Day 88, 1 Corinthians 6 
Many of us have
thought that it wrong to make a moral appraisal of anyone since Jesus told His followers
not to judge. Yet we're learning that we've been quite unbalanced in that
regard. Jesus once told a crowd, "Do not judge according to
appearance, but judge with righteous judgment" (John 7:24). Why doesn't
anyone ever quote that commandment? In the
previous chapter of 1 Corinthians, we learned that it is entirely appropriate
for devoted followers of Jesus to judge unrighteous people within the church in
order that the church might remain pure.
Granted, this idea has
been pushed to extremes by some Pharisaical pastors, who set human standards,
such as hair lengths and tithing quotas, in order to keep their trembling
little flocks "pure" or submissive to them. That is not, however,
what Scripture advocates. Paul wrote about judging people who claim to be
Christ's followers, yet who are guilty of obvious sins that are clearly very
grievous to God according to Scripture, such as sexual immorality, idolatry,
greed, drunkenness, thievery, and so on.
Today the theme of
judgment within the church continues, and we learn that "the saints will
judge the world" as well as angels (6:2-3). I wish we had other scriptures
to give us more insight on that, but what Paul wrote certainly ought to
motivate us to sharpen our judgment skills. We'll be participating in some very
significant judgments in the future, and our appraisals of men and angels will
of course be based on God's standards of right and wrong. Thus it would be
tragic for us to abdicate our responsibility to judge during the present time
in smaller matters within the church.
In the Corinthian
church, some believers were taking each other to court in order to let
unbelievers judge between them. Paul questions why there isn't at least one
wise person in the church who could arbitrate disputes, just as Jesus
prescribed (Matt. 18:15-17). One might win his lawsuit against a brother in
Christ, but the loss of reputation suffered by the church before the watching
world would more than offset the gains.
The appropriate thing
to do if one is defrauded by another in the church is to follow Jesus'
instructions in Matthew 18:15-17, which keeps all judgment between believers in
the church. If the person who defrauded another does not ultimately repent, he
should be excommunicated, as Paul warns that not only will no idolaters,
adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, and so on inherit God's kingdom, but
neither will any swindlers. Such people, when unrepentant, are not true
believers in the Lord Jesus.
Do Paul's words,
"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable"
(6:12), mean that Christians have no laws to obey since we are "under
grace," as some teach? Clearly not, as just three verses earlier Paul
solemnly warned that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom (6:9-10).
So what did He mean when he said that all things were lawful? Paul could have
been referring only to the believer's relationship to the Law of
Moses, and that will become more clear later in this letter as he elaborates on
this theme. In fact, in the tenth chapter, he repeats that same phrase about
all things being lawful. For now, let it suffice to say that Paul knew he was
free from all the distinctive requirements of the Mosaic Law, such as the
dietary laws and so on, yet he still found it wise to obey some of them,
primarily out of love for Jewish believers.
Paul next turns his
attention to the subject of sexual immorality, of which Corinth reeked.
Residents and visitors indulged in sex with temple prostitutes as part of the
"religious" experience. Paul lists a number of reasons why such
immorality is wrong for Christians, the foremost being that our bodies are
temples of the Holy Spirit. As we keep that fact in mind it motivates us to
avoid many other things that grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants no
part in anything unholy. That includes not only acts of immorality, but images
and thoughts of the same. Flee every form of immorality! All immoral acts begin
as immoral thoughts.
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