Family is Messy

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 1 Corinthians 5:1

This is not your typical passage for an inspirational devotional. It doesn't show up in a lot of sermons either. But it's in the bible on purpose.

One of the reasons it's there is to remind us that family is messy. Family was messy in the time of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar (as we saw Sunday in Gen 21), and it was messy a thousand years later when Paul wrote to his friends in Corinth. And family is still messy. So if you are looking at your Thanksgiving week with some concern about complicated relationships and situations because of family connecting over the holidays, you are in good company!

God has a lot of practice dealing with messy families. Yours is not outside God's care and concern. 

Paul presses on in 1 Corinthians 5 to shift the focus to how Jesus died to redeem us and our families: "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed" (1 Cor 5:7). Jesus has come, Jesus has died, and Jesus has risen - which means that he is indeed the Lord of all and that we can take him at his promise to be with us right where we are. 

How do these truths of scripture speak to you about the complicated relationships and situations you'll be facing this week?