1 Corinthians 6: 1-8, Dispute with church members
If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do 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? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother goes to law against another--and this in front of unbelievers! The 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? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.
If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do 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? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church! I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother goes to law against another--and this in front of unbelievers! The 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? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.
I have all sorts of questions about the practicality of this. But in general, between true believers, there should be no reason for lawsuits; there should be a way to resolve disputes within the church.
1 Corinthians 6: 9-11, God's Kingdom will be pure, refreshing
Do 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 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
And 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.
And 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.
Verse 11: "You were like that once -- but you have been changed!" So ... Continue in your new direction!
1 Corinthians 1:12-14, Our priority
"Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything.
"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. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
"Everything is permissible for me"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"--but I will not be mastered by anything.
"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. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
"How do we know what is right and what is wrong?" That's the wrong question. the question should be, "How can I live for the Lord Jesus?"
1 Corinthians 6:15-18, Living for Christ is especially relevant for our sexuality
Do 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! Do 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." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
The quote in verse 16 is from Genesis 2:24, when God ordains marriage. The point is that marriage is a union of two people into one; this is physical, not just spiritual (these cannot be separated) and so sex is sacred.
I don't understand the last half of the last verse, verse 18.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20, God's temple is now ... and It is You!
I don't understand the last half of the last verse, verse 18.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20, God's temple is now ... and It is You!
Do 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; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
The old covenant, with its old temple, has been replaced by a new covenant, in which the Holy Spririt resides in the believer and changes his/her heart. If so, we are to recognize that our bodies are then that temple! So we are to treat the body as a sacred place!
So on lawsuits, I wrote an exegetical paper on this passage years --actually decades--ago. One key to understanding it is the Greek term biotika in the previous paragraph translated "trivial cases" in one instance and "this life" in the second. It's small potatoes types of stuff they are suing over--a litigious society not unlike our own.
ReplyDeleteI just finished a book called Leadership and Self Deception, which talks about our propensity to reduce people to objects in our relationships, especially those at work and in business. It discusses how that propensity tends to produce in us self-justifying attitudes and behaviors that not only generate conflict, but thrive on it because of an escalating need for self-justification. The way out is to stop blaming the other and take responsibility for ones own behaviors and actions. The afterword talks about people engaged in lawsuits who applied the principles in the book and settled out of court, without lawyers. Some of them actually resumed productive business relationships. Doesn't always play out that way, and try to settle a sizable insurance claim without your company or the other going to court. Sometimes even among Christians it can't. But not over cutting down a tree on the property line, for crying out loud!
Oh, oh, sexual immorality as a sin against the body. This comes straight out of the creation account and addresses us as embodied beings--a unity of soul and body. Sexual sun treats our bodies as if they were an instrument the real us used as it wishes--the Greek idea that we are imprisoned souls. The Bible treats the body as sacred because it really is us. A lot to say here, and I've been learning a great deal from our perception psychologists about how we think and know with our bodie. Pope John Paul's theology of the body is probably the fullest Christian attempt to think through the implications of biblical teaching on the unity of body and soul.
ReplyDeleteSexual sin--not sun. Typing on an iPhone. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteExcellent comments. Yes, the body and soul are not distinct, but united. The Jewish concept (indeed Biblical concept) of the afterlife is not an ethereal "angel" floating in airy heaven, but a *resurrected* physical body, different but still physical. (As for sexual *sun*, I find it irritating that I can't edit a blog comment!)
ReplyDeleteExcellent comments. Yes, the body and soul are not distinct, but united. The Jewish concept (indeed Biblical concept) of the afterlife is not an ethereal "angel" floating in airy heaven, but a *resurrected* physical body, different but still physical. (As for sexual *sun*, I find it irritating that I can't edit a blog comment!)
ReplyDelete