1 Corinthians - Talk 6

The aim of the game is to Devote yourself to the Lord!
Serve the Lord by faithfulness through being concerned with pleasing him, wherever he has placed you, because he bought you at a price.
Intro:
Firstly, the chapter is long, but is important so it could have been a sermon series in it’s own right. But instead it will be a sermon, actually it is more of lecture really, in two parts and we are going to have a song in the middle.

Secondly, the material it covers can be difficult for us, and for some more than others! But what the passage says, God says for our good, and I’m trusting that my treatment of it here is similarly for our good, that is how it is intended.

Thirdly, Kids. As you see from the outline what we are about to cover, hopefully respectfully, but it may be that you would like to choose the time your kids hear about some of these things. I totally respect that and suggest that it if you would prefer it, the room next door will have supervision, to allow the kids to continue with their activity sheets.

Now let me start with a question what do the movie’s Bridget Jones’s diary and American pie have in common?

Not much at first glance I would imagine!
Both are mediocre movies made in the 90s maybe?
Well in any story what drives the story along, is conflict in regard to the hero’s quest, we ride with the hero wondering whether they will succeed or fail.
In both movies the goal of each of the hero’s is getting from the opposite gender what they want, getting even what they feel they need. You see they want to be fulfilled.

But the absolute polarity of what each gender feels they need, couldn’t be more stark than in the contrast between the movies content and style themselves. Both movies proposed the quest, that the hero needs something from the opposite sex.

On the one hand American pie, proposes men need sex from women to be fulfilled.

On the other hand Bridget Jones proposes women need relationship and status from men to be fulfilled.
Both approaches are ultimately self-centred quests to feel good about yourself, but as usual the men’s approach is quite crass, and the woman’s more subtle, but both are equally and thoroughly self-centred.

At their heart these movies display the wisdom of the world though, and its ‘look after number one’ attitude and this is what has been happening in Corinth and it is resulting in sexual immorality.

But Paul in this chapter is going to turn this thoroughly self-centred attitude on its head, in radically refocusing the Christian believers by saying the goal of life isn’t self-centredness or of self fulfillment, but the goal of life is to serve the Lord. And to serve the Lord by faithfulness through being concerned with pleasing him where ever he has placed you, because he bought you at a price

Now What triggers Paul’s whole discussion in this section of the text on marriage and sexuality and related singleness sorts of issues, is one quote in what the Corinthians have written to Paul.

But the overarching issue in all this for Paul, what’s driving him to talk about these things is from verse two, he says ‘there is so much immorality among the Corinthians’. In fact in verse 26 he calls it ‘a crisis’. These people who think themselves so spiritual wise are actually having a pretty hard time relating to each other appropriately as the gospel would compel them to.

Paul gives them direct commands to correct their behaviour, in this section Paul tries to address a number of groups from within the church, and in addressing them he gives them the milk (if I can call it that) in the basic elements of Christian morality when it comes to the situation they find themselves in.

1. Married people and sex (V1-6)
Serve the Lord in marriage by faithfulness through self-control, which is expressed physically by sex being between a husband and a wife.

So Paul begins in verse one by pulling out a quote from what the Corinthians had written to him where he literally says ‘it is good for a man not to touch a woman.’ Of course Paul realizes the theological and ethical implications of this kind of thinking. Again in this the Corinthians have an eschatological problem, this problem in understanding the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’ of the Kingdom of God, the spiritual jetlag is still around of their body being in one time zone and head being another, and the implications of this is they think that the spiritual is everything, and the physical is nothing. The thinking behind the question written to Paul seems to be is there a better physical condition in this world, which will promote a higher spiritual state?

And the outworking of this kind thinking in Corinth, is the idea that sex is nothing because it belongs to the physical. Now this had two implications. Firstly the people who decided not to have anything to do with it because well it is physical and by implication it’s nothing. And secondly the people who decided they could do whatever they liked with their sexual behaviour, because its physical and it counts for nothing.
But Paul knows that this is not true for Christians, the spiritual and physical go together in the one person. What we do in our body counts, it is a spiritual good to use the body well and in particular to not have sexual immorality. The godly response to the body is not sexual immorality but self-control as we see in verse five.

So quickly let’s run through what other commands that Paul gives, what are the rules of the game when it comes to Christian sexuality in marriage. Paul gives two commands in verse two; that firstly, a man should have his own wife, and secondly, each woman should have and husband. So the model of marriage for Christians is one woman one man.

And Paul goes on to explain what this means in more detail in verse three giving another two commands. He says Firstly, a husband should fulfill his duty to his wife, and secondly, likewise the wife to her husband. What the text literally says is ‘the husband has authority over his wife’s body, and likewise the wife has authority over the husband’s body.’
There is a complimentary-ness about the relationship, but it highlights what we call ‘other person centred-ness’ of Christianity, in a way that really pulls the rug out from under these notions of self-centredness and self autonomy, or your body belonging solely and utterly to ourselves. Christianity expresses (particularly in the marriage relationship) the richness of the giving of everything to the other. Marriage fundamentally isn’t about the self.

So this utter and complete giving over of oneself to the other is a unique aspect of Christian marriage, and is so different to what the world thinks marriage is about. The world thinks marriage is really about individuals being self-fulfilled, it’s the Jerry McGuire thing of ‘you complete me’ (I deride that movie).
Like the other person only exists in the marriage, just to be mortar to fit around my bricks and to make me into a strong wall.

Christian marriage is about a profound giving of all that we have to the other, and them giving all that they have to us. Together we enter into a deep relational almost corporate unity, where all that they have becomes mine, and all that I have become theirs. Servant-hood is at the core of what it means to relate in this marriage relationship.

Marriage is not about one person taking from the other what they need, but about the willingness of one person to not withhold anything that would be good for the other. It is a loving and caring and sharing mutual and reciprocal giving of everything one has to the other, and it is done because it is for their good and not motivated by our own self interest.

And in this particular case Paul is talking about a sexual relationship between man and woman. There is one place for a sexual relationship and it is the marriage relationship between a one-man and one woman.

Husband and wife should give each other wholly to each other in the realm of the physical body to express their sexual relationship. Paul says this is good, it is an appropriate expression of self-control, and it is the antidote to the current sexual immorality that is a crisis within the Corinthian church.

In verse 5 Paul goes on to give his fifth and final command in these six versus, where he tells them do not deprive each other. It seems the backdrop to this is because of the overly spiritual mindset some believers are withholding sex from of their marital partner, and this is feeding the immorality, and possibly why Paul talks about the issue of prostitution in the chapter last week. And Paul tells them to knock it off, husbands and wives should be having sex, it’s good for them.

For some of you, I’m sure that’s not the worst news you’ve heard this week – who said church had to be boring, so you should be having sex with your spouse, but Paul goes on to say -- you’d better be praying with them as well!
Sex in marriage is good but prayer is even more important.

But as profound and good as this marriage relationship is Paul reminds us, that the husband and wife relating well and enjoying each other, it is not an end in itself. The end of marriage, and the purpose of marriage, is to serve the lord.

Is that how you view your marriage, is that how you live out your marriage?
Is that how you view a prospective marriage partner if you are single?
All life, but particularly the marriage relationship is about serving the Lord.

So serve the Lord in marriage by faithfulness through Self-Control, which is a complete and utter devotion to your spouse both physically and in prayer together.

2. Married People and Divorce (V10-11)
Serve the Lord by faithfulness in marriage through not seeking a divorce.

In verse is 10 and 11 God through the apostle Paul is saying marriage is life long, the goal of marriage is to stay married.

A husband is called upon to fulfill his duty and not divorced his wife, now admittedly in the times Paul is talking about, to be divorced was something of a financial and relational disaster for a woman, it wasn’t as though she could it go out and get a job. So a man was to be faithful to the promises he made and not divorce his wife.

And Paul continues his complimentary and equal description of the obligations of both parties in marriage, by saying likewise if a woman needs to distance herself from her husband, Paul commands her that if this is required she must remain unmarried, or on the other hand the only other option is to be reconciled to her husband.

It seems here that Paul clearly states that separation, can have only one of two outcomes. Firstly, If it does occur it has a goal of reconciliation between the two parties. And secondly, if reconciliation is not possible, then Paul commands they must remain unmarried. Paul and the Lord clearly say in these directives, that the goal of marriage is to stay married, that is faithfulness.
But along with this, we need to say that these directives seems to be a tacit acknowledgement, that in this broken world with broken people, separation is still not a good, but it may be a necessary.

Now while Paul here doesn’t give the sum total of all the bibles teaching on separation, divorce and faithfulness his thinking on marriage here reflects the heart of what the Bible does say, that we are to serve the Lord by faithfulness in marriage by not getting divorced.

The goal of Christian teaching on this, is to hold up the real holiness of God, and acknowledge how he would have us live, but at the same time acknowledge God’s grace to us in our fallen condition and the call for us to be likewise with each other.

But doesn’t the Bible and particularly Jesus Teaching seem to give some criteria as to when divorce could happen? yes that seems to be true, but you know what in our context I doubt our problem is needing any encouragement to divorce.
We need to remember that divorce isn’t a solution to marriage, but it may be a right concession in extreme and difficult circumstances. But Paul here In verse 39 reminds us that marriage is until death does us part.

Now tying into this a little bit we can see why marriages and faithfulness in marriage is so important to the Lord. And it is because of the way Paul speaks about marriage in Ephesians 5, where in a real way, our faithfulness in marriage is a testimony to God’s faithfulness to the church in Christ. God is faithful to his promises that he has made and he is calling on his people to be likewise. It seems throughout the Bible and particularly in the old Testament with God’s people Israel, that physical faithfulness was an outward sign of spiritual faithfulness.

Married people are to serve the Lord in marriage through the faithfulness of not getting divorced.


3. Married Christians and Unbelievers (V12-16)
Serve the Lord in marriage by faithfulness through not seeking to leave an unbelieving spouse, but by desiring their salvation even at a personal cost.

I personally think this section of the text seems to be one of the harder parts of what Paul has to say here and in particular versus 12-16 where we are looking at the basic overarching theology of what Paul saying. He says that if you are married to an unbeliever, then there are bigger things going on than your marriage. What he is saying is (as hard as this is to hear) he is saying that it is better to be separated and for your unbelieving spouse to be saved, than to stay married and for them to be judged.

A marriage commitment is of great importance, but the salvation of people is even more important than that. Paul wants people who are married to unbelieving spouses to be faithful in marriage, by not seeking to leave them.


Twice he commands that they must not divorce them, either the husband or wife of a non believer, but he command the believer that if their spouse wants or to leave they should let them leave. And the rationale behind this is that salvation is more important than even marriage.

Serve the Lord by being faithful to your non- believing spouse in marriage, especially it seems to me by praying for their salvation.

4. Christians and Remarriage (V8-9) & (V39-40)
Serve the Lord by faithfulness in singleness through Self-Control in sexual matters, or remarry, but only in the Lord.

Paul in talking about Christians and remarriage, talks particularly to those who widow (and by extension widower’s) and he says three things about the faithfulness of them in serving the Lord.

Firstly, it is better (if they are able) to remain single. Paul’s logic which he will develop a little later is that it is easier as a single person to remain single-minded in your service to the Lord. A married person has their attention divided.

Secondly, if the physical urges for sexual intimacy are too much for a person who is widowed to bear, Paul commands them to get married. Being married is the only place for sexual intimacy and this will facilitate them a being faithful in self-control.

Thirdly, if a person needs to remarry, they are free to do this, but a person must remarry in the Lord.

Serve the Lord by faithfulness in singleness through Self-Control in sexual matters, or remarry, but only in the Lord.

[BREAK]

5. Christians and Singleness (V7-8), (V25-28) & (V32-35)
Serve the Lord in singleness by faithfulness through Self-control in this gift, because it will save you from many troubles.

Paul in these relevant sections of the text in chapter 7 (you can see from your outline), highlights a number of things that single people all need to consider.

Firstly, Paul says that singleness is a gift.
“Some gift” I’m sure some of you think!
Paul means this gift is a status given from God, but this gift like all gifts is contextual, it isn’t necessarily an absolute, and if you find it difficult well you should pray to God about that. But in the meantime you should use the gift that God has given you to serve the Lord. Which brings us to our next point.

Secondly, Paul wishes that everyone was like him with the same gift, because to be single or unmarried or widowed, enables a person to be undivided in their focus upon serving the lord.
Paul is saying in real and tangible ways, you are able to serve the Lord better by being single in many ways. So use what God has given you. Seek to please the Lord, seek to look after the Lords affairs, because you are free from many of the concerns of the world which come through being married.

So single people, just like married people, (just like every other group of people that can be mentioned), in this passage are called to live in a right way, in an undivided devotion to Lord. And Paul in this chapter is outlining the rules of the game here to enable all of us to do that, no matter what the situation we find ourselves in.

Singleness is no more spiritual than marriage, as the Corinthians seemed to think it was, both have their advantages, but in particular Paul says singleness in practical ways enables a person to be undivided in serving of the Lord.

Single people should serve the Lord by being faithful with the gift he has given.

6. Christian Singles and Sex (V9)
Serve the Lord in singleness by faithfulness through Self-Control of your sexual desires.

Verse nine of chapter 7 gives a fairly clear directive as to the options for single people and their sexual desires.

Firstly, Paul explains that the right response to sexual desires while single is Self-Control. Sex belongs within marriage, within one context of the marriage relationship between one woman and one man.

Now as you may remember from last week, we spoke about Gods commands, as not being some sort of arbitrary pronouncement, but explained that his commands are pleasing to God, but also consistent with the world he has made.


God made reality, and what he commands is good, and it works with his created reality. To choose to do other than what God commands us is to actually go up against reality and it can only end in frustration, as you may remember the example of putting bread in the VCR and trying to get toast.

So to give a concrete example of this, this is the implications of what I read in the Sydney morning Herald last week. There are two articles and the first of them, is entitled ‘sexual infections skyrocket among generation Y’.

And the conclusion of their investigation was that this generation isn’t a bunch of a ‘one night stand-ers’, as it were, but they were described as being in a number of ‘serially monogamous’ relationships. Which is of course an oxymoron. And yet the report went on to say, that reports of STI’s (or sexually transmitted infections) has jumped 300% in the last nine years, there was 51,000 reported cases of STI’s last year.


And the health professional (rightly at one level let me say because of the medical risks) says in response to the question they were asked, ‘do we have any other options than condoms in this situation to avoid STI’s’, she replied ‘I have to say that there isn’t, if you don’t want to catch an STI.’

OR what she doesn’t say is that in fact if you dropped the serial from the monogamy, you know how many STI’s you would get? ZERO!

She also said again in this article that the more partners a person has, the more likely it is that you will be exposed to a STI and infected.

And God is not stupid about the world he has made. Proper Monogamy as opposed to serial monogamy (let’s give it a name, something like, lets say marriage) is a solution to STI’s. It mightn’t be easy to do (which is why abstinence or faithfulness aren’t really put forward as options in this paper) but it is good. Good from God, for us, and consistent with the world he has made for us to live in.

And just to prove it isn’t only the younger generation, there was a second article entitled ‘veterans of swinging 60s may pay for free love’. A study has found in instances where the Human Papilloma Virus or HPV (the virus that fairly recently they have decided to vaccinate teenage girls against), when instances of this virus were found, HPV positive cancer patients tended to have a higher number of sexual partners than others.

You see Self-control make sense of our world even statistically, but especially because God has told us what is for our good.

Secondly, if you’re a single and your sexual desires just are an overwhelming frustration for you, then the appropriate response is to get married. Faithfulness to the Lord means sexual desires can only be expressed in the context of the marriage relationship.


Now I realize that some people might not currently have the option to just get married, for want of a better description and they might call themselves ‘chronically single’. Well your two options are to learn self-control, or to just ask someone out.

Firstly, Self-control. Christ is the Lord of your body, don’t do things with your body that dis-honour Christ. Can I suggest you pray about this, and remember Paul’s instruction from last week, ‘flee sexual immorality’. Express your Christian freedom and responsibility by removing yourself from temptation.

Secondly, Marriage. The prime goal of marriage is to serve the Lord, which is quite a contrast and far removed from the overly romantic sentimentality, we pick up from society. This means that the point of going out with someone is to work out the answer to the question, ‘can you serve the Lord with this person?’
This is the big issue, not whether they are a good dresser with nice friends!

Serve the Lord in singleness by faithfulness through Self-Control of your sexual desires.

7. Christian Singles and Engagement (V36-38)
Serve the Lord by faithfulness in engagement by doing what is wise to them!

As you read versus 36-38 Paul says people are free to do what they think is wise in this particular situation.
And in this instruction there is wisdom from Paul by implication about our physical relationship when we are engaged. Engaged is not married, by definition, (before God and man), and the one place for a sexual relationship is marriage.

Engagement calls for Self-Control in this area, because Paul says to either party you are within your rights to not actually go through with the engagement, if it doesn’t seem wise. So be warned Engagement is not marriage, and it would be a terrible thing before God and (for a future spouse) to have slept with another man’s wife, while you were engaged to her.

8. Christian Slaves and the Circumcised (18-23)
Serve the Lord by faithfulness in any situation he places you.

Wherever we find ourselves we have been bought by Christ at a price and we are his slaves and to serve him as our master alone.
Five times throughout this chapter Paul tells people to remain, to remain in a situation in which God has placed them. Slave or free, single or married, neither is more spiritual than the other, and a person can serve the Lord wherever he has placed them.

9. The Sum of the Matter (V17, V20, V24 & V29-31)
Serve the Lord by faithfulness through being concerned with pleasing him, wherever he has placed you, because he bought you at a price.

17 Nevertheless, each one should retain the place [walk] 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.

20 Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him.

24 Brothers, each man, as responsible to God,
should remain in the situation God called him to.

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



Paul tells the Corinthians to Serve the Lord because the time is short;
Firstly, wherever you find yourself, there is no ‘physical’ state of heightened spirituality!

And secondly, in Self control, for this is the solution to the current crisis of sexual immorality.

Serve the Lord by faithfulness through being concerned with pleasing him, wherever he has placed you, because he bought you at a price.