THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST
SPREADING THE SOUL-SAVING MESSAGE OF JESUs
(Chapters 5-7)
Introduction by narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. Spreading the soul-saving message of Jesus. And now, Timothy Sparks and Ben Bailey.
Ben Bailey:
“For indeed, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7). I’m Ben Bailey.
Timothy Sparks:
And I’m Timothy Sparks. Welcome to our study of First Corinthians. This broadcast is brought to you by individual members and congregations of the churches of Christ. We hope you will visit the churches of Christ in your area, and let them know how much you appreciate their support of this broadcast. We also hope you will visit us on our website at www.thegospelofchrist.com. We have streaming audio and video lessons available, and we also make available correspondence courses to aid you in your study of the Word of God. As always, we would like to offer you a free copy of our lessons on CD or DVD. All of our lessons are available free of charge. All you need to do is fill out the request form on our website, let us know which ones you want, and we will be happy to send those to you.
As we continue our study of First Corinthians, we now come to chapter 5. We notice that Paul is dealing with a very difficult problem facing the Christians at Corinth. They were thinking that the way to “be loving” was to accept a brother who was living in sexual immorality with his father’s wife. Paul tells them, “You should be ashamed!” Instead, they were puffed up. They were bragging about how “loving” and “accepting” they were as this brother was in their midst. But Paul said that they should withdraw from him, that his soul might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes, love will make us do very difficult things—things that we don’t necessarily want to do, but that we know we must do because we have another person’s best interest at heart. Ben, tell us more about why we should discipline wayward, erring brethren such as this man in chapter 5.
Ben Bailey:
In 1 Corinthians 5, especially toward the latter part of the chapter, Paul is going to tell us very clearly that disfellowshipping is not just a show of discipline to convince others not to sin, but is actually carried out in order to save that person’s soul. When it comes to the heart of matter, withdrawing fellowship, and not condoning people who are living in an ungodly manner, is done, according to Paul, to the saving of their soul, so that they will realize their sin and the error of their way. It was sad that, in this particular case in the Corinthian church, people were overlooking the sin. Paul says, however, they you cannot overlook it; you must deal with it. He uses the illustration of leaven and a lump. As a modern-day analogy, we might think of a bad apple in a basket of many other apples. One bad apple can eventually cause all of the apples to go bad. This is Paul’s point. One bad part can cause the whole to turn bad. Paul says, “It will affect you, if you do not remove it from your midst.” And so he gives specific commands to the Christians in Corinth, to remind them that they must remove this sinner from their midst. He also reminds them that they have been taken out of the world by Jesus Christ. The key idea is found in 1 Corinthians 5:7, where Paul teaches that Christ is our Passover. Going all the way back to the time of the Exodus, after the Israelites had come out of Egypt, the Jews kept the Passover of unleavened bread to remind them of that great servanthood they had endured in Egypt, and how they now had been freed to serve God by choice. The same is true of us today. Once we come into the church—the body of Christ—we should be pure and holy. We should make certain that our lives are holy, because that is what Jesus has called us to do. A very practical point, therefore, is that we should make sure that the church is pure. If there are people in the church who are living in marriages that are not right, if there is adultery, if there is homosexuality, if there is drunkenness, if there are problems with drugs—and we think to ourselves, “Well, we’ll just let that go and hope that they repent, and we’ll act like we didn’t know about the sin”— that’s not what Paul wants us to do, and that’s not what God wants us to do. The best thing to do to keep these kinds of problems from growing is to deal with them immediately. Now, some people have dealt with such problems in the wrong way. They go to the brother or sister and condemn and rebuke, without offering any real help. Certainly, we need to do what the Bible says, and we need to help these people, but Ephesians 4:15 comes into play here. We must “speak the truth in love.” Yes, we must say what God wants us to say from His Word. But too many times, we’ve not been as tactful as we could have in doing that. We need to speak the truth in a very loving and kind manner. As you think about situations, don’t you think that a lot more good can be done by using love, rather than employing the abrasive spirit that some would use?
Timothy Sparks:
A lot of times, it’s not so much what you say, as how you say it. Ephesians 4:15—“speaking the truth in love”—certainly comes into play. So does Colossians 4:6, where we are told, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” Over and over again throughout the book of First Corinthians, Paul is going to stress that love is the solution to their various problems. This is what was causing the division. Remember 1 Corinthians 1:10 (the thematic statement of the book)? In that passage, Paul stated that there were to be no divisions among them, but that they were to be completely joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. As we look at 1 Corinthians 6, we see that the divisions were partly the result of contentions among the Christians as they failed to be able to work out their problems. So, they were going before the pagan courts of the day, suing their brothers. One brother would go against another brother, instead of doing what Jesus had commanded in Matthew 18 where he urged Christians to try to make things right among themselves and to work our their problems. If that does not work, then we are to take one or two other Christians with us, and if that doesn’t work, we are to take it before the church. The Christians in Corinth weren’t taking it before the church; they were taking it before pagan courts. So Paul asks, “Is there not a single wise brother among you who can decide in such matters? Why wouldn’t you rather accept wrong and be defrauded yourself? But instead of your being wronged, instead of your doing what Christ would want you to do, you are doing wrong yourself by going before the pagan courts.” Paul is therefore telling them, “You need to be able to work out these problems among yourselves. Love will cause you to swallow your pride, resolve the problem as much as possible, and don’t take it before the world. This is a matter that God’s family should be able to sort out.”
Ben Bailey:
We’re going to make it very clear as we study 1 Corinthians 6 that this was an unrighteous act. They were not to take advantage of each other. And Paul says in verse 9, “Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” Paul lists several of the “unrighteous”—murderers, adulterers, homosexuals—who he says will not inherit the kingdom of God. Then he makes it very clear that “such were some of you.” There are several important lessons that we can draw from this context. First, we must realize that unrighteous people are not going to make it to Heaven. We live in a world that wants to wrap its arms around everyone, and accept everyone, regardless of how a person lives or what a person does. Most people still think they are going to go to Heaven. But friends, we need to go back to the Bible. We need to realize that unrighteous people—people who are living in violation of God’s will, living in adultery or homosexuality, engaging in drunkenness, “living life to the fullest”—God says (and this is not us saying it, but God) that those people are not going to Heaven. They are not living the life they are supposed to be living. So Paul teaches us very clearly that if we live an unrighteous life, we cannot expect to go to Heaven. And then he makes the point, “and such were some of you.” This teaches us that when we become a Christian, we come out of the world. We repent and change our lives. Going back to chapter 5, Paul shows us that we cannot live in sin and in a right relationship with Jesus Christ. And so it is the basic idea of repentance, and of making sure that we are doing God’s will. Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Repentance is a change of will that leads to a change of life. When I become a child of God, I have to leave the world outside. That doesn’t mean I won’t ever sin again. But it does mean that I am not going to continue in that relationship with the world. And so in chapter 6, Paul shows us that unrighteous people cannot make it to Heaven. In verses 19 and 20, he’s going to follow up on this idea and tell us that our bodies also must be holy.
Timothy Sparks:
Paul leads us into this concept by telling us to “run away from” fornication. And then he asks, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” God has given us our bodies. He makes it very clear that we are to flee fornication—to run away from all kinds of sexual immorality because God’s spirit dwells within us. We are not our own, but are bought with a price. He’s obviously referring to the precious blood of the Lamb, Who is without spot and without blemish (1 Pet. 1:18-19). We are bought with the precious blood of the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world (Jn. 1:29). Yes, Jesus is indeed our Passover (1 Cor. 5:27). Jesus is the One Who died to redeem us. We are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:7). Therefore, we are not to use our bodies as servants of sin (Rom. 6:10-16), but rather we are to use our bodies to glorify God, since our bodies do not belong to us, but have been given to us by God. We are a “prized, purchased possession” of God. This should tell Christians that we should live the holiest of lives, the cleanest of lives. This, of course, is for our spiritual welfare. But also, it is for our physical welfare, since those who engage in various types of sexual immorality often are plagued with all manner of disease. Throughout the Old Testament, we see the concept where God taught the Israelites how to live healthy physical lives, while at the same time keeping themselves spiritually pure before Him. So as we look at this passage, and think about our body being the temple of the Holy Spirit, we have a very serious charge to live up to our faith, to live up to the standard that God has given us, and to thank God and to glorify Him, not only in word, but also in our deeds and in our practices. Ben, tell us more about this concept of holy, clean living, and our bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Ben Bailey:
The Bible teaches in 1 Peter 1:15 that, as God is holy, so we, t must be holy. This is a command that goes all the way back to the levitical period. God is a holy God, and although in and of ourselves we are not holy, through the blood of Jesus we become clean, and then we must live a holy life. On the practical side, as it relates to our bodies being bought for a price and not being our own, we never put anything into our body that would defile it, and that would cause it not to last as long as God intended. This means that we should not use illegal drugs, which are a known problem for mankind. Think of the thousands of families that have been destroyed, or the thousands of bank accounts that have been drained—even leaving children without food to eat—because a father or mother had a drug problem. And those same drugs are known to contain toxins that can cause all kinds of problems. We have to realize that we must not put into our bodies things that will harm us. This could also relate to alcohol. The Bible says, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). Alcohol has been shown to cause all kinds of health problems—from brain damage to cirrhosis of the liver—that God did not intend for us to have. This also would apply to tobacco—whether it be dipping tobacco or smoking tobacco. Lung cancer, for example, has been proven to be caused by smoking tobacco. I wish I could get young people to walk into the hospital and see those people who have been smoking for years, and see them struggling to breathe as they lie on their deathbeds. This alone would show that tobacco is damaging to us. If young people could see the faces of people who dipped tobacco, and who now have cancer of the lip or jaw—this would show them that the use of tobacco is defiling their bodies. So, 1 Corinthians 6 is basically a lesson in good stewardship. I should not do anything to my body that is going to harm it. It seems that, in First Corinthians, the Christians had several questions for Paul. Timothy, tell us what the question was, with which Paul dealt in chapter seven.
Timothy Sparks:
As we examine chapter seven, we see how, even in the concept of marriage, Christians are to be united, not divided, because at the heart of the church is the home. We need to pray fervently, and sing more enthusiastically, “God give us Christian homes.” In the first seven verses of this chapter, Paul is dealing with husbands and wives. Paul makes it clear that husbands and wives should live together, and should not hold out sexually from one another, but rather should give of themselves to one another, because in the marriage relationship, each one is to be completely committed to the other. And so Paul is going to give the advice he’s been leading up to offering. He made it very clear in 1 Corinthians 5 that a man is not to live with his father’s wife. Now, in 1 Corinthians 7, we learn that each man is to have his own wife. Paul is now going to prescribe ways to avoid fornication, which he says to “run from” (1 Cor. 6:18). As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, fornicators, homosexuals, and adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God. In 1 Corinthians 7:1-7, we learn that men and women can abide together in holy living when they go by the Word of God. Ben, tell us more about this passage.
Ben Bailey:
In 1 Corinthians 7:7-11, we are going to see God’s rules of marriage, divorce, and remarriage applied to a specific situation. It’s very likely that when the Gospel came to those people in Corinth, one person in a marriage became a Christian, while the other did not. So the one who is now a Christian has questions about his unbelieving mate. Does the unbelieving mate make the Christian unclean? Paul said “No.” In fact, if the Christian continues in marriage with the unbeliever, the believer may actually help the unbeliever to become a Christian. Then the questions arise, “Well, what if my unbelieving mate leaves? Do I have the right to leave Christ and go with her? Or can I divorce her and remarry again?” This often has been a problem as it relates to marriage, divorce, and remarriage. We need to remember God’s specific command, going all the way back to Genesis 2:24—“a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Jesus commented on this in Mark 10, and said that a man should leave his father and mother, and that what God has joined together, man should not separate. As we follow Jesus’ teaching to Matthew 19:9, Jesus says that the one and only reason for divorce is fornication—sexual immorality (especially as it relates to another individual). Jesus says that, except for fornication, people are not to remarry another. When it comes to 1 Corinthians 7, some people say that Paul is giving another reason. If your unbelieving mate leaves, you are no longer under that “bond” any more. The word for “bond” here in the original Greek depicts the relationship between a servant and a master. Husbands and wives, of course, are not necessarily “servants and masters” to one another (in the sense that they force one another to do whatever they wish). Thus, the word “bond” must be describing our relationship with Jesus Christ. My wife is not my servant; I cannot make her do what I want her to do. But Jesus is my Master, and although He doesn’t make me, I serve Him. When Paul says that you are “not under bondage,” he is saying, you are not under bondage to give up Christ in order to follow an unbelieving mate. That is Paul’s idea. Don’t leave the church. Don’t leave something of immense value, and go away with that unbelieving mate. Paul’s teaching here does not give someone the right to remarry if an unbelieving mate leaves them. They are still under that original bond. Timothy, tell us how this applies to us today.
Timothy Sparks:
It seems obvious from this passage that the church in Corinth was one of several that were around, but at a great distance. Therefore, if the unbeliever were to leave, the faithful Christian could stay right there in Corinth with the church. By way of application of this passage, we see that if a Christian marries a non-Christian, and then the unbeliever leaves, the believer is not under obligation to go into the world with that unbeliever, because that is obviously why the unbeliever would be leaving—to pull the believer away from Christ. If two people were married, and one became a Christian and one did not, the believer would be under no obligation to follow after the unbeliever, because apparently (in this context) the unbeliever is trying to “pull you away” from Christ, and to pull you away from the church, and to pull the believer back into paganism. Historians tell us that, at this point in time, sexual immorality was as natural as breathing. It was something a person who did not believe in Christ would want to continue to do. Paul’s message was: “You stay faithful!” The modern-day application is that if a Christian is married to a non-Christian, and the unbeliever wants to pull the Christian away from Christ, the Christian must stay faithful to Christ—even if the unbeliever leaves. This situation gives no license to remarry. If the unbeliever wants to depart, let him do so. The Christian is “not under bondage” to follow him in such an instance. God has called us to peace; we are to be at peace with God. We are “not under bondage” to have to leave along with the unbeliever in order to go back into sin, because then peace with God would be broken. Although many people want to appeal to 1 Corinthians 7 to suggest that a Christian can remarry if his or her unbelieving mate leaves, this passage provides no justification for such a teaching. The Lord made it quite clear, in Matthew 19:9, that fornication is the only legitimate reason for divorce. If we try to pit Paul against Jesus, then it is we who have caused the contradiction, not Paul. Paul did not say something here that our Lord did not teach. Paul, as an ambassador of Christ, will remain true to what Jesus, as the king, has stated.
Ben Bailey:
In fact, Paul commented on this in 1 Corinthians 7:35, in light of all that was going on as some tried to drag believers back into the world. His message was: Serve the Lord without distraction. Don’t let your unbelieving mate distract you and pull you away, but serve Jesus Christ without distraction. We live in a world that has many distractions. We live in a “rat race” that moves at 90 miles an hour. So many things try to pull us away and distract us. Paul says serve the Lord without distraction. In the context, this applies to marriage, and the relationship between husband and wife, and one who may have just taken a wife. You still have to remember that during the time when love is the strongest between you and your wife, don’t forget the Lord. That’s Paul’s point. When husbands and wives first marry, they want to spend a lot of time together, and they want to show their love for one another. But during that time, don’t forget whom you love the most. The Bible says that we must love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30-36). Husbands and wives, love this the most about your husband or wife—that he or she loves God more than you. That’s something we have to continue to show. Do you love God more than you do your husband or your wife? If you do, then you surely will be able to serve the Lord without distraction. So, in 1 Corinthians 7 Paul is teaching certain things about marriage. Husbands and wives must show their due affection, and not withhold that from one another. It’s good to marry if one cannot abstain. But if one can abstain, Paul says that in light of the current situation (impending persecution), it is best not to marry. Paul isn’t saying that marriage is not good. He’s saying that in the certain specific situation in Corinth—where people were having to die for being a Christian —maybe it would best not to marry and leave a wife and children without a father. In that situation, it was not good. But, as it relates to our situation today (going all the way back to Genesis 2), marriage is something that is good. God made Adam a helpmate—a companion—to help him get to Heaven. So this basic lesson on marriage is a lesson that applies to the church and to all of us today.
Timothy Sparks:
It all goes back to love. As you see, Paul is encouraging Christians to love one another, and husbands and wives to love one another. Paul is going to continue to say much about this concept of love as we continue through the book of First Corinthians. Jesus, after all, did say, “If you love me, you will keep My commandments” (Jn. 14:15). “You are My friends if you do what I command you” (Jn. 15:14). As we think about loving God, we learn that God has a plan for us. God so loved the world that He gave his Son to die for you and for me. We learn that the only reason we love at all is because God first loved us (1 Jn. 4:19). We manifest our love toward God, and accept His grace, by coming to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, by repenting of our sins, changing our hearts, changing our minds, changing our wicked ways to conform to the God of Heaven. Then we can make the confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38) to arise to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4) to serve Jesus all the days of our lives that we may go to Heaven. We hope you will continue to study with us as we try to discover more of “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
Narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
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1. What was the specific nature of the sin that Paul was addressing in 1 Corinthians 5, and what was his admonition to the Christians in the church at Corinth regarding that sin?
2. There are several purposes behind a church withdrawing fellowship from one of its members. Name three.
3. How does Paul’s admonition to the church in Ephesus (Eph. 4:15) impact his admonition to the church in Corinth? Correlate the two.
4. Outline, in three points, the instructions Christ gave in Matthew 18:15-17 concerning how we are to deal with someone who has sinned against us.
5. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul chastised the Christians in Corinth for suing one another in court. What was wrong with their actions along these lines?
6. Can a Christian today sue another Christian in court, and still remain faithful to the teachings of God’s Word?
7. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Paul gave a lengthy list of sins that people can commit (fornication, idolatry, homosexuality, etc.). But in verse 11, he commented, “such were some of you.” What is the meaning of Paul’s statement in verse 11?
8. Paul told the Christians in Corinth that their bodies were “the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19). What did he mean by that?
9. Discuss how passages such as 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, John 1:29, 1 Peter 1:18-19, Ephesians 1:7, and Romans 6:10-16 fit together.
10. In the Old Testament, God gave the Israelites numerous laws governing such things as their sexual activities, their daily diets, their medical practices, etc. Name at least two reasons for God’s various injunctions.
11. The apostle Peter stated that since God is holy, we, too, must be holy (1 Pet. 1:15). Why is that the case?
12. What is the implication of passages such as 1 Corinthians 1:19-20 and 1 Peter 1:15 in regard to our daily activities?
13. We frequently hear the term “stewardship” applied to financial matters. But in what other ways, according to Paul’s instructions in 1Corinthians, must we be good stewards?
14. Within the entire context of 1 Corinthians 7, explain the context and meaning of the statement that a believing husband or wife is “not under bondage” if the unbelieving spouse leaves the marriage.
15. According to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 19:9, there is only one scriptural reason for divorce. What is that one reason?
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