Sermons for the Month
Four on Corinthians (2)
DATE: February 20, 2000
SERVICE: Epiphany VII
TEXT: I Corinthians 3:1-9“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
You will remember from last week that the book of 1 Corinthians is organized around Paul's response to a series of problems in the Corinthian Church. The first major problem, we touched on last week: the divisions in their church. There were factions in the church each headed by some spokesman or leader. About that, Paul was not pleased. "You are divisive," he says, "because you are immature as Christians." It seemed to Paul that each group was looking out for itself rather than working together to further the cause of Christ. That must have been a stinging criticism to the Corinthians especially since in their own eyes they saw themselves as highly "spiritual." Paul, on the other hand, makes a pretty good case for the opposite--they need to "grow up" a lot in their faith. "21 let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, 22 whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future - all belong to you, 23 and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. Unfortunately, it seems little has changed through the ages. The Corinthian Church sounds like a typical modern church. We too have our heroes, our enemies, our quarrels, our pretensions. So it behooves us to listen carefully to what Paul says here. Were we to not listen or take seriously his warnings, I suspect, that would be considered by Paul proof of our immaturity, our divisiveness, our conceit. Since the problem that launched this whole issue was the exalting of leaders over one another by the Corinthians, let's begin with this issue of leadership in the church. After Paul chastises the Corinthian leadership for being worldly, immature, jealous of each other and acting like people without the Holy Spirit, he highlights the character of a true Christian leader. He says that he or she is to be a servant and an evangelist who has a particular job--to win unchurched people for Christ. They are to take their orders from God, not the church and they are to consider themselves part of a process i.e. they are to be one among many, a team player. Their purpose is to grow faith, within themselves and in others. Their goal is not to build up themselves but the body of Christ. At the same time, however, Paul is under no illusions. In chapter 4 he is quite frank when he says, " 9 For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals." Being a Christian leader, Paul warns, means inviting criticism. It means hard work. It means living by the ethic of Jesus even when no one else is. It involves being treated like the lowest of the low by the culture. Being a Christian leader is no easy job. So why do it? Well, for one reason, brothers and sisters, I believe it is the only way to live. It is going to bed at night, and knowing that if I were to die before I wake, I will wake in the company of angels. Paul saw his call as cosmic; his call had universal, eternal, global impact. His call was not to make the better widget but to make a better world. To be part of God's plan, awesome! But we most move on. In chapter 5 Paul now turns to a new topic: sexual immorality. Now I have to admit it was tempting to just skip these next two chapters and deny that anything like incest and prostitution ever happens anymore but whom would we be kidding. Our society has sex just as much on the brain as did first century Corinth. There is hardly a prime time TV show that doesn't have premarital sex as a plot element. Commercials have used sex sense the 1930s to sell cigarettes, cars and clothing.. So rather than skip over these issues I think we need to discuss these issues with openness and candor because of the similarities between first-century Greek and twenty-first century American culture. Granted, sexuality is not the easiest issue to talk about on a Sunday morning nor would I think it would have been the easiest thing to write about in a letter. However, Paul does so because this is a real issue in the Corinthian church. And it is likewise a real issue today. Corinth was notoriously lax when it came to sexual standards and it seems that the new Christians had not yet distinguished adequately between what Christ taught and what their culture tolerated when it came to sexual behavior. The first of their two problems was this: one of the men of the church was sexually involved with his father's wife and the church was openly tolerating his behavior. 1 Corinthians 5:1-2: It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father's wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you? On the basis of a national survey, psychologist John Woodbury concluded that today the probability is that "if incest is not taking place in your home--it is taking place on your street." The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect estimates that at least 100,000 cases of sexual abuse occur each year. Some researchers feel that between 5 and 15 percent of the American population is or has been involved in incest. Other studies suggest that one out of every seven boys and one out of every four girls will be sexually abused by the time they are 18. 97% of the molesters are male and 75 percent are family members. And this occurs within all segments of our society--in both high and low income families, in blue-collar and white-collar homes. But more importantly for Paul is the fact the church is not dealing with the issue. Rather, they were either tolerating it or ignoring it. Rather than ignoring the problem, Paul advises that "grief" should be the first response followed by love of the victim. Of the perpetrator they are to encourage first repentance and then restoration to the community. But if the perpetrator fails to be repentant and seek restoration, they are to have no alternative but judgement and then expulsion from the community. The general principle which lies behind this action is that Christians ought not to associate with other Christians openly and flagrantly involved in such illicit behavior. Paul, of course, commands dismissal from the church of those who openly engage in such behavior. But what can be done before the problem reaches the stage of open defiance? On a societal levels laws need to be made; we need to be sensitized to the problem; families need to be strengthened; boundaries between parent and child need to be restored; sensitive sex education needs to be offered; and treatment programs need to be developed. On a community basis-in a church for example-a lot can be done simply by creating the openness to talk about such a problem with an appropriate person like our counselor John Sculzi, by making known programs where help can be received, and by creating such a deep quality of fellowship that the potential for the problem is defused. If truth be told, the lack of closeness and belonging, and the longing for caring relationships are cited as foundational causes of the problem. If that can not be found in the church, then we have greatly fallen short of our call to be servants of Christ to one another. Enough said; we must move on. In the middle of all this, Paul moves in chapter 6 to a related problem: lawsuits among believers. "Lawsuits" you might ask, "How does Paul get to lawsuits from incest?" Well, in fact, both incest and lawsuits are examples of the same underlying problem in the Corinthian church-the failure to render judgment within the community itself. 1 Corinthians 5: 12: " For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge? The Corinthians should have judged the incestuous man and expelled him from the church. Here in chapter 6 Paul is going to say that they should have rendered judgment between the parties contending over this issue of cheating and not let it go to the secular court. Paul is really talking about the kingdom of God here-what it is like to live by its ethics and what it will be when it comes in fullness. The Corinthians, however, are still living by the standards of the kingdom of this world. Let's look, then, at this question: What is the place of judgment within the Christian church? Two members of the Corinthian church are disputing one another. Being unable to settle the dispute amongst themselves, they have taken the dispute to open court-and when I mean 'open court,' I mean 'open court!' Secular court in that part of the world at that time was held in the open, in the market place with anyone and everyone who wanted to watch standing around. And for a group of people who had been called by God to judge the world not to be able to judge a minor dispute among themselves, this was embarrassing. Indeed, had they been a community of love the matter would not have arisen in the first place. The fact it had spilled out into open secular court further substantiated for Paul just how immature the Corinthians were as disciples of Jesus. When any of you has a grievance against another, do you dare to take it to court before the unrighteous, instead of taking it before the saints? 2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels - to say nothing of ordinary matters? 4 If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to decide between one believer* and another, 6 but a believer* goes to court against a believer* - and before unbelievers at that? We all know stories of churches and their leaders who have found themselves in secular court. And we also know that such occur across the theological spectrum from conservative to liberal, from mainline to fundamental. It was not too long ago that one of Akron's more prominent churches found itself in that very position resulting in the almost total destruction of all concerned. Such divisiveness does nothing but undermine the mission of Christ. And for the rest of us who claim the name of Jesus, it is embarrassing to read on the front page of the Akron Beacon Journal. It strikes a blow at what it is we are all trying to do as disciples of Jesus-to win more disciples for our savior. What a church Paul has founded! Divisions, incest, lawsuits among the membership..and now just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Paul tackles the fourth problem-sexual immorality. Of course, we must remind ourselves once again, before we get too judgmental, that these new Corinthian Christians really didn't know better. They had not yet been fully instructed in the Christian faith. In some sense, they were forgivable since they were the first Christians in the city. And as such they had no models to follow. But, believes Paul, they will grow. As a result of his forthright responses, they will learn. They will see what it is all about. And their lives will grow to correspond more and more to Christian norms. The Christian life is like that. We all start out pretty confused. But we learn and we grow. But back to this particular problem. As you know the issue is prostitution. Should a Christian visit a prostitute? We recoil a bit even in asking the question. "Of course not" we respond, "that is so obvious." But it was not obvious to the Corinthian coming out of a culture that viewed sexual immorality as nothing much to get excited about. "No big deal!" the secular Corinthians would have said. I have seen films dating back to the 30s where it was suggested that it is a right of passage for every young man. And, if he didn't have to pay for it, so much the better. Why is it still a 'big deal' in God's eyes? Why does Paul say so assuredly that visiting a prostitute is wrong? Today, four out of every ten teenage girls will give birth to a child out of wedlock. And lest anyone think this is merely a recent problem, remember that 75 years ago almost every community had Florence Crittendom homes where such events were hidden from view. Sexually transmitted diseases are still as much a problem as they ever were. The only difference now is that it can mean death not just sterility. And don't think sexual promiscuity is a youth problem. First, Paul says, while 12 "All things are lawful for me," .t not all things are beneficial. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything. Visiting a prostitute is most assuredly harmful, not helpful. Second, giving in to such appetites results in a form of slavery to this illicit desire. 13 "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,"* and God will destroy both one and the other. Third, The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Fourth, to unite with a prostitute is to join a member of Christ's body with that prostitute is unthinkable. The sexual act involves a real bonding. 16 Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, "The two shall be one flesh." 17 But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Shun fornication! Fifth, Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple* of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. What is Paul's advice when tempted by illicit sexual temptations? Flee. Get out of there. Don't put yourself in a situation where you might succumb to the temptation. One must flee from those situations that arouse it wrongly. And you thought Bible study was boring! Next week we move on to chapter seven and marriage. AMEN