Category: 1 Corinthians

In our last lesson, we talked about “Litmus Testing” for what is “good” and what is not – as God revealed it to us in His Word. As life gets more complex and compromises are often hidden inside beautifully deceptive packages, we need help with sorting out truth. There is perhaps no area of modern life that has been as compromised in my lifetime as that of human sexuality – so we will all need constant guidance and help on that area of our lives as well… and we are fortunate that God was not silent on these vital issues.

Let me say with both respect and appreciation that there are some who will feel church is not an appropriate venue for this kind of a frank discussion. Yet, from the earliest part of the Bible, God did not separate discussions of sexual morality from the rest of the discussion of our desires and our needs. Laws of the use of our bodies were as routine as dealing with mold on the tent or telling lies to your neighbor. A beautiful part of our Puritan heritage was to add a modicum of special respect and etiquette that inadvertently led to a hiding of the subject of human sexuality from common speech. Let’s understand and respect what that did for our society, but let us also quickly recall that the Puritan memories don’t make the rules for the church – the Word of God does. In that same vein, there are many things the world addresses that I am simply unwilling to carefully think about, let alone discuss with you. Perversion is a reality, but I don’t need to explore it in order to learn what God says is good and acceptable to Him regarding the use of my body. With that is mind, let’s take the next few weeks in the Corinthian letter and look at what God said about this subject of sexuality and the sacred circle. The city addressed was easily the most sensually sin-soaked center of its day – and was well known to be so. At the same time, God’s Word on the use of the body was pure, wholesome and helpful. Here is the truth from God’s Word…

Key Principle: Our sexuality and its moral uses were planned by the Creator of our body.

It occurs to me that sexuality has been tied both in the Word and by our world to romance – and that isn’t a bad thing. It shows that we value, not only reproduction, but God’s inborn and holy desire for propagation of life and entrenchment of the family. Let me illustrate… The older among us may recall that Jack Benny played a cheap man, what was called a “skin flint” on television. Yet, by all accounts, he was in life, a generous and loving man. One author shared a true story about the entertainer this way:

“He was rather shy when he was young. One day at work he saw a young lady that greatly attracted his attention. But he was too shy to speak to her. So he went to the florist & ordered one red rose to be sent to her without any card enclosed. And every day he repeated that order. Well, after 4 days of receiving one red rose each day, the young lady went to the florist & asked who was sending them. The florist told her that it was some guy who worked where she did by the name of Jack Benny. “Yeah,” she said, “I think I know who he is.” So she searched Jack out & asked him why he was sending her those roses. He told her that he wanted to ask her out, & she accepted his invitation. And other dates followed that first one. But still, every day, she continued to receive one red rose. Then Jack & Mary got engaged, & Mary figured that the red roses would stop. But still they came. Finally, they were married, & even on the honeymoon she continued to receive one red rose each day. But once the honeymoon was over, she figured that the roses would stop. But month after month, then year after year, all their married life, every day without fail she received a red rose. Finally, Jack Benny died. But the very next day, here came another red rose. Thinking that maybe the florist somehow hadn’t heard, she called to tell him of Jack’s death & that he could now stop sending the roses. He answered, “But you don’t understand. Before he died, Jack made all the arrangements. You’ll receive one red rose every day for the rest of your life”.

Who doesn’t see gift of the roses as a loving act? I think we all do. Jack’s marriage was, to him, about giving to his wife and making her feel special all her life. What a great picture! I only wish I could boast I had done as well.

Here is the point: One of the greatest opportunities for expression of choice we make in our lives (at least in the west) is our selection of a life partner in marriage. As we are growing up at home, life isn’t really about OUR choices. We go to church if our mom or dad makes us go. We turn in our homework because we don’t want to get in trouble with the school. Yet, in time, we grow up. One of the key areas in which our growth shows, particularly in our teen years, is that of our chosen RELATIONSHIPS. We start to show OUR values by OUR friend choices and eventually our dating choices. For many, this culminates in the choice of a mate. It offers the world, perhaps the clearest picture of our real values when we make such a choice.

Here is a vital truth: More than any other single factor, our external choices are a reflection of our inner character.

People can deny that, but we do what we do, more often than not, because we make choices based on urges and desires. The desires we choose to indulge and the disciplines we choose to maintain are character statements of our inner belief system. If we choose to marry – it is a character statement. How we behave on our way to the altar is a character statement. Who we choose to join there is one as well. Our values are exposed in our choices, and God’s Word has addressed the shaping of those values. The verses we will look at in this lesson make clear that…

Our sexuality and its moral uses were planned by the Creator of our body.

Here is another essential truth: God makes the principles and standards clear – but it is up to the church to teach them and the believer to choose to live them. God’s truth will clarify our choices and clear the path to pleasing Him with our lives.

Look Back: The First Part of the Letter (1 Corinthians 1-6):

As we have been studying the first letter to the church at Corinth, we noted the first part of the letter contained:

• Issues that he heard about from a friend concerning their divisions and struggles as a congregation (1 Corinthians 1-4);

• Issues that were the worst kept secret in the first century churches about morality and legal problems of the Corinthian believers (1 Corinthians 5-6);

• Answers to a series of questions the believers wrote to Paul concerning (1 Corinthians 7-16).

The way we examined them was in terms of themes that Paul addressed with the people. On the way to the questions that Paul answered concerning sexuality, marriage and divorce, Paul already addressed three other issues:

1) Believers at Corinth were caught up in “misplaced affection” for their leaders and fighting in divisions representing differing ways of viewing issues. Paul wrote: “It is not the MEN we follow, but it is the MESSAGE. That deserves our first allegiance. (1 Cor. 1-4)

2) Their misplaced affections were also evident in their misplaced VALUES. They were boastful of their acceptance of open immorality, proud of their LOVING SPIRIT. Paul wrote: “It is not the LOVE that is our first commitment, but the TRUTH. (1 Cor. 5)

3) The believers were further demonstrating their misplaced values in accepting the STANDARDS of the world. The issue was the taking of another brother to the city courts to be judged by godless men. Paul wrote: “It is not the standard of the WORLD we use, but the judgment of the WORD we trust.”

A Look Ahead: The Second Part of the Letter (1 Corinthians 7-16):

The second section of 1 Corinthians was wholly dedicated to answering questions received from that first century church. As we dive into the text, let me offer this encouragement:

Our generation is desperate for clarity, and they can see it in us – if we will walk in the truth of God’s Word. The lives of obedient believers can shine like the sun to point to decency in a dark world. We can stand in light and happily reflect the benefits of clear sight. If we fail to do so, we become like a cloudy day – and the sundial showing the lateness of the hour isn’t clear to the world around us. We may not be able to change the world– but we can, and must take responsibility for one citizen– ourselves. We can live the truth, and without a judgmental spirit our lives will draw people toward the light. We can do so in our personal choices, our language, our modesty, our fidelity in marriage, our concern for personal deportment. We need new instruction far less than stiff resolve to choose a path of obedience that was once more common among people of the faith of Jesus Christ. It is time to light up!”

In Corinth, being a “light” meant understanding sexuality and relationships. I don’t think that was a bad place to start for them, and I think it is a pretty good place to start from use as well.

The problem with the second section of the letter is that Paul turned his attention to an apparent question list sent that we no longer possess – so we guess at the questions by looking at the answers. Commentators have longed to have that list, but we can only surmise the list’s composition by looking carefully at Paul’s answers. What may help us reach that end is to:

1) Cut the text into the portions that seem to address differing questions;
2) Understand the problems that Corinth had in that time.

Let’s start with a pair of scissors and do some “cutting”. One way to apportion the text is by using the phrase that seems to suggest an answer to a new question appears to be the words “Now concerning” seen in 7:1

• 1Co 7:1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
• 1Co 7:25 Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.
• 1Co 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.
• 1Co 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.

Now, for our second step, (i.e. “understanding the contemporary problems of Corinth”) we require a little understanding of the times in which the text was written.

Within the sexuality and relationship question list of 1 Corinthians 7:1-24, there appear to be several different groups referenced:

First, there were unmarried people, referred to in some translations as “virgins” because the Biblical standard of purity in sexual relationship was maintained in Paul’s writing, as well as the fact that many translators chose to keep that term.

Second, there were married people of one of the four types of marriage available under Roman law. Since every Corinthian knew the four marriage tyes, we should as well (to really understand what he was talking about):

• Contubernium: “tent marriage” mating of slaves for desired characteristics of a new breed. This was non-contractual as slaves were considered property.

• Usus: “common law marriage” accomplished by one year together. This practice was common, though not legally contractual.

• Coemptio en manum: “pleasurable service women” – the purchase of a woman from her father, particularly to fulfill his debt. This may be a “second mate” for the purchaser. In some cases, the woman was free to leave the house after several years of “pleasurable service”.

• Confarretio: a contractual public ceremony from which we get our own.

Third, some people in Corinth were divorced and alone.

Fourth, some were widowed and alone.

Finally, there were divorced and remarried coming to Christ in a second marriage.

Can you imagine being among the first century believers in Corinth that met in the atrium of a family villa, sitting around the fountain and listening to a reading of these words of the Apostle? Ladies, can you place yourself over by the Glauke Fountain house, filling pots with water and having a discussion – older and younger believing women together.

Listen in: “They say persecution is coming. Should I stay single? Is single more holy? What about marriage, is it always for life? Is divorce a sin in my newfound faith? Can I remarry if I was divorced?”

In some ways, it probably sounds like people who are young in the faith sitting at Starbucks today. Who doesn’t talk about this subject in our modern world? Let’s look at the text in a question and answer format, surmising the questions on the basis of the response of Paul, under the Spirit’s careful guidance.

A Look Within: Question One

Paul began with a bit of a proverb on celibacy: 1 Corinthians 7:1 “Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.”

Perhaps what the church wrote to Paul asking for clarification was something like: “Is marriage God’s plan for every man or woman who desires to be used of Him, especially in light of the rising persecutions?”

If you read the Epistles, it is clear that Paul expressed a high view of marriage, and he grew up in a Jewish setting where marriage was honored and stressed. What was probably not well known by believers at the time was the truth that was taught by Jesus – that singleness may also please God.

Here is the point: Believers are NOT incomplete if they are not married, if God has ordained a single lifestyle for them. The word GOOD leaves no room for doubt about this. Jesus said it this way:

“For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mother’s womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this, let him accept it.” (Mt. 19).

The answer to the question of marriage or not is this: it depends on your CALLING by the One Who made you.

Specifically in the context of rising persecution, Paul had evidently made a number of statements about remaining unmarried. As you continue to study 1 Corinthians, we will see them pop up. Paul believed in marriage, and knew the institution was a GOD THING, but he was wise about the times he lived in. The Bible commentators Jamieson, Fawcett and Brown note the use of the term “GOOD for a man not to touch” (kalos) would be rightly translated by the term “EXPEDIENT” – as they feel Paul was primarily concerned with troubles of the world.

The point that may have been difficult for believers in Corinth – both Romans of pagan background and of Jewish – was that singleness could be celebrated.

Some of us have been called to stay single for the glory of God. If you understand the Law of God, and the timeless principles it revealed in Leviticus 18, you are already aware that sexual activity is prohibited for the single in spiritual reality, the same way it would be for a castrated eunuch physically. That may sound tough, but it is like every other aspect of our lives – they must fall into harmony with God’s revealed choice for us. Some have the HIGH HONOR of remaining single and focusing all their energies, dissipated in romance, toward obedience and love of the Father in Heaven. Not all can do this, for not all were given the gifts to carry the responsibility. By the same token, others were given the HIGH HONOR of sharing life with another person. They were called to do so, and they should fill their post with JOY.

Question Two

Paul went on to address sexual expression and marriage definition. Note how the point appears to turn into a discussion about physical desires.

1 Corinthians 7:1b “…for a man not to touch a woman. 2 But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. 3 The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

It appears a number of smaller questions are being answered in these few verses…all were issues regarding sexual expression and marriage:

First, there is the desire question. Should sexual desires be a part of the decision making for marriage? The answer to that appears to be a YES.

1 Corinthians 7:2 says “But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.”

I suspect just as the first question regarded the value of celibacy versus marriage, this verse is dealing with one of the basic values involved in the marriage union:

Is sexuality simply sinful bodily behavior, or does it have a place in the life of a believer?

The term “porneia” used here for “immorality” is that from which we have added the English term “pornography”. It is normally used in the Bible in terms of illicit sensuality – overt sexual rebellion from God’s standard. At the same time, saying that marriage can help someone avoid overstepping God’s sexual boundaries is an open admission that we are sexual beings, and that such a desire when promoted on the streets of Corinth so completely, will be an issue if we simply act like the desires are not real. The church has tried that – it didn’t work because it wasn’t supposed to work that way. Go back to the verses again… Paul made clear several truths:

Should my sexual expression be only in the context of marriage?

1 Corinthians 7:1b “…for a man not to touch a woman.” In times of persecution, the church may advise people to think carefully about abstaining from marriage – that is the point of verse 1.

A simple reading of the text reveals that Paul must have been asked about sexual contact for the believer. In addition to affirming celibacy for those who are called to this (particularly in persecution), the implications of the first five verse of the chapter are that God intended the physical expression of sex for the marriage bed, and that any other place for it was considered acquiescing to the temptation of the enemy – an undesired state for an obedient believer.

Remember that noble Romans were raised with the rights of “coemptio en manum” partners – or pleasurable service persons. By the first century, women were also indulging in this system with male slaves. Paul argues that although the practice was LEGAL and well accepted culturally – it was not acceptable for the believer. On the face of the reading, Paul discounts all other sexual expression beyond the marriage bed. Each man and each Christian woman would find only ONE place to express themselves sexually, with the single partner they married. They are to have, each one, “their own spouse”, thus eliminating sexual slave use.

Is there a specific definition for marriage in terms of number of partners and the biological sexuality of each partner?

1 Corinthians 7:2 “But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.” Regardless of the world’s re-defining of marriage – the Bible’s final word on the intent of the Creator was this definition: One man to one woman in loyalty and fidelity – that is the point of verse 2.

Though Paul is not writing for the purpose of defining marriage as one man and one woman, he clearly upholds the standard found throughout the Bible. God created one woman from and for one man in Genesis. Jesus affirmed it was so in the beginning, and it was the intent of God to have that single union of a man and a woman that left their home and became “one flesh”. Paul reaffirms that position by stating that “each man has his woman” and “each woman has her man”. He calls them “husband” and “wife”. There is no room for a man with a male partner in this passage, nor a woman with a female partner.

Clearly, even in the backdrop of widespread cultural acceptance of homosexuality, the Apostle saw marriage as between one man and one woman – and nothing else.

Let me be clear: It is possible to argue that America does not want to define marriage based on the Bible (though I would disagree). It is even possible to argue that the Bible is wrong about marriage – an ancient document of chauvinistic men (and I would disagree again). What is NOT POSSIBLE is to argue that the text is ambiguous about marriage as defined by one man and one woman with no other possible definition (1 Cor. 7:1-5). The text simply echoed what came before it in the words of Moses and Jesus, and then specifically eliminated any other marriage definition. Marriage was not just a “tradition”, it was a prescribed and defined practice in the Bible.

Is the timing and frequency of sexual union completely at the discretion of either the man or woman?

1 Corinthians 7:3 “The husband must fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” The couple should share sexual expression as a normal part of their marriage – for that is exactly where God intended it to be expressed. The desire is not sinful, and the abstaining is not holy. It is critically important that couples learn they surrender the power of singleness in marriage – and become part of one another.

Don’t miss the point Paul made here. That is not only sexually, but it is true financially – it isn’t “his money” and “her money” – it is “their money”. It is true in every way. We marry to become “one flesh” in emotional, spiritual and yes, physical ways.

It is often charged that Paul’s writings reflected a chauvinistic ideology and that he reflected the Roman male dominated society. On closer inspection, does he really? Paul argued that both the timing and frequency of sexual expression needed to be agreed on by BOTH the man and the woman. Paul argued that each OWED the other to continue sexual expression on behalf of the needs of the other. He did not make the woman solely subservient to males needs, and offers clear balance between the responsibilities of the two. Would a chauvinist give equal rights to the woman in such matters as sexual expression?

Is the physical desire for sexual expression sinful in and of itself?

Underlying the whole discussion is the notion some Christians have that the whole subject is fleshly, and therefore not holy. 1 Corinthians 7:5 “Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.” That is not his point.

Paul instructed couples not to deny their need for physical expression. It is important that both the husband and the wife’s needs be taken into account. Here is the point: Sex is not sinful in the context of a marriage – abstinence may be. The Bible is pro-sex in the right context, and anti-sex in the wrong context. If we deny the physical side of our nature, we will face powerful temptations. Men and women who work hard to meet the needs of the other will find, on the whole, a happier partner with fewer distractions. Paul knew the temptations, because he walked the Roman streets.

There is something both strange and sad about a culture in which teenage sex is condoned so long as it is safe, while teenage smoking is denounced as categorically wrong – as if a single cigarette has anywhere near the same impact on your life. Sexual expression has become a mere issue of health and the law, whereas morality is reserved for such lofty things as tobacco.

Remember: The use of our sexuality was planned by the Creator of our body.

I want to close the first part of our discussion from this chapter with a word of encouragement. It does not escape my attention that we are living in a Laodicean culture in the church and a Sodom culture in the world. There seem to be many who worry about the way our country is going. They feel as though the pressures of the day, the obvious moral slide and the assistance of a Godless media pressing the point of the abandonment of belief in the Divine spell a new peril to the Gospel. They are wrong. It is not so. The Gospel does not usually begin its transformation in the human heart by a won argument, but rather by a loving gesture. It is not the work of human ingenuity that proves God’s existence and His intent to the pagan mind, but the work of the Spirit sparked by simple acts of love and kindness by those who love and follow Him.

Years ago a missionary to India contracted Tuberculosis and was placed in a sanitarium. He did not speak Hindi, but he desired to reach people, even in his exhausted and broken state. He attempted to pass some tracts to people in the hospital, but no one seemed even vaguely interested, even though the tracts were in the Hindi language. In his second week, late one night, a coughing fit awakened him from sleep. As he sat up to catch his breath, he noticed an old man across the room who was weak and shaky, but was trying to stand at the edge of his bed. The man trembled, and then sank back into the bed, tears rolling down his etched cheeks. He curled into the bed, and cried. Sick, the missionary sank back into his bed and soon drifted back to sleep. Over the next week, he noticed the way the nurses handled the old man. He recognized why the man was so desperate to get up in the night. The man needed a bathroom, and was too weak to take the journey to the small room at the end of the hall. The nurses cleaned him up briskly, and one even slapped the old man. They hated changing his bed, and yet didn’t seem to recognize the man had little choice. Night fell again, and this was a restless one for our missionary friend. He awoke several times. On one of the rustlings, this one about two in the morning, he noticed the old man struggling to sit up and make his way out of the bed yet again. After a feable attempt with trembling hands and arms, he slumped back into the bed and began to sob. Our missionary friend didn’t know what to do. He lay there for a few minutes. Then, as though it was obvious to him suddenly, he walked across the room to the old man. When the crying man looked up, he raised his hands as though a slap was coming from his roommate – something he rather expected. He didn’t get a slap, though; he got a smile. Our friend reached beneath the man and raised him up, carrying his now wasted body to the bathroom. He held the man under his arms and let the man care for himself with as much dignity as such a scene could offer. He carried the man back to his bed, and as he lay the man down, the old man kissed his cheek in gratitude. Our friend went back to his bed, and drifted off to sleep. The next morning, the missionary was abruptly awakened by a man who spoke to him in Hindi, which he did not understand. The man motioned to the table, requesting one of the tracts about Jesus. Our missionary friend obliged, but wasn’t sure of what was going on. A few days later, another missionary friend came to visit him in the hospital, a man who spoke the Hindi language and could communicate freely in the ward. In a few minutes, the visitor spoke to each of the men in the ward, and discovered that several of them had trusted Jesus Christ because of what they saw in our sick missionary friend. He didn’t speak a word – he simply showed love. That opened the door of the hearts of the hurting. The Word in their own language and the Spirit Who speaks the languages of all men did the rest.

Let me encourage you to take a stand on morality. The world, and many voices inside the “church movement” are telling you to capitulate. I am NOT. Know truth, live truth. Stand for truth. Know that those who MOCK US now will MARK US later as things fall apart – and if they stay on this course they surely will. At the very same time… Settle down. Stop and look up. Redemption isn’t found in Washington.

Stop worrying about the argument about marriage, sexuality, atheism, homosexuality – all of it. Stop thinking the campuses will turn all hearts from Jesus. Remember: the way Jesus is made clear is in simple acts of love to people who often will not find the world so kind. Those acts are just as powerful today as ever. God isn’t holding together one quintillion stars but struggling with the massive intellect of men on this little rock. Don’t forget, our job isn’t to convince people Jesus is the Way – as much as it is to SHOW people that He is the Way… and we are joyfully following Him home.

I love food, and it shows. I have been working on my personal disciplines and my gym time, but as yet it isn’t showing. Anyway, as both an historian and a self-professed “foodie” I have often wondered exactly how people figured out what was good to eat. Recently I started watching a series of food lectures that surmised how people worked out a variety of foods. Think about it! How could someone figure out that the head of a grain could be pounded and separated from its chaff covering? How did they work out that after the grain was separated, it could be dried, and ground into flour, added to water and a little salt and made into a bread base? If they could figure all that out, how could they then work out that if they cut it in thin strips, let it dry and boiled it in water, they could top it with tomatoes and Parmesan cheese for a spaghetti dinner? Yet, they clearly did. The variables of that evolution of the recipe probably produced many other things that DON’T go together. This past week I went to lunch with Pastor Matt, and watched him consume a burger that was topped with peanut butter and jelly. Some things are just WRONG, and that appeared to be one where I needed to take a stand!

The truth is that modern life is full of options, and not everything is clearly right or wrong. Sometimes we are left with a decision about our participation and what to use our resources on – and the choices aren’t always “cut and dried”. Since we have only a matter of decades on the planet and it moves by much more quickly that many realize – we don’t want to waste it. As a believer, I know that I could easily waste my life on things that will not honor God. At the same time, there is much to enjoy in this life! I sleep on a comfortable mattress, not a bed of nails. I drive an automobile with air conditioning. I eat far too many good meals. How do I know what God allows for me, and what will move me off my mission? How do I know what is His direction for my life and what is His enemy’s distraction to pull me away from Him?

Key Principle: God intended His people to carefully choose what they will include in their lives and what they should stay away from.

This principle can sound like l am about to offer you a legalistic rant, but I am not. Today’s lesson will leave you with a list – but it will be a list of principles, not practices you must conform to in order to please me, or anyone else. These are principles from God’s Holy Word on personal choice items. Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, “The two shall become one flesh.” 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

In the first half of 1 Corinthians 6, after a quick reading one might conclude that Paul wasn’t sure the Corinthians really understood the components of a Christian at all. Notice in 6:2 the phrase: “Do you not know?” You see it again in verse 3 and again in verse 9. It seems there may have been doubt about their understanding of the content of their faith and lifestyle. Curtiss Kitrell wrote:

“What? Know ye not?” This expression is used by Paul eight times in this first letter to the Corinthians. Again and again he had to say to them, “Didn’t anyone ever tell you about these things? … Could it be that the Christians at Corinth did not know better and had to be informed? After all, they had been saved from gross heathenism, dreadful superstition, and loose moral living. Perhaps they really didn’t know how to behave as Christians. Or it could have been that the Corinthians were ignoring certain information given them. They knew what was expected of them but they were doing nothing about it. They were not living up to their potential in Christ. They were not growing because they were not obeying Christ. (Sermon central illustrations).

Corinth was a center for prostitute cults. Of that, there is no doubt. It was an economy fueled by sensuality. Here Paul was directly answering the issue: “Can a Christian go to the brothel?” His answer was clear… God defined that as immoral. “What about Judah in Genesis?” one asks. The answer is this: He was wrong to go into a prostitute, and you would be too. “OK!” you say. “Got it. Now let’s go home…” Not so fast… there is much more here! Here there are principles to help me decide the moral premise of many things that may not have even been invented at the time of Paul…

In the event that it was not clear how to select activities that honor God, and how to eliminate things that were NOT RIGHT for them, Paul offered them eight tests. A believer can apply these to any participation opportunity or choice. Each test can help me decide IF I should participate, if I should exclude participation, as well as HOW MUCH I can involve myself and still be “on mission”.

The premise of the all eight is this: Paul stated elsewhere a number of times that our body belongs to God. It is HIS. This section explains HOW to set your body apart and glorify God with all of you.

Help Test: Will it help on my mission?

1 Corinthians 6:12 “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable.”

On a book jacket by John Piper: “February 1998 Reader’s Digest: A couple ‘took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast fives years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball and collect shells. . . .’ Picture them before Christ at the great Day of Judgment: ‘Look, Lord. See my shells.’ That is a tragedy. “God created us to live with a single passion: to joyfully display his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life. The wasted life is the life without this passion. God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives.” —– [Don’t Waste Your Life, Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2003, rear jacket]

If we agree with the old commercial from the United Negro College Fund: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste!” how much more is a LIFE a terrible thing to waste! Paul argues that even if something is ALLOWED, it may not be helpful for the mission we were given. A ball gown may be elegant in a waltz, but it makes for lousy as swim wear. Many a believer is adorning his life with practices that do not help him accomplish the goal in life God has given them… and inside they KNOW it.

As a believer I have the right to eat, to drink, to sleep, to work, and to pursue enjoyment. No other mere mortal has the right to tell me how to live my life. God’s Word and God’s Spirit are my guides – not someone else’s preferences or traditions. Yet, though that is true, there are some constraints.

Here, before he even got to that point, he precedes the argument with – “DOES THIS HELP?” The term PROFITABLE in 1 Corinthians 6:12 is symphérō (from sýn, “together with” and phérō, “bring, carry”) – properly, combine in a way that brings gain).

If it ADDS to my life and its mission, then it is worth considering. In my life, art, music, natural beauty, excellent food, dear friends – all add to make the operations of the journey with Jesus more pleasant and fulfilling. Kept in balance, they are HELPFUL. Out of balance, they become selfish and harmful.

Control Test: Will it overwhelm my ability to complete my mission?

1 Corinthians 6:12b “…All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.”

Galatians 5:16 warns believers to be sensitive to a war that is fighting for CONTROL over us … Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

Herein is the caution – be careful that the things you are doing are not warring and defeating the work of the Spirit of God within. At the same time, we have the additional need to be careful that the thing we are doing isn’t DOING US. Do I have the absolute control over my faculties? That is a key question to the use or participation in an activity.

Many people allow outside influences to shakle them, just as you would handcuff someone to a jail cell wall. They willingly put their arms forward, allowing the cuffs to snap on and bind them. When they are closed, they are no longer in control of their ability to respond as God would have them. The choices must be made to stay out of the situation BEFORE it becomes a situation.

Let me offer a story or two to ilustrate:

• John is out with his friends until after 3:00 AM. Two of the friends have been drinking and may have taken some drugs. John gets in the car with one of them driving, and ends up ending his sports career in the accident that was caused by the bad judgment of the driver. He hadn’t been drinking, but in getting in the car as a passenger, he was brought under the mastery of the driver and the bottle all the same.

• Suzie saw a school acquaintance on the side of the road walking down Highway 27 at 11:30 with a day bag on her shoulder. As a believer, Suzie thought she should stop and help. Her friend Debbie got in the car and asked for a lift to the south of town. Suzie could tell that she was stoned on drugs. A mile and a half down the road, the officer pulled the car over for a broken tale light. When he looked into the car and saw the drugged young woman, he asked to see both of them outside the car. He asked if he could search the car. Debbie had taken her stash of drugs and put them under the seat. Suzie had to make a call from jail to her parents, and be arraigned on drug charges. She left control of the situation and it mastered her testimony.

In both of these cases, mastery wasn’t drinking; it was placing myself in a place out of the proper controls of God’s designated people in my life. Wrong friends may be the problem, but that choice happens before the TRAGIC problem arises.

Often “mastery” is about surrendering your future choices to another person or influence. We must guard the influences of our life to be careful not to allow something to control our testimony.

Longevity Test: Will it put too much emphasis on things that won’t last?

1 Corinthians 6:13   Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them.

Don’t get the wrong idea about the reference to food. Paul was not trying to surrender pasta in favor of dry and moldy bread. He ate, and at times he ate well. He knew the difference between a quality wine and street swill vinegar, sold by the fast drink vendors. At most street vendors, cheap food and drink was readily available. Since many people had no cooking facility in their one room flat, the average Roman ate all their meals in the community. Many wine bars served CONDITUM, a wine mixed with pepper, honey and seawater – and yes, it was often as bad as it sounds.

Excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum in southern Italy preserved more than walls – it preserved graffiti and dipinti – ancient writings and murals that showed people’s opinions that were contemporary to Paul. The problem wasn’t that FOOD was bad – the emphasis of the sentence was on the temporary nature of food. Our ladies understand this. They will work hard every Thanksgiving, spending hours creating a meal that is literally gobbled down (pun intended) by hungry, ravenous beasts in what seems like seconds.

Is food wrong because it is temporary? No, of course it is not. God made us to eat, and God made us with taste buds. Satan didn’t stick them in our mouth after the Fall to get us off track. God intended us to enjoy and savor life – even though everything here is temporary. What does this test mean then?

Again, the issue is perspective. We must be careful not to get lost in the temporary to the expense of the permanent. Souls are forever – comfort is not. How can we look at a missionary, let alone a martyr in glory in the eye if we refuse to sacrifice any personal comforts for the cause of Christ? We must guard not to allow the temporary to overrun the eternal.

Spurgeon once offered a parable in which he said, “There was once a tyrant who summoned one of his subjects into his presence, and ordered him to make a chain. The poor blacksmith — that was his occupation — had to go to work and forge the chain. When it was done, he brought it into the presence of the tyrant, and was ordered to take it away and make it twice the length. He brought it again to the tyrant, and again he was ordered to double it. Back he came when he had obeyed the order, and the tyrant looked at it, and then commanded the servants to bind the man hand and foot with the chain he had made and cast him into prison. “That is what the devil does with men,” Mr. Spurgeon said. “He makes them forge their own chain, and then binds them hand and foot with it, and casts them into outer darkness.”

With eternities values in view, we will walk uprightly and see clearly during the journey. Don’t live without joys of this life – but don’t live driven by them either.

Purpose Test: Am I using it the way the Lord intended?

I Corinthians 6:13b “…Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord , and the Lord is for the body .

The physical relationship of intimacy was made FOR marriage to be used IN marriage. God tells a story through our sexuality – a beautiful one about the Father’s commitment to Israel, and the Son’s commitment to the church. There is no place in the story for a “side use”. God’s rule on sexuality is: “Use only as directed.” Everything else is dangerous, and produces harmful side effects.

Little Billy took his girlfriend downtown to get married. The marriage license clerk smiled and explained that they were both much too young. Little Billy asked, “Could you give us a learners’ permit then?” Well Billy, I would have to say that there is no such thing.

The Apostle John wrote, “Love not the world neither the things in the world for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is not of the Father but is from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15,16)

My body – every part of it – has a Divinely appointed purpose. I am to use all the parts as HE commanded.

• If I use my eyes to gaze where He has warned they should not look, I will be plagued with guilt.
• If I strain my ears to hear what He has told me I should not hear – I will live with the stains on my heart.
• If I take my feet where He warns I dare not go – I will find myself in a place of peril.
• If I place my hands where He has forbidden them to be – I will dishonor Him who called me.

The University of Northern Iowa once offered a general art course that included a most unusual exercise. The teacher brought to class a shopping bag filled with lemons and gave a lemon to each class member. The assignment was for the student to keep his lemon with him day and night–smelling, handling, examining it. Next class period, without warning, students were told to put their lemons back in the bag. Then each was asked to find his lemon. Surprisingly, most did so without difficulty. God designed sex in a way for people to know their partners in such a way that know one else will ever know.

Sexual sin is, at its core, the simple act of using parts in a way that they were not designed to be used or for a purpose for which they were not made to be used. This need not involve another person, but it may. It is the simple act of taking what is made for a distinct purpose – the intimacy of marriage – and using it for personal pleasure. The pleasure of these acts were to be a byproduct, but not the primary purpose. Feeding pleasure only entraps you, and leaves your life stained and guilty.

Margaret was lonely. She wanted to walk with God, but she also wanted a husband and children. She wanted to feel close to someone. She let Bill have what was not his to have. She wanted him to stay and love her. He stayed, but not with the respect she wanted him to have for her. She lived with guilt, and in the end got her man – but wishes she hadn’t. Sometimes the WAY you do something is as important as what you are doing.

Let me challenge the world’s hypothesis that LUSTFUL PASSION is something you should LOVE to have in your life constantly. Let me ask you directly to consider the self-destructive consequences of lust, as well as your commitment to honor the Savior. Lust can be for sexual gratification, but it can just as easily be for heart intimacy. Lust is simply a yearning. Men often yearn for physical gratification while women often yearn for emotional gratification – both are equally wrong if they are not “held in check” by a walk with God, directed by His Spirit.

Memory Test: Since this body will be raised, is this what I want to show I did with it?

I Corinthians 6:14 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.

There are two sense of this verse. First, we must look at the fact that we will be raised in the power of God – and then we live an unending life before the Lord. Right now it seems so important to have what we want. In one million years, how will it look?

Second, there is a sense of God’s power in the verse. It is as though Paul were asking for us: “Can God deliver me from this?” Sure He can! Since it is true that He raised up Jesus from the dead, He can surely help me with my struggle to resist something God doesn’t want me to do.

The singer-songwriter Jackson Brown wrote: “I’ve learned that if you give a pig and a boy everything they want, you’ll get a good pig and a bad boy.” (Jackson Brown, Jr., Live and Learn and Pass it On).

Link Test: Am I bringing Jesus into an agreement or place in which He would not choose to participate?

1 Corinthians 6:15   Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says , “ THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH .” 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

Here is a simple rendering of the principle: “God knows where He wants to be – so don’t take the Spirit where He is uncomfortable!” Participate in things that God desires to participate in. When I fell in love with my wife, we began to express that love by DOING THINGS TOGETHER. Dottie and I had, in the beginning, very different tastes. We still have an entirely different sense of HUMOR. She is a “Three Stooges” slapstick kinda gal, and I am… well, NOT any of those things. We don’t read the same kinds of material. Yet, over time, our lives have become so intertwined that we have learned to like things the other was involved in. I am a boring guy in many ways. A good book, a quiet room and some soft string chamber music are my speed. Yet, I would be willing to watch or listen to a great variety of things if it will bring my wife a measure of joy. Could we do less for our Savior?

The specific topic of 6:15-17 is clearly the joining of a sexual nature. It is the sharing of the most intimate part of ourselves with another. The verses end with the admonition that we can have an intense level of intimacy with the Lord Himself. We can, spiritually speaking, find deep joy and share deeply in the satisfaction of bringing Him joy! Here is the clear idea once again: Don’t put Jesus where Jesus wouldn’t put Himself. You carry Him within – walk like it without!

Harm Test: Will it harm my body or wound my soul?

1 Corinthians 6:18 “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.

Radio personality Paul Harvey told the story of how an Eskimo kills a wolf. The account is grisly, yet it offers fresh insight into the consuming, self-destructive nature of sin.

“First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. “Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more–until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!“

I mention this story for good reason. It is a fearful thing that people can be “consumed by their own lusts.” It is not uncommon; if you look you will see it everywhere in our world. Here is the simple principle: If it will harm your body or dull your passion for God – it simply isn’t worth the cost.

Temple Test: Is this something God would paint on the outside to advertise what a life surrendered to Him does?

Not everything is about what is DOES to me; some things are about what it SAYS to others when I participate in this action. Some things a slave did in a Roman home reflected on the Master.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Drew Anderson (from Tucson, AZ), wrote into Reader’s Digest: “While my wife and I were shopping at a mall kiosk, a shapely young woman in a short, form-fitting dress strolled by. My eyes followed her. Without looking up from the item she was examining, my wife asked, “Was it worth the trouble you’re in?”

Paul was speaking in the context of sexuality in this passage, and specifically the union with Temple prostitutes of Acro-Corinth. This was perfectly acceptable in the society of the people receiving the letter. A youth’s first experience was lauded by his father and other men. In some ways, our society is becoming much like Corinth of old…

A ten year old study estimated that the average American views over nine thousand sexual acts, or implied sex acts, every year on television. Of that, over eighty percent are by people who aren’t married. The average youth, watching television, from age eight to eighteen (ten years) watched 93,000 scenes of sexual expression, and over 72,000 of these scenes would have been premarital or extramarital affairs.

Is that linked, do you think to the fact that during the same period teenage pregnancies skyrocketed. The vast majority of unwed teen mothers required public assistance, but few connected it with their television diet at all.

After studying the trends, we now conclude that of teens who marry because of pregnancy, sixty percent divorced within five years. Two thirds of teenage pregnancies of the study were fathered by men over 20.

“Well”, you say, “That’s teenagers. Adults make wiser choices, right?” Not really.

Forbes magazine reported this year that pornography is a fourteen billion dollars per year business. By comparison, McDonald’s reported an eight billion dollar income size for their global business.

One huge problem with pornography and sexual advertisements, is not that they emphasize sex too much, but that they don’t emphasize it in its proper place. They eliminate the depth of human relationship and its picture – then restrain sexuality to the narrow confines of a momentary pleasure. They think an act alone defines sex, but that is only a small part of God’s beautiful design.

Here is my question for the Temple Test. Since you probably agree that Jesus purchased you, is your private life the billboard for the owner’s value system?

Here is the problem: Many believers wrongly think Jesus came to save them from HELL – but that is only a slice from the true reality of His Divine purpose. Jesus is as much our Savior from sin’s current bondage as from Hell’s eventual destiny. His power is given for my transforming walk today, not just my destination tomorrow. Many who came to Jesus out of a desire to escape the flames of hell, if honest, would tell you they have no real desire to be delivered from their sinful lifestyle. That is the truth. They want DESTINATION INSURANCE not a life transformation. They want a great final address, not a traveling companion. Think of it this way: That comparison is like the difference between God’s design for sexual expression and its shadowed but poor reflection in pornography. Emphasis of only one part obscures the total purpose and picture – but many are pleased with that portion without the requirement of relationship.

Galatians 1 opens with these words:

Galatians 1:3 Grace to you and peace from [a]God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

Clearly the rescue from this age was not a removal – we are still here. Clearly it was not a call to live in monasteries – Paul walked in the cities of his day preaching. How, then are we delivered?

We have a choice to follow God. The mastery of sin is broken (Romans 6). We don’t have to serve it. We can be changed. Now… the real question is: “Do we want to be changed?”

God intended His people to use judgment about what they will include in their lives and allow for themselves.

It seems like my generation struggled with the questions of identity. Look carefully into our writing and film era, and the questions of identity surface all over the place…

Action novel readers and movie buffs will tell you that “Jason Bourne” was a fictional character created for a trilogy of novels by author Robert Ludlum. The earliest appearance of the character was in the novel called The Bourne Identity (1980), adapted for television in 1988 and made a 2002 feature film with the same title where Matt Damon played the lead role. Damon went on to again play “Jason Bourne” in two sequel movies: “The Bourne Supremacy” (2004) and “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007). I no longer find this genre as my personal choice for reading, nor are the films something I would find relaxing on the silver screen – but millions do. I read the first novel back in college, and was fascinated by Ludlum’s ability to write with such clarity he projected a reader deeply into the intensity of the scene as Bourne moved through once threat to his life after another. There is no doubt that Ludlum can write! I mention this not as an endorsement of the books or movies – but simply because I cannot help but think of the issue of identity without recalling the novel I read so long ago.

The story of the Bourne Identity opened with Jason Bourne, a man with amnesia, coming to his senses and wondering about who he really was. He had almost instinctive survival abilities and knowledge slowly returned to him through his retrograde amnesia, as he sought to discover his real identity. While regaining himself, he found himself in the cross hairs of several shadowy groups, hunted by at least one professional assassin, and his own government’s CIA. Publishers Weekly named The Bourne Identity among the best spy novels of all time. I recall being unable to put down the book as Jason was evading assassination and seeking his own identity.

Re-runs of CSI still blare a song by “The Who” called “Who are you?” to snap casual viewers to attention when their show begins playing. As a search for a killer is the question that provides the premise of the show, this “Who dunnit” crime show centers on the whole issue is identity.

For the younger among us, the story of Simba illustrates the same problem. In the “Lion King” a baboon named Rafiki finds the young lion prince running away from his responsibility of following in his father Mufasa’s footsteps. The baboon says, “You don’t even know who you are!”

Whether seeking their own identity, that of a killer, or even of a prince – identity showed up often in drama and film of my generation. Here is what I know: most people struggle to find out who they really are. These films and novels were written with tones that struck at the cord for a search about personal identity. I have served Jesus long enough to know something else… Most believers don’t seem to understand who they are in Christ, either. One of the symptoms of that lack is they don’t identify the uniqueness of being part of the body of Christ, and their actions reflect a life lived in the wrong circle of influence! Many believer find the world’s way of looking at things much more easily understandable than the Bible’s way. Truly Paul was right. We need a transforming of our minds. Here is a truth we encounter in 1 Corinthians as we study today…

Key Principle: When believers recognize their unique identity in Christ, they learn to judge life by different standards!

As we look carefully at the letter Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers of the first century, we discover that Paul presented a fact something that shocks believers who have not previously encountered this precious truth of God: Believers live in two distinct circles (spheres of influence) that do not operate under the same rules.

The point of our reading in 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 in the last lesson was to underscore the notion that believers are not like their unsaved neighbors in a number of ways.

First, we have more restricted association when it comes to people who join and become a part of us. Paul reminded:

1 Corinthians 5:9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people…

So that we aren’t torquing this out of it context, remember Paul was instructing them on some who were living in known immorality but wanted to remain as part of the church. Yet, Paul suspected he needed to be clearer about this standard. He continued:

1 Corinthians 5:10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. 11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.

Paul made clear in the verses two important truths. First, I live in a world that I am not called on to judge, but I recognize Jesus will! (5:12a, 13a). God has made government to help keep the world in line now (Rom. 13:1-5) and withholds the right of judgment for His throne at a later time. In that day, believers will play a role, but that is for another time – not now (6:2).

Second, Paul made clear that believers are a part of the church, the Body of Christ, and MUST evaluate and at times separate to maintain the standard of God’s Word (5:12b,13b). That isn’t “judgy” – it is obedience. It isn’t “unloving” – it was a standard given by the Author of love and for purposes that would reflect Him. It may not be popular, but it is right.

Let’s be clear: this wasn’t a witch hunt searching for people to exclude from ministry – quite the opposite. This came to Paul’s attention because it was publicly known and acknowledged, but left un-dealt with in the church. Let’s flatly state the standard then: If someone is involved in immoral behavior according to the standards outlined by Scripture, they are ineligible to remain a part of church ministry. It DOESN’T mean they cannot come to a church meeting – for we invite people in who don’t know Jesus all the time. It means they can play no role that would suggest the believers accept them as one of their own. If you walk as an outsider, we will love you – but treat you as an outsider. Our assumption will be that you need Jesus – even if you believe you made that decision in the past. Our reason is simple: You are not living like a believer is commanded to live by the Lord, and you are living in defiance of God’s standards. That will not work, even if you believe it will. It is not acceptable to God even if you think you have good reason. Rationalizing is the natural work of the unrepentant rebel.

If you have been saying to yourself things like: “This isn’t as bad as ____, who does this”; you are acting the part of a child. If you are rehearsing the tired old “Nobody’s perfect!” routine – remember that truth can be used for anyone to rebel and violate any standard. When we clutch to our sin, we take our hands from the Savior’s to grab something we want MORE than Him – and that is our problem. Believers are to place Him first, and all other things behind. Jesus said: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you…. He who loves his life will lose it, he who gives all the things of this life over as loss to cling to Me – will gain life.” Let me be clear: This generation is not the one that is exempt from walking in truth and integrity. It doesn’t matter what temporal benefits you are receiving – they are not what you are called to seek – especially if they violate the Word of Christ.

To make the two circles of a believer’s life even more clear, Paul offered an example: Property disputes between believers must not be brought to public courts (6:1). The issue was this: two people went to church, and one apparently defrauded the other or took something of value away from the other believer, and the victim wanted it settled. This was a civil matter, not an overtly criminal one, and Roman law allowed the alleged “victim” to pursue the matter in court. Paul wrote:

1 Cor. 6:1 Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?

Look very carefully at the verse, because Paul is precise about what is included and what is not. First, this is a civil case – presented by one civilian against another – as a small claims court any civil department of law would allow. It is not a criminal case. If someone is breaking into your house or abusing another person, that isn’t civil – it is criminal. You call the police and let them decide the steps to be taken.

Second, the context of the case demands that both parties claim to be believers. Where do you see that? Look at the context. Remember chapter divisions are not in the original. Paul has been talking about how people IN THE CHURCH make judgments differently than in the world. This isn’t about a believer and an unbeliever in the direct context. If you read it carefully, the end of the sentence suggests that an appropriate venue for settlement would be in the church. Would that make sense if one party was NOT a believer? Would you settle an issue in a court of the Moose Lodge if the other party was a Moose member and you were not? Would you anticipate a fair trial? The point is the verse is about two believers – there is ample evidence.

The Supporting Principles for this Example:

Paul supplied, under the influence of God’s Spirit, three appropriate examples of his reasoning as to why believers should not settle civil cases before the world, if both are believers. They have the court of the church, and do not need the court of the world.

Principle #1: The Destiny Principle

First, Paul argued that because of our collective destiny, i.e. what we WILL BE, we must settle our disputes among believers within the circle of believers (1 Corinthians 6:2-3).

1 Corinthians 6:2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?

There are several terms we must reckon with to get at the meaning of these verses. The term “saints” in the first sentence refers to the same people as the “you” in the second verse. The believers were the saints to whom Paul was referring. The term “angels” refer to the metaphysical beings of the spiritual world and are directly contrasted with matters of “this life”, as in the physical world. The term “angel” is not a metaphor for Pastor or any other person in this world or the contrast would not make sense. Paul laid out the argument:

First, believers will be judges in a future time (6:2). Jesus told the disciples at least some of them would sit on the judges “dais” (Mt. 19:28) because they gave up their future to walk with Him. Paul explained to Timothy that believers would “reign with Christ” (2 Timothy 2:12), a reference to Revelation 20:4 where certain believers became the underling judges to Jesus’ Kingdom.

Second, believers will judge angels (6:3). This requires some explanation for most of us. Remember, Jude 1:6 says that God took the fallen angels that broke into the human world to corrupt it and cast them into prison. 2 Peter 2:4 also affirmed that action. 1 Corinthians 11:12 warned that a lack of submission among believers can affect the angelic observers. These help set up our understanding of what Paul is arguing about judging angels.

Don’t forget the word judge does not mean “condemn” in this verse but “to distinguish or decide”. A wife may ask her husband to look at some wallpaper for the bathroom and help her “judge” which is best for them – he isn’t condemning one choice to wallpaper hell – just discriminating between his taste options.

When to believers judge angels?

First, we should define the terms. Who are angels? The Bible mentions five different types of angels: Cherubim (guardians of God’s holiness, first mentioned guarding Eden in Genesis 3; Lucifer was created to be one), Seraphim (six wings, Isaiah 6), Archangel (Jude 1:9, Michael is only named, Rabbis have seven, including Gabriel, Uriel and others), Messenger angel (Gabriel, Luke 2) and guardian angels (Mt. 18:10).

Second, think about timing. When will believers judge them?

The timeline for angels began, as best we can tell, before the creation of the physical world. It is revealed in the poetry that appears to offer a shadowy presentation of Satan’s rebellion against God’s government.

Isaiah 14:13-14 “But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. 14  ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ Lucifer attempted a hostile takeover of God’s government. As a result, Satan began to advertise his plan among the angelic host.

Ezekiel 28:18 “By the multitude of your iniquities, In the unrighteousness of your trade You profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; It has consumed you, And I have turned you to ashes on the earth In the eyes of all who see you.”

It appears that one third (1/3rd) of the angelic host followed Satan in his rebellion. That event appears again, as referenced in Revelation 12:

Rev. 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth…

God responded to the rebellion at some point in the past by creating the awful place of judgment we know as “hell”. The place wasn’t a fiction of priests of the Dark Ages or Giotto and painters of the early Renaissance – the place was revealed by Jesus as very real in Matthew’s Gospel.

Jesus said in Matthew 25:41: 41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” We must remember that Hell wasn’t originally created for people – but for the rebellious angelic world.

It appears that in response to the fall of angels, God established the cosmos:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Shortly after, man was lost in sin and rebellion. Gen. 3 tells how a serpent was embodied by the “fallen one” to lead men away from God. Satan then drew man away from God and God revealed redemption’s promise in the same passage. Satan remained railing against believers in earshot of Heaven (Job) awaiting the expulsion from Heaven. He tried infiltrating the race (Gen. 6) but God stepped in (Jude 1:6).

The Bible promises that part way into the Tribulation Period, God will boot Satan from Heaven’s outer domain and he will come with new vitriol onto the earth.

Revelation 12:7-8 “And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, 8 and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” Satan will be cast to earth to set up a great battle against God. His armies will be destroyed (Rev. 19) and he will be bound (Rev. 20).

The Bible also promises a new government order from God: He will be in charge then in the millennium (Rev. 20). We may not know many details of how we will give angels orders, but we know that we will, and that our positions of authority in Christ’s kingdom! In Revelation, it is martyred believers that specifically are judges, but none of the believers knew which of them would be martyred, so all needed to assume it could be them.

The point is: Since some of us will judge angelic beings, so we cannot take our brothers to court to settle disputes, it is demeaning to God’s intended position for believers.

Principle #2: Position Principle:

After Paul argued about what we WILL BE, he made the point that we shouldn’t take other believers before secular courts because of what WE ARE NOW (6:4-8).

1 Corinthians 6:4 So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren, 6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.

Paul’s argument is as follows:

• We deal in higher (ultimate life and death eternity) issues in the church (6:4).

• We have available resources of the Spirit’s wisdom within (6:5-6) to keep us from needing outer assistance.

• We have a higher value system and a higher standard than those without (6:7-8) to be prepared to lose something this side of Heaven to uphold Heaven’s values.

OK, you say. I get it. I shouldn’t take a brother to court over a property dispute because of what God has planned for my future, because of what I am in my present position… but there is another compelling reason: WHAT I WAS!

Principle #3: History Principle

Paul argued that because of what I was in my own past (6:9-11) the world shouldn’t be engaged in my hunt for justice in this area. I know sin. I have done sin. I have hurt people and trashed my reputation before. I don’t belong there anymore if I can avoid it!

1 Cor. 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul reminds us that in the world we were:

• unrighteous (adiakos: violating criminals),
• fornicators (pornos: unlawful use of sex),
• idolators (idolatrace: worship of false gods),
• adulterers (moykous: sex outside of their marriages),
• effeminate (malakos: a boy kept for male homosexual use – abused who felt dirty but not by their choices),
• homosexuals (same sex participation),
• thieves (kleptace: embezzler),
• covetous (pleonektace: insatiable desire for more),
• drunkards (methousos: intoxicated),
• revilers (loudoros: rabble rousers),
• swindlers (harpax: criminals)

Read the list and you will easily see the world does things the EASY WAY. If you have an URGE- fulfill it. If you want it, take it. If it looks good – why hold back? It is easier for us to do wrong then to do good. We have to work at doing good while doing wrong just seems to come naturally. It is easier not to pray then to pray It is easier not to be committed then to be committed. It is easier to have impure thoughts then pure. It is easier not to give then to give.

Godliness is a disciplined life, not a haphazard one.

We are living in a time when the new ethical rules are being written into the next generation, and we seem powerless to challenge them. The rise of naturalism in the last generation is breeding angry atheism in this one. It reminds me of the saying of C.S.Lewis: “We’re all either helping people toward God or away from him”.

I need to stop and let every believer in the sound of these words think about that for a moment. I am either helping draw people near to God with my life, or helping them flee away with my compromises. It really is that simple. My sin affects many others – even when I don’t see it today. Do you really believe Abraham and Sarah knew they were causing the Middle East conflict in their tent so long ago? Just because they didn’t see it doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening. Just because they couldn’t imagine how that would affect more than a quarter of the population of the earth living in darkness, doesn’t mean we cannot draw the line back to their compromise in the Middle Bronze Age.

Our society doesn’t truly grasp the concept of freedom our forefathers shared. They think freedom means, that they are free to do what ever they want. It means they are free to do drugs, drink, have sex with whoever or what ever they want, it means that kids are free to do whatever they want to do in school “go or not go” “study or not study”, and it means adults can do to what ever is necessary to get ahead… and you could probably add your own to this list. Tragically the things that are supposed to be evidence of their freedom have in reality enslaved them, and are now a heavy ball and chain around their neck. Drugs and drinking have led many to an overpowering addiction, a lost home, a lost job and a lost family. Sex anytime, anyplace, anyone has led to diseases, death, unwanted pregnancies, massive numbers of abortions, a broken heart from being used, and the inability to enter a marriage bond pure and undefiled. Youth who exercise their freedom in school find them selves uneducated and flopping hamburgers or washing dishes for the rest of their life.

God’s freedom is that which frees me from the bondage of satisfying self in favor of a new ability to please God.

Some believers need to be reminded to get out of the dirt from which they were cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus.

Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 6:11: “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”

BUT what Jesus did for us can be described this way:

Jesus made it clear: No thought is so disguised, no wrong is so hidden, no dark of night is so deep that it can hide you from My flaming eyes fire. Yet a rebel can live. He can come to Me. It is the purpose for which I have come. You cannot fall too far or climb too high that My grace can reach you when you call to Me.

Let’s not leave this lesson until we have said it, seen it and celebrated it – we have a new identity in Christ. We do not act like we did – because we will not lie: We are not who we were. Now we are:

WASHED (apoluo: washed off)

Harry Houdini, the famed escape artist once issued a challenge wherever he went. He could be locked in any jail cell in the country, he claimed, and set himself free in short order. He repeatedly kept his promise. Yet, one time something went wrong. Houdini entered a jail in his street clothes; the heavy, metal doors clanged shut behind him. He took from his belt a concealed piece of metal, strong and flexible. He set to work immediately, but something seemed to be unusual about this lock. For thirty minutes he worked and got nowhere. An hour passed, and still he had not opened the door. By now he was bathed in sweat and panting in exasperation, but he still could not pick the lock. Finally, after laboring for two hours, Harry Houdini collapsed in frustration and failure against the door he could not unlock. But when he fell against the door, it swung open! It had never been locked at all! But in his mind it was locked, and that was all it took to keep him from opening the door and walking out of the jail cell.

It saddens me to observe that many believers remain locked in darkness, when the gate was already unlocked. Paul’s simple point is this:

• You WERE (according to this text): unrighteous (adiakos: violating criminals) – but you are not now CRIMINALS FOR CHRIST.

• You were SEXUAL SINNERS – but you are not now FORNICATORS FOR CHRIST.

• You were USED BY THE WORLD – but you are not now VICTIMS FOR CHRIST.

• You were PARTICIPANTS IN SAME SEX EXCHANGES – but you are not now GAY FOR CHRIST.

• You were thieves – but you are not now ROBBERS FOR JESUS.

• You were drunks and hoodlums – but you are not now PARTY ANIMALS FOR JESUS.

These things are from a past life with its hopes and dreams, its desires and hungers fixed on the physical world.

You are SANCTIFIED (hagiadzo: marked for use):

I plead with you, beloved, don’t EVER get to the place where it is more important to you that sinners be found comfortable in their sin than that God is found to be revered in the place of worship. We are not set apart for popularity, we are set apart for distinct living for His purposes. That is what He intends.

If you don’t believe you would deny Christ when ISIS puts a knife to your throat – then don’t deny Christ when temptation beckons you to give yourself to its cause instead of following hard after Christ.

You are JUSTIFIED (dikayao: to pronounce as fully freed from further obligation to your debt of sin).

Sally was married to Bill for many years. Then one evening Bill had a heart attack and died. Several years later, Sally remarried a man named Jack. Jack was in many ways different than Bill. Bill didn’t like to eat breakfast (he just grabbed a cup of coffee and headed out the door) and Jack liked to start his day with a big country breakfast. Bill didn’t care if the house was kept clean and Jack wanted the house to be neat and tidy. After Jack and Sally had been married for a year, Jack was beginning to get aggravated. He came down the stairs hoping to find things different but the house was messy and as he went into the kitchen hoping to smell bacon and eggs cooking on the stove, he only found a cup of cold coffee. When Jack voiced his dissatisfaction with the situation Sally said “well that’s the way Bill liked things”. Jack said “Sally, Bill is dead. You are my wife now. You have to stop living like you are still married to Bill.

There are so many things that bind us. As long as we hold on to them, their power over us continues. It is only by letting go that we become free. So, what’s making a monkey out of you? You are special because you belong to the Lord. That calls us to be distinct and different.

When believers recognize their unique identity in Christ, they learn to judge life by different standards!

Bungee jumping isn’t hard to do because it is complicated. It is actually quite simple. Strap yourself to a high-tech rubber band that is fixed to a stable high fixture and step off the edge. Gravity will take over. No effort need be expended to plummet. When at the low point, if the people offering the service have calculated the height properly and the full extension of the band, you will be involuntarily thrust upward again. When you reach an apex of the energy put in by the tension, gravity will overpower the upward thrust, and you will plummet again. Your only need to work may be in regards to holding stomach contents inside your body, and bladder contents… you get the idea. Anyway, bungee jumping illustrates a truth:

When we find things hard to understand, we need explanation. When we are confronted with things that are easy to grasp but hard to pull off – we need courage.

I mention this because we are at a time of collision in our culture and some in the church need understanding – but most do not. Many will readily accept the Words of Scripture are clear on some issues – but they seem to lack the courage to stand up and be clear about our faith inside the very churches we claim belong to Jesus.

Our generation is navigating an important but difficult time. The Scriptures are very clear about behaviors of believers INSIDE the church. They are very clear about behaviors of believers OUTSIDE the church as we reach lost men. Yet, what they offer little clarity to is this: How should a believer present themselves in the public square when they have the opportunity to advocate a position and perhaps persuade others to vote with them on public issues of morality. That isn’t easy. The pattern of Scripture wasn’t set in democracy – but in oligarchy and monarchy. In other words, Paul never voted on Caesar and Moses never voted on Pharaoh. It was unthinkable. As a result, believers find themselves in an awkward position in the public square when it comes to issues for which debate is lively and votes are the determination point of the question at hand.

In this lesson we will find seven simple principles concerning the church’s proper response to willful, intransigent immorality in her ranks. The text is TO the church, FOR the church, ABOUT the church. Yet, in a tolerance laden generation, it is a timely portion. Why? Our churches today need courageous love to stand for the Savior in the face of an increasingly hostile world. We need to understand the actual fences God put in His Word concerning our treatment of one another, and those in the world. This lesson isn’t hard to grasp – it is hard to do – because it requires the courage of conviction to stand with God’s Word. Here is the truth…

Key Principle: Courageous love stands for truth when it is unpopular.

The last 30 years of the 20th century, and now in the beginning of the 21st century, there are 3 attitudes which have become prevalent…they have become mainstay mindsets widely acknowledged in our society:

1. Open-mindedness: Politicians run for office on platforms of open-mindedness, much more than on principles. Don’t take a stand on critical issues or you’ll be labeled as narrow-minded – as if great accomplishments were attained by those who were somehow broad and unsure of singular direction.

2. Total acceptance: Never tell anyone they are incorrect. After all, do we have the right to judge people? Aren’t we implying we are perfect if we do? Isn’t it hypocritical if we aren’t perfect but still judge another (implying the federal bench is staffed by those who are pure). One reason why church discipline has gone by the wayside is that we have become afraid of appearing judgmental.

3. Privacy: What a man does behind closed doors is his business!” many say. In America, privacy today has been elevated to constitutional status. Many of today’s social programs are grounded in the false assumption that people have a private sphere around them that no one has a right to intrude upon – regardless of whether we need to pay for the results of what they do or not.

Let me be clear: Either the Bible will define our morality, or our culturally defined senses will. It is time for God’s people to make some decisions! Either the words of the Holy One will define truth, right and wrong, or our own conscience – seared by sin and pressed into the world’s mold will determine what we think to be right and wrong. A culturally molded morality, unchallenged by Scripture, will re-shape God Himself in our eyes – and He will look nothing like the character familiar to Moses, David or Daniel of old. Rather, that god will be the household idol we have created to appease our religious instincts, but he will be both hopelessly powerless and helplessly passive.

You see, God put a church in Corinth to change Corinth, but the city began changing the church. It is a phenomenon that has become all too commonplace – the world infecting the believer and making the witness of the Gospel fade…But it doesn’t have to be that way.

When believers act together to face sin issues in the body, God will grow them deep and strong and impact their city through the testimony of the church. They need courageous love…

Courageous love is broken over sin.

The right response to sin in the church is sorrow and not anger, humiliation not arrogance, separation not toleration (5:1-2,6).

1 Corinthians 5:1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

When we cry more and excuse less- we grow deeper and stronger in our weeping! We must act out of profound brokenness much more than in any sense of harsh judgment. Look at the phrase:

…rather than to mournfully separate yourself from the wrong-doer. (5:2b).

UCLA sociologist, James Wilson, has observed an interesting fact about city life: The crime rate escalates on those streets where broken windows are not repaired. His study showed that the failure to replace windows makes an announcement to the public by saying the standards have been lowered and authority has been abandoned. Wilson sees such practices of disrepair as an invitation for further crime without the threat of adverse consequences. What is true on the street is also true in the church. If we allow sin and unscriptural practices to go unchecked, we are be inviting destruction into the Lord’s church. Adapted from Reader’s Digest, Oct. 1995, p. 157

Mourning over sin is a rarity in our culture. We have come to expect openly sinful practices. In this generation we don’t EXPECT people to live up to their vows in marriage – and many aren’t even confronted when they refuse. Because we have allowed that, in the next we will struggle to take a stand on the most basic truth of SEXUAL IDENTITY – when they don’t want to be what God made them. The enemy wants to destroy the family – because the basic understanding of God is found there. He wants to eliminate Creation – but the most basic expectation of worship is found in God as Creator. He wants to eliminate the IDEA of absolute truth – because that gives him free reign to justify the most illogical demands that are anti-God and anti-Scripture. What can we do? We can be careful not to depend on the MONEY people provide so much that we ignore their SIN to keep their SUPPORT. This is a problem acute in our day. Many churches NEED to be POPULAR to make the PAYMENTS.

We must face uncomfortable discipline issues to save the light of our lamp. We must understand that failure to live the Word removes our testimony before the world and confuses the standard of truth.

Some people just change the bar to make their lifestyle ok: Willie Nelson apparently at one time owned a golf course. He said the great thing about owning a golf course was that he could decide what par for each hole was. He pointed at one hole and said, “See that hole there? It’s a par 47. Yesterday I birdied it.”

Paul wrote: (my paraphrase): “There is a report of gross immorality that is not even common in the world, that a man is living with his step-mother. (5:1). Your response has been to make the wrong practice perfectly acceptable (arrogant is “Phooseo”: to make natural as in phoosis – natural; or to inflate – 4:2a).

We must become intentional about overcome lies with truth – or we negate any truths we are called to share with the world..

1 Cor. 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?

The Bible teaches that deception is like cancer – left alone it will spread. Failure to act should not be a matter of pride (of how loving your church is or of your church’s attendance size!) because it confuses the truth for those who are being transformed. The world may applaud, but Jesus weeps. Why shouldn’t He expect His church to live His way?

In the 1950’s comedy classic “I Love Lucy,” one episode dealt with Lucy’s lack of cooking skills. She had no clue how much yeast to use. She kept dumping it in…one box, two, three. She left the bread in the refrigerator for a while as she talked on the phone. When she returned the kitchen was filled with bread! That is Paul’s picture of sin – if you don’t deal with it, watch it closely, purge it from the church it will evict you!

Now let’s be practical. The Bible doesn’t say go on a witch hunt to cast out sinners – that isn’t the point. The problem was OPENLY SINFUL PRACTICE of the UNREPENTANT that wanted their sin to become acceptable to others. Paul wrote: Your glorying (kauchema: point to glory or boast in) is inappropriate since you are allowing wrong to spread in your midst. (5:6). We need to weep over it, then we need to offer the one who continues in it to change, or to depart. Why? Because…

Courageous love requires seeing the whole body’s needs – not just those of the one who won’t repent.

Sadly, it is no longer an assumption, but obedient believers were supposed to able to assume their leaders would take a stand against ungodly practices (5:3-4). The leaders are not only concerned with the feelings of the one in sin, but in the name of Jesus and the free flow of God’s transforming power in the church (5:4).

Church discipline was called to action when a believer’s sin becomes public knowledge, in a way that it could hurt the testimony of the Lord, and they refused to repent. It is a necessity today just as it was in the past. It stands in the shadow of those who died to bring forth the church we have today. We cannot forsake our Lord, nor should we forget the crowd who stands to watch us now. We must stop delaying for the “right time” and stand up against our excuses! Our leaders are called upon to carefully but deliberately mark out those who refuse to walk in the Word (5:3)

1 Cor. 5:3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.

In essence, Paul wrote: “Though I am not presently in your midst physically, I have already marked the man for separation (krino: selected out in judgment) as I would have if I had been there” (5:3).

DO you recall the admonition to the church at Ephesus? Revelation 2:5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lamp stand out of its place—unless you repent.

We will lose our light if we give away the oil: “There is an old story about a lighthouse keeper who worked on a rocky stretch of coastline. Once a month he would receive a new supply of oil to keep the light burning so that ships could safely sail near the rocky coast. One night, though, a woman from a nearby village came and begged him for some oil to keep her family warm. Another time a father asked for some to use in his lamp. Another man needed to lubricate a wheel. Since all the requests seemed legitimate, the lighthouse keeper tried to please everyone and grant the requests of all. Toward the end of the month, he noticed his supply of oil was dangerously low. Soon it was gone, and one night on the light on the lighthouse went out. As a result, that evening several ships were wrecked and countless lives were lost. When the authorities investigated, the man was very apologetic. He told them he was just trying to be helpful with the oil. Their reply to his excuses, however, was simple and to the point: “You were given oil for one purpose, and one purpose only – to keep that light burning!” A church faces a similar commission. There is no end to the demands placed on a church’s time and resources. As a result, the foundational purposes of a church must remain supreme.” James Emory White, Rethinking the Church (Baker Books, 1997), 27-28. The OIL isn’t ours to re-purpose, and the truth isn’t ours to amend.

The chief issue was not the immorality, but the reality that acceptance of the man in spite of it became became the point of arrogance and pride – that Corinth could love past God’s boundaries. They were proud of their ability to be fully accepting of sinful practice despite its violation of God’s standard – an attitude that has shown itself again in the modern world and even modern church. Tolerance of this sort is being promoted both nationally and internationally:

The United Nation article for the definition includes this sentence:

1.3 Tolerance is the responsibility that upholds human rights, pluralism (including cultural pluralism), democracy and the rule of law. It involves the rejection of dogmatism and absolutism and affirms the standards set out in international human rights instruments.

Internationally, the UN is promoting relativism in order that people will get along. Here is the problem – long term it won’t work. It rejects truth, and morality is rooted in ultimate truths.

One commentator wrote: What is “tolerance education”?” This quote from Alliance of Civilization president Jorge Sampaio (is) from an article about the growing visibility of the Alliance of Civilizations: “The liberty of press, the liberty of religion and the liberty of communication have to be compatible with respect of others.” Sampaio is saying that the freedoms of speech and religion should be limited by one’s obligation to express respect for the religious beliefs of others. …The Bible teaches Christians to love all people — not to express respect for false religious beliefs that are holding those people in spiritual bondage. Telling lies can be repacked as helpful cultural cement in moral relativism.

While real followers of Jesus are not trying to sound harsh or condemning – the issues of sin are particularly difficult when we are restricted from speaking about them in our general culture. That is not my chief concern. My real concern is that our children are being educated by the best tolerance educators of our world. TV, movies and public sentiment is that tolerance of wrong is right, based on personal liberties. It is this thinking that is removing logical restrictions – even allowing those who enter the “Miss Universe” to be born as males.

In case it is not abundantly clear: “God created them male and female” – there is no other actual choice. “Transgender” is a man-made term for a now accepted confused ideology of what a few years ago was referred to as “gender dysphoria”. It was an illness, and still is. Let me plainly state this: Should a person claim to be a Christian and transgender and desire to remain here, they will be asked to repent or to depart. I will weep, and I will plead with them, but I will not claim the standard of creation will change to suit them. If I move that line, then why couldn’t Paul move the line in Corinth? Why did God place this text in His Word? Why did God ascribe the wrong biological components to the person…. The problems will multiply quickly.

We expect standards to move in a relative world – but the church is not taking it cues from that world. Why mention it then? Connect the dots. That is the world that is training our future Pastors, Sunday school teachers, Presidents, judges. Will there be an impact? Surely! What we can do is make sure that there is a clear teaching that builds a resistance to such thinking. If you were the enemy, wouldn’t you attack that in the church?

Courageous love looks beyond the temporal situation.

Satisfying the erring one’s flesh desires hinders our true goal, to grow them to spiritual maturity. “Flesh life” goals are short-lived goals (5:5). We can stop settling for peace now at the expense of shame before the Bema seat – and grasp our true place of privilege.

Look what Paul told them to do:

1 Cor. 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

It affected one who normally came to worship and considered themselves a “part” of that body. It created a sense of ostracism that was supposed to be felt and understood by them as a “removal from the blessing of the family”. Being a part of the body is a privilege. Walking as part of the body is a responsibility. We show what we are by how we walk.

I wish we have some way to know what was truly going on in the hearts of people – but we cannot we must rely on God’s discernment. We also know that sin cannot remain hidden – it will show in time. I sympathize with this an old Irish blessing: “May those who love us – love us; and those who don’t love us – may God turn their hearts; and if He doesn’t turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so we’ll know them by their limping.” 

Courageous love demands surrender to Christ.

The fact is that God’s church is filled with sinners who should be broken for their wrong, not justifying it and clinging to it (5:7-8). We need to face the truth, but James reminded us we need to change because of what we saw.

Courageous love won’t make excuses for sin.

There is no Biblical case to be made for people to unrepentantly clutch to known immorality but ask to be allowed to remain as a part of church ministry in an obedient and vibrant church (5:9). We must learn to carefully diagnose spiritual sickness. That isn’t WRONG – it is a necessity.

1 Cor. 5:7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Virtually no one I can think of would be happy knowing they were served rancid meat because the chef wanted to keep the butcher from “feeling judged” concerning the meat he sold.

We make value judgments all the time – and we must. At the same time, look carefully. This is not a person who just “goofed”. This is a person that has been challenged and is living in willful disobedience that has been ensnared to carry on Satan’s work inside the ministry.

Paul instructed they deliberately choose to remove this influence from among you as you do to remove the leaven at Pesach (5:7). Remove this malice (kaki’ah: willful depravity) and open wickedness (ponyrea: Jesus used it to refer to Satan “the wicked one”) and replace it with truth and sincere purity (sincerity is “ilikrinea”: purity). (5:7-8).

In practice, there are many examples we could cite:

One comes from the familiar desk of Dr. Jim Dobson: “Dear Dr. Dobson, Things have always been rocky in my marriage, but a more serious problem arose a few years ago. My husband, Paul, began to get interested in a beautiful divorcee who works as his bookkeeper. At first it seemed innocent, as he helped her in various ways. But I began to notice our relationship was deteriorating. As he spent more and more time at her house, I began to nag and complain. That just made him more determined to be with her. Gradually, they fell in love with each other and I didn’t know what to do about it. I bought a book about this time in which the author promised that God wouldn’t allow any wrong to happen so long as I was submissive to my husband. In my panic, I thought I would lose him forever, and I agreed to let the other woman come into our bedroom with us. I thought it would make Paul love me more, but it just made him fall deeper in love with her. Now he is confused and doesn’t know which one of us he wants. He says he still loves me and our three kids, but he can’t give her up, either. I love Paul so dearly and I have begged him to turn our problem over to the Lord. But what do I do now? Please help me. I’m on the bottom looking up. Linda.”

See the problem? It is like many I have seen in our church experience. If you try to accommodate sin you send the wrong message to everyone. That cheapens the church, that Jesus purchased with His own blood! Linda’s mistake, so evident to anyone outside the situation, was to assume that if she just allowed her husband this indulgence, she would be able to “keep” him. Linda failed to see that when she failed to take a stand, she joined his sin! Sin always asks for more. It knows no bounds of responsibility or care – it is selfish to the core.

Failure to act you in these case will leave people empty, with more questions than answers. That paralyzes the church’s ministry. Let’s be clear: Open and unrepentant sin in the house of God is an affront to God. Paul was horrified that the church leadership was doing nothing. Indeed, they were rather proud of all the other things they had going. God is not interested in the things you’re doing as a church, if the people of the church aren’t living as the church.

Courageous love distinguishes between the world and the church’s standard.

The believer’s standard for morality cannot be foisted on the lost world (5:10). Paul made clear: “I am not talking about the world’s issues”. We should expect to live with people that are sin filled in the word. This is the willfully disobedient person that names themselves a believer and a part of the body. If he chooses a lifestyle in denial of the Word, you must act. Paul made it ever so clear when he wrote before: “Stay away from immoral people of this world” (5:9) he didn’t mean the people of the world, they will always have these four:

• immoral (pornos: unlawful use of sex),

• covetous (pleonektace: one who desires insatiably),

• thieves (harpax: robber) and

• idolaters (idolatrace: worshippers of false gods). (5:10).

What he meant was “Stay away (do not “associate” is literally “do not mix together to become one with”) from the one who calls himself a brother but walks in this way:

• immoral (pornos: unlawful use of sex);

• covetous (pleonektes: insatiable greed;

• idolater (idolatrace: worshipper of false gods);

• reviler (loydoros: disruptive railer or accuser;

• drunkard (methoosos: intoxicated, habitually irrational due to substance abuse.

Courageous love is loyal to God’s Word over popular opinion.

Churches that long to follow God are required to apply the Scriptural standards of moral conduct to their associations, and restrict fellowship (5:11-13). It isn’t open to discussion, but a mandate from God’s Word!

We do not judge the world’s behaviors, God does. Yet, we must take a stand within the fellowship and remove those who choose these paths. (5:12-13).

A Final Word

In the when some so-called churches are stadiums and parking lots filled with anonymous self-interested minimal commitment consumer – believers, we must make this about truth lived out carefully. We must make church about relationship and truth. We must make it about careful observance of what God has said. We must take it back to where it started — an outnumbered but zealous group of transformed lives that boldly faced a hostile world with a loving spirit!

Don’t leave on a negative note: Look what God has said we can do!

• We can face issues and brighten the lamp of our testimony.
• We can weep for sinners and see them changed by our honest love.
• We can push past excuses and celebrate what being in the body means!
• We can overpower lies with truth and learn to diagnose problems to keep us from perpetual weakness and illness in the body of Christ.
• We can learn the blessings of handling family matters inside the circle and grow from testimony of successes when lives are turned around. Discipline is a blessing, and that’s why “Whom the Lord loves, he chastens!” (Heb 12:6).

We can, and must, affirm that courageous love stands for truth when it is unpopular.

I generally don’t buy seconds, and after my “yard stick” experience, I think you will understand why. I was laying stone tile in a small bathroom for a friend. I had very little space to work with, and we were using some tricky stone that cracked easily if you didn’t cut it precisely and without tension. The problem came when I took out their yard stick to make marks on the stone. The edge was straight enough, and that wasn’t a problem. The issues started when I began using the markings for measurement. You see, inside the bathroom I was using a tape measure to set up the specific cuts and angles. Outside, where the tile saw was, I had the yard stick and was using it to both measure and mark the tiles to be cut. I went inside and carefully measure each place I needed to cut the stone, then I went outside and marked the stones and cut them on the saw. When I brought the stones inside, virtually all of them were miss-cut. Nothing fit. I couldn’t figure it out! I ruined these expensive stones by cutting them and I didn’t know why my measurements were all completely wrong. Then it dawned on me to check the cuts against my measurements. Every single measurement was wrong! How could that be? I took them outside and measured them again. When I used the yardstick, they were all exactly correct. I went inside and got my tape measure and placed it beside the yard stick. Can you guess what I found? The two measuring devices didn’t agree – they were not even close!

Here is what I learned: Never buy seconds and cheap tools – you will pay a price. I also learned that a measuring device that isn’t correct is useless. I mention that because it has provided me a life lesson that was bigger than simply a tool minder. I learned that when I don’t use the right standard of measure, I get a useless conclusion. That has proven true in every area of life, and the Apostle Paul made clear that it was also true in relationship to measuring the church of Jesus Christ. Here is the simple truth…

Key Principle: Right measuring devices yield right answers. Wrong ones don’t.

It is helpful to remember where the idea is taught, and what God says about wrong measures in the context of the letter the words are found within. Think for a moment about the letter we are studying…First Corinthians can be divided into two parts:

1) Chapters one through six contains things Chloe and her family related to Paul about the church’s problems of division, pride over immoral situations and court cases between believers;

2) Chapters seven through sixteen were answers to the questions the church sent Paul before this letter was written.

Since we are reading from chapter four, and that is in the first part of the book, we should look a bit more closely at that first section. It can be further divided three ways:

1. The first part concerned the “misplaced loyalty” of the church (they loved the men who served more than the message of God they represented, 1 Corinthians 1-4);

2. The next chapter (1 Corinthians 5) concerned the “misplaced affection” (they held the value of love higher than truth);

3. The third part concerned their “misplaced standards” (placing the standard of the world over that of the Word, 1 Corinthians 6).

As we dive in, let me ask you a question: “Do you know someone who has placed trust and confidence in a person or a system that has proven to you it is not worthy of that trust?

I ask, because our lesson today is the last part of the problem of “misplaced loyalty”. In chapter four, Paul shared measures the local church at Corinth be the church they were called to become. There is no other way to say it: they were in bad shape – and part of their root problem was they trusted people they shouldn’t and allowed the wrong measurements to guide them. Let me show you what Paul highlighted to help them see that truth.

First, Paul told them don’t use “star quality” as a measurement – use “student quality” as a standard, especially in the handling of the Word.

1 Cor. 4:1 Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.

Many believers don’t seem to know how to properly measure those believers who lead the church all over the world. We rate potential by “star quality” and lose track of the fact that all of God’s servants are flawed. The work of any Christian leader isn’t to bolster their name, but Christ’s name. How do they do that? It ISN’T by flashy demonstration, but rather by quiet faithfulness. It isn’t what you see of what they do, often it is the quiet preparation behind what you see. There is a story that helps frame this well:

A young man applied for a job as a farmhand. When the farmer asked for his qualifications, he said, “I can sleep when the wind blows.” This puzzled the farmer. But he liked the young man, and hired him. A few days later, the farmer and his wife were awakened in the night by a violent storm. They quickly began to check things out to see if all was secure. They found that the shutters of the farmhouse had been securely fastened. A good supply of logs had been set next to the fireplace. The young man slept soundly. The farmer and his wife then inspected their property. They found that the farm tools had been placed in the storage shed, safe from the elements. The barn was properly locked. Even the animals were calm. All was well. The farmer then understood the meaning of the young man’s words, “I can sleep when the wind blows.” Because the farmhand did his work loyally and faithfully when the skies were clear, he was prepared for the storm when it broke. So when the wind blew, he was not afraid. He could sleep in peace. There was nothing dramatic or sensational in the young boy’s preparations – he just faithfully did what was needed each day. Consequently, peace was his, even in a storm.

Measure those who would lead you and gain your trust by what Paul called in the verse “their stewardship of the mysteries of God”. Do they demonstrate apt handling of the Word: carefully exposing and administering God’s truth in front of you. If they do not, charismatic personality will draw a crowd, but that simply isn’t a good enough reason to trust them to lead. In the years of ministry, I have observed a number of very talented men who are now out of ministry. Over and over I have watched as people put trust in them, but the characteristic that defined their ministry was not apt handling of the Word in its context and depth. In time, the novelty wore thin, and they disqualified themselves from ministry. Let me be clear: I wholeheartedly believe that personal sin was the cause of their demise, but less than adequate understanding of the Word set them up. Wrong measures promoted them early. Pressures aided their destruction of ministry. It is for that very reason Paul warned Timothy to take his time and not lay hands too quickly on another man and ordain him for the work.

Scripture calls on you to think of those of us that minister to you in this way: we are servants (huperatace: under rowers) of Messiah and stewards (oikonomos: house attendants or managers) of God’s revelation (musterion: hidden counsels). (4:1). If we don’t handle the Word well, we shouldn’t be holding your trust. We may be good mayors or politicians, but the church requires a different standard. Those who lead ministry have as their primary distinction the ability to consistently and carefully reckon the truths of the Word.

I want this to me clear to you, because it is a critical issue. If someone says to you: “They are really funny, and they really do a great job loving – but they don’t know the Bible that well…” that is a great description of a friend, a fun person at parties – but NOT a Pastor or mission leader. Please, dear ones – don’t think you can put a person in the place of Pastoral service who hasn’t worked out what the Word teaches – it will be a disaster.

Second, Paul made clear the servant of the Lord is just that – a servant Jesus measures.

1 Corinthians 4:3 But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. 4 For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.

When I was growing up, the international tensions in the Olympic games showed themselves, because you used to know which judge scored the American lower based on the country from which he came. The judges often appeared biased based on political views and inter-state tensions. The commentators didn’t really trust them as much as we seem to now. That left a nagging sense of inequity in each evaluation. Sometimes the commentators would read the CROWD and their reaction to judge the performance – but that isn’t reliable as a measure either.

Among believers, we have a similar problem. We think we can measure effectiveness by the reactions and receptivity of the crowd rather than understanding that the Lord is real audience of our work. If He is truly pleased with us, then we are what He has made us to be. For many today even IN THE CHURCH, the judge is the WORLD, not the MASTER. (We must be careful by what we mean when we say “effective” in ministry terms. – 4:2-4). When I hear people say: “Do the people outside the church see its message as relevant?” – I shudder. Lost people aren’t the best judge of where to attain reliable directions. I am not saying we need to be outdated in method – I am arguing that we don’t have to keep adjusting the standard of morality to suit the crowd. Servants are measured by trustworthiness (pistos: faithfully executing) much more than innovation. Reliably standing on God’s standard as expressed in the Word is a recognition that we will be judged by what the Lord over us thinks of our performance! (4:2-4).

Years ago, I heard a story about a preacher who went to a small town to preach a series of gospel sermons. His attempt was to evangelize that little town. He preached for two weeks. During the whole time, only one little girl responded to the invitation at the end of one of his sermons. She confessed Christ, was baptized, and turned out to be the only convert during the entire meeting. The preacher judged the meeting a failure, and for years, bemoaned the great effort he had made for such little result. However, he did not have the right view of things. That little girl grew up to be a strong, faithful Christian woman. She married a Christian man, and together they produced several sons, all of whom became preachers of the gospel. Those sons converted thousands of unbelievers to Christ. Now, what do you suppose would have happened to that little girl and her family, had that gospel preacher not faithfully proclaimed Christ? Do you really think that preacher’s effort was a failure? Sometimes, what looks like a very small, insignificant effort on our part, turns out to be far greater than we think.

Let me suggest there are three common courts that people use to judge what is truly effective, right and good:

1) People rely heavily on the court of court of self-evaluation. In Galatians 6:3-4, Paul writes, “For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.” 2 Corinthians 13:5 says: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves.” One thing that plays a part in this process of self-evaluation is our conscience. One little boy defined conscience as “something that makes you tell your mother before your sister does.” Yet, the conscience is not enough. 1 Corinthians 4:4 reminds: “I know nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this.” Or, as the NIV translates it, “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent.” The court of self evaluation can be bought – and is intrinsically unreliable – but it does play a role.

2) Another court is the court of public opinion that is always in session. Everywhere you go, to work or to play, even to worship services, people around you are making judgments about you and everything that is going on. Social media has really highlighted the idea that anyone with an opinion and an internet connection should weigh in – regardless of whether or not they have any background in the subject at all. Paul was concerned about other people and what they thought, enough so that he said, “Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.” (1 Corinthians 8:13). It’s important that we consider how our actions will affect other people. Yet sadly, even if we wanted to please everyone, we couldn’t do it.

The story is told of a man and his grandson traveling down the road, walking and leading a donkey. They met a man who said, “How foolish for you to be walking. One of you should be riding the donkey.” So the man put his grandson on the animal. The next traveler they met frowned and said, “How dreadful for a strong boy to be riding while an old man walks.” So the boy climbed off the donkey and his grandfather climbed on. The next person they met said, “I just can’t believe a grown man would ride and make a little boy walk.” So the man pulled the boy up and they rode the donkey together. That is, until they met another man who said, “I never saw anything so cruel in all my life — two human beings riding on one poor defenseless donkey!” Down the road a ways, they met a couple of men. After they passed, one of the men turned to the other and said, “Did you ever before see two fools carrying a donkey?”

The court of public opinion can in some cases be important, but it’s still a lower court — it doesn’t have final jurisdiction. There’s an old Latin motto that says, “Vox populi, vox Dei” — the voice of the people is the voice of God. That’s basically the motto of politicians and businessmen — give the people what they want. But it’s not an adequate motto for the Christian. There may be many times when the voice of the people is not the voice of God — it may even be the voice of Satan. It is wholly unreliable. Consider people in all things, but don’t make them the final voice. Believers that do that offer little challenging truth to the lost world. Churches that do it compromise until they become a joke.

3) The final court is the Supreme Court – presided over by Jesus Christ himself. Peter said, “It is He who was ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead.” (Acts 10:42). And Paul said, God “has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31).

The story is told of a young boy who was playing around a lake one day when he fell into water over his head. He couldn’t swim and was struggling for his life. Fortunately, there was a man nearby who heard his cries for help and came to rescue him. As the years passed by, that young boy grew up to become a hoodlum and got into all kinds of trouble with the law. When he got to the courtroom and approached the judge’s seat, he recognized the man sitting there. He said, “Your honor, don’t you remember me? Years ago, you saved me from drowning in the lake.” The judge looked down at him and said, “Then I was your savior, but today I am your judge.” We need to stop confusing Jesus’ future role by His past role.

The Corinthians accept a competitive spirit as legitimate to motivate them – and that doesn’t please God.

1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God. 6 Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.

Revival begins with attacking our unchallenged arrogance within. We waste time “rating” ministries and the value each leader and church has in the Kingdom, allowing arrogance and division to take up our time and our hearts. (4:5-6). Because He alone is the measure, stop evaluating the value each of us has in the Kingdom – because not everything will be clear until we stand before our Master! (4:5). Paul shared: “I have figuratively mentioned some people so that you would move from this mistake of evaluation and not try to compete arrogantly with rival groups” (4:6).

In his book Eating The Elephant, Thom Rainer tells of an interview Billy Graham encountered years ago. The interviewer was fascinated by Rev Graham’s success and asked if he anticipated being given great rewards in heaven for the millions of lives he had impacted through his worldwide ministry. Billy Graham said that he was not sure of the extent of his own rewards, God is the final Judge, but he was certain that others would have greater rewards than he. He went on to say that there is a faithful elderly woman whom he knows, who is right now on her knees praying for her little country church, her family, and her nation. For nearly 80 years, the sweet lady has been faithful to her Lord. She has been constantly praying, and reading the Bible daily. To Billy Graham, that lady and many others like her, will receive the greatest rewards in heaven. At the close of the interview, Billy Graham said these last words: “You see, we are not called to be successful. We are called to be faithful.”

Billy knew that rivalry begins with measuring one person against the value of the contributions of another – but that depends on what we see and how we look at the whole situation. Better we remember that we serve a God that sees EVERYTHING and evaluates it all, when the time comes, with perfection.

The Corinthians had a tendency to praise to the wrong person.

1 Corinthians 4:7 For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

Everything we have we got from God, and much of it through the hands of others. We misdirect our praise and ascribe esteem based on the appearance of gifts and talents – when God is the author or all of that. The truly gifted shouldn’t be applauded, the Giver should be! (4:7). Paul noted: “How can any follower of Jesus boast superiority when all we have was given by God?” (4:7)

The Corinthian believers often gazed at the wrong display to evaluate worth.

Paul wrote with some sarcasm:

1 Corinthians 4:8 You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you. 9 For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor. 11 To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; 12 and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; 13 when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.

We misplace value when we see those who look well-received by this world as therefore effective in the Kingdom and those ministries who have money as blessed by God. As a result, we get wrong who is “better” because we have been more blessed in the standards of this world. (4:8-13). Paul argued: Some of you act as though you have attained a level of authority that goes beyond those of us that led you to Messiah. I wish that were so! (4:8). God has clearly displayed us, as the founders of this movement, to be underwhelming in appearance and weak in the view of the world, while some of you puff up and look strong before the world (4:9-10). We look hungry, naked and needy. We work hard to care for ourselves and endure constant derision in the world – yet we continue to minister without a reputation of success when measured in this world, (4:11-13).

Sixth, Corinthians easily followed the wrong leaders.

1 Corinthians 4:14 I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 15 For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16 Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. 17 For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

Notice Paul told them he was their father in the faith – not their tutor. Don’t get tripped up by a common Protestant use of Matthew 23 “call no man father” as if all of your Catholic friends are doing something that violates Scripture by calling a priest a “father”. They aren’t. That isn’t what Jesus was saying at all. In fact, Paul told the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 4:15) that he WAS their father. Jesus’ words also included calling no one “leader” or “my teacher” (Rabbi). The point of the saying wasn’t the use of a title – most all of us call our fathers “dad”. It was a comparative statement to use discernment in not lauding those who seem to be leading for the benefits or perks (Matthew 23:6: “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues…). Jesus’ point was in 23:11 “But the greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”

When we don’t place the right examples in high regard and follow after them – because they are not “heroes” by the worldly standards – we follow the wrong people. Faithful fathers of the faith get trampled for the more flashy and fashionable voices.

There’s an old Indian Fable I heard recently. A water bearer had two large water pots which he carried on either end of a pole slung across his shoulders. One of the pots had a crack in it, so every day as he carried water to his master’s house he arrived with one full pot and one only half full. This went on for two years. One pot was very proud of its accomplishments, while the imperfect pot was embarrassed at its failure. Its distress at being able only to accomplish half of what it had been made to do, resulted in its speaking one day to the water carrier. “I am so ashamed,” the pot said. “Why?” asked the carrier. “Because water leaks out all the way to your master’s house and because of my crack I’ve been only able to deliver half of the load.” The water carrier looked kindly at the cracked pot and said, “As we return to my master’s house today, I want you to look at the beautiful flowers along the path.” The pot was a little cheered by the beauty he saw along the way. “Did you notice that the flowers were only on your side of the path?” the water carrier asked. “I’ve always known about your flaw and I took advantage of it. I planted seeds on your side of the track and as we walked back each day from the stream, you watered them.” For two years I have been able to pick fresh, beautiful flowers for my master’s table. Without your being just the way you are, this beauty would not have graced his house.”

Seventh, the Corinthians were tempted to set the wrong goals.

1 Corinthians 4:18 Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I shall find out, not the words of those who are arrogant but their power. 20 For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power. 21 What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

We think that the ability to SAY the truth well is the end game. The real standard isn’t talk; it is the transforming power of God becoming evident in our midst. The goal is reliable teaching that leads to powerful change. Anything else is the wrong goal.

Imagine that someone gives you the latest high tech car (a sort of James Bond style car). It has every feature you can imagine and a few more. It not only has cruise control but it has a navigation system that virtually allows the car to drive itself. It has a collision avoidance system. It has infra red sensors that tell it when there’s an animal or a person in front of you that you might hit. But the trouble is, your friend has just left the car in the drive with the key in the ignition and the instruction book on the driver’s seat. What are you going to do? You could probably just jump in turn it on and go. After all you’ve driven plenty of cars before. But then what about all those high tech doodads? What if you were to touch the wrong button? In fact, you’d be pretty dumb to just ignore all the things that had been written down in the instruction book for you, wouldn’t you? It could even be a dangerous thing to do. Yet that’s what some people do as they try to reinvent what it means to be a Christian. They throw out the instruction book. They go beyond what’s been written down and they invent their own rules for living; not to mention for judging what’s right and what’s wrong; what’s wise and what’s foolish.

Can we not see that in the Word are the proper measures and in the world are the unreliable ones?

Paul simply argued: “Right measuring devices yield right answers!”

A man in love doesn’t always seem logical. He knew he loved her – more than he loved his own life. As he awaited the day of their wedding, he knew he would give anything for her. She was in his thoughts from the first moment he awoke until the last thought slipped into the darkness of sleep. He couldn’t get her out of his mind…her soft smile…her pleasing voice. He couldn’t imagine anything he wanted more than spending time with her. It was an added blessing that his father loved her, and knew she was perfect for him. When it came time to protect her, he saw his life as nothing compared to hers. He was ready to give his life, and when the time came, he did. The dark man came out of nowhere, but he came to steal, rape and destroy. He didn’t hesitate. Though not yet at the altar of marriage, he knew the way to save her life was to sacrifice his own. There was no doubt in his mind it was the right thing to do – so he did.

The story you just heard wasn’t about a wild-eyed couple on a walk through a park in the night – it was another retelling of the story of Jesus and His love for His church, a motley band of people rescued from brokenness. You see, the world sees the church as an institution – in the same childlike way a son or daughter sees their mother or father. To most children, mom is not a person as much as she is a resource, a housekeeper, an ever ready servant, a provider, a means to get nourishment, clean clothing and a safe, warm bed. Most think little of her feelings, and don’t really yet see her as a complete person – only as what she does for them. They are children, and that is the way simplicity sees complexity. In that same flattened state, the lost world sees God’s church as an organization that does (we hope) some good in the community. They see it as buildings, budgets, gatherings, publishing houses, soup kitchens, sponsors of schools, seminaries, hospitals and orphanages. They see what the church DOES – not what she is. She is a bride awaiting her Bridegroom. He loves her, and He has given all He has to her.

The world’s view may be immature, but that is really fine. The real problem is that many of the church don’t understand what she is to Jesus. He LOVED her and GAVE HIMSELF for her – according to Ephesians 5. He sees her worth when she doesn’t believe it about herself. I believe in the church – but not because of what it DOES, rather because my Savior believes in what He is doing in her. His is an optimistic and uncommon love. I must admit I didn’t see it at first, and I further concede that many of my fellow believers don’t really get His love for His church very well.

I have watched people hop around from place to place, with little regard for how that affects the body of believers. I have noted a number that criticize freely every aspect of what the church does – especially when they aren’t involved in the working of it. It’s easy to criticize the bucket brigade’s spillage when you are sitting under a tree as an observer. Bench warmers invariably become critics. Yet, Paul speaks of the church as something God loves.

Let me be very open with you. This teaching is offered by a Pastor, so to some it may sound self-serving – that is not my intention. This is a call from Paul’s letter to Corinth to open up and see the church the way Jesus sees it.

Key Principle: We must remember how the Savior responds to casual disdain for His church.

For a brief moment, remember where Paul has journeyed in the letter so far. In chapter one, we saw four reasons that church bodies divide that were NOT good reasons:

• They had confused the STANDARD of truth – the Eternal Word of God properly and carefully interpreted.
• They confused the CENTRAL TRUTH of the church – the work and Word of Jesus our Lord.
• They confused the importance of the WORKER with the importance of the transforming work of God’s Spirit.
• They confused POPULAR thinking for RIGHT thinking. There are many ways to get people to respond emotionally that are not spiritually sound approaches.

Yet, the fact that churches get it wrong and divide doesn’t make God walk away – and we shouldn’t either. Keep looking, a chapter two reminds us the church is unique, and needs to be considered different that the world’s conventions and structures.

We noted:

1. Our MESSAGE should drive methods in the church – not the other way around.

2. PERSONALITIES need to remain in the background, with Jesus placed in front.

3. We must not DUMB DOWN – trying to require very little of the hearers of the Word.

4. God’s Word must be TAUGHT but never adjusted to embrace the desires of a lost world – no matter how that sounds to them.

By chapter three, Paul turned back to the Corinthian division issue with a new approach: People criticize, mock and play with the Church of Jesus Christ because they do not truly comprehend how God feels about their casual attitude toward His “bride to be”.

To really grasp the TRUTH of God’s church:

We need a different kind of DISCERNMENT:

1 Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ.

God’s truth is spiritually discerned, and the Spirit’s work is based on surrender. Un-surrendered Christians are selfish and flesh-oriented Christians – and we ALL have been that at one time or another. When we are, our comprehension of God’s meaning is diminished, as He pulls back. In that state we trade the ability to really grasp the things of the Spirit for our hunger in this physical world. Believers in Corinth did so, and Paul couldn’t take them to a higher level while they balked in the level they were already on.

We need different APPETITES:

1 Corinthians 3:2 I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, 3 for you are still fleshly….

The problem with continually disobedient believers isn’t usually that God’s Word hasn’t been taught to them – but that they have refused to grow out of personal resistance and they cannot endure the tough truth of surrender. Where does it often first show? In attitude and relationship – in personal deportment and strife with others:

1 Corinthians 3:3b “…For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men?

One obvious manifestation of selfishness and willful rebellion toward God is the inability to get along with one another. Unity comes from surrender, and rebellion leads to division. When we truly all kneel before the Cross, we find a friend kneeling beside. When we look at what Jesus did for OUR SIN, we don’t puff ourselves up – because we see the light of God’s goodness in stark contrast to our own former darkness. Paul called lost men “mere men” for they had no sense of spiritual things. Divided people are living earth centered lives, not Heaven centered ones.

As the Apostle James said, battles between us come from battles within us. Refusing to be healed by God will eventually spill over into wounds we will give another – it is inevitable. Either I can take my wounds to the Cross and have them healed there – or I will wound others with my stubborn and failed self-reliance. This church was divided, because people in this church refused to grow up in Christ and yield to Him. Many a church conflict can be summarized in that same way.

We need to new DEFINITIONS:

The world doesn’t define words the way God does, and the church must resist defining them according to the world. Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 3:5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

The world called Paul a LEADER, but God called him a SERVANT. We need to re-work a flawed definition of leadership given to us by a world that believes the term means DOMINATION. The Bible teaches leadership is influence of an intentional SERVANT. Don’t misunderstand… Paul had a proper and healthy self-image. He knew he was one that Jesus gave His precious blood to save – so he did not feel worthless. At the same time, he did not inflate himself with visions that his gifts made him more valuable than others with other gifts. He saw himself as we should see ourselves – those who serve Jesus by serving one another. He saw himself as one who labored alongside others who had differing roles – but the same goal – to be used by God to honor Him through the growth of His kingdom.

When he said that “neither the planter nor the water bearer were anything” – he meant ANYTHING APART FROM THE PURPOSE FOR WHICH WERE CREATED. Our work means something, but only because it reflects our Savior Who means EVERYTHING. God may use us, but could just as easily use another. We are not indispensable, irreplaceable or the key to the future of the Kingdom – Jesus is. Following a man is fine if he is following Christ. If not, he is leading you away from God’s direction – because Christ is always on the right path.

Paul finished the argument with a simple acknowledgement that both the planter and the water bearer were on the SAME TEAM and therefore must not be the rallying point for separation. People who serve Jesus well aren’t pulling people to THEM – but they are pulling people to JESUS. At the same time, they are excited when a person is following Jesus well even if they are being led by another godly person. Competition in churches is often an ego battle of immature people masquerading as godly leaders. We must be MORE and MORE careful to uphold our brothers in Christ – to speak well or simply refuse to speak at all. My brothers in ministry deserve my love, encouragement and help – with as little criticism as I can possibly offer. The exception to that is when someone wants to deliberately corrupt the truth of the Gospel – but that, in my experience, is quite rare. It happens, but not nearly as much as gossip and criticism about other men of the Word occurs – sadly.

I love that Paul saw the people of the church at Corinth to be a field of labor and a building that was under construction. He KNEW that working with people was neither easy nor short term. Agriculture is about endurance, construction about planning – both are essential in a longer view of ministry. We need to be careful to always build sustainable ministry. If we start something, we need to look at how it can continue – or we should question why we spend our energies in that way. Short term thinking isn’t the right approach to real ministry with people.

We need a better MEMORY:

We must remember the appropriate JUDGE of the church is the Bridegroom that is betrothed to her:

1 Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

In a moment of self-reflection, Paul recognized that God’s grace was the operative power behind his accomplishments in ministry. Who among us can say differently? He recognized that he was in need of a constant flow of grace from the time of his salvation through the whole process of honoring God in ministry. He also openly acknowledged the difference between a good plan for establishing a ministry, and a BAD plan. He said he was a WISE master builder when he placed the foundation stones. Others built upon his work, but Paul outlined the whole building with a foundation of Jesus Christ.

When Paul said there was “no other foundation” he was indicating that there was no other PROPER foundation. Men build ministry on many things that are not Christ and His work.

Look around. You will find denominations building on the foundation of SATURDAY as the day of worship. You will see others building on the foundation of a FOUNDING TEACHER. You will find others that are building on the KING JAMES BIBLE, or some other version of the same argument. The foundation must be the Person and work of Jesus the Messiah as the One Who brought justification and replaced atonement.

Back in 1923, nearly one hundred years ago, a leadership of the Presbyterian church called the General Assembly desperately tried to hold the church back from embracing the rising modernist and relativist waves. The drafted “Five Fundamentals of the Faith” in order to make clear what orthodoxy was, as well as seeking every candidate seeking to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church to affirm and align with their historic positions. These five were:

• Inerrancy of the Scriptures
• The virgin birth (and the deity of Jesus)
• The doctrine of substitutionary atonement
• The bodily resurrection of Jesus
• The authenticity of Christ’s miracles

In response, a number of well-known seminary professors of the time constructed the Auburn Affirmation. In it they outlined that:

• The Bible was not without error, and individual conscience led by God should determine what was true and what was not.
• None of the five “fundamentals” should be considered essential to ordaining men for ministry.
• There were other valid alternative theories to the meaning of Jesus’ work – Jesus didn’t necessarily come to save sinners in a substitutionary way.

Having set aside the Word and its claims on the Person and work of Jesus as a requirement, they defined a liberal Christian base that has all but killed the churches that embraced it. If you look for where churches are dying en mass, you will find them among the churches that have been reduced to saying much that is not mimicking the culture. The numbers among the “born again” church ranks are growing – while main line denominational churches are sinking fast. Why? Because the storm of culture hit the structure of a church not attached to the right foundation.

Some churches build on EGO (believing that only their denomination alone can bring the truth), others on FAME (using methods that draw crowds by their stunning approach, but are not directed by the Spirit of God). These may result in churches, but at their core they are not about knowing and serving Jesus Christ. The day will come when that will be clear – either at the judgment seat of Christ, or even before that time.

1 Corinthians 3:14 If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.

The real test of ministry is not its temporal popularity, but its spiritual endurance at the scrutiny of the Master. If Jesus doesn’t deem it correct and healthy – than it simply isn’t – no matter how much an earthly sensation it appeared to be. Heaven isn’t a place where a vote will be cast by the members of a theological academy or angelic choir. We serve a committee of ONE – a Master Who will inspect all of the work that we have done. There is NO OTHER treasure higher than HIS SATISFACTION. At the same time, His satisfaction is often paired by the satisfaction of other godly men and women. People who have a healthy walk with God can “sniff out” teaching and leadership that is healthy – because we have the selfsame Spirit within.

Someday Jesus will take all of my labor and place it between us. He and I will look at the number of hours I have labored to know and teach His Word. We will look at the way I communicated that Word to people. He will examine the time I have spent caring for people – and He will give the TRUE and PERFECT evaluation of me. If I have done well in His estimation – the trial of my work before His fiery eyes of scrutiny will survive. If I have not done well – that work will evaporate – with no opportunity to relive my life on earth.

When I stand before Jesus – seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years will evaporate into the smoke as the fire of His eyes burn through my life’s work. What is left after all the selfish, ego-driven, stubborn, hard-hearted, gossip-laden, flesh colored work is gone – is what Jesus can BEGIN to celebrate. Mature believers keep that day in their minds eye – and never lose sight of it. Brethren, some of us seem to be content wasting our only opportunity to please Him!

Before we move on, it is worth asking: “What does it mean for a believer to “SUFFER LOSS”?” In the text it is clear that there is no issue of salvation or eternal destiny at stake in the argument – this is a judgment in the life of a believer. Everyone is judged TWICE by God – once for sin, and once for performance of work. The sin judgment determines one’s destiny. The performance judgment, measured strictly against what God has made us capable to complete – is about REWARD. Heaven is the HOME of the believer – but some level of REWARD before the Savior is a conditional blessing to those who live their lives for His glory. Beloved, I fear that many of us spend much of our lives on ourselves, and not on His honor and glory – can that be? May we see it now and avoid the sadness of loss later…

We need a new GRASP:

We need to recognize GOD’S COMMITMENT to the church is not something fleeting or small:

1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

God doesn’t use the term TEMPLE to mean church very often, but here is an exception. It is clear in the passage that God wanted men to understand that the church of Jesus Christ is not just another organization to be criticized, gossiped about, and slammed at will. This organism is a living body created by a Victorious Savior. It has His fingerprints, His DNA and was founded on His blood. It not only COST Him plenty to create, it was created with a God ordained DEFENSE system. Criticize it lightly, and God will censure your life’s work easily. Be careful, when you speak of the church… you speak of GOD’S CHURCH.

• Did not God’s church reach into the sin sick lives of men and women of the Roman Empire at the expense of being thrown to lions, being crucified or beheaded? It was NOT to win a theological argument – for the early Christians were really trying to offer hope to hopeless people.

• Did not God’s church reach the poor in many nations long before ever being considered by the rich among them? It was not to become WEALTHY – for even today there are many who handle the broken in skid row and hungry in India’s streets for no other reason than to show their love for and obedience to their Savior.

• Did not God’s church begin some of the great universities of our world? It was not to become ERUDITE – for though they shudder at the idea, the great schools of Princeton and Yale were begun to train men to share Jesus and His Word with accuracy and scholarship.

• Did not God’s church open hospitals in many cities of our world? It was not to gain control of health care legislation – but because they saw the sick as needy and the needy as open to Christ.

• Did not God’s church feed the poor in many places, offer addiction counseling and group meetings, help single parents with support, care for elderly and widows? Yes, sure it has… and it is just beginning its work. There is much MORE to do. We have not been perfect, but we have not been FILLED WITH EMPTY WORDS EITHER – there is a track record and a history… and it isn’t all bad no matter what you have heard.

Where we have failed, we will seek to have God renew us. Where we have resisted, we will learn to submit to the Gentle Chief Shepherd…. But know this… this is God’s church in many places, under many names – and He has promised to be her defense when she is attacked – so tread lightly. Hold back quick words about the intent of others –even if their denomination or fellowship doesn’t completely agree with yours.

We live in a polarized America – and it is affecting even the church. Never have so many believed so much the same thing and disagreed on so little – but made such a big deal about it. We cannot afford to criticize freely what God loves greatly and paid for richly.

1 Corinthians 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS”; 20 and again, “THE LORD KNOWS THE REASONINGS of the wise, THAT THEY ARE USELESS.” 21 So then let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.

Great men and women of God think differently. They are made from a different stuff and cut from a different cloth – and God loves it that way. One who comes to Christ is made alive from death. He must learn to speak of the Spirit. He must learn to share in unity. He must learn to love and laugh and joy with the body… He does not know for his past – for he was dead.

Paul concluded the section in a simple and straightforward way – STOP BOASTING IN MEN. Don’t divide along party lines based on personalities – STOP. Men may be helpful and gifted, but they aren’t Divine. They may possess the Spirit – but they AREN’T the Spirit. Men are just lumps of clay empowered by a Good God. They are not to be abused, but nor are they to be revered in themselves.

His big finish is a bit strange. He repeated twice that “all things belong to you”. I suspect this refers to a specific part of what people were saying about the movements based on individuals at Corinth– specifically that those who followed a more GIFTED LEADER had some special measure of God’s sanction and God’s honor. Watch out for believers that try to convince you their group has something more than you have by following Jesus.

Watch your criticism of Jesus’ bride – He takes it all quite personally! I suspect this text was given to us because so few comprehend how Jesus feels about our casual attitude toward His betrothed. He loves His bride, and that includes all who know Him. Don’t forget! The body makes the difference…

In 1857, there was a 46 year old man named Jeremiah Lamphere who lived in New York City. Jeremiah loved the Lord tremendously, but he didn’t feel that he could do much for the Lord until he began to feel a burden for the lost and accepted an invitation from his church to be an inner city missionary. So in July of 1857 he started walking up and down the streets of New York passing out tracts and talking to people about Jesus, but he wasn’t having any success. Then God put it on his heart to try prayer. So he printed up a bunch of tracts, and he passed them out to anyone and everyone met. He invited anyone who wanted to come to the 3rd floor of the Old North Dutch Reform Church on Fulton St. in New York City from 12 to 1 on Wednesday to pray. He passed out hundreds and hundreds of fliers and put up posters everywhere he could. Wednesday came and at noon nobody showed up. So Jeremiah got on his knees and started praying. For 30 minutes he prayed by himself when finally five other people walked in. The next week 20 people came. The next week between 30 and 40 people came. They then decided to meet every day from 12:00 to 1:00 to pray for the city. Before long a few ministers started coming and they said, “We need to start this at our churches.” Within six months there were over 5000 prayer groups meeting everyday in N.Y. Soon the word spread all over the country. Prayer meetings were started in Philadelphia, Detroit, and Washington D.C. In fact President Franklin Pierce started going almost every day to a noonday prayer meeting. By 1859 some 15,000 cities in America were having downtown prayer meetings every day at noon, and thousands were brought to Christ. The great thing about this revival is that there is not a famous preacher associated with it. It was all started by one man wanting to pray. – (Sermon Central, From a sermon by Rich Anderson, Seeking The Face Of Jesus Christ 2/18/2011).

Felix Unger and Oscar Madison were two men, tossed out of their respective houses by their wives, and they ended up sharing expenses in a two bedroom apartment. Based on a play from Broadway, the two were featured in a weekly TV comedy sitcom back in the seventies, and showed America that two people – a neat freak and an unmitigated slob – could live together if it became an absolute necessity. The two men could not have been more completely opposite one another. Oscar wrote a sports column and never met a vacuum cleaner. Felix was a surgeon who couldn’t get things truly clean enough to suit him. Each episode began with a classic prologue:

“On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence. (Unger’s unseen wife slams door, only to reopen it and angrily hand Felix his saucepan) That request came from his wife. Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that someday, he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his childhood friend, Oscar Madison. Sometime earlier, Madison’s wife had thrown him out, requesting that he never return. Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?“

Over the next five years, the two showed that it was not only possible for them to live together; it was unusually funny. They made it work against all odds. Odd couples can work – but it takes extraordinary effort. I mention this because all of you who follow Jesus in this world find yourself in an “odd couple” situation. Your value system, one that came from being instructed in God’s Spirit, has made you very different from the others you work with and are surrounded by in life. Believers think, feel and act in unique ways – and that makes them stick out. In fact, the odd couple scenario plays out every time a believer is place in the world and paired off with a team of non-believers. Every church in our community that seeks to follow Jesus is increasingly showing the odd nature they have, called to live in the same period and place, but by distinct rules. Let’s say it this way: God has distinct standards for believers that He doesn’t expect from the world… and that makes following Jesus look costly to some who are outside the faith. Often the church is better at articulating the standard than how extraordinary a relationship with God truly is.

This series of lessons is entitled “Confident Christianity”, and – though it is based on the Corinthian church – it is not a joke. It could SEEM like one if you have ever read much about the church of Corinth in the New Testament. That church was FILLED with sin. I wish I could say it was unique, but it was not at all – every generation of the church was a sinful one being slowly transformed by God. Corinth didn’t represent the best in their time, but Paul did – and he wrote the letter. Why then, should we call this “Confident Christianity” at all? Because the confidence we have as the church is not IN the church – but in the God Who regenerates and His message. Just because some people, even prominent ones, don’t yield themselves to God doesn’t mean that God cannot and does not change people through the power of the Word and His Spirit – He does and He IS.

God’s church is a unique organism. It is not a committee, but it engages people together. It is not a club, but its members draw encouragement and strength from one another. It is not primarily an organization, though it has rules and commitments. It is the living body of Christ – His hands and feet – to touch a lost world with a message of hope. The way it is to do this is unique as well. It is, in some clear ways, ODD. Here is the truth…

Key Principle: God made specific and clear guidelines for the church’s actions that are unique to her operation.

There is nothing like the church of Jesus Christ. We had a Divine initiation, and the rules of how we do what we do are set in fences that are unique to this work. Things that work in the world to attract and engage people are not necessarily allowed in the church. Consider the first letter Paul wrote to the Corinthians where Paul noted there were four reasons that church bodies divide that were NOT good reasons:

1. They confuse the STANDARD of truth – the Eternal Word of God properly and carefully interpreted. No one gets to overrule God on what is important – and He has spoken. The church must stand for systematic, careful instruction of God’s Holy Word. If we do nothing else well, we must do this well. If we do everything else well and not this – our work is near meaningless in eternal value.

2. They confuse the CENTRAL TRUTH of the church – the work and Word of Jesus our Lord. We aren’t a social agency or a social justice agency – our work eclipses those needs. The church must emphasize at every turn the importance of surrender to Jesus Christ, because He alone can save a man or woman, and He alone can change what is broken within them.

3. They confuse the importance of the WORKER with the importance of the transforming work of God’s Spirit. It isn’t primarily Christians that make the church a place where successful life changing happens – they play a secondary role. Men and women of God are not the source of change, but can be an example of the open and free flow of the transforming power of God through His Word.

4. They confuse POPULAR thinking for RIGHT thinking. There are many ways to get people to respond emotionally that are not spiritually correct approaches. The church cannot be simple pragmatists – believing that if it works it must be good. We must test every method and approach with the Word to be sure it is real and lasting in its quality.

As Paul continued his letter into what is now known as the second chapter, he went back in time to the way he approached the beginnings of ministry at Corinth. He offered several important insights based on his experience:

Some churches underestimate MESSAGE and emphasize METHOD:

Paul argued, the basis of the conversion of lost people and foundation of that ministry was NOT simply or even primarily based on TECHNIQUE. There is much written today about the way the church should appeal to people. I don’t want to overstate the case – there certainly IS a point to having a clean and neat environment to our church home and a creative presentation of God’s truths. There is a reason we want the environment to reflect order and personal care – just as our homes should. At the same time, message should drive method in the church – not the other way around. Paul says it this way:

1 Corinthians 2:1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

Paul wasn’t arguing that he came unprepared or in mediocrity of presentation – simply that it wasn’t his impressive pyrotechnic display that drew people to Christ. The CENTER of the ministry is the MESSAGE, not the METHOD. Creativity is not only FINE, it is even REQUIRED in thinking through our public deportment and presentation of the Gospel – but this is much more than a local talent show – and we need to remember that.

Look closely at the verse again. Paul made clear that he took pains to balance creativity against distraction from the message and persuasive presentation of the simple truth of man’s lost-ness and need for a Savior. Primary attention needs to be placed on the TRUTHS we are communicating. After that, and only after that, do we need to be open to using methods that enhance the delivery of the message. We need to be careful not to codify old methods as sacred. Even experts can’t see forward well. I read some of these and they made me realize the weakness of expert forecasting in this regard:

“This ’telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” –Western Union internal memo, 1876.

“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” – Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?” –David Sarnoff’s associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

“Who the heck wants to hear actors talk?” –H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

“Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” –Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” –Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

“I’m just glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling on his face and not Gary Cooper.” –Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in “Gone with the Wind.”

“I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.” –The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” –Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” –Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

“So we went to Atari and said, ’Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary; we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ’No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ’Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.’” –Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in he and Steve Wozniak’s personal computer.” (From sermon central illustrations).

We live in times when substance seems reduced and replaced with creative presentation. In entertainment that makes sense – in education it doesn’t. Math, science, reading – all of these skills require commitment to learning basic facts and a steadiness of logic – along with a lot of drills to ensure methods are sound. The church is primarily and education and information organization that houses a Divine transformation service offered by God’s empowering work. Our education must be sound – and drilled. Catchy sayings don’t replace solid truth – and people need the clear and concise teaching of the principles of God’s Word put in a way that will help them apply the right principles at the right time to the right problem.

Conventional corporate logic in America makes it perfectly acceptable in the world to consider the packaging of a product more than the product itself – but not in the church. The church must move TECHNIQUE behind the message – or it could easily be caught up in just another show.

Some churches overemphasize PERSONALITY and distract from the Headship of Christ:

Paul purposed to put his PERSONALITY in the background, and tried with all that he was to put the person and work of Jesus out in front. The stronger the personality, the more tempted we become as leaders to drive what is happening around us. Someone said to me one time: “That man is too talented for his own good!” I knew what they meant. They LOVED the man, but his talents and natural abilities left you knowing HIM and not Jesus. Paul said it this way:

1 Corinthians 2:2 … For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

Look at the two things Paul emphasized in his own life – Paul wanted to really KNOW Christ while he was in their midst, and Paul wanted to really know the work that Christ did on the Cross. On first glance, Paul’s words seem wrong. After all, didn’t Paul already KNOW Jesus when he arrived on that second mission journey? Surely he was aware of all that Jesus had done – he already planted numerous churches across Asia Minor and Macedonia. So what was he saying?

Andrew Murray wrote these words, and I believe they will help set up exactly what Paul was communicating to the Corinthians: “God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.” When Paul arrived in Corinth, he had recently been physically beaten and imprisoned in Philippi, had his family attacked in Thessaloniki, been singled out in Berea as the problem member of the team, and lost his footing on the presentation he made in Athens – basing it on relevant poems without Biblical text. He was dragged out, and he was alone. He didn’t feel strong – and he didn’t know feel like he could put much into the “flash” of his speaking. He simply fell into the arms of Jesus, who met him in a dream and promised him:

Acts 18:9 And the Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent; 10 for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city.” 11 And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

It was because of this history that Paul went on to remind the Corinthians of the early days of the ministry by saying: 1 Corinthians 2:3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

In the world, it is perfectly acceptable to build celebrities and let them mark brands with their identity – but not in the church. We are a BODY, and the trend toward Christian celebrity is a dangerous one that will yield “prima donnas for Christ” and allow us to elevate men beyond the truth – but we are ALL SINNERS. I am not arguing to demean men and women of God – just not sacrifice truth to keep them happy.

Yet, the problem isn’t only the presenters and leaders. Some of the problems reside in the hearers…

Some churches emphasize THE SPEAKER but do not remind people of the responsibility of the HEARERS:

Paul knew it would always be TEMPTING to put every truth in the simplest terms for the least mature believers – trying to require very little of the hearers of the Word. The message of real surrender to Jesus and committed study of God’s Word would not be as easily accepted. Many ministries are deliberately cutting content so that they can be more appealing – as are our school systems. Over time, the slow “dumbing down” of the nation and its believers are leaving an anemic church in an immoral generation. Paul said it this way:

1 Corinthians 2:6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; 7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; 9 but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.” 10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

Look very carefully at the way Paul described his ministry.

First, Paul spoke in a godly and discerned WISDOM (Gk: “sophia”), in a way that required a level of spiritual discernment and growth to grasp (2:6a). The message of God’s Word isn’t supposed to be dressed in excessively hard words, but it truly requires people to THINK. The point of ministry isn’t simply the number that come to church, but the number that become like Christ in the daily practices of their life. Trying to always make it simpler isn’t always the right thing. Hearers need to learn to carefully scrutinize teachers – even if it doesn’t seem kind – because people are gullible, and can be tricked. Poor logic well delivered is merely an entertaining side show – Christian or not. We must present answers, or leave people drift toward those who won’t hesitate to offer critique. It is one reason we lose so many of our children to the world – they didn’t get substantive answers here. Our youth may need games to attract them, but they will need a diet of solid truth to sustain them.

Second, the grasping and discernment was not simply based on education in this world, but real engagement with the things of the SPIRIT – “not of this age” (2:6b). People who don’t have the Spirit at work in them will be bored to tears with what a good church is doing. Some movements in the church therefore conclude that the church is not as RELEVANT as it should be – and force it to change what it is doing. That may be justified in some cases when the presentation has become sterile or stale, but often it is a reflection of a culture that is increasingly led to do what is popular in the short run over what will solve problems in the long run. We cannot run the country based on dramas that replace the floor speeches of the Congress, but increasingly we are being told to replace the pulpit education with “more effective” communication methods. Truth must be logically presented, defended and argued – and entertaining the church won’t get the job done.

Third, note the words were spoken “in a mystery” – that is, in conjunction with revealed truths of God that He alone could truly direct and explain through His Spirit within (2:7-8).

1 Corinthians 2:7 “…but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

The study of the Bible and its truths cannot simply be an academic exercise based on intelligence and human reasoning. It must be consistent in the hermeneutic (the method of study) and not contradictory – but it requires a spiritual component to a man or woman’s thinking. God must energize them – and that happens through their surrender to His will. Smart people who do not possess the Spirit of God, or perhaps are resisting Him will fail to grasp the counsel of God when reading the very same passage. That doesn’t necessarily mean our message is too hard – it may mean their surrender is too soft.

Fourth, the message is spiritual and goes well beyond the experience of the lost man (2:9-16). People can’t conceive in the natural the powerful, optimistic, uplifting, exciting truths revealed by God’s Word concerning those who surrender their heart to Jesus. God has some incredible things He wants to show man – but they must first yield themselves to Christ for salvation and to the Spirit for dominance and depth.

Paul knew that many would clamor to have the teaching of God’s Word to ever adjust to the language and desires of a lost world. Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.

Look at the words and note how they close out his argument. Paul made clear:

People without the Spirit don’t understand the Word of God properly, nor do they respect it – it seems stupid to them. They cannot understand what the text is driving at. This is the reason we must be careful not to “Bible bomb” people in social media and think our Bible verse trumps their argument… They don’t care what an ancient book says, and apart from the Spirit the Word seems like a simple record of a dusty past.

Don’t overplay verse 14. Paul isn’t saying that until you believe you will have no interest in the Word. Often people nibble truth before they bite it. They put their toe in the pool but aren’t sure if they want to jump in yet. Let them. Speak God’s Word and celebrate what it does to you. The bottom line of Paul’s words in 2:14 are this: People will use the Bible, quotes pithy Bible sayings and even use Bible logic – but the surrender part makes no real sense to someone who is not prepared to follow Jesus with their whole life. Poetically speaking, it takes the Spirit of God and surrender to His will to offer you the “glasses” through which the Word will really make sense.

In the end, the entire passage presses us to recognize that ministry is not about the world most people desire to live in. People hunger for success in THIS world, happiness in THIS world, fulfillment in the things of THIS world – but we preach a Crucified Savior, and selfless Christian and a servant’s heart. He stands as God above all – in direct opposition to the gods of FORTUNE, FAME, POWER AND PLEASURE – the gods of our age to which men pay homage. Surrendering this life to God is not the STUFF of popular worldly thinkers. That’s why we cannot use the world’s measures and methods as our drivers. We aren’t driven – we are led by the Spirit as expressed in the Word.

Experience Jesus, surrender your future to Him the way He surrendered His life for you – and you will discover a life waiting for you that you never knew you could have. Your values will change. Your perspective will change. What you find fulfilling will change – as you yield to the Spirit. The world around you will look different. You will see life in a whole new way…

A tourist was admiring the necklace worn by a local Indian. “What is it made of?” she asked. “Alligator’s teeth,” the Indian replied. “I suppose,” She said patronizingly, “they mean as much to you as pearls would mean to us.” “Oh no,” he objected. “That isn’t true. We know that anybody can open an oyster!”

There is nothing like seeing the world through new eyes. There is nothing like the call of Jesus Christ. When you enter His family, you begin to understand the rules change for you – and the world looks more and more ODD. That is the reason that what we do are set in fences that are unique to this work.

We live in a broken world with broken people; but we have good news. Can you imagine trying to present the Gospel to unbelievers in your city if you were a tiny group of less than a hundred, and the city had tens of thousands of residents and a port that trafficked thousands more daily? Imagine it was a city famous as a sin-sick, sensuality soaked slime pit of moral degradation. Imagine nightly bar fights, streets lined with immoral statues of acts too lewd to describe in a decent home, and prostitution that was not only legal – it was the basis of the tax system. If you can, welcome to Corinth! What happened in Corinth didn’t stay there – because such diseases have a way of getting around. Athens was up the road, but was stuffy and academic by comparison. Delphi was north – but that was far too mystical and religious a city. Sparta was south – but that was an austere camp for the athletic and fit. This was Corinth, the Roman sailor’s sensual playground – a city with an imagination for evil.

The Apostle Paul showed up here on his second mission journey, and labored for eighteen months to reach people for Christ. After he was gone, he wanted the church to keep growing – but the enemy saw the tiny number of believers as a threat, and pounced from within upon them. He fanned the flames to keep the body divided any way he could. Yet, God wanted to reach the people of that city, and He didn’t give up on the church, even when it was so much a mess you would be forced to blush at their casual sinfulness. Paul left, but he wrote to help them move ahead, and to engage some who were hostile to his direction over the church. In the process of healing their rift, Paul left us a pattern to deal with broken churches – and there have been many since the first century. Here is the truth of the first part of the letter…

Key Principle: When God’s people aren’t walking correctly, God provides a way to deal with sin issues with both clarity and compassion.

If I could boil the letter down to the barest of bones, the letter would sound something like this:

Dear Ones at Corinth, You have placed your affections on your church leaders over the message of God they brought you (1-4) – and that is a mistake. You have confused the preeminence of truth over love (5) – and that showed up in your immoral church members and their boasting. You have placed the world’s standard over the body instead of Messiah’s holy standards (6) – and you are being embarrassed publicly. On the other hand, thanks for sending me your questions! I would like to address the answers concerning your six areas: marriage, divorce and remarriage (7), use of doubtful things (8-10), church symbolic behaviors (11), order and the use of spiritual gifts (12-14), the Resurrection of Jesus (15) and giving – the collection of aid funds (16).

For a few minutes, let’s begin our walk though the book (in coming studies) by dropping into the first issue and see what was at the heart of this broken church to see if God offered us some ways we can avoid becoming them, and some tips to help those who are already in that trap. If you carefully read all of the first four chapters, you will easily see that they were guilty of misplaced affection – loving their leaders more than the message of God’s Word. Take a look at the opening chapter of the letter:

I Corinthians 1:10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. 12 Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.”

There it is. Surrounded by unbelievers and sitting in the swamp of the sensual, they were infighting instead of pulling together to bring the light into the darkness of that city. Sadly, that is far more common than you may realize! Look at what Paul did to help them get back on track through the words and guiding of the Spirit of God. He offered in chapter one some rules of engagement in conflicts between believers that are hindering God’s work – caught up in sin.

Rule #1: Establish God’s call and a track record of following Him before you speak.

Just because you have insight into a situation, doesn’t mean you have earned the trust of the hurting people within it, so we must be careful! If we don’t, we can hurt them – and ourselves. Look at the first verse:

1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother…

Paul opened with what seems like his standard greeting, so we don’t want to squeeze it too hard. He calls himself an Apostle, as was common – but especially important in sharing tough issues with the Corinthian believers. The term means “sent by God”, and would catch the attention of some of that time.

Stop and consider something for a moment. Think of the most important Christian in the world today. Picture them. We may not all have the same person in mind, but consider this… What if you got a letter from that very well-known and influential Christian in the mail. Maybe the letter is about the ministry you are involved in within the community. Wouldn’t you share it with the rest of those in that study group, that prison ministry, that women’s shelter worker group or whatever you are involved in? Wouldn’t you be excited? I imagine the beat up and divided group of believers at Corinth had some that felt that way about seeing a letter from the Apostle Paul.

At the same time, though Paul is the author, Sosthenes (Gk: “safe in strength”) was probably the man who carried this letter back to Corinth to see that it arrived safely in the hands of the church’s leadership. One by that name was the chief ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, seized and beaten by the mob in the presence of Gallio, the Roman governor, when he refused to proceed against Paul at the instigation of the Jews (Acts 18:12-17). Could it be that he was later saved? My mind imagines some outreach to him by Paul after he was wounded. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine how he lost power in the religious community when he proved ineffective in persuading the governor. Did Paul step in and help him to lead him to Jesus – it would make a great novel! Some have thought that Sosthenes began to use another name (not an uncommon practice) after his beating and change – that of Crispus (Acts 18:8; 1 Corinthians 1:14) – but that is speculation as well.

Here is something that isn’t speculation…Mature believers are willing to get dirty to help others get clean.

It is worth remembering here that men and women who KNOW GOD and WALK WITH GOD are the ones God wants to use to deal with sin – but we must always do it cautiously. Treat one overtaken in sin as one caught in the trap – but ALWAYS have respect for the strength of the trap! We are not to get holy so that we can get INSULTED by the deeds of men. Their DEEDS of lost men signal their spiritual NEEDS. We are to roll up our sleeves and get dirty outside while not drawing the dirt inside. Mother Theresa did with a leper what all of us were called to do with sinners – LOVE THEM without trying to join them.

If that is true, then I must be diligent to learn God’s Word, and become accustomed to God’s moves – so that when He draws me into the path of a hurting person – encaged in sin and enraged against God – I can release what I have stored up in treasure and truth. The great monastic movements offered some very wonderful and positive results – like copies of important ancient documents. One of the terrible products of that movement was it left us with a self-centered Christianity – as though I should spend years of life trying to purify my mind and heart APART FROM THE WORLD. I am NOT called to leave the world, just not JOIN the world.

We are called to use time, talent and treasure to reach lost men and pull back slipping believers from falling into an unusable and ineligible state. We are given much to DO much for the Father. We will want be tempted to hoard what God has given for us to sow.

Watchman Nee quoted the verse: “if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). When he did, he followed it with this comment: “Ultimately, when we touch the things of the world, the question we must ask ourselves always is: “How is this thing affecting my relationship with the Father?“

Dr. Paul Brand, a well known doctor and author, in his book, titled In His Image,” wrote about his mother. … He wrote that when his mother was 75 years old, she was still walking miles every day, visiting the villages in the southern part of India, teaching the people about Jesus. One day, at age 75, she was traveling alone and fell and broke her hip. After two days of just lying there in pain, some workers found her and put her on a makeshift cot and loaded her into their jeep and drove 150 miles over deep rutted roads to find a doctor who could set the broken bones. But the very bumpy ride damaged her bones so badly that her hip never completely healed. He said, “I visited my mother in her mud covered hut several weeks after all of this happened. I watched as she took two bamboo crutches that she had made herself, and moved from one place to another with her feet just dragging behind because she had lost all feeling in them.” He wrote, “At age 75, with a broken hip, unable to stand on her own two legs, I thought that I made a pretty intelligent suggestion. I suggested that she retire. She turned around and looked at me and said, “Of what value is that? If we try to preserve this body just a few more years and it is not being used for God, of what value is that?” So she kept on working. She kept on riding her donkey to villages until she was 93 years old. At age 93 she couldn’t stay on her donkey anymore. She kept falling off. But she didn’t stop teaching. Indian men would carry her in hammocks from one village to another. And she continued to tell people about Jesus until she died at age 95. Paul writes, “My most vivid memory of my mother is of her propped up against a stone wall as people are coming to her from their homes, schools, and places of work. I can still see the wrinkles in her face, and her skin so tanned by the weather and the heat. “I saw her speaking to those people. I looked at them and saw the sparkle in their eyes, and the smiles on their faces. And I saw them deeply moved by the message of God’s love, spoken by this old woman. I knew what they saw was not an old woman who had passed her prime, but a beautiful person bringing tidings of love straight from heaven.“

Let me say it plainly – we are mature in Christ to become more useful to Christ. Babies can’t solve problems of other babies. We don’t need to run from the world – we need to have more of the WORD in our lives to challenge the WORLD in our lives. When we are maturing, we will be drawn into correction of those behind us – that is the way it has always worked in the body.

Rule #2: Let them know they are loved brothers and sisters; a vital part of the whole body of Christ.

Paul addressed the church as those sanctified in Christ by God’s calling and responding to God by calling back to Him as all believers around the growing Christian world were doing.

1:2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours…

People are desperate to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They hunger to belong – to a family, gang, tribe or club. The body of Christ is knitted together by the Spirit and meets a need in the life of the believer. Alone, the world is a cold place…

In an April 1988 Edition of Sports Illustrated, there appeared a story titled “Ali and His Entourage”. Sports writer Gary Smith went to Ali’s farmhouse to interview the three-time world champion. On the floor leaning against the walls, were mementos of Ali in his prime. Photos and portraits of the champ punching and dancing. Sculpted body. Fist punching the air. Championship belt held high in triumph. “The thrilla in Manila.” But on the pictures were white streaks – bird droppings. Ali looked into the rafters at the pigeons who had made his gym their home. And then he did something significant. Perhaps it was a gesture of closure. Maybe it was a statement of despair. Whatever the reason, he walked over to the row of pictures and turned them, one by one, toward the wall. He then walked to the door, stared at the countryside, and mumbled something so low that Smith had to ask him to repeat it. Ali did. “I had the world,” he said, “and it wasn’t nothin’. Look now.”

New believers think they know what they have LOST – the world cannot wait to remind them of that. How often do we carefully take the time to remind them of what they have gained? Brothers and sisters in Christ have to be MORE than finger wagers and judges – they have to be COMFORTERS. They need to offer HOPE to the slipping believer.

The end of verse two placed the believers in the struggling city side by side with Paul. He reminded the believers that needed correction that they can have HOPE because they have Jesus before them, the Spirit within and the Body around them – then he SHOWED THEM he would be there! If we follow suit – wanderers may listen to correction. If we don’t –they probably won’t.

Rule #3: Treat them with love and respect.

Notice as you read that the people at Corinth were not a project, they were brothers and sisters in Christ, worth every effort (1:4). After the “grace and peace” greeting (1:3), Paul got personal with them and thanked God for their part in his life. He let them know that he was happy they were a part of the family of God.

1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.

When we feel the need to pull someone aside and confront them because of sin, does the person under correction really see evidence that we LOVE them? If that is the first time we have taken time to talk with them – this is going to go badly. If we are dreading each opportunity to spend time with them or find ourselves THANKFUL when they leave – we cannot say they are IN our lives, nor can we claim we are properly in theirs. I suspect that most people can tell if they are a problem or a blessing to us.

One of my colleagues in ministry wrote this about the most amazing thing that happened at their church:

“His name is Bill. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college. He is intelligent. Kind of esoteric and very, very bright. He became a Christian while attending college. Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. They want to develop a ministry to the students, but are not sure how to go about it. One day Bill decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, jeans, his T-shirt, and wild hair. The service has already started, so Bill starts down the aisle looking for a seat. The church is completely packed and he can’t find a seat. By now people are really looking a bit uncomfortable, but no one says anything. Bill gets closer to the pulpit, and when he realizes there are no seats, he just squats down right on the carpet. (Although perfectly acceptable behavior at a college fellowship, this had never happened in this church before!) By now the people are really uptight, and the tension in the air is thick. About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, a deacon is slowly making his way toward Bill. Now the deacon is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walks with a cane and, as he starts walking toward this young man, everyone is saying to themselves that you can’t blame him for what he’s going to do. How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor? It takes a long time for the deacon to reach the young man, and then he turned to Bill and sat beside him, and smiled. The deacon turned to Bill and said, “Nice to have you here with us today!”

Welcoming isn’t a moment in the service, it is the impression people have after the meeting is over. Did they feel warmth or did they feel outcast? Many people don’t face God and deal with sin because they are snugly hidden behind some offense they had from another of God’s children.

Rule #4: Tell them the positive first.

Paul is going to get tough in this letter. By the time we are finished, Paul will have battled them. Yet he began on a welcome note in a loving tone. Was he unaware at how BAD this church had become? Not at all…People need to hear the good to be encouraged before they need to hear the correction – it sets the relationship in the right tone. (1:5-7). Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 1:5 “…that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ…”

Watch the letter as Paul is in the “thanking God” process. He articulated what he saw in the believers at Corinth. He told them they were changed (enriched) by God in their speech and thinking, and that change generated a testimony! He saw them as a local church filled with people of differing gifts – well rounded in Spiritual gifting. He saw them as people eagerly anticipating the Lord’s return and even their own time in Jesus’ presence. People are getting kicked DOWN all the time. Often, encouraging a believer is like offering oxygen to a drowning man! We HAVE to remember how much every person counts to our mission to reach a lost world!

I’m sure you’ve heard the classic story about the faithful pastor who was told by his superior that something was wrong with his work. The supervisor told him, “Only one person has been added to your church this year, and he is only a boy.” Later that day, heavy of heart, the pastor was praying when someone walked up behind him. Turning around, he saw the same boy—his only convert that year. The boy said, “Pastor, do you think I could become a preacher or missionary some day?” The Pastor encouraged him to pray and seek God about it. The lad was Robert Moffit who was destined to open Africa to the Gospel of Christ. Years later when Moffit spoke in London, a young doctor heard him say, “I have seen in the morning sun the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been.” The young doctor, deeply moved by Moffit’s message, was none other than David Livingstone. In 1840, he sailed for Africa where he labored for Jesus for more than three decades—all of this happened because a faithful pastor encouraged his “one convert.”

Be careful not to think you can see everything clearly. Watch your criticisms, because you may not know what God is doing, and you may hinder Him where He is working strongest!

Rule #5: Remember that Jesus is still very much at work in them.

We can never fall back into a “victim mode” as if the Spirit is responsible for our surrender – He is not. At the same time, remember that people cannot become what pleases God on their own – but God is able to keep transforming them. The same God that brought them from darkness to light and death to life is able to transform them from carnal to spiritual. He is FAITHFUL even when I am not faithful. Read on:

1 Corinthians 1:8 “…who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The principle was nowhere better exhibited that in Philippians 1:3 “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, 5in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Rule #6: Use specific examples.

It is never appropriate to judge motives, or say “You really think…” It is totally appropriate to raise specific examples of the infractions. Paul did it in the verses about divisions we read a few minutes ago…

I Corinthians 1:10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. 12 Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.”

The Apostle was both direct and clear – you are wrongfully divided. I know because one among you made it clear. The divisions are sin, and you must drop this now. It didn’t matter WHY you started it, only that you promptly and completely end it. One teacher noted: “No matter how much a local church has going for it, division can negate it’s vision.”

The story is told of two congregations that were located only a few blocks from each other in a small community. They thought it might be better if they would merge and become one united, larger, and more effective body rather than two struggling churches. Good idea … but they were not able to pull it off. The problem? They could not agree on how they would recite “The Lord’s Prayer.” One group preferred “forgive us our trespasses,” while the other group demanded “forgive us our debts.” So, as the local newspaper reported, “One church went back to its trespasses while the other returned to its debts.” (From a sermon by Bob Joyce, It’s About the Kingdom, 8/4/2011)

Rule #7: Connect their actions to specific violations of Scripture.

You are not the judge of right and wrong – the Word reveals right and wrong.

First, Paul knew some were following leaders like him because they had STANDING in the work. He personalized the argument as though they followed him and Apollos, but in fact they were following others that Paul did not name. The leaders of the various factions probably demonstrated a similar style of teaching to Paul’s Jewish line of plain argumentation and Apollos’ more eloquent philosophical approach. Paul stated that he is personalizing the reference and not offering a literal argument in 1 Corinthians 4:6.

He wrote: 1 Corinthians 1:13 “Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one would say you were baptized in my name. 16 Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.”

Second, Paul knew some were following leaders because of their SKILL in the work. These were attracted to the wisdom and eloquence of leaders like Apollos because his argumentation drew new people to Messiah.

He wrote: 18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness…”

Most church divisions in history have divided along the same two lines. Some follow people because of their STANDING in the church. Maybe they are charter members, or maybe they have been historically the most active family or most financially supportive family. The challenge to that group is one who comes in with great SKILL, and through eloquence of talent pulls the hearts of many with them. Paul knew the two parties and the problem:

You have misplaced your loyalty. The issue of the Gospel is not the preacher, but the One preached! The believer should glory in the Lord, not the messenger of the Lord. We don’t follow talent, eloquence, tradition or treasures – we follow God’s message found in His Word. Believers need to follow God for real – and follow His Word for real.

Ivan IV was the first Czar of all Russia. He was such a cruel man that they called him “Ivan The Terrible.” He married seven wives and abused them all. He was immoral and routinely violent. He used to throw animals off the surrounding city walls just to watch them die. But when he died in 1584, historians record that they shaved his head & dressed him for burial in the robes of a monk, hoping that God would think that Ivan the Terrible was a monk, and thus allow him into Heaven.

Is that how you get into heaven – by disguising yourself & hoping God will think you are someone else? When God’s people aren’t walking correctly, God provides a way to deal with sin issues with both clarity and compassion – but it isn’t sneaky.

Four days ago I sat in Rome and watched a news clip on an Illinois teenager who was arrested the previous Saturday at Chicago’s O’Hare airport attempting to travel to the Middle East to join the barbaric Islamic State. A 19-year-old U.S. citizen from Illinois was arrested and appeared in court facing charges for allegedly attempting to provide material support for a terrorist organization. If convicted, the man could face up to 15 years in prison. The FBI’s Chicago Join Terrorism Task Force revealed he had purchased a ticket to Istanbul, via Vienna. The young man had apparently penned a letter to his family, to be found in his bedroom after he left the country. “My dear parents, there are a number of reasons I will be going to the blessed land of Shaam [Syria] and leaving my home,” the letter says, according to the complaint. Among other things, the letter said, “We are all witness that the western societies are getting more immoral day by day. I do not want my kids being exposed to filth like this.” (One can only shake their head when a comparison of morality can be made to those who behead children… but that is a subject for another time.)

The man’s parents, who were present in court, declined to comment on the case – though I cannot imagine (as a parent) how they could not be mortified at the public exposure to their son’s actions. What caught my attention was that in the court documents, according to the reporter, officials have apparently estimated that around one hundred Americans have traveled for such illegal purposes. I mention this, because it brings up deep feelings in many of us concerning LOYALTY. Some of us truly struggle to see how someone can so deeply benefit from the good things our country has to offer, and respond by joining a heinous group like those filling the streets of the Persian Gulf with terror. Loyalty is a cherished ideal for most of us. Admittedly, the case I mentioned was quite extreme, and in a country of 350 plus million people, there are bound to be some who do the bizarre – so my purpose was not to suggest that massive shifts are happening in our culture. Extremes will always be out on the edge of our society, and every society. Yet, there is a direct connection between this story and our lesson at the beginning of Paul’s writing to the Corinthians.

By any Christian’s standard – at least until this generation – Corinth was an extreme church in aberrant behaviors. They found a way to be on the wrong side of behaviors in very short order, and the confusion that reigned in the place makes me wonder if there wasn’t a Pastoral shepherd some two thousand years ago who was surviving on the Roman version of antacids, and seeing a Greek therapist three times a week to keep himself from going over the edge. If you aren’t familiar with their behaviors, consider this: It was a church that was divided along lines of different teachers they each preferred more than any other. Add to that, they boasted of allowing some “wife swapping” of a man and his son – an incredible “swinger club” that had even the locals wondering what Jesus was all about. In addition, they were settling their disputes in public courts between each other… and all that was before they passed the first communion biscuit. They had loyalty problems – some to each other, and MANY to Jesus and His message. Their case of disloyalty was nearly as morally shocking (in a spiritual way) as attempting to join a terror group is (in a nationalist way). The “Apostle to the Gentiles” took on the work of a vicious enemy in the church – the devil was at work, and Paul answered with care- but he answered. His first letter to the Corinthian church opens with a direct address (now the first six chapters) to the people to understand proper loyalty.

Key Principle: God’s people must understand and apply appropriate loyalty. Without it, they will be ineffective and a hindrance to God’s Kingdom.

As you open your Bible to what we now call “The First Letter to the Corinthians”, travel in your mind’s eye with me to a city at the dividing point between northern and southern Greece. The land truncates at a small strip of land that cuts through the Corinthian Gulf to the west and the Saronic Gulf to the east. The land bridge connected the rugged lands of Sparta on the peninsula in the south to the Athenians in the mainland to the north. During Paul’s life, there was an attempt to cut a canal between the two gulfs to move ships more easily without the “Diolkos” conveyor system they used on land to pass whole ships across the land, but as public works projects go – it wasn’t completed until the 1880’s.

Go into Corinth with me for a few moments – you will quickly identify two things: First, it was a PAGAN town – like most Roman world cities it celebrated the gods of Greek mythology (as adapted by Rome) and the nymphs and demi-gods of common places like water supplies and the like. Second, and this would have been impossible to miss – it was a SEX FILLED town. There was no way to look along the roadway in which naked images would not have been strewn to show various coital positions and techniques – for it was a culture bathed in sexuality. Some may see our time as the same, but the difference was that there was no “off switch” – the statuary was everywhere one could look. This was a town funded by lust. Moral license (Biblically speaking) had become RIGHT in the standard of the city fathers, as they put their own young girls into prostitution as a ‘RESPECTABLE’ answer to the tax needs of the city. Inside such a town Paul, as “the kosher kid from Tarsus” labored for eighteen months to reach people for Jesus and establish a church amid the people living in a sea of darkness and licentious living. The task was HUGE.

Paul DID establish the group, but by the time of the writing of his letter, he was gone to Asia Minor, and he wanted the church to keep growing – but the body was apparently divided and drifting back into license in sexual behaviors. The surprise to the Apostle Paul wasn’t the temptation for the Corinthians to slip into licentious living, but rather how boastful the congregation became at its own tolerance and overt acceptance of sin. It seems that where wrong had long since been deemed right in the eyes of the culture, some in the church wrongly concluded that God was asking them to make it their primary task to accept people as they continued in sin and make them feel loved by the church, instead of expecting repentance to lead to behaviors surrendered to Christ. They appointed themselves to the task of “making God more popular” at the expense of making the transformation of behavior by the Spirit their telltale sign. Unsurprisingly, that method didn’t bring the blessing of God, and the Apostle rebuked them for their wrong direction. Paul needed to engage some who were hostile to his direction. In the process of healing their rift, Paul left us a pattern for the days ahead in our own country.

In a quick overview, Paul’s letter can be read as something like this:

Dear Ones at Corinth, You have misplaced your affections on leaders over the message of God they brought (1-4), confused the preeminence of truth over love (5) and placed the world’s standard over the body instead of Messiah’s holy standards (6). Thanks for sending me your questions! I would like to address the answers concerning your six areas: marriage, divorce and remarriage (7), use of doubtful things (8-10), church symbolic behaviors (11), order and the use of spiritual gifts (12-14), the Resurrection of Jesus (15) and giving – the collection of aid funds (16).

I want to take a few minutes to look at the first half of the letter, because in it is the secret of understanding, building and recognizing proper loyalty in the context of the church. Our pass will be quick, but I hope it will make the point clear:

In chapter one, Paul headed into the issue of loyalty by making clear some underlying foundational statements that we should keep in mind:

First, he established the call of God in his life and his “track record” of following Him.

Just because someone has an insight, doesn’t mean they have earned the trust of people to speak into their lives. He wrote:

1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother. 1:2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours…

Paul opened with what seems like his standard greeting, so we don’t want to squeeze it too hard. He calls himself an Apostle, as was common – but especially important in sharing tough issues with the Corinthian believers. Though Paul is the author, Sosthenes (Gk: “safe in strength”) was probably the man who carried this letter back to Corinth. One by that name was the chief ruler of the synagogue at Corinth, seized and beaten by the mob in the presence of Gallio, the Roman governor, when he refused to proceed against Paul at the instigation of the Jews (Acts 18:12-17). Could it be that he was later saved? My mind imagines some outreach to him by Paul after he was wounded. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine how he lost power in the religious community when he proved ineffective in persuading the governor. Did Paul step in and help him to lead him to Jesus – it would make a great novel!

My point is this: Mature believers get dirty to get others clean – and that is what Paul and Sosthenes were doing. They didn’t participate in sin, but they didn’t run either. It is worth remembering that men and women who KNOW GOD and WALK WITH GOD are the ones God wants to use to deal with sin. We are not to get holy and get INSULTED from the needs of men. We are to roll up our sleeves and get dirty outside while not drawing the dirt inside. Mother Theresa did with lepers what all of us were called to do with sinners – LOVE THEM without trying to join them.

Dr. Paul Brand, a well-known doctor and author, in his book, titled “In His Image,” writes about his mother. … He writes that when his mother was 75 years old, she was still walking miles every day, visiting the villages in the southern part of India, teaching the people about Jesus. One day, at age 75, she was traveling alone and fell and broke her hip. After two days of just lying there in pain, some workers found her and put her on a makeshift cot and loaded her into their jeep and drove 150 miles over deep rutted roads to find a doctor who could set the broken bones. But the very bumpy ride damaged her bones so badly that her hip never completely healed. He said, “I visited my mother in her mud covered hut several weeks after all of this happened. I watched as she took two bamboo crutches that she had made herself, and moved from one place to another with her feet just dragging behind because she had lost all feeling in them.” He said, “At age 75, with a broken hip, unable to stand on her own two legs, I thought that I made a pretty intelligent suggestion. I suggested that she retire. She turned around and looked at me and said, “Of what value is that? If we try to preserve this body just a few more years and it is not being used for God, of what value is that?” So she kept on working. She kept on riding her donkey to villages until she was 93 years old. At age 93 she couldn’t stay on her donkey anymore. She kept falling off. But she didn’t stop teaching. Indian men would carry her in hammocks from one village to another. And she continued to tell people about Jesus until she died at age 95. Paul writes, “My most vivid memory of my mother is of her propped up against a stone wall as people are coming to her from their homes, schools, and places of work. I can still see the wrinkles in her face, and her skin so tanned by the weather and the heat. “I saw her speaking to those people. I looked at them and saw the sparkle in their eyes, and the smiles on their faces. And I saw them deeply moved by the message of God’s love, spoken by this old woman. I knew what they saw was not an old woman who had passed her prime, but a beautiful person bringing tidings of love straight from heaven.”

Let me say it plainly – we are mature in Christ to become more useful to Christ. Babies can’t solve problems of other babies. We don’t need to run from the world – we need to have more of the WORD in our lives to challenge the WORLD in our lives. When we are maturing, we will be drawn into correction of those behind us – that is the way it has always worked in the body.

Second, he addressed believers with issues of sin, but showed that he truly loved them.

They were not a project, they were brothers and sisters (1:4). After the “grace and peace” greeting (1:3), Paul got personal with them and thanked God for their part in his life. He let them know that he was happy they were a part of the family of God.

1 Corinthians 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.

Third, he addressed the issues of sin, only after assuring them he truly believed in them.

People need to hear the good to be encouraged before they need to hear the correction – it sets the relationship in the right tone. (1:5-7

1 Corinthians 1:5 that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ…

People are getting kicked DOWN all the time. Encouraging a believer is like offering oxygen to a drowning man! We HAVE to remember how much every person counts in our mission to reach a lost world!

Issue One: Misplaced Loyalty (“Men over Message”- 1 Corinthians 1-4)

Drop down to verse ten, where Paul picked up the problem of division. Paul raised the specific examples of the infractions.

1:10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. 12 Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.”

Don’t forget, the pattern of the Scripture is this: When we address believers with issues of sin, we must help them connect their actions to specific violations of Scripture. You and I are not the judge of right and wrong – the Word reveals right and wrong – and the Spirit teaches the Word and drives its truths deeply within.

First, Paul knew some were following leaders like him because they had great STANDING in the work. He personalized the argument as though they followed him and Apollos, but in fact they were following others that Paul did not name. The leaders of the various factions probably demonstrated a similar style of teaching to Paul’s Jewish line of plain argumentation and Apollos’ more eloquent philosophical approach. Paul stated that he is personalizing the reference and not offering a literal argument in 1 Corinthians 4:6.

Second, Paul knew some were following leaders because of their SKILL in the work. These were attracted to the wisdom and eloquence of leaders like Apollos because his argumentation drew new people to Messiah.

Most church divisions in history have divided along the same two lines. Some follow people because of their STANDING in the church. Maybe they are charter members, or maybe they have been historically the most active family or most financially supportive family. The challenge to that group is one who comes in with great SKILL, and through eloquence of talent pulls the hearts of many with them. Paul knew the two parties and the problem: You have misplaced your loyalty. The issue of the Gospel is not the preacher, but the One preached! The believer should glory in the Lord, not the messenger of the Lord (1:10-4:21). We don’t follow talent, eloquence, tradition or treasures – we follow God’s message found in His Word.

Some believers get confused about the STANDARD of truth – that God speaks primarily through, and always in harmony with, His Word. You and I are not the judges of right and wrong – the Word reveals right and wrong.

Paul asked in 1 Corinthians 1:13 “Has Christ been divided?” Think about what Paul was saying. He wanted to know if BOTH SIDES could clearly claim that God was with them – and not with the other. At the heart of the claim was this issue: Jesus has made known where He stands on issues. When we begin to think other voices are equal to Jesus’ Word in our hearts – we are following skill or standing and not truth.

Some believers get confused about what the CENTRAL TRUTH of the body of Christ is – that Jesus and His work is to be elevated above all. He is to be elevated in our DAILY CHOICES as well as our WORSHIP.

Paul went on in 1 Corinthians 1:13b “…Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Paul wanted to remind the Corinthian believers that JESUS was the One that was crucified for them- and in the name of Jesus they were baptized. He is the center of the Christian faith.

• Our central message cannot become JUSTICE for the POOR. That is a worthy message – but it cannot be the center.

• Our central message cannot be the RESTORATION of former American morality. That is a worthy goal – but it is far from the center of what God has called us to complete.

Paul continued in 1 Corinthians 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void…. 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no man may boast before God. 30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”

While we must be careful not to elevate the WORKER above the WORK, we also don’t need to denigrate them. I love the little story: A minister gave an unusual sermon one day, using a peanut to make several important points about the wisdom of God in nature. One of the members greeted him at the door and said, “Very interesting, Pastor. I never expected to learn so much from a nut.” (A-Z sermon illustrator).

One issue the church faces in loyalty is making men more important than the message. Don’t do it. Check what everyone in this pulpit says to you. Read your Bible, and know its truths. Paul concluded the issue of “man over message” with simple words from 1 Corinthians 4:1 “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.”

Issue Two: Misplaced Affection” (“Love over Truth” – 1 Corinthians 5)

Yet, there was a second issue, found in chapter five, that was as deeply divisive and demonstrated rank disloyalty to God in behavior in the church at Corinth. The issue takes a moment to reflect upon, so don’t jump too quickly.

Here is the record: 1 Corinthians 5:1 “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. 3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 [I have decided] to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump [of dough]?”

On first reading, one can easily see that a man had entered a marital bed with his step mother – a rejection of both Biblical morality and a common Roman sense of decency. This was an egregious violation of sexual morays for the time, and the church not only accepted the man – but boasted of their tolerance in the process. Paul rebuffed the church – not so much for the sin – but for the acceptance of it and the boasting about their toleration of sin. This is a message for our times…

Modern followers of Jesus must seriously consider this truth: Either the Bible will define our morality, or our culturally molded senses will. If the words of the Holy One fail to determine and define truth in our hearts, and right and wrong behaviors in our walk – it will be our own conscience – deeply seared by sin and relentlessly pressed into the world’s mold that will determine what we commend as right and eschew as wrong. A culturally molded morality, unchallenged by God’s Word, will re-shape God Himself in our eyes – and the Almighty will look nothing like the character familiar to Moses, David or Daniel of old. Rather, that “god” will be nothing more than a household idol we have created to appease our religious instincts, hopelessly powerless and helplessly passive.

Paul’s response was simple and direct: Don’t focus on fixing your culture’s view of sexuality – God will deal with that. Rather, maintain the standard of the Word of God in relation to your spiritual family. He wrote this in the end of the chapter:

1 Corinthians 5:13 “But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.”

Paul clearly told Corinth to remove the man who was walking in sin in regards to his sexual behavior (1 Cor. 5:13). Let every church with a rainbow flag take note: God isn’t impressed with your relevance, nor is He delighted by your popularity in current culture. Your “loving toleration” is a mere mask for “refusal to stand by His Word”. You aren’t truly a “loving congregation” when you obscure what God clearly said – you are perpetuating the work of a deceiver – plain and simple. If that sounds wrong, read the end of verse thirteen and ask yourself this question: “Was Paul unloving when he called the man who violated a holy standard of sexuality wicked? Was he wrong to have the man removed from the church?” What has changed in the last two thousand years about the desire of men to change sexual morays to suit their own lusts?

I am not going over the edge on Puritanical judgment – there is a balance here as well. Paul later wrote to restore the man after he repented, because with the Lord there is always love in discipline. The question for our time is this: “Will such disciplines be removed out of a false sense of love and a hunger for cultural acceptance?” If it is, the one who walks in sin will die without correction, and be robbed of his or her productive walk for Jesus – and they will walk into the presence of the Lord only to have the lie unmasked before the King.

Some people just “change the bar (standard)” to make their lifestyle acceptable: The story has been told that Willie Nelson at one time owned a golf course (before the IRS owned Willie Nelson). He said the great thing about owning a golf course was that he could decide what par for each hole was. He pointed at one hole and said, “See that hole there? It’s a par 47. Yesterday I birdied it.”

Sin in the house of God is an affront to God. Paul was horrified that the church leadership was doing nothing. Indeed, they were rather proud of all the other things they had going. God is not interested in the things you’re doing as a church, if the people of the church aren’t living as the church.

Issue Three: “Misplaced Standards” (“World over Word” – 1 Corinthians 6).

A final misplacement that led to a false sense of loyalty was also referenced in Paul’s writing to the church at Corinth. Paul wrote about it this way:

1 Corinthians 6:1 “Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?

Paul told the believers not to take their legal issues between one another into public courts. He offered FOUR reasons:

First, because of what we WILL BE we must settle our disputes among believers within the circle of believers (6:2-3).

1 Cor. 6:2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?

Paul told them believers will be judges in a future time (6:2). Jesus told the disciples they would sit on the judges seat (Mt. 19:28) because they gave up their future to walk with Him. Paul told Timothy that believers would “reign with Christ” (2 Timothy 2:12), a reference to Revelation 20:4 where believers became the underling judges to Jesus’ Kingdom.

Paul told them believers will judge angels (6:3). 1 Corinthians 11:12 says that our lack of submission can affect the angelic observers. The word judge does not always mean to “condemn” – in this verse it may well be “to distinguish or decide”. A wife may ask her husband to look at some wallpaper for the bathroom and help her “judge” which is best for them.

Paul told them believers should know what they are NOW, and must deal with disputes among believers in the circle of the church (6:4-8).

1. We deal in higher (ultimate) issues in the church (6:4).

2. We have available resources of wisdom within (6:5-6) to keep us from needing outer assistance.

3. We have a higher value system than those without (6:7-8) to be prepared to lose something this side of Heaven to uphold Heaven’s values.

Finally, Paul told believer they should recall what we were in our past (6:9-11). We know sin. We have committed sin. We have hurt people and trashed our reputations before. We don’t belong there anymore! That is what 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 are all about – a walk through “memory lane” of the former way of living…

1 Cor. 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

The fact is: the world does things the EASY WAY: Since the Fall in the garden, it is easier for people to do wrong then to do right. We have to work at doing good and doing wrong just seems to come naturally. It is easier not to pray then to pray; it is easier not to be committed then to be committed. It is easier to have impure thoughts then pure ones. It is easier to not give then to give.

1 Cor. 6:11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

BUT what Jesus did for us can be described this way: We have been washed (apoluo), marked (sanctified as in agiadzo) and freed from further obligation (dikaio).

The story has been often told of Harry Houdini, the famed escape artist from a years back, who issued a challenge wherever he went. He could be locked in any jail cell in the country, he claimed, and set himself free in short order. Always he kept his promise, but one time something went wrong. Houdini entered the jail in his street clothes; the heavy, metal doors clanged shut behind him. He took from his belt a concealed piece of metal, strong and flexible. He set to work immediately, but something seemed to be unusual about this lock. For thirty minutes he worked and got nowhere. An hour passed, and still he had not opened the door. By now he was bathed in sweat and panting in exasperation, but he still could not pick the lock. Finally, after laboring for two hours, Harry Houdini collapsed in frustration and failure against the door he could not unlock. But when he fell against the door, it swung open! It had never been locked at all! But in his mind it was locked, and that was all it took to keep him from opening the door and walking out of the jail cell.

God’s people must understand and apply appropriate loyalty – message over men, truth over tolerance, Word standards over world standards.

You are released from payment to your former life. Jason Jones wrote: During the mighty movements of the Holy Spirit in the Moody-Sankey meetings in Dublin, the worldly father of C.T. Studd was gloriously saved. He invited some of his worldly companions to come to his home so that he could tell them the wonderful news. When one wealthy English sportsman arrived at the railway station he was met by the coachman. He could not wait till he got to the house to know what had happened to his old friend, so he began to question the coachman. ’I hear that something remarkable has happened to your master. I hear he’s got religion. Please tell me about it. In what way is Mr. Studd changed?’ ’Oh,’ said the Irish coachman, ’It’s a revolution. In one sense he is still the same man–he’s in the same body. But the best way I can explain him is he’s a new man in the old skin.’ The new creature receives a new set of appetites and a new set of attitudes. The babe in Christ has now a holy nature with a propensity toward holiness. The things he used to hate, now he loves and the things he used to love; now he hates.”

There are so many things that bind us. As long as we hold on to them, their power over us continues. Don’t let it happen. Fall into His arms.

The Corinthian believers thought they needed more and better gifts, but what they needed was something better than the gifts to be effective as a church (12:31). They needed responsible loving behavior.

Truthfully, it is always easier for them to get caught up in a theological discussion – like how God did what He did in apportioning gifts and operating them) than to come to terms with the very practical changes that were needful in loving one another. Believers would rather discuss the mind bending issues of God running the universe than practicing love among the difficult.

Key Principle: Mature believers spend less time trying to figure God’s work, and more time focused on responsibly loving each other.

Let’s take two passes over the passage – one to understand the problems Paul addressed, and one to grasp the practice of love.

Six Problems Paul Addressed:

Problem #1: Immature believers thought gifts that clarify truth would make the bigger difference – so they focused on the “up front” prophetic gives. Paul redirected them to behavior (13:1-3).

1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

You can’t choose your gifts, but you can choose your behaviors (13:1-3). We are not responsible for the gifts we are given. The spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit as it pleases God (12:11,18). Yet we are responsible for something more important than what gifts we have. We are responsible for using our loving behavior! The gifts are only as valuable as the love wrapping they come in! (13:1-3).

Problem #2: Some did not understand that love is not a mystical force, it is a clear and calculated choice. When a believer practices love – it can be measured (13:4-7).

1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Problem #3: Some believed gifts equal in value to loving behavior. The choice to serve with love brings about more lasting results than any other outworking of the Spirit (8).

1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

Problem #4: Some put all their trust in their understanding of God’s revealed truth – even though the contents are incomplete and their understanding was limited (13:9).

1 Corinthians 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;

Problem #5: Some would not grow past the obvious signs to maturity. As a believer grows up in his faith, they must learn to leave the early things they trusted to discern God’s will and direction – and move on to trusting God’s Word without the other works (13:10-12).

1 Corinthians 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

Problem #6: Pursuing gifts was the wrong focus. Loving behavior is the real key to serving God in a way that pleases Him – not giftedness (13). Pursue love in the use of the gifts, or they will not be what they should be (14:1).

1 Corinthians 13:13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. 14:1 Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

We often attempt to use the Word to unravel the mysteries of how God works, yet the point of the Word is to change US, not to fully explain the operations of God. We must focus on the call of the Word for us to change and conform to the principles of God’s Word, and cease worrying about whether everyone else is on the right path.

“The Practice of Love”

1. Establish the priority of love based on God’s truth. Paul offered four arguments (13:1-3)

1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

• Love is more important than great communication skills! (1)
• Love is more important than deep spiritual insight (2a).
• Love is more important than great vision in God’s work. (2b).
• Love is more important than self-sacrifice (3).

2. Explain the practice of love in the Body of Messiah: Paul offered fifteen descriptive practices of love! (13:4-7).

1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1. patient: makro thumeo “long before burning temperature”
2. kind: Chrest-euo-mai: “to show one’s self mild or tender”
3. not jealous: dzayloo “to burn with uncontrolled impassioned fervor”
4. does not brag: Perpereuomai “to verbally celebrate or concentrate on self issues and accomplishments.”
5. is not arrogant: Phusio-o: “to become inflated and cause to grow in self importance”
6. does not act unbecomingly: as-kay-mon-eh’-o “act in a way that tears down the other”
7. does not seek its own: “not forcing their own way upon”
8. is not provoked: par-ox-oo’-no “not easily sharpened; from root word for making a point on an axe by grinding”
9. does not take into account a wrong suffered: logidzomai kakos “to keep an account record of wrongs”
10. does not rejoice in unrighteousness: “does not celebrate getting away with breaking a rule”
11. rejoices with the truth: “celebrates truthfulness”
12. bears all things: stego “to cover over or thatch”
13. believes all things: to entrust and give credit to”
14. hopes all things: epidzo “have high expectations of”
15. endures all things: hupomeno “remain under”

3. Expose the permanence of Love: Paul offered three examples of its endurance (13:8-13).

1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

a. Content is subject to change in the ages, love should not be! (8-10).
b. Dazzling displays are not the primary object, love is what should catch our eye! (11).
c. We must not simply KNOW clearly the word, but SHOW clearly the word in love! (12).

• Faith: the vision of what God can do with one who is completely sold out to Him!
• Hope: the enduring trust that you can have if you learn that God is Sovereign!
• Love: the choice to act on another’s behalf, even when they don’t respond in kind!

Mature believers spend less time trying to figure God’s work, and more time focused on responsibly loving each other.