The Have Nots

Today's Verse:

Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. ~1 Corinthians 15:34 

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Do you ever find yourself lacking in a commodity that you would like to have, but you don’t have it? If you do, you might feel like you are what is called “a have not”. The Apostle Paul referred to a group of people as “have nots”. There is an important essential they need to have but they don’t. This morning, we should be concerned about reaching these people who “have not.” 

We see people who are in darkness. 

“For some have not the knowledge of God:” The have not’s refer to every sinner. Everyone is born a sinner. Our sin nature has placed us in spiritual darkness. “For ye were sometimes darkness,” (Ephesian 5:8a). Because we are in darkness, we tend to desire darkness over light. “Men loved darkness rather than light,” (John 3:19b). Darkness is blinding. A blind person lives in complete darkness. Satan has blinded the minds of every sinner so that spiritually they are ignorant of the things of God. Satan’s goal is to keep the sinner in darkness so that he cannot see the light of the gospel. “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them,” (2 Corinthians 4:4). 

We see a people who are doomed. 

“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” A “have not” is a sinner whose sin has been judged. He is under the sentence of condemnation. This means a sinner is found guilty of breaking God’s laws and will be punished for all of eternity in a terrible place called hell. Two of the descriptions of the doom of Hell are that it is a place of outer darkness, Matthew 8:12, and the blackness of darkness forever, Jude 1:13. This doom is eternal separation from God. Every “have not” is condemned and doomed. 

We see a people who are dissuaded. 

“Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.” Paul is referring to the unbecoming testimony of the believers at Corinth. The infighting among the believers, the tolerance of public sins that needed to be confessed and repented of, the misuse of spiritual gifts, and loose living was a hindrance to the “have not’s” from coming to the glorious gospel of Christ. When our testimony is defiled and sinful, the have not’s do not have any compelling reason to come to Jesus for salvation. Their rationale is that if there is no change in the life of a saved individual, what reason do I have for getting saved?  Is your testimony a help or a hindrance to the unsaved? Do the unsaved see the power of Christ working in you? Are you living a changed life? 

We see a people who are deserving. 

The basis in which Paul is writing to the church at Corinth is to get them to reach the “have not’s” with the gospel. “God will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” (1 Timothy 2:4). The have not’s are deserving of Christlike believers who testify with their lives and lips that Jesus loves them and wants to save them. “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;” (Philippians 2:15). 

Let’s remember that the “have not’s” can be “have’s”! Don’t let someone spend eternity in hell because of a bad testimony. Don’t let your gospel be hid, but let it shine! 

Have a soul conscious God Morning! 

Bible Reading Schedule: Ephesians 1-3

#1Corinthians #gospel #light #lost #testimony #unsaved