Lessons From 1 Corinthians – Lesson 5
So far we had a good opening to the letter, then came some very detailed and very through sections dealing with the serious issues of thinking of men above what you should. A discourse on preaching and preachers and how God does the work and we are nothing and at the same time critical co laborers with God.
And an important topic of separation and church purity. A biblical example of tough love.
All of these have each taken a good sized amount of verses.
This next section of Corinthians is a little different. Paul will deal with these next few topics one after another is much quicker fashion.
I think the reason is simply that these topics are pretty straight forward and can be dealt with quickly.
If you believe that each message must stick strictly to one topic only and that everything in that message must be driving toward one single challenge that your listeners are not living up to, then I can see where it would be difficult to teach. (some collage preaching classes teach exactly that)
But I don’t believe that it needs to be done that way. I believe that Christians can think, and that they can handle thinking thru more than one thing in 30 minutes.
And remember our goals here. Our goal is to go thru God’s precious word together. Our goal is to honor Him and praise Him and learn from His Word. So we are going to go thru several different topics today.
The next thing that Paul is going to deal with is putting self over your testimony and the cause of Christ.
1 Cor 6:1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?
1 Cor 6:2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1 Cor 6:3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
It becomes even clearer in the next few verses, some of the carnal Christians in Corinth were defrauding other carnal Christians in the church.
We are not given exact details. But we all know what defrauding is. It is illegally obtaining money by deception.
What 3 of the 10 commandments is that breaking?
Stealing, lying, coveting. It is also against many of the teachings of Jesus. Loving your breather and obeying the laws of the land as long as they don’t go against the Lord.
So doing this is a real problem on many levels. And instead of dealing with it in house, they are going to a lost judge and a lost worldly justice system.
And by doing that they are not just bringing an issue of illegally obtaining money by deception before the lost. They are bringing hypocrisy before the lost.
They are bringing a bad testimony of Christians lying, stealing, and coveting, and the bad testimony of Christians who are not following the teachings of Jesus. A whole horrible group of bad things before the lost world to see.
Instead they should have someone in the church who is wise judge this.
1 Cor 6:4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
1 Cor 6:5 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?
1 Cor 6:6 But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
1 Cor 6:7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
1 Cor 6:8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
They were doing wrong. Some people in the church were suffering loss. This was real. The loss is real, the hurt is real. Paul is not denying that and he is not making light of that.
Paul is teaching that we should put the cause of Christ and our Christian testimony before the lost, above the loss. Put the cause of Christ above the hurt.
Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
He is simply saying you are doing wrong. Verse 8. So obviously stop that. Get that judged in house instead of dragging that bad testimony before the lost.
It is better to suffer and take the wrong, than to bring public shame to the cause of Christ.
Put Christ, His Work, the Salvation of sinners, put the eternal destination of others above your loss. This world is not our home, we are just passing thru and all of our stuff and money is only very temporary. Life is but a vapor.
And yet being done wrong hurts. And justice and retribution are good things, Biblical things.
So what truths, what promises, can help you take the wrong?
He cares. Casting all your care upon Him for He careth for you.
Faith. But without faith it is impossible to please him. And a big one for me is God is not mocked a man will reap what he sows.
That is a promise and a guarantee. The lost world acknowledges it but do not give credit to God for it. They will call it karma, or they will say what goes around comes around.
The truth is God makes men reap what they sow. The bad they do, will in time come back upon them. We don’t have to make sure that justice is done. God will absolutely do that in his time.
His care, his grace, his love, knowing his watchful eye is upon you and that He knows all about it and that he is faithful and he will deal with it in his time. Faith and trust in all of that is what helps you take the wrong.
Now comes an intro to the principal that there is a big difference between have to and should.
Some people who teach a works salvation, which of course is false, will take verse 9 and 10 out of context and separate them from verse 11 which clarifies what Paul is saying.
1 Cor 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
1 Cor 6:10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Cor 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Here you need to bring in teaching from the rest of the N.T. Paul does not bring it all in here. Paul would have taught these truths for the year and a half that he were there. And Paul has said over and over again they are saved.
He does so again in verse 11. Yes, they had a large number of things wrong. Yes, they were carnal Christians. But they had the issue of salvation by grace right. Apollos even preached getting saved right. He was just a worldly preacher who had other things wrong.
Galatians is one of the N.T. books that they had by this time.
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
The list of sins in verse 10 and 11 will keep anyone out of heaven if they don’t repent and get saved. And we know that the carnal Christians in Corinth were guilty of being covetous.
They were doing things in the list, being covetous, and fornication, and being unrighteous.
But they are still saved because they are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and sealed by the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
They have been positionally changed. According to the mercy of God they are saved and washed. And nothing will change that, even the sin of coveting which was covered before this.
That is the intro. That needed to be said first. Sin keeps people out of heaven if they never get saved. Once saved, sin will not keep you out. You cannot lose your salvation.
So you can defraud your brother and take his money and you will still get to heaven. You will pay for it in this life. There are consequences to your sin in this life. And you will suffer lack of rewards in heaven for all eternity.
But you can sin and still go to heaven because of God’s mercy. He is faithful and does not take away his gift. God keeping His word is not dependent upon you.
People can get saved and then sin. The Corinthians did it then and people do it today.
So I can, but should I? Here comes the teaching there is a big difference between have to and should.
1 Cor 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. I can do wrong things and still go to heaven. I can take my brother to court, I can demand my rights and my compensation.
I can but should I. No. not all things are expedient. Expedient is helpful, useful, something that is good for achieving a suitable end.
For Christians the thing we want to achieve is having a good walk with the Lord and doing His will and doing His work. Having a good testimony and getting His word to the lost. We what to achieve having an effect on this wicked world.
Now comes a quick statement about the temporary nature of this life.
1 Cor 6:13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them.
A Christian can live for food, or a whole lot of other things. But those are not the meaning of life. You know the old saying, you cannot take it with you. So keep your priorities in line with reality.
Do you have to. No. But should you be concerned about what is expedient in God’s eyes? Yes.
Paul now moves on to the issue of fornication.
1 Cor 6:13 …Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
1 Cor 6:14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
1 Cor 6:15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
The instant we got saved, the Holy Spirit indwelt us. So everything we do we are taking, I mean literally taking God with us. So can a Christian have sex out of marriage? As far as still going to heaven yes.
He will suffer for it in many ways. Diseases, unwanted pregnancies, financial troubles, and on the list goes.
But should he. Absolutely not. shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
God forbid. That is very strong language. A Christian absolutely should not have sex out of marriage.
1 Cor 6:16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
1 Cor 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
1 Cor 6:18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
1 Cor 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1 Cor 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Sex out of wedlock is clearly a sin. A sin against your own body. A shameful thing taking the Holy Spirit which is indwelling you into an act like that…
It is something that a Christian should not do.
The solution is now given.
1Co 7:1 Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
1Co 7:2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
God’s solutions are always best for us. His solution is simply to have a man and a woman choose each other as a lifelong partner and enter into holy matrimony.
One man and one woman becoming one flesh.
If mankind would follow that simple plan, then there would be zero sexual diseases, no divorces, no broken homes, and no ex’s causing trouble.
People that are in those situations can absolutely find grace and help from God.
And thru that help, they can praise and glorify God.
But those troubles are things that they could have avoided if they found a good lifelong partner and did it God’s way.
The big issue of I can but should I is a huge issue and Paul is just getting started on this issue. He is going to use many different examples before he is done with this huge issue.