Rightly dividing the Word . . .

 

READ 1 Corinthians 5–8

A friend tells me that salvation gives us power; therefore, no Christian should be sick. She dismisses verses that say how God uses sickness to show His glory, or to chasten sin, or even to take His people home. No one likes being sick so this teaching has an appeal, but is healing always the will of God? Or is it sometimes a human, fleshy desire?

In reading these chapters, I remember Paul rebuked this church for being carnal or ruled by fleshy and sinful motives. I’m impressed how easily we get this mixed up with “God told me . . .”  Paul addresses these issues:

Sexual Sins. In this case, it was incest, but the rebuke was broadened to include other kinds of sin — in the church. It is not talking about the sins of unsaved people:

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)

I’ve seen this reversed, as did Paul. This church tolerated those involved in immorality and were proud of being “loving” toward them, but this passage says that was not God’s will. Instead, they were to put them out of fellowship, not accept them and their behavior. However, the reverse applies to unbelievers for they do not have the Spirit of God to enable them to stop sinning.

Settling Disputes. The church at Corinth went to civil courts with their disagreements instead of settling them in-house with Spirit-filled believers using biblical wisdom. Paul says, “To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!” (1 Corinthians 6:1–8) This is fleshy behavior.

Acting like they were not saved. After listing some sins, Paul says, “And such were some of you. 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.” (1 Corinthians 6:9–11) In other words, act like who you are, not who you were!

Thoughtless priorities. The Bible says “All things are lawful” but not all things are helpful, so don’t be dominated by food or sex. Our bodies belong to the Lord and are a temple of the Holy Spirit, bought with a price! Glorify Him. (1 Corinthians 6:12–20)

These principles apply to marriage, even unhappy marriages where divorce is considered, sex within marriage and sexual desires outside of marriage. We belong to Jesus and must learn how to live like it, not allowing our old nature to govern what we think and do. At the same time, this new life is not saying we give up our life and move to a monastery or change anything unless God calls us to change.

Priorities. The ideal is an eternal perspective that is focused on the will of God and not on the cares of this life. This is a challenge yet those filled with the Spirit are not concerned with temporal emotions, riches or poverty, and other “worldly” things. Instead, we are “to promote good order and to secure our undivided devotion to the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:30–35) and consider ways to build up others. The example given is not to think I know everything because “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” I’m to watch what I do so that I don’t cause others to stumble. Paul talks about eating food offered to idols, but this applies to any sort of behavior that is worldly, or carnal or fleshy, lest those outside the faith, or even other Christians think that sort of life is acceptable to God. If I cause others to sin by violating their conscience, I am sinning against Christ.

Another note, where Paul says, “if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (1 Corinthians 8:7–13) he is not telling people to become vegetarians. This is about meat offered to idols — and reminds me to read carefully, not use the Bible to support or repudiate any personal “wisdom” or lack thereof. God’s ways are not like the world’s ways — and my ways need to match up with His.