1 Corinthians 7;32-40

32I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. 35I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord.

36If anyone thinks he is acting improperly toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if she is getting along in years and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married. 37But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin—this man also does the right thing. 38So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does even better.

39A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord. 40In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.



Dig Deeper

One of my high school basketball players came to me with a very challenging problem one year. He wanted to continue to play on the basketball team but he wasn’t sure he could. He was a very good player with the potential to play in college one day, but now he was thinking about giving up playing. His family was not doing well financially and he had been given the opportunity to work full-time after school. The money he would make there would help out his family greatly in the short-term but would not be as beneficial in the long-run as a college education would. Making matters more difficult was the fact that he believed he couldn’t afford college without a basketball scholarship. The real difficulty in the situation was that these two competing interests completely conflicted with one another; he simply could not do both well. Eventually a compromise was worked out where he was able to work and play basketball, although he wasn’t able to do either to the best of his ability.

Paul continues here with advice on marriage to a church that is torn between their social customs and pressures about marriage on the one hand and their desire to do God’s will on the other hand. Paul’s personal preference is that people, if so gifted, remain unmarried so that they can focus on God’s work. He has no problem, however, with those who choose to get married. He just wants them to realize the difficult road ahead if that is the path that they choose.

Paul doesn’t think that it’s impossible for someone to be married and serve God, as most of the other apostles were married (see 9:5). Yet he does personally believe that the ideal situation would be for people to be gifted with singleness. The thrust of Paul’s statements, though, can be better understood in context of the famine at the time. With famine in the midst, times were hard and being married was going to be more difficult than ever. Providing for a family and serving God during times of economic hardships can be almost impossible.

Above all, Paul does not really lay down any rules, he wants people to learn to demonstrate discernment and to think about things from the perspective of their life in Christ. One of the things that Paul wants people to realize is that many people get married for the wrong reasons. Getting married for a reason any other than glorifying God with one’s marriage will certainly lead one into divided loyalties. Paul is not against marriage, he is against marriages that pull one’s loyalties away from the Kingdom of God.

Verses 36-38 are notoriously difficult to translate and to understand. Many commentators now agree that the NIV translation is at best misleading from the original meaning. Theologian N.T. Wright translates these verses to read: "If anyone thinks he is behaving improperly towards his fiancee — if he finds the situation overly stressful, and matters reach a point of necessity — then let him do as he wishes, he won’t be sinning. But the man who settles it firmly in his heart and is not under necessity, but in control of his own will, and has made his judgment in his own hear to keep her as his finacee will do well. So the one who marries his fiancee will do well; and the one who holds back from marrying will do better." Paul is probably offering advice (although this passage could be taken in a couple of other ways) to engaged couples. They would have been engaged at a young age and the social pressure was for them to go ahead and get married. With their devotion to the Lord and the coming economic hardships to think about, Paul wants to remind them that they are in Christ. This matters far more than the social pressures to get married and have children, so whatever they decide is best to do is okay. If they feel that it is wise to postpone or cancel their marriage, that is a perfectly acceptable position to take.

In verse 39, Paul returns to briefly address the group of women that had been married but had lost their spouse. First he affirms the ideal permanency of marriage by saying that a woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. They should not feel that this bind reaches beyond the grave. If they are widowed, they are free to make a wise Christian decision about their future marriage. This would have been quite freeing for women who would have faced great public pressure to get remarried. Paul reminds them, then, that their status in Christ moves them beyond social pressures. The only restriction that they should observe is to marry someone who belongs to the Lord. Paul has already given his advice to those who find themselves married to a non-Christian, but no one should voluntarily enter into that arrangement. It would be foolish for someone ‘in Christ’ to unite themselves willingly with someone who is still ‘in the flesh’. Paul’s judgment is that the widow might well be better off remaining unmarried. He ends witht the cryptic phrase, and I think that I too have the Spirit of God. It’s hard to know if Paul meant this seriously or sarcastically, and to what specifically he is referring. He may be poking fun at those in Corinth who were offering differing advice and claiming that they could do so because they were ‘in the Spirit’. He might, however, be referring to the possibility that he was a widower who had remained unmarried. His phrase, then, would mean that has been perfectly happy with his decision, and he has the Spirit of God as much as anyone who decided to get remarried.



Devotional Thought

The topic of marriage and divorce is as difficult and muddled in our world as it was in Paul’s world. Whenever we are in the midst of situations like these or offering advice to those involved with these issues, we must do as Paul did. Consider what it means to think like someone who is in Christ and put the social expectations and pressures of the pagan world to the side.

1 Corinthians 7:25-31

25Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. 26Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for you to remain as you are. 27Are you married? Do not seek a divorce. Are you unmarried? Do not look for a wife. 28But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.

29What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; 30those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.



Dig Deeper

When people ask my advice on the topic, I nearly always counsel that getting married while attending college as a full-time student is an unwise thing. It makes it very difficult for a young person to be a disciple, a good student, and a proper spouse. Although there is an element to the truth that being married will always divide one’s attention away from the Kingdom of God, there are are also many benefits to being married as a disciple. This advice, then, is not universal advice against getting married; I am not a marriage hater. In fact, if God has called someone to be married then they absolutely should. If He has gifted them to be single and has called them to do so, then they should do so with joy. My advice against marrying is very general advice to people in a specific situation and time in their life. Yet, if for some reason, one of those college students chose to get married, it would not be a sin, it would just be a more difficult situation for them.

This is the case with Paul’s advice here, which can be quite confusing if we forget that he was writing specific advice based on specific questions at a specific time. Our job is to pull out the principles of Paul’s advice and apply them to our own situations, not to woodenly follow his words as though they were a new law that he was writing down. At the time that Paul was writing this, there was a severe shortage of food, particularly grain, in that entire region of the world. This was particularly difficult for those that were poor, as apparently many of the Corinthian Christians were. It was a time of great trouble for those who would have a very difficult time providing food for themselves, let alone a family. Much of Paul’s words here then, must be seen through those lenses. He is offering advice through a difficult but limited situation, but there is a degree to which he thinks his advice has its advantages in general for the Christian who must always realize that their reality is the Kingdom of God not the present age. Thus, in a sense, Paul is referring to the crisis in the present time, but he always has an eye on return of Christ and the ‘age to come’. Christians should never settle in and start living as though the present age is all there is, and that we will be here forever.

The word translated ‘virgins’ here would be better understood by us if we read it as ‘unmarried’. It refers to those who have never be married. If they were unmarried, Paul says that they should remain that way because of the present crisis. Once again, he is reminding them that, as Christians, they should think situations through and not give into social pressures. To make sure that there are no misunderstandings, though, he covers all his bases by mentioning that if someone is already married, they should use neither the present crisis or the impending ‘age to come’ as excuses to get a divorce. If someone wanted to disregard Paul’s wise advice and get married for whatever reason, they were free to do so. They should not be made to feel like second-class citizens or disobedient Christians, but should realize that they will have to face the challenges of their situation. This section should be rather instructive for those who feel that all advice from a leader or another Christian should be followed blindly, or if they don’t it is sinful and prideful (following wise advice is usually the best medicine, though). It is also rather instructive for those who teach that being a Christian means having a trouble-free life. Paul would not endorse or agree with either of those attitudes.

Paul’s advice that begins in verse 29 must again, be understood as referring to the present crisis as well as having an eye on the Lord’s return. Verse 29 could be rendered "the present situation won’t last long." If that is the case, then the second half of that verse could actually be advice to engaged couples (it doesn’t make sense otherwise and would seem to be rather contradictory with what he has already written about not abandoning one’s marriage). He is telling them that during the present crisis, they may want to postpone their weddings until a better time. It is true, that although Paul reveres and respects the institution of marriage, he would probably rather see most Christians have the gift of remaining single as he had. He probably realized that the reality of that wasn’t practical or realistic, but that was his preference nonetheless.

Paul continues his thoughts about how to view the world, through the lenses of both the present crisis and the return of the Lord. His words in verse 30 and the first half of 31 are pretty straightforward. What Paul really wants them to understand is what he has been trying to explain this whole chapter. Any situations that they may find themselves in during this life, pale in comparison to their status of having their life in Christ. Being in Christ dwarfs any life situations, customs, or social pressures. As Paul will continue to stress, finally culminating in chapter 15, they need to completely rethink their worldview based on being in Christ and the reality of the coming resurrection. When the Lord returns, the righteous, both living and dead, are resurrected, and we enter into the ‘age to come’, none of the social customs or our status in the world will matter. All that will matter is did we remain faithful to our life in Christ in whatever strange circumstances we may have found ourselves.



Devotional Thought

What are the conventions or standards of the world that are most likely to influence you away from approaching the world as one who is in Christ? Is it the pull to climb socially, to get a better job, to become more educated, to have a great car or home, etc. How would Paul’s principles laid out in this chapter apply to things like that? What sort of advice might Paul give to you on this topic?

1 Corinthins 7:17-24

17Nevertheless, each one should retain the place in life that the Lord assigned to him and to which God has called him. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. 18Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. 19Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands is what counts. 20Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him. 21Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. 22For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave. 23You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. 24Brothers, each man, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation God called him to.



Dig Deeper

If Paul wanted the Corinthians to understand nothing else, the one thing that he really wanted them to grasp is what it meant to be in Christ. In Paul’s theology, the only person worthy of being called righteous and entering into the ‘age to come’ was Jesus. The only way that any human could enjoy any of that was to enter into the life of Christ. This, was of course, done at baptism (Romans 6:2-11), and it is the only way that we can enter into God’s presence. Throughout this letter, Paul is trying to help the Corinthians understand what it means to live in Christ. As part of that explanation in his letter to the Galatians (3:27-28), Paul says, "for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." His point is that once you have entered into the life of Christ, human distinctions are unimportant. We should neither exalt ourselves for them or feel badly about them. We are in Christ and that is the only important place to be. All other positions are merely tools to be used to bring glory and honor to Christ and places in which we can carry out His work.

If we don’t have that concept from Galatians 3 in mind, this passage can seem a bit out of place. Why would Paul include discussions on circumcision and slavery in a chapter about sex and marriage? It is because the real point of the chapter is about understanding who we are in Christ. He has been discussing the angle of gender and marriage, now he will turn to the other two big areas of contention and status in his day (both of which are mentioned in Galatians along with gender).

The first is circumcision. This was a clear divider between Jews and Greeks, especially in Greek towns where the men bathed and exercised naked. Many Jews in the first century Greek towns were so embarrassed by this physical marker that they took to having surgeries to make it look like they hadn’t been circumcised. The second was that of slavery. Slavery was a major part of life in the first century. The entire economy and social fabric was built upon it. We should note, though, that although it was still far from God’s plan of freedom for all humans, this was not nearly as brutal and dehumanizing as the form of slavery practiced in the new world from the 16th to the 19th centuries, nor the evil form of human slavery still practiced in many corners of the world today.

Paul’s point on both of these topics cannot be taken out of context. He is not writing about his personal feelings on these topics, nor is he laying down a biblical standard, that, for instance, slavery should be considered a positive thing. His point is that once someone comes to Christ there should be no exaltation or shame at whatever position they were when they were called. Men should not think themselves better than women, uncircumcised better than circumcised (or vice-versa), or free better than slave. These are all human constructs and are null and void in Christ where all are equal. The Christian need never to be swayed by social pressures to better themselves or change themselves. In Christ, we are all we ever need. This is what Paul means when he says that keeping God’s commands is all that counts (this is deliciously ironic for a Jew who would consider circumcision to be doing just that). The whole of keeping the law, in Paul’s mind, is to remain in Christ. In Christ, all of God’s commands are kept, which is, of course, something that we could not do on our own power.

Paul believes this because he firmly believes that "this world in its present form is passing away" (v. 31). Why worry about social pressures, customs, and standards that should be passing from our lives just as surely as they will pass away from this world completely in the ‘age to come’? In more modern terminology, why be in a hurry to re-arrange deck chairs on the Titanic? Living in Christ means a dignity that goes beyond anything the world can understand or offer. This is why each person should consider their human status as precisely the place where God wants to use them rather than something to be escaped.

In the passage on slavery, then, Paul is neither condoning human slavery, nor is he condemning it. It is true, that in its essence, it goes against the way that God ordered the world, where he gave each man the freedom to choose. Yet, if a slave became a Christian and all they could do is obsess about becoming free it would be a demonstration, not so much about the power of God in one’s life, as it was a demonstration that they considered their place in this present age to be far more important than it is. Although, they shouldn’t obsess about it, Paul does add that if the opportunity to gain their freedom comes up, that they should not hesitate to take it (v. 21).

Paul’s words in verse 23, then, are brilliant in the way in which they speak to each group in a different way. The slave would hear that they had been purchased and had now entered into the freedom of Christ’s lordship while the free man would hear that they had been purchased into bondage to the one who had purchased them. They had both had their status in this present age changed and transcended by Christ and thus, should never stoop to becoming slaves of men, by which Paul means the standards or conventions of men. He wants them to realize that their status in Christ is far more crucial than any social or cultural standards. They, and we, need to resist both the subtle and the not-so-subtle pressures put on us to make changing their status their be-all-end-all.



Devotional Thought

Is your status of one who has entered into the life of Christ the most important thing in your life? Does it determine the way you act or think about yourself and your position in life or are you tempted to view your position in life according to the standards and conventions of the world? What evidence do you see in your life that you might not have the view of being ‘in Christ’ that Paul would want you to have?

1 Corinthians 7:8-16

8Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. 9But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

10To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. 11But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.

12To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. 14For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. 16How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?



Dig Deeper

One of the most curious enigmas that I have seen repeatedly over the years that I have been involved with basketball teams is the phenomenon of big men that were centers and forwards that believed deep down they had the gift to be a point guard. I have known countless number of big men who, whenever they had the opportunity, tried to act on the court as though they had the skills to dribble and distribute the ball the way a smaller guard usually does. The problem is that for most of these players, they had no business trying to perform those skills. They should have learned to stick to the things for which they were gifted.

There is an element of this same principle running through this section of Paul’s letter. Paul wants the Corinthians to recognize the gifts that God has given each one of them and to appreciate the situations in which He has placed them. This could be a difficult task for a people who were trying to figure out what it meant to come out of the pagan world and live holy lives. To make matters more difficult, they were being bombarded within the Church by those who taught that permanent celibacy was a virtue and from outside the Church that unmarried people were worthless.

The NIV’s translation of verse 8 is probably misleading. The word translated ‘unmarried’ should probably be rendered as ‘widowers’. This would mean that Paul is addressing widows and widowers in 8 and 9 rather than two groups (this makes sense because he will directly address those who have never been married later in the chapter). This also gives us a strong clue that Paul was a widower as he says it is preferable, in his opinion, to remain as he is, which we can presume he means not remarried. Paul wants them to understand that in their old, pagan lives there was little to no redeeming value in remaining unmarried, but in their new life in Christ there can be a new sense or value to the single life. Verse 9 is often easily misunderstood to mean that Paul was giving a concession to those who could not contain their passions. Here, Paul is using ‘self-control’ in the same manner that he does in Galatians 5:23, by which he means the Holy Spirit-empowered directing of one’s self. He is not telling them to fight their urges and if they can’t then give in quickly before they fail. He is telling them to recognize the gift that God has given them, whether it be the gift of remaining single or the gift of the married life, and to embrace and appreciate it.

With those who were once married already addressed, Paul now turns to matters concerning those who were presently married. We would do well to remember that this letter was written to a people who were struggling with the concepts that sex and marriage should just be avoided all together, that it would exalt the soul and keep the body from sin. The command of verse 10, then, must be read in that context. God had created and ordained marriage and these Corinthian Christians should not buy into any sort of teaching that told them it was good to leave their spouses and focus on Christ. They must realize that God was pleased with marriage and that it was a gift, not something to be discarded, yet this is not a universal prohibition on divorce. Paul would not, for instance, say that a woman being beaten by her husband should stay in that marriage. The fact that Paul uses a wife as the example, probably demonstrates that he was directly addressing a specific question about a specific Christian woman in their community. It was not God’s will for her to leave her husband, particularly for spiritual reasons, yet if she had, she should not, under these circumstances remarry someone else. Paul then universalizes this principle with the phrase, and a husband must not divorce his wife.

Paul then moves into advice that he has for those that are married to unbelievers. Two things must be considered here before we continue. The first is that even though Paul does give a command of the Lord in verse 10, he gives instructions for someone who does not follow this command. Nowhere does he say that this act would keep that person from being a Christian, but she must deal with the consequences of her actions. Paul’s reason for this is that, for him, Christianity is about learning to exercise discernment to think and act in a Christ-like manner. The Christian life is not simply the replacement of the Old Testament Torah with a new law based on the teachings of Christ. As Christians we must learn to think like Christ, not merely follow a list of rules. The second thing to be considered is what to make of passages when Paul says what he is writing is from him and not the Lord? Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ, inspired by the Holy Spirit to write letters that would become and should be considered Holy Scriptures (2 Peter 3:16). Paul does not mean this is just his own opinion; he is offering the Spirit-inspired word of God. He merely means that what he is saying did not come directly from Jesus; it is new teaching for a new situation. What he writes here, then, is not something Jesus said to be obeyed without thought (there are very few instances of that in the New Testament for the reasons just stated), it is wise Christian advice and principles. Principles, however, that we must undertake to apply to our lives because they have been ordained as Scripture by the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s basic point is that Christians should not leave a marriage to a non-Christian spouse. The Corinthians were a group of people that were trying to figure out how to come out of paganism and lead holy lives. The fear of some was that their non-believing spouse would defile them. Paul assures them that this is not the case. Rather than the non-believer defiling the Christian, the influence of the believing spouse can actually have a purifying and saving effect on their marriage, and ultimately on the non-Christian. He also assures them that their children will not be automatically defiled by living with a pagan, they can still be set apart (holy) for God’s purposes (this does not, of course, mean that they were automatically saved). This ray of hope for the Christian married to a pagan does not mean that it is good or wise for an unmarried Christian to take this principle and run into a marriage with a non-Christian. (Nor should someone stay in an abusive marriage because of this principle.) This is advice for people already married, not a license for those who are not. Marriage is a good thing in God’s sight as it points to His love and thus, glorifies God. It should not be entered into lightly or ended lightly. Paul ends with a bit of necessary common sense, assuring them that if the non-Christian spouse wanted to end the marriage, they should not feel under any obligation to remain married. The ultimate principle by which they should live, one that would have the biggest impact on those around them, was to attempt to leave in peace under all circumstances.



Devotional Thought

The Corinthians lived in a confusing time and culture when they would need a great deal of humility, discernment, and conviction to live out the Christian principles of love and peace in difficult circumstances. We also live in confusing and difficult times and need the same sort of humility and patience with ourselves and with others to live out these same principles.

1 Corinthians 7:1-7

Marriage

1Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. 2But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. 3The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. 5Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.



Dig Deeper

When I was younger, dieting was viewed quite differently than it generally is today. Dieting is still done with great fervor, but most people understand, at least in theory, that a proper diet must be done wisely with healthy, balanced meals, and accompanying exercise. When I was younger, however, it was much more common for people to diet by simply starving themselves. They began to view eating in general as the enemy and would avoid it all together. The problem with that is that two major things were working against that. One is that the body thinks its starving and so hangs onto its fat reserves rather than burning them. The second is that the human will can only hold up against our natural inclinations for so long. What usually happened is that the starvation diet would crash and burn in the midst of a great binge of eating.

In Corinth, there were apparently at least two camps of thought. Some Christians were claiming total freedom and doing whatever they wanted with their bodies. They believed that what was done with the body had little if any effect on the spirit, so why not do it all. There was another group, however, that seemed to be following the line of thinking of many pagan philosophies of the day that included the belief that the body was inherently evil. All pleasures of the body needed to be avoided because they inhibited the development of the spirit. The eventual goal, in this philosophical line of thinking, was for the soul to be free of the body after death. This was the view that Plato espoused, but it is not at all biblical.

Paul has already addressed the first view with several examples, now he turns to the second viewpoint. He does so by answering a question that had arisen amongst at least some in the congregation. They had written Paul an earlier letter asking several questions and now he is going to give his answer. To fully understand his answer, though, it will help to realize that the Roman (and therefore Corinthian) view of marriage was as an arrangement of status and public image, especially for the rich. The Roman emperors greatly encouraged marriage among all people. Marriage, however, was not a very advantageous situation for women. They had very little rights within a marriage and the prospects of unmarried women were very limited in this society. Divorce could be had with a simple declaration of such. This meant that a good marriage was considered to be one that was harmonious. Pleasure was often sought outside of marriage.

In answering their question on marriage, then, Paul is dealing with both the societal view of marriage as well as a pagan-infused Christian philosophy that was teaching that sex and pleasure, even within a marriage, was wrong and should be avoided. Paul’s overall point is obscured in the NIV translation of verse one which actually says "It is good for a man to have no sexual contact with a woman." He is quoting what the Corinthians have written him. In theory, Paul agrees with this statement, to a degree, but his full answer is that just as starvation diets don’t really work, neither does this philosophy. Bodies were ultimately made to glorify God, but God also made them to have sex. Sex within a marriage is glorifying to God and should not be avoided. The one trying this starvation approach will find themselves exploding in inappropriate ways as evidenced by the apparent visits some had made to prostitutes (see chapter 6) or even the many well-documented problems that Roman Catholic priests have had with sexual matters in modern times.

In this short section on marriage, Paul sets many societal assumptions on their head. His declarations that each spouse literally has ‘authority’ over the body of the other, and that women were free not to be married if they so chose, are quite remarkable and are thoughts that appeared nowhere else in the ancient world. Paul affirms that sex within a marriage is a good and God-ordained thing. Withholding from it in no way enhances one’s spirituality or brings one closer to God. If both parties agree to abstain for some special period of prayer or a spiritual retreat, then both must agree and it needs to be for just a short time. If they try to completely abstain from sexual relations within their marriage they will find, just as the diets, that both their physiology and the power of their will to overcome temptation will be working against them.

Many readers have misunderstood Paul’s remarks in verse 6 regarding a concession as referring to Paul saying that marriage is a concession to keep people from sins of sexual immorality. That’s not Paul’s point at all. The concession to which he is referring is the fact that they may still feel the need to withhold from marital sex for a short time to focus on their spirituality. Paul believes that these are not mutually exclusive activities. Thus, the need for short and mutually agreed-upon sabbaticals are a concession that are wise advice, they are not something that must be done as a command from God.

Paul’s words in verse 7 have also been often misunderstood. Paul’s point here is that chastity, the freedom from the need to be married is a gift that enables some to focus more directly on the work of the Kingdom. But we must understand that Paul believes that marriage is also a gift. Each has their own gift, his language is inclusive not exclusionary. He is saying that his personal preference is for the gift of being single but at the same time, he realizes that it is neither possible, practical, or even preferable for all people to have that gift. In the same way, I have occasionally said that I wish that everyone had the gift to teach, yet I realize that in the reality of the Church this is not possible, practical, or ultimately preferable. Paul sees each believer in the community as gifted by God in some way, and it is the responsibility and privilege of each person to use those gifts for God’s own purposes.



Devotional Thought

Paul’s belief is that everything within a marriage should be for the purpose of glorifying God. How does this challenge you in your own marriage? If you’re not married then how does this change your views of marriage and dating? What can you do in your own relationships to ensure that they glorify God in every aspect?

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sexual Immorality

12"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13"Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh." 17But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

18Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.



Dig Deeper

While teaching a class years ago for pre-teens, I was trying to explain to them that they were made for God’s glory; that’s the purpose for which God mad them. They should, I told them, use themselves properly. To make this point clear, I first took a wrench and began to use it to hammer a nail into a piece of wood. The wrench worked well enough for a couple of nails, but eventually it broke. We can use things outside of their intended purpose for a time, and they may even function fairly well, but eventually they will break. The number one cause of tools breaking is use outside of their intended function.

Paul will now address an extremely important example of his overall argument against the Corinthians: they have arrogantly not realized what kind of people they are supposed to be in Christ. An extremely important part of that issue, especially in a port town like Corinth, was sexual immorality. Paul has a question here that lies just beneath the surface of his writing from here all the way through to chapter 15. The question is simply: what is the body for?

In verse 12, Paul begins an imaginary dialogue with the Corinthians. Their imagined utterances are in quotes in the NIV, while his responses follow the words in quotes. Paul repeats a couple of sayings which were evidently popular in Corinth at the time, and that the Church had actually started using and living by. Paul takes advantage of these little sayings because they clearly capture the deceived mindset of many in the Corinthian Church at the time.

The first saying is that everything is permissible. There is a sense in which Paul agrees with this because Christianity is about freedom, but they were forgetting that there is always a balance in the Christian life. Many things are technically permissible, but are they beneficial? This is a question we must always ask. In claiming their ‘Christian freedom’ they were actually signing up to a new master. Paul wants them to realize that precisely because Christianity is about freedom, they must be careful to never allow something outside of Christ to give them orders, whether it be appetites, habits, culture, or the desire for pleasure and comfort.

The second saying was being used as an excuse for immorality. If "food is for the stomach and the stomach for food", then it only follows logically that sex is for the body and the body for sex. Although he is addressing sexuality here, the core subject is still the nature of Christian freedom. Sex is an important aspect of that, however, because it is one of the biggest ways that Christians corrupt their freedom Understanding the purpose of the body has everything to do with the Resurrection. Because Christ was raised, so will those who are in Christ. At baptism, we became Him and took His life. Our bodies are the Lord’s, no longer ours. To take the body of Christ and unite it to anyone outside of the body of Christ is a category mistake (Paul uses the example of a prostitute as the worst possible scenario, but any sex outside of its intended use is no better). This does not, of course, mean that sex with anyone within the body of Christ is acceptable, God has created sex for marriage and marriage alone. Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 in verse 16 to make the point that sex is a union of two bodies. Christians, though, are resurrection people whose bodies belong to Christ now. What we do with our bodies now matters, because there is a correspondence between our bodies now and in the ‘age to come’ (Paul will explain this in chapter 15).

The believer is united with Christ and cannot rightly be united with anyone else. Although this is a spiritual unity, it is still impacted by what we do with our bodies, because the body and the spirit are intertwined. It is simply not true that one can do something with their body that does not effect their spirit. This can all be boiled down to one principle: does what you are doing with your body glorify God? Every relationship we have and everything we do with our bodies should glorify God. If it does not then we have wandered outside of our intended purpose.

What is interesting is that Paul does not simply lay down a hard, fast rule in this area. The problem with laying down rules is that people follow them for a short time and then began to think of ways that they can slowly get around them. Instead, Paul wants them to be Kingdom people. This takes thought and effort, and a willingness to wrestle through the issues. He wants them to learn to think in a Kingdom way so that they will make the right decisions all of the time.

Paul offers the advice to cut and run when it comes to sexual immorality. There is no point in playing with fire. The wise thing is to follow the example of Joseph in the Old Testament and flee. The next statement is a bit difficult to understand, partly due to the fact that the NIV has added the word ‘other’ that does not appear in the original language. It would appear then, that Paul’s point is that immorality is like all sin and is something even more. The reason that sexual sin is something more is that it is the act of uniting our bodies, which belong to Christ, with something that is outside of the body of Christ. Just as the Church is the Temple of God, so is the individual body of the Christian. There simply cannot be impurity in the Temple. To make this point clear, Paul gives them another important reminder. Just as they should be constantly celebrating the final Passover, so should they always remember that the freedom they have came at the extremely high cost of the blood of Christ. Our lives should be an eternal Passover celebration that honors God.



Devotional Thought

Paul uses a fantastic technique of identifying the little catchy slogans and sayings of his day and answering them with concise, and easily remembered responses. What are some of the valued, but wrong slogans and sayings of our culture? How could you respond to them in the same way that Paul responded to those of his day.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11

9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.



Dig Deeper

During the time I was a teacher and basketball coach, many interesting things happened. One event in particular had to do with two young men who wanted to come to our high school to play on the basketball team. The issue was that our school was an alternative partnership school. It was a place designed for only certain students who had met certain kind of criterion. It wasn’t that there was a list of rules or requirements, it was simply a description of the type of kids that would be served by this sort of school. One of the young men came from another state, but after getting his records it was determined that he was the type of student that could enter into our school. (Most of the descriptions that determined whether or not they could enter the school would be considered of the negative type.) The other guy, however, found that he just wasn’t the type of student that could enter our school. His academic career had been too positive.

What Paul writes to the Corinthians here is a similar idea, although the exact opposite. In the case of the Kingdom of God, it is not negative but godly descriptions that will determine if they are Kingdom type of people. The Kingdom of God isn’t about a list of laws or rules; it doesn’t require certain behaviors or achievements in order to gain access. Instead it is a life. It is a life where certain types of people simply won’t fit, they won’t be served by what the ‘age to come’ has to offer. The point that Paul will make clear later in chapter 13 is that a Kingdom person is characterized by love. Love isn’t an achievement or number of tasks that can be checked off; it is a lifestyle. A Kingdom person doesn’t so much ‘love’ as a verb as they are ‘love’ as a noun.

In Greek mythology, Damastes had a stronghold in the hills outside of Eleusis. He had an iron bed to which he invited all passersby to lie down on. If they were too tall, he cut off the excess. If they were too short he would stretch them on a rack. The catch was nobody ever fit because it was adjustable and he would change it after he sized up his guests from a distance. This is not the sort of thing that happens in the Kingdom of God. He does not use some sort of arbitrary standards of behavior to determine who gets in and who doesn’t. No, it’s simply a matter of the kind of people for which the ‘age to come’ is made. It is made for a people who have been transformed into the image of God, and we know that God is love (1 John 4:8, 16). It is important to remember, though, that we are talking about God’s definition of love, not the world’s.

God created genuine human beings, unmarred by sin, to be His image bearers. But since the Fall of Adam and Eve, no one had seen what a truly genuine human being, characterized by love looked like. God, Paul believed, had revealed a genuine human, bearing His image and characterized by true love, in the person and life of Jesus the Messiah.

Paul warns the Corinthians not to kid themselves and become deceived, people not characterized by love simply won’t fit into the Kingdom of God. They had fallen into the arrogance of thinking that they could define what sort of people could enter into the Kingdom, now Paul calls them back to God’s standard. He gives them an illustrative not an exhaustive list of the types of people whose very lives demonstrate that they are not conforming to the image of God. Although this passage has been disputed lately in our culture where it concerns homosexual behavior, Paul is quite clear. The Greek malakoi (translated ‘male prostitutes’) means ‘soft ones’ and most likely referred to the passive homosexual partner that so characterized those types of relationship in the Greek world (very similarly to the prototypical homosexual relationship today). The word arsenokoitai (translated ‘homosexual offenders’) refers to the dominant partner in the relationship, thus Paul is comprehensively saying that those who engage in homosexuality at any level simply are not bearing the image of God and will not fit into the Kingdom of God.

Although each generation of Christians has been guilty of demonizing its own set of pet sins and behaviors and making them seem worse than others, there is the equal and opposite error of deceiving ourselves into believing that certain types of behavior, often related to sexual immorality of some type is okay. In our culture, the world has given love its own definition and then redefined many un-Kingdom-like behaviors as acceptable based on that definition. One of the ways they have done this is to confuse temptation with orientation. Just because someone is prone to a set of temptations that others may not be, does not make that behavior who they really are. Who we really are is the image-bearers of God, that is our only orientation. The types of behaviors that Paul lists here are temptations that keep us from being who we really are. We must be extremely careful to never confuse the temptation with our orientation and thus deceive ourselves into thinking that we are Kingdom people when we are not. Behaviors in the present that distort and deface the image of God lead us away from the Kingdom of God, not to it.

Paul reminds them that they were this sort of people. This indicates that he believes that the ‘real’ humans that they are, are separate from their temptations and behaviors (including homosexuality). They can leave those image distorting sorts of activities behind if they are to become God’s genuine human image-bearers. They have been washed (an allusion to baptism), sanctified (set apart and made holy) and justified (marked out and vindicated as God’s people of love that live by faith), now they need to start acting like it and calling others to the genuine human existence.



Devotional Thought

Part of why Paul wrote this letter was that he was aware that this new type of humanity doesn’t come automatically, but he does believe that once faith has intertwined with baptism, one has access to this new type of being a genuine human. How have you and how can you display this new type of being human to those around you? In what behaviors or areas of your life have you been deceived?

1 Corinthians 6:1-8

Lawsuits Among Believers

1If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? 2Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church 5 say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers!

7The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.



Dig Deeper

It didn’t take me very long in teaching at an inner-city high school to notice that the administration wasn’t particularly concerned with small details like in what areas the teachers were actually licensed. Sometimes out of necessity teachers were asked to teach classes in areas outside of their field of expertise. At other times, teachers were allowed to teach outside of their field simply because they wanted to and thought a particular class would be fun to teach. It always seemed a bit odd to me to let people do something for which they were not really qualified, especially when teachers qualified in those subjects could have taught it.

This is more or less the way Paul sees the situation that he now turns to. In a sense, this is a continuation of his continuing argument against the arrogance of the Corinthians. In this section he will discuss the arrogance of not living in a manner worthy of the ‘age to come’, a life that was made available to them by Christ, the Passover lamb. In essence, this was a result of their arrogance and their complete lack of love, something that Paul will make quite clear in chapter 13.

It would appear that some of members of the Corinthian community had taken other members to the Roman courts. Two of the ongoing characteristics of the Roman legal system were that lawyers were extremely expensive and that it massively favored the wealthy. This would indicate that some well-to-do members of the congregation had evidently tried to exploit a situation to their advantage.

This was a clear indication to Paul that they were not understanding or behaving like people who had entered into the ‘age to come’. Rather than being a light to the world and demonstrating what it looked like to be a community of true humanity living in concert with God, they were snubbing that and trying to exploit the system of the present age. Why, Paul wants to know, would they turn to worldly judges who are incapable of exercising God’s true justice and who have no access to the life of the ‘age to come’, rather than dealing with the situation themselves? Paul assumes that they should know that they will judge the entire world one day. This does not contradict what he has already said in the previous chapter. In the present age, Christians are not to engage in judgments that are God’s to make, but in the ‘age to come’ that will be part of the Church’s responsibility. Paul believes this based on Old Testament passages like Daniel 7:27 (as well as extra-biblical Jewish literature like 1 Enoch 1:9 and Wisdom 3:8) which says that the saints will be set in authority over the whole world. They need to become now in the present age, the people they actually are in the Messiah. In a sense, this is what this entire letter is about. They need to become who they really are in Christ.

The whole purpose of the Christian community is to model the life of Christ (the life of the ‘age to come’), which is the genuine human existence apart from the plague of sin. If they weren’t doing that, then what was the point? The fact is that because of their own arrogance and selfishness, they weren’t pointing to the time when God’s justice would rule the entire earth, rather they were turning to the inferior Roman brand of justice. Why would they do this when they were to rule over and judge the entire creation one day? The rule that they had been given in the Church was practice for the future age, and to this point, they were blowing it.

Paul is clearly trying to shame the Corinthians who are responsible for this situation. In verse 5, he asks if it is possible that there is nobody among them that is wise enough to judge a dispute between believers. This is an obvious shot at those in the congregation who are puffed up and think so highly of themselves. In this honor-shame culture, shaming them was a powerful motivator. In our culture we tend to think more in terms of success and failure than we do honor and shame. Thus if Paul were writing to us he might say, "I write this to show that you are failures." However we word it to apply to various cultures, the point is that they have failed to live up the genuine human life to which they had been called.

Paul has two points to make concerning this situation. First, If they are going to engage with one another in disputes, then they should at least keep them in house where God’s justice rather than the world’s can be exercised. Second, it would be better if they didn’t sue one another at all. Paul believes that it would be better for them to get ripped off than to harm their witness the way they have. Those who insist on asserting their individual rights at the expense of other Christians and at the expense of the image of the body of Christ, are really demonstrating that they don’t have a clue of what the life of Christ is all about. This kind of quibbling amongst Christians says to the world that they are really no different than the rest of humanity. They have presented a shameful image to the world outside of the Church and badly damaged their witness to those who so desperately need hear the message of the gospel so that the exile between them and God can be brought to an end. This is the precise message that Paul explains in Philippians 2:14-16: "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing."



Devotional Thought

How quick are you to forfeit what you feel may be your personal rights in order to demonstrate the life of the ‘age to come’ for the world around you? Are you prepared to be wronged or cheated in order to further the cause of the Kingdom of God and shine like a star in the world?

1 Corinthians 5:6-13

6Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

9I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."



Dig Deeper

If you ask most people when the American slaves were freed, many, if not most, will answer that it was when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln. This is the standard line that most American school children are given. Yet, it is not really true. The Emancipation Proclamation freed virtually no slaves. What it did was to declare any slaves in states that remained in rebellion against the United States to be free. This made for a great political move but Lincoln did not have any authority over the southern states during the war and so the Proclamation was toothless. Judgment and authority can only be exercised where one has the power to do so.

In this section of his letter, Paul continues to deal with his example of the Corinthian arrogance and pride as demonstrated in the way that they have handled the immoral brother among them. He has stated already that the man should be expelled from the congregation, and now he will delve further into the concept of why they need to deal with sin in the Church, but also why they should not judge sinners outside of the Church. Like Lincoln, they can only reach the areas over which they truly have authority.

Paul begins verse 6 as bluntly as he possibly could, saying, your boasting is not good. In displaying pride over their free-wheeling attitude towards immoral behavior in the Church they have shown that they don’t get the point of the Christian life at all. They have been called to demonstrate for the world what the ‘age to come’ will look like. They will hardly announce that the life of the ‘age to come’ is available now through God’s Kingdom and His Church if they fail to live up to even the moral standards of the pagans. This is not about legalistic standards, it is about demonstrating for the world what a people reconciled to the Creator of the universe look like.

To make this point clear, Paul uses the imagery from the Passover. The Passover was the meal celebrated yearly by the Jews to commemorate the night of the original Passover in Egypt when God freed the descendants of Abraham from their life of slavery in Egypt. The Passover lamb was not a sacrifice but was the means through which God marked out His people, keeping them from destruction. Paul’s use of this imagery, then, is not some example he has pulled haphazardly out of the air. His point is a very important and specific one. He reminds them that at the very heart of Christianity is Christ, the real Passover lamb that had made the protection of the lamb available to the whole world. If they would only remember this, they would realize that the entire Christian life is one continuous Passover celebration. In the traditional Passover meal all leaven would be removed from the house. During the original Passover the bread was made without leaven because they had to flee without waiting for the leaven to rise in the bread, but since then it had come to signify sin as well. Just as leaven must be completely removed from the Passover celebration, so it must all the more be removed from the ultimate and eternal Passover celebration, the life of the Christian community.

In fact Paul calls on them to get rid of the yeast of their old life and calls them to live a life worthy of the one to which they have had made available when they entered into the life of Christ. He wants them to live freed from sin and freed for godly lives because God has already acted in Christ to make provision for the reality of them living a life of the ‘age to come’ in the present age. In calling them to the bread of sincerity and truth, Paul is reminding them that at the heart of all immoral behavior is the lie that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden; it is the lie that we can do things are own way without obeying God.

In verse 9, Paul references an earlier letter (one that has not survived history) that he wrote to them about not associating with sexually immoral people. We don’t know for sure whether this was an honest misunderstanding or a deliberate attempt to disregard his instructions (see 4:18). He now makes it very clear for them. Not only would it be impossible for them to not associate with non-Christians who are immoral (and Paul then gives many representative examples of worldly immorality that are not just limited to the sexual type), it would make no sense. This is a further development of what Paul alluded to in in verse 5. The fact is that the Church is responsible for judging behavior (which is different from the type of value judgments that Paul referred to in the previous chapter) within the Church, but outside the Church it is God’s responsibility. In calling for them to not eat with this type of individual, Paul is directly alluding to the table fellowship of communion but this is, most likely, a figure of speech that would mean that they should not associate with him at all. Not eating with someone was a significant act in this culture (see Galatians 2:12-13).

Because it is their responsibility to judge those in the Church they should "expel the wicked man from among you." This is a loose quote from Deuteronomy 17 and Paul’s point is this: because the Church has failed to be humbly responsible in executing their duty, they need to send him back to the realm of the world where God is solely responsible for judgment. Because the Church had failed both God and this man is this situation, the only hope was to return him to the world, where God alone would be his hope. When seen in the proper light, surely the Corinthians have nothing in this situation that should puff them up, rather they should be humbled and ashamed by their arrogance.



Devotional Thought

Do you see your life as one long Passover celebration? Do you apply Paul’s principle of removing all of the yeast from your life so that you can properly honor the ultimate Passover lamb? Spend some time thinking about that today, then go share your faith by explaining the Passover to someone, how Christ became the ultimate Passover, and how our lives are to reflect the understanding and gratitude of that monumental event.

1 Corinthians 5:1-5

Expel the Immoral Brother!

1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. 2And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.



Dig Deeper

While in college, I found myself getting into a great deal of unbiblical behavior. It wasn’t that I didn’t know any better, because I certainly did. Many of my behaviors wouldn’t have even seemed related at a glance, yet the fact was, they all had one common underlying source. The source of all of this unruly behavior was my arrogance. Once we give into arrogance, it will surely be the cause of all kinds of ungodly and unseemly behavior. This is the key to understanding Paul’s line of thinking here. He has been dealing with the ‘puffed up’ attitudes of the Corinthians to this point. At a surface level, he appears to have changed subjects rather abruptly. A closer look, however, reveals Paul’s train of thought. Rather than changing subjects, he has moved into specific examples of their arrogance causing other problems.

It is clear that, although Paul is certainly disturbed by the specific immoral behavior, he is more concerned with dealing with the underlying root cause. He wants to deal with the disease not obsess over the symptoms, which is evidenced by the fact that he never directly addresses the offending party in this case. Of greater concern, is the attitude and arrogance of the entire church.

There are two main aspects of their incredible arrogance that are on display here. The first is that they have come to believe that in becoming Christians they no longer need to be restrained by any standard of moral decency. The act of a man marrying his step-mother (most likely the situation going on here is that a Christian man had married the widow of his deceased father, his step-mother, who was most likely not a Christian, since Paul never suggests how they should deal with her) was against both Roman and Jewish law. The Corinthians believed that throwing caution to the wind and not being bound by the standards of the world around them was a sign of their spiritual maturity. Paul, however, believes that it is a sign of their spiritual arrogance. Rather than grieving about the situation, they have actually become proud of it. Arrogance has a way of twisting things in our mind so that we become proud of things that should make us feel ashamed, calling evil good and good evil (Is. 5:20).

The second aspect of their arrogance is shown in the fact that they have not disciplined the man involved in this scandal. Western churches today rarely engage in church discipline and most Americans get a little queasy about the topic. Yet the Church must maintain discipline. To not do so does not demonstrate kindness, but arrogance and a lack of regard for God’s standards. It exalts man’s preferences over God’s holiness. The questions that Paul wants the Corinthians to understand is where are the lines of godly behavior to be drawn and what kind of discipline is appropriate in cases of severe misbehavior.

It is not entirely clear what Paul means when he says that he is with them in spirit. He may mean be referring to the Holy Spirit which would be ensuring that his apostolic discipline was enacted. He may mean that he is spiritually present with them through this letter. Or this may just be a figure of speech, meaning something like he is with them in his thoughts. Regardless of what he meant, precisely, it is clear that Paul expects his authority to recognized and enforced. When they enact the type of discipline that this case calls for, they have the authority and blessing of both Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul wants this man treated in a manner fitting his behavior. He has engaged in behavior that could very well lead to his spiritual death, and so, he should be treated like an unclean corpse and be removed. Paul says that they should hand this man over to Satan. In Paul’s theology, the Church is an alternate reality to the realm of the world, which is in the grip of Satan. Once a man enters into the body of Christ, he comes to life spiritually and enters the ‘age to come’, he is freed from the power of evil. He has been liberated in the power of the Spirit. If this type of behavior is tolerated or even encouraged within the confines of what is supposed to be the place of freedom from the slavery of sin, then this man is hopeless and the entire body is endangered. The charge of the church is to be responsible in discernment and disciplining those whom God has entrusted into the life of the church. To fail do so is to arrogantly deny the very function with which God has charged them. Within the Church, God trusts the Spirit-empowered body to deal with and correct one another. The work is His outside of the Church.

In expelling this man, the Church would be humbly confronting their own failure to live up to their responsibility. They would also be putting this man back into to realm of the present world where they can no longer fail him, he cannot further infect the body, and where his only real hope would be in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. This may seem like a harsh act, but Paul hopes that this will, in the end save both this man and the Church. He hopes that the act of expulsion would shame this man into right behavior (in a culture where shame was viewed as a fate worse than death), and that it would lead him to repentance and ultimate salvation. The situation had come to a point, though, where the Church could no longer facilitate this, only God could do it.



Devotional Thought

Pride is different from arrogance. Pride is our tendency to put ourselves first, often without even thinking about it. Arrogance is an outcropping of our pride. It is the belief that we know better and have the solution to everything by doing it our own way. As we saw in this reading today, arrogance often is the root cause to many other symptomatic behaviors. Do you struggle with arrogance in your life? What other problems might that be causing in your character? How can you go about defeating arrogance in your life in a biblical way?

1 Corinthians 4:14-21

14I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. 15Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. 16Therefore I urge you to imitate me. 17For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

18Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. 19But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. 20For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. 21What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a whip, or in love and with a gentle spirit?



Dig Deeper

From time to time while I was growing up, my parents would leave our house and go out for a while, leaving my older sister in charge of the house and of me. These could be perilous times for me, yet they were no easier, I’m sure, for my sister. Although she was left in charge, and I followed her authority to a degree, I still always knew that she was just a babysitter. She wasn’t the real source of authority in my life. When my parents came home, however, that was different. There was real power there. They had power and authority without even having to use many words. One or two quick commands from them was all it took. In fact, just knowing that they would be coming home soon, kept me in line because I wanted things to go well when they arrived rather than having to face discipline.

To fully understand this passage and Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians, we must have something of this concept in mind. Paul sees himself as their spiritual father, the one who begat, the Corinthians. The other teachers and leaders are important, but they are babysitters (the NIV translates the word ‘guardian’, but the word refers to a servant who acted as the babysitter or nanny for the children of the household). Only Paul has the true power and authority over them that a father has. He addresses them, then, with a great deal of love, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek in this section.

He begins in verse 14, saying that he has not written this letter to shame them. What Paul means by his language here is not that he doesn’t want to embarrass them with a look at their own behavior; he wants to do that. What he is saying is that he doesn’t want them to turn in on themselves and become inactive from shame. His goal is to embarrass them so as to instruct them and motivate them toward change. Paul feels that he is the only one that can truly do this to the level of effectiveness that is truly needed because he is their only spiritual father. Why does Paul consider himself to be the father of the Corinthian church? It is because he ‘beget’ them through his preaching of the gospel (this is a bit obscured by the wording in the NIV).

Because he is their father, Paul urges his spiritual children to imitate him. In Paul’s world it was common for children to imitate parents or disciples to imitate masters. This was not a matter of simple mimicry, though. He is talking about the type of imitation where the values of the one being imitated are internalized until they become like the person they are imitating. Paul, then is not asking them to merely copy him. What he is telling them is that he has dedicated his life to Christ in every possible way, particularly in the way he thinks and views the world. Imitating this same heart is what Paul is calling them to, not a mere imitation of his actions. Imitating actions would not make them more Christlike, only internal change would do that.

To help them with this goal of imitation, they need to be reminded of the heart and life and Paul. Since Paul cannot come to them at the moment, he sees no better way to do that then to send Timothy to them. Timothy has spent so much time with Paul, learning his way of life that he is in a position not just to tell them about the radical new way of living that Paul is calling them to, but he can actually model the life of Paul, which is ultimately the life f Christ. 1 Corinthians 16:10-11 hints that Paul is a bit concerned abut the welcome that Timothy will receive in Corinth. There is obvious tension between Paul and some of the Corinthians and Paul is worried that, as his agent, Timothy will come under the same sort of criticism that Paul has.

In the original Greek, verses 18-20 are really one long, complex sentence. Paul directly addresses those who have criticized him and his ministry. Paul says that he will come to them soon, despite the claims of these troublemakers, and when he does he will see what kind of power they have. His point is that they have been talking a lot, but they don’t even have the authority of a babysitter. When Paul comes, however, he won’t need many words. He will come with the power and authority of their father, their only father in the faith. The true power of the kingdom does not resemble human authority at all. It comes from the spiritual truth of the gospel. Paul’s authority comes from the kingdom; he doesn’t need a bunch of words or convincing arguments to establish a worldly sort of authority. Paul’s language in these three verse has been rather point blank and confrontational, but in verse 21, he returns to a more good-natured, teasing tone, saying that their choice in respecting Paul’s authority will determine whether he comes to them with the rod or in love and with a gentle spirit. (There is no support for the NIV’s ‘whip’ here. Paul uses the word for rod, which is an allusion to the Old Testament rod of correction. He is not literally threatening them with physical violence)

Paul’s tone of authority might be shocking to 21st century westernized Christians. He has no intention of coming to Corinth to take a vote on what kind of church they would like to be. Paul feels that it is his duty and right to exercise the authority of Jesus Christ in the church of Corinth. Yet, he wasn’t bullying them with edicts from afar. He is calling them to nothing less than the life of Christ, found manifest in the lives of Paul and Timothy. He doesn’t need a lot of words, he’ll leave that to the puffed-up trouble-makers. His life, the one that he was calling them to imitate said all that needed to be said.



Devotional Thought

Paul called the Corinthians to imitate his desire to live a Christlike life. Have you ever followed that wise advice? If you haven’t already, find someone you know who is deeply committed to following Christ in a sincere way. Develop a relationship with them so that you can learn to imitate the passion that they have for the life of Christ. If you have, you can still always find someone who is further along, at least in some areas, in living the life of Christ. Get closer to them and learn from them.

1 Corinthians 4:6-13

6Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, "Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. 7For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

8Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! You have become kings—and that without us! How I wish that you really had become kings so that we might be kings with you! 9For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to men. 10We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored! 11To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. 12We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; 13when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.



Dig Deeper

One of the great illusions of life in the present age is that the world can offer things like wisdom, power, and money, that will actually benefit people in the long run. We buy into the belief that if we could just achieve the money, power, and fame that the world has to offer that then life will be better and easier. Yet, in our own culture and throughout history, those who achieved all of those things according to the world’s standards, are usually among the most miserable people on the face of the earth. They have achieved what most can only hope for and have realized that it has still left them wanting. Most Christians have rejected those values to one degree or another, yet we are always in danger of letting those values slip into our vision of what Christianity is. This is precisely what the Corinthians were doing, and the core issue (although with many different manifestations) that Paul will deal without throughout this letter. Rather than realizing that they were now people who were to live the life of the ‘age to come’ and reject the values of the world, they were trying to be Christians and still maintain the worldly principles of those around them. They did not understand that they had died to their own life and entered into the life of Christ.

Paul begins with an appeal to them to not go beyond what is written. He is most likely applying this saying to the Old Testament Scriptures that he has previously quoted in his letter. Their core problem is that they have been viewing the world through worldly glasses rather than biblical glasses. Rather than living as people of the ‘age to come’ they are living as though they still value the hollow wisdom and principles of the world. This was causing them to get puffed up with pride. In viewing themselves their Christianity through the eyes and values of the world, they were under the mistaken impression that they were some sort of superior hybrid of worldly ability and spiritual wisdom that no one could challenge.

Paul reminds them, in verse 7, a very fundamental truth. They have absolutely nothing to have pride over because anything that they may have, was a gift from God. When humans fall into the trap of boasting and bragging about the gifts that they have, they make the mistake of thinking that they are responsible for what they do have. Paul reminds them that anything they have comes from God. This is a fact they should not soon forget.

Paul must move beyond that point, however, because the Corinthians have gone far beyond that foolishness. They’re not just bragging about their own gifts, they think that they have been so spiritually fed that they are now complete; they believe they have achieved the pinnacle of spiritual wisdom and ability. In focusing on their abilities and achievements, they have missed the one thing that does actually make them special: God’s grace.

Paul moves into a bit of rhetoric that is highly sarcastic, but is, he feels, the only thing that will awaken them to the silliness in which they are engaged. Although this language is startling, we know that Paul must have felt the strength of the relationship he had with the Corinthian Church could survive this loving rebuke.

Paul sets up a clear set of contrasts between the worldly form of Christianity in which the Christians in Corinth were engaging, and the true Christian life that was on display in the life of the apostles. In describing the life of the apostles in verse 9, Paul uses the imagery of a Roman parade where the army would march triumphantly through the streets with the weary and worn prisoners in a chain gang in the back of the procession. Thus, he describes the apostles in terms of those who would be brought up last to die in the arena.

The contrast that Paul describes is stark and as opposite as it could be. The Christians in Corinth have created a brand of Christianity that values worldly wisdom; human strength; and the honor that comes from men. Paul doesn’t believe that this is the sort of life demanded by the Cross at all. The underlying question throughout this passage is: have they entered the life of the crucified Messiah or not? His unstated answer to that underlying question is that the apostles have, they have yet to do so. In contrast to the type of Christian life they have supposed for themselves in Corinth, Paul and the other apostles have embraced the way of the Cross, the life of the ‘age to come’ which seems like sheer foolishness to those in the world. In the eyes of the world they are foolish, weak, and dishonored, yet in the Kingdom of God, all things are turned upside down.

Paul has learned a different way of living. Harsh circumstances are no reason to question or leave the Christian life. There is no promise of a trouble-free life, just the means to overcome any problems in the present age because of the hope and power of the ‘age to come’. When cursed, persecuted, or slandered, Paul has learned to respond as someone who realizes that he lives in a different reality from the world. This, of course, seems like madness to the world, but it is the wisdom of God. What seems absurd to the world is just right in God’s eyes. Paul sums up his point at the end of verse 13. Once they realize that they have entered into the ‘age to come’ in some sense (with the promise of its full consummation at the return of Christ), they will stop living like the world, stop valuing what the world treasures, and stop caring what the world thinks of them.



Devotional Thought

What aspect of your life are you most likely to be tempted to take pride in as though you have accomplished something? Paul would remind us all that struggle with that, that anything we have is a gift from God. How would reminding yourself of this principle change the way you approach certain aspects of your life?

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Apostles of Christ

1So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. 2Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.



Dig Deeper

Not long ago, my family began to pack up the things in our house, preparing to move to another city. At one point during the packing period, I walked into the room that served as an office for me and my wife. What I saw appeared to be absolute chaos. There were papers everywhere as though a tornado had just gone through. I was tempted to be a bit irritated before my wife reminded me that I should not judge a job that is half done. She was in fact, doing a wonderful job of organizing papers and throwing away excess and finished her job shortly thereafter.

This is something of the message that Paul is sending to the Corinthians. They are running around judging and obsessing over things from a worldly point of view. They needed reminding that there will be a final judgment where God will put all things to rights. Yet, there is a human tendency to want to grasp for justice now, through our own resources. Throughout this short section, Paul wants his readers to understand the proper point of view through which they should be seeing things.

In the worldview of the Corinthians, it was quite proper for them to judge Paul, since this is what audiences did with the speakers and sophists. They were judging not so much whether Paul was a legitimate servant of God, but they were judging the form of his ministry in both his words and his presence.

Paul begins deconstructing this worldview by putting straight what apostles really were. They were not like the sophists and great speakers of the day. Their aim was not to become rich or gather throngs of adoring disciples around themselves. In short, they were not the show. They were mere servants. The word Paul uses for ‘servant’ was that of the steward of a household, the one entrusted to oversee and take care of the valuables of the household. Paul says that, as servants, it is part of their vocation to prove faithful to their handling of the gospel. Paul doesn’t even mention things like eloquence and wisdom as necessary traits for a servant of God. Those are the worldly traits that the other citizens of Corinth would look for. In God’s view, however, the servants of God were to be faithful. In saying this, Paul alludes to the fact that it is God who has the ultimate authority over the apostles and the entire situation. Apostles and teachers do not own the treasure, they merely do what they’re told with it.

In verse 3, Paul hits the high note in this short song of rejection of the standards of the world. To do so, he turns to language that invokes thoughts of the final day of judgment by contrasting that day of divine judgment with judgment by humans in the present age. There is no point, according to Paul, for them to get all caught up in human judgments, when there will be a day when God will judge all things perfectly. In other words, they shouldn’t waste any time judging a job that is half done.

It is not that Paul is indifferent to what other people think of him or that he is being arrogant or unconcerned. Paul’s reasoning for his attitude is nothing as worldly as that; it is because it is the Lord who will judge Paul. He is the steward of the Lord, and will have to answer to no one about the form or effectiveness of his ministry except for God alone. He will determine Paul’s faithfulness. It is this view of the end (Paul’s eschatology) that determines the value of his present ministry and activity. Because of this truth, Paul understands that no human will judge him. Once we think we understand where Paul is going with that line of thinking, though, he goes one shocking step further. He says that he is not even capable of properly evaluating his own faithfulness. Paul realizes that even his own heart is deceitful and incapable of such a judgment. Paul confirms that his own conscience is clear, but that does not make him innocent (a word that means, in essence, ‘right with God’). The human conscience is simply unable to make such a determination. It is Christ the Lord, and He alone, that can judge such matters.

Many have taken verse 5 out of context and forced it say something that Paul did not intend to say. When he says to judge nothing, this must be understood in context. To judge things before the appointed time means to judge from a human, present age point of view, rather than from God’s point of view. This did not exclude them from all evaluation. It means that they should avoid judging in the present age, things over which Christ has the final word. There is a balancing act, however, that Paul will pick up in chapter 5. There are some instances when, for the health of the Church, they must bring God’s judgment forward into the present age. When to judge and when not to, when to listen to criticism and when to dismiss it are things for which they needed wisdom from the Lord, himself, as do we in our churches.



Devotional Thought

Do you struggle between judging situations and people from the viewpoint of this present age or from God’s viewpoint? Paul says that our final standard in all matters should be the standard that God will use on the final day. This means realizing that some things must be left strictly to His judgment and other things must be carefully judged by His standard.

1 Corinthians 3:18-23

18Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. 19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; 20and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." 21So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, 22whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, 23and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.



Dig Deeper

In the Disney movie, The Lion King, the father of the main character, the lion Simba, has died. Following his father’s death, Simba ran away and found a new group of friends that taught him that the real meaning of life was to have fun, relax, and not worry about anything. He thinks that he has found true wisdom that will bring true happiness in life. Yet, in one poignant scene, a wise old monkey confronts him with the reality. The truth of the matter, says the monkey, is that Simba is more than he has become. He is like a kid sitting next to a gourmet meal but eating mud pies, because he has convinced himself that the mud is as good as it gets.

This is something of the point that Paul has been trying to make to the Corinthians and will continue to make in different ways throughout this letter. They are more than they have become. When they spiral into in-fighting, power games, and following men, they are showing that they have bought into the wisdom of the world and are judging things by man’s standards rather than God’s. They are behaving just like the world around them that believed they needed to belong to someone great and powerful in order to be someone of any worth. This is why they have descended into arguments over who baptized them and to which apostle they belong.

The reality that Paul wants them to see runs deep throughout Paul’s theology. This is nowhere more clearly demonstrated than in Romans 6, where Paul argues that at baptism a Christian actually enters into the death, burial, and resurrected life of the Messiah. This is vital to understand because Paul believes that through his death and resurrection, Christ has already entered into the life of the ‘age to come’. Because he has already entered in, those who share in his death and resurrection also enter into the ‘age to come’ while still in this present age. Christians are, in Paul’s theology, to live in a completely different reality than the world around them because we already share, in some sense, what we will have fully when Christ returns to make all things new, namely, the life of the ‘age to come’.

To understand all of that begins, then, to make sense of Paul’s point in this passage. He adamantly tells the Corinthians that they should reject any notion of being wise by human standards. When one has really embraced the life and mind set of the ‘age to come’ they will seem foolish to the world around them. By the world’s standards they will seem foolish. The great reversal of the Christian life, however, is that what seems foolish to everyone else is actually true wisdom. It is in fact, the very things that the world values as wisdom that God sees as foolish. It would make more sense for two ants to stand at the feet of a human and argue over which ant is wiser, than it does for humans to value human wisdom to the point where they are creating factions and putting others down based on their own human standards.

In making his point, Paul quotes loosely from Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11 to present a cosmic irony. When people act with craftiness and worldly wisdom to try to avoid God’s will, He uses their very craftiness to capture them. The more they try to exalt their own wisdom and posture themselves before God and humanity as wise, the more they are really demonstrating their foolishness. What is particularly disturbing to Paul is that the Corinthians were falling into this web of foolishness. Their so-called wisdom was causing them to ignore the wisdom of God that was revealed in the Cross of Christ. They were gripping tightly to the values and life of the present age rather than taking hold of the life and values of the ‘age to come’.

Paul wants them to stop settling when they should have so much more than they have. In fact, he utters some shocking words to help them see that point. He says that all things are yours. This, of course, applies only when they are of Christ. How silly it is to engage in personality cults when everything in the cosmos belongs to them. How can this be true? He is, again, speaking of the ‘age to come’, when God will rule the entire cosmos and His people will rule with them (see Matthew 5:5; 1 Corinthians 6:2; Revelation 1:6 for more on this idea). When he says that they are of Christ and Christ is of God, his point is that the Messiah was serving God’s will so he was functionally subordinate to the Father but not inferior in nature, type, or essence. It is the same way for the apostles. They are the servants of the Church, as all leaders are (but not inferior in nature, type, or essence). This is, of course, yet another area that is quite the opposite from the wisdom espoused by the world.



Devotional Thought

Don’t deceive yourself. We all fall prey to the thinking and mindset of the world at times. Take some time this week to carefully examine your life. Ask some who know you well if need be. In what areas does your life and thinking more resemble human wisdom than Godly wisdom? How would your life look differently if you truly embraced God’s wisdom and the life of the ‘age to come’ and rejected the standards of human wisdom?

1 Corinthians 3:12-17

12If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. 14If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

16Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? 17If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.



Dig Deeper

As a high school basketball coach, I learned rather quickly that the foundation to each season was laid during the months leading up to the season itself. The hard work, conditioning, and training that a team put in during those off-season months usually determined the type of season they would have. A team without a good foundation would not have a good season. The only thing worse than that was to see a team that did all of the hard work and laid a solid foundation, to turn around during the season and squander it all with laziness and dissension. It’s foolish to try to build on a poor foundation; it is irresponsible to build an improper structure on a strong foundation.

In the preceding verses, Paul makes it clear to the Corinthian community that there is no other foundation than that of Jesus Christ. His concern now is that they are building a suspect structure on that rock solid foundation. Paul has already reminded them that they are part of the larger movement of the people of God, but they are also, in a sense, responsible for the building of their own local structure. He lays out for them that there are two sets of materials that could be metaphorically used in the building of their community in Christ. The two sets of materials are directly opposed to one another in type, in cost, and in durability. The first set of building materials, gold, silver, costly stones, are the type of materials that would be used in the building of a Temple. Although Paul doesn’t state that directly in verse 12, he will demonstrate in verse 16 that this is what he had in mind all along. The other set of materials are of the cheap sort that one would use to build a temporary structure, but not something eternal like a Temple for the holy God.

Paul’s concern here, though, is not as much with what is being built or the materials used, but rather with the builders themselves. God will achieve His desired results with someone else, if they are not willing, but Paul loves this group of people and wants them to build wisely. This is because a day is coming which will demonstrate the quality of their work. Paul alludes here to the Day of the Lord (1 Cor. 1:8) as the day when this work will be revealed by the fire of testing. In using this image, Paul uses a technique common to the Old Testament prophets. He speaks of a near future event, all the while he has the final consummating event in mind. In this case, the Day of the Lord will happen in one sense at the soon-coming (for Paul) day of judgment poured out on apostate Israel in AD 70. Yet, at the same time, Paul has an eye on, and uses imagery from the final judgment day that will occur at the glorious second coming of Christ. In a very real physical sense, the Church will be greatly persecuted during the time leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem, and a community built shabbily will clearly demonstrate that they have been built with shoddy materials. This will be a pointer, a picture of sorts, of the type of revealing process that will happen on the final day of this present age. It is at that time, that the righteous will be judged and rewarded (Matt. 5:12) for the good that they have done.

It is important to note that Paul assures the Church that even if they do make the foolish choice of building with shoddy materials, this will not disqualify them from the ‘age to come’. Paul affirms this in Romans 8:38-39 when he says: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paul never argues, however, that we cannot separate ourselves from God based on our own free will decision.

In verse 16, Paul returns to the concept of the Temple, as the reason why the building materials are so important. In the Old Testament, every item used for the Tabernacle and Temple was specifically prescribed by God. The valuable materials used and the care with which they were used, pointed ahead in Paul’s thinking, to the care and precision that should be used by each body of Christ in the building of their community. He uses the word naos, for Temple, which is the word that described the inner sanctuary where the Shekinah glory of God dwelt, rather than heiron which was the word used for the structure of the Temple itself. Just as the presence of the living God dwelt in the Temple built by human hands, He now was dwelling in the inner Temple of the body of Christ.

Paul gives a warning here against anyone who would destroy God’s Temple. This is a stark warning indeed, yet the imagery should not be pressed too far. Since we know that the Kingdom of God cannot be destroyed (Matt. 16:18; Heb. 12:28), this language must be understood as Paul stressing the importance of the Temple, the people of God, not as an actual threat as though someone could completely destroy that Temple.



Devotional Thought

In this section, Paul is admonishing the community of Christ to build their section of God’s kingdom wisely and with timeless materials. In the Old Testament, Nehemiah and the men of Jerusalem completed the rebuilding of the wall around the city in less than two months by having each man focus on the section in front of his own house (Neh. 3). With what sort of materials are you building your small section of God’s kingdom? Are you and those in your Christian community building with gold, silver, and costly stones? What exactly does it mean for you to build with those materials? What are some ways in which you might build with wood, hay, or straw?