Day 138, 1 Corinthians 6
Today Paul reinforces the corrections from yesterday’s chapter. Some Corinthian believers are resorting to the courts to enforce their rights against their brothers and sisters in Christ. This dishonors the name of Jesus because it shows that the unity Jesus died to offer has not been accepted. It would be more like Christ if one were to accept injustice than to accuse a fellow believer in the world’s courts.
There are many behaviors that are incompatible with the Kingdom of God. Some are listed in verses 9 & 10. As with yesterday, this is not an exhaustive list nor a specifying of especially heinous sins. Paul focuses on sexual sins, because these are rampant in Corinth, but he also includes greed, idolatry, fraud, and verbal abuse in the list. The most important sentence in this passage is verse 11: “It’s true that some of you once lived in those lifestyles, but now you have been purified from sin, made holy, and given a perfect standing before God—all because of the power of the name of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, and through our union with the Spirit of our God.” Paul is warning against practices, not orientations, and we would do well to imitate him. Judgmental Christians easily commit verbal abuse which is as incompatible with God’s Kingdom as the sins they condemn.
In the second half of the chapter, Paul shows us why sexual sin is so dangerous. It is because God created us to reflect His nature when a husband and wife unite sexually. It is one way of prefiguring the union between Christ and The Church. Actively distorting or defiling that picture is to deliberately misrepresent God. If you have accepted the gift of life in Christ, you have been bought with a price. A very high price. You no longer have the right to do what you please.
How will you glorify God today by living fully embodied as a new creation?
Have a great day!
Mark.