Life Project Blog

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:12-17

As we began our study, I mentioned that we need to be careful with context in reading this letter, because if you don’t, you can find “proof” for something that Paul isn’t even talking about. This text is a great example of that: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone quote from this text as a proof text, to prove that smoking cigarettes is a sin. “The body is the temple of the holy spirit; so smoking is a sin” (short version). Paul is talking about sexual immorality, not smoking.

In v. 12 he quotes things people say, in our day in a context like this, we might declare that we have a right to do whatever we want, the Supreme Court says so!

If he were writing this today, Paul might well point out that the Supreme Court will perish along with the rest of this world.

Essentially, Paul’s whole point here is simple: Our bodies are members of the Body of Christ, they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they are created in the very image and likeness of Almighty God. They were designed and created for a Purpose― God’s Purpose. They are not to be abused by being united with, or become the playthings of, anyone outside of the purpose for which God created them. The union of husband and wife is an integral part of God’s Creation and of His Purpose for Creation, and any other union is a perversion of His image and of His purpose.

This is why Scripture makes such a big deal about sexual immorality: It is offensive to God. You see, the union between husband and wife pictures and foreshadows the union between Christ and His Church, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the union of humans and God. With this in mind, new look at the final verses:

Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (6:18-20)

As you can see, there is a great deal more at stake in these verses than simply a person’s inconvenience or personal preferences.

 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Colossians 1:19-20

Last time, we had a look at Colossians 1:15-18 and saw an amazing list of who and what the Son is, and those three verses, as we saw, are filled with “wow” moments.  In these two verses, Paul mentions the “Why”.  God, it must be said, had a reason for sending His Son to the earth:

First, notice how verse 19 begins: God was pleased to have all of His (God’s, the Father’s) fullness dwell in Him (the Son, Jesus). It seems telling to me, that this fullness of the reality of the Person of the Son is called “pleasing” to God; to me that sounds like purpose is involved here; God’s purpose.  Everything about Jesus and His mission to earth is deliberate and purposeful, and Jesus mentioned this quite a bit as I’m sure you recall.  God was definitely at work.

So, all of God’s fullness was dwelling in Jesus Christ, and through Jesus Christ, God was pleased to reconcile all things to Himself.  Again, let’s just slow down and consider what this is saying.  With God’s entire fullness dwelling in Him, Jesus does something to reconcile all things to God, thus pleasing God. All things, in heaven and on earth were reconciled… because Jesus made peace by shedding His blood on the cross.  

Here’s a proposition for us to consider:  If Jesus had to reconcile all things to God by “making peace” then a state of conflict must have existed prior to the cross.

Of course, we know that there was indeed a state of conflict from the moment that Adam entered into open rebellion against God back in the Garden (Genesis 3). We often refer to “sin” as though it is nothing more than the violation of an ordinance, which is how the Law of Moses codified it, but “sin” was around long before it was so clearly defined, or codified.  Sin is actually rebellion.  We were in rebellion; God reconciled us by having Jesus make peace. Jesus made a Peace Treaty, and a Treaty is a kind of covenant.  Jesus said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matt. 26:28) See how this comes together?

As we go through our day, what an amazing thing we have to reflect upon: God’s love for each one of us is so great, that He was pleased to send His Son, full of all of the fullness of the Father Himself, to die on the cross to make peace with us. Can there be a greater expression of boundless love than that?

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Paul continues in this unpleasant business with a metaphor of the unleavened bread of Passover, and another mention of their boasting and arrogance from the last section. They need to have an unleavened loaf, not a loaf that is full of the sins from their past, after all, Jesus has taken sin away, so they need to be a new loaf without the malice and wickedness of the past.

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. (5:9-11)

Here Paul moves from the metaphorical into the practical, reminding them that in his previous letter of instruction, he had warned the Corinthians not to associate with people who are sexually immoral. Apparently, they had misunderstood his instruction, thinking that he was referring only to people outside of the church.

This brings all of us to a very important point, one that is the subject of a great deal of confusion in our time. We should not be surprised when people who do not have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ behave as though they do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ− that is the normal state of things. Should we associate with such people?

Well, here’s a question to ponder… If we don’t associate with such people, then who will tell them about Jesus? Will they hear the Good News from the pagans?

The man being discussed here, the man who was sleeping with his father’s wife, was supposedly a brother in Christ! A brother (or sister) in Christ has already repented of the old way of living, and if they, after turning away from immorality, have jumped back into it, that is a very different story. In such a case, the shepherd must step in to protect the flock, and ask the person to leave until such time as they can demonstrate repentance.

Notice that Paul mentions more than just sexual immorality here, adding greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler to the mix. Can you see how such people could endanger the flock− can you see how such people might bring the Gospel into disrepute in the community? Remember, these people are supposed to be followers of Christ.

Paul wraps his comments up in 5:12-13, but we should bear in mind that his response is not only to protect the congregation, but also to bring the offender to repentance for the sake of their immortal souls (5:5).

Today we begin a new series of posts from the book of Colossians that will continue on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.

Colossians 1:15-18

How can you read these few verses and not just fall into one of those “Wow!” moments?  Even if you only read the first sentence: Wow!

It is ‘content rich’ to say the least.  Consider the first sentence, The Son of God, Jesus the Christ, is the image of the invisible God; let that sink in…  People sometimes ask how they can know God, and the answer is to look at Jesus Christ; He was here, on this earth as a man.  He is a historical figure, who left behind a written record of what He thought, said and did.  He was a Teacher, so His teachings are there for all to see.  He was the image of God, and He spoke directly to us, so if we want to know what God is like, learn what Jesus was like… and you will have it! Jesus, the Son, is also the firstborn of all creation− don’t skip that phrase!  You and I are part of the Creation of which Jesus is the firstborn… yes, that means you and I are meant to have a relationship with Him, after all that is why He came to the earth in the first place.  Oh my, reflect on that for a while…

This is exciting!

Moving on, we see that in Him all things were created, both in heaven and on earth.  Of course, we know that Jesus was present when God spoke the word and the universe came into being, but now it seems that Jesus might have actually done the talking. A careful reading of John 1 will confirm that Jesus was actually the Word itself!  He is not only the firstborn, but the Word that created everything.  All I can say is “WOW!”

Every single thing there was, is, or will be was created by, through and for Jesus Christ, including you, including me. There are certain times when the enormity of something makes it difficult to describe it with mere words, and honestly this is one of them.

Our Lord, the Son, is the head of the Body, which is the church of which all Christians are a part.  Yes, you and I are a part of the Body of the One who created everything.

He is also the firstborn of the dead, which is to say that He is the first to die, and then to rise again in glory, but He is not to be the last, for you and I will also arise in glory in due course.

I hope that you will take a little time to reflect and pray on these few verses.  As you do, please consider that this Jesus wants a relationship with YOU!  He is there, He is calling your name, will you respond? No, that question was not for the unbelievers−  It is directed by me to all of us, including myself, who profess to be His followers.  Will we all join together to answer His call to relationship, with the One who created all, who arose from the dead to prepare our way; will we respond to His invitation, to pull up our chairs and listen at His side as He shares with each of us?

WOW!

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

1 Corinthians 5:1-5

You may recall that in the introduction to this letter I mentioned that Paul uses a writing structure that can be a bit tricky to follow− here’s a case in point. He completed his first section about division in the congregation at the end of chapter four, and without transition or warning, he jumps into another subject; this time it’s sexual immorality. More specifically, it’s a case of incest in the church.

Evidently there was a guy in the congregation who was sleeping with his father’s wife. Of course, that begs several questions: Was she his mother, or was she his step-mother? Did his father know about it? Was his father dead? Was his father divorced?

Paul doesn’t say, but then he didn’t need to say, for it would appear from the context that the good people of Corinth knew exactly what was going on, and the news of this affair had made its way to Paul in Ephesus. Whatever the exact particulars were, it appears that Paul was almost as mortified by the man’s acceptance in the church as he was by the man’s behavior.

I should also point out that Paul engages in just a bit of hyperbole in verse 1 when he says that this is a behavior that even the pagans don’t tolerate. We do know that incest went on back then, for we have Cicero’s denunciation of the practice, for example. Why would he denounce a practice that wasn’t going on? Most likely, that day was much like ours when there is a sexual practice that went on but was repugnant to many or most people.

In the second verse, Paul shames the congregation for allowing this man to continue in fellowship with them in a way that hearkens back to their trips to the proverbial woodshed in the previous section; how can they be so proud of their wisdom and greatness while allowing this in their midst? That is followed by Paul pulling rank for the first time in the letter as he commands them to put this man out of their fellowship. His words are crystal clear in vv. 3-5, at least for the recipients of the letter, but verse 5 can be a bit of a stumbling block for us.

 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

When Paul says that they should hand him over to Satan I highly doubt that they would meet at some border check point under cover of darkness and send the man walking across no man’s land to a waiting Satan, as we might have seen in an old Cold War era movie. Instead, since this phrase is found elsewhere in the New Testament, I think it is used as a sort of idiom to refer to this world around us. This man has apparently accepted Christ, but hasn’t repented of the old ways of living, and his old way of living is so egregious that he cannot remain in the fellowship until he changes his outlook on certain things, and this is to protect the congregation, which as we have already seen, is very immature in the faith. It is quite clear that the man is not beyond redemption because Paul goes on to say that this would be to save his soul in the end.

Even so, there is still a stumbling block for us in the sentence: for the destruction of the flesh.

This is a hard one to translate; even the NIV has not one, but two footnotes. Many have suggested that this means the man would die, but that seems very unlikely, for how can he repent if he is dead?

The Greek word that is used here is sarx which requires some interpretation to translate. It can mean the human body, but it can also mean the material condition of the body, or the flesh as the center of passion or frailty. The way I read this, and you are welcome to disagree, is that Paul intends that this guy needs to be put out of fellowship so that he can learn his lesson in the situation, while protecting the “young” of the congregation itself.

Does anyone think this twisted relationship can end well?

1 Corinthians 4:14-21

The NIV adds a subheading to this passage that reads, “Paul’s Appeal and Warning”. I think that the editors were very diplomatic, for I would have written it more like this: “Paul’s Threat to Corinth”. When I read these verses, they sound to me like Paul is saying, “Don’t make me come over there and straighten you people out!”

However, we might view it, one thing is clear: Paul means business.

This is a consistent message in the New Testament, as we see many times, that divisiveness in the church, from whatever source is not to be permitted. In this case, Paul has given us a model to follow: He receives a message that division and fragmentation are taking place in the church at Corinth. In response, he writes them a letter of instruction and warning so that the people might learn their error and take corrective action. He is sending Timothy along with the letter to help them correct the situation, but if that doesn’t work, more drastic steps will be taken. This is the way of love, teach and correct, follow up and try to help people get their act together, and then take serious steps if necessary.

Some might be inclined to bristle at this and say that “they” are just trying to control me, yep that’s it, they just want to control me! Nobody is going to tell me what to do, I will do what I want, when I want: Nobody is going to control me!

I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have heard that sentiment, and how impressed I was each time I heard it, with the vast level of maturity it exemplifies. That is why the first step is instructive. I have also heard it said that “the God I know would never be so intolerant that He would let anyone tell me what to do!” That one also shows an amazing level of maturity and insight. Nevertheless, the Church embodies the Kingdom of God, established by the Lord Jesus Christ in His blood, on this earth until He returns. As such, it is the key element in God’s eternal purpose. God is going to see His purpose completed, and no one is going to frustrate His purpose by division and discord. You see dear reader, as error goes in the New Testament, dividing the church is just about as serious as it gets, and God will not permit it.

How ever you might want to view all of this, Paul has completed his discussion of division, and will begin his next topic in chapter five.

Have you figured out the mystery? If not, here’s a hint: Paul has told us more than once, that the mystery of God has been revealed to us. OK, there you go, good work everyone. Of course, it’s the gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the very thing that seems so foolish by merely human understanding. That’s why it was able to hide in plain sight for so long, even though the entire Old Testament points directly to it.