas

and Gaius. And on getting this report, I'm sure glad I

wasn't. At least no one could go around saying he was baptized in my

name. Come to think of it, I also baptized Stephane's

family. But as far as I can recall, that's it.

God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself,

but to preach the message of what he has done,

collecting a following for him. And he didn't send me to do it

with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful

action at the center, Christ on the cross, be trivialized

into mere words. What we're talking

about here, my good friends, is about tribalism.

And Paul is speaking to that here in this passage

of scripture. And I want to speak to you about it for a minute because

this passage goes beyond tribalism into

seeking unity in God's love. And

Paul is directly addressing this division

and calling for unity. And this happened in the early church

just as as much as it happens in the church in the

21st century. There's a few points to ponder.

One of them has to be with dismantling

tribalism. Paul's criticism

of factions within the church of different leaders speaks powerfully

to our modern religious divisions.

Progressive Christianity recognizes that denomination, own theological, and

political tribalism often mask power

struggles that detract from a work of justice and

healing. And true unity doesn't require

uniformity, but rather mutual respect

and a common purpose. Another

point is collective grace.

This passage of scripture emphasizes that spiritual gifts aren't

personal possessions, but communal resources.

It says you don't need a thing, you've got it all, which suggests

an abundance that comes through sharing rather than individual accumulation.

And this challenges both religious consumerism

and spiritual individualism, which was prevalent

in the 1st century church and indeed is

prevalent in our contemporary faith communities.

One more point is the decolonizing of leadership.

Paul's rejection of baptizing in his name, Paul's name,

and collecting personal followers for Paul, not Jesus, challenges

a hierarchical religious leadership. This invited us invites

us to examine how religious authority

can either perpetuate or dismantle systems

of power and privilege. True spiritual leadership

empowers rather than dominates.

Here's your action step. I wanna invite you to think about creating a

interfaith justice circle. That is reach out to people who are a

little different than you, from different faith traditions or

denominations or have

some differences about their outlook on things, but share a

common commitment to social justice.

And I just invite you to meet some other people, meet virtually or in person,

identify the common ground that you have and plan something you

can do together, some concrete action or community healing.

Focus on what unites your values rather than

theological differences. We're gonna have a prayer in

just a moment. Do wanna remind remind you that we have a great resource for

you that's gonna help you with your individual Bible study.

It's called the ABC 123 Bible study

guide. And indeed, it makes Bible study as straight and

direct and straightforward as ABC 123. You can find

it at our website voice of god daily

dot com. That's where you have all the catalog of all of

our daily bible reef 4 fresh episodes, over 700

and transcripts of those episodes. Hope

you'll take advantage of it. Let's pray.

Divine God, the source of unity, help us to move beyond the tribal boundaries

that we often have set for ourselves and separate ourselves from each

other, and free us from the need to be right at the expense of

being loving. Guide us in using our gifts not for personal

gain, but for collective liberation and healing.

When we're attempted to create new hierarchies, remind us of

your leveling love. May we find strength in

our device in our diversity, wisdom in our

differences, and courage to work together

for the healing of our world. Transform our divisions

into opportunities for deeper understanding

and shared action. Amen.

Well, indeed, it's been a pleasure to be with you here on Daily Bible

Refresh. Always is. I love coming to you first thing in the morning. We

usually publish this before 6 AM every single

day. You can find us at voice of god

daily.com, and invite your friends to join

us. I'll see you tomorrow morning. Until that time, remember that

god's loyal love doesn't run out. His

merciful love hasn't dried up. It's

created new every morning.