These are still sins in God’s book, no matter what our culture may say. We need to hear that this stuff is spiritually dangerous. So we are surrounded by temptation at every turn. Our society today calls good evil and evil good. Not only is it no longer shameful, now it is even celebrated, approved, and promoted–by the entertainment industry, by our educational institutions, and even by our government. And how it is needed in our culture today! 21st century America makes Corinth look like a Sunday School class! Sexual immorality is everywhere in our culture. People who practice those sinful behaviors will surely not enter the kingdom of God.” You made a break with your pagan culture. And Paul says: “This is what you guys came out of.
The morals were not good there, to say the least. It was a major commercial seaport, with all that goes with a big city being a major commercial seaport. Paul is telling these Corinthian Christians: “Look, think about what you have come out of.” Corinth was known for being a sin city. 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.” In verses 9-11, he says: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Let’s see how it goes.įirst of all, in the verses right before our text, immediately leading up to it, Paul lays down the law, full-blast, very bluntly and strictly. This is not just command and here’s what you should do. Instead, maybe we should look at living the new life as Christians in the way that St. You see, those are the two directions we can go spiritually, when all we think of religion is that it’s a matter of keeping the rules. Or you compare yourself to the really bad people, and you think how much better you are doing than they. But you say, “Oh, that doesn’t really count.” Or you excuse your failures away. You stay away from all temptation–although, maybe, sometimes those thoughts come back in your head. You’re able to keep up your resolutions to avoid sexual immorality and to glorify God in your body. Or, on the other hand, maybe you’ve got pretty good willpower. “Boy, maybe I’m not really a Christian.” And you despair, and you give up. What then? Well, maybe you’ve got to try harder. Your resolve weakens, and you fall back into old sinful patterns.
Now you may make some firm resolutions and say to yourself, “This time for sure! This time I’m going to conquer sin and straighten up and fly right! I can do this!” Oh, really? Maybe your resolve will last for a couple of weeks. Here are steps you can take to avoid sexual immorality and to glorify God in your body. 2) Limit your television viewing to 30 minutes a day, or, better yet, don’t watch television at all. 1) Get a filter to screen out the bad stuff on your computer. Maybe he’d have a power-point on a big screen, outlining these steps you should take.
#COUNTER 1 CORINTHIANS 6 HOW TO#
“Flee from sexual immorality.” “Glorify God in your body.” And so the preacher might give you a seven-point “how-to” message on how to implement these commands in your life. Or suppose your preacher were only to draw out those imperatives from the text and focus just on them. And that other stuff, surrounding the commands, will give us a clue as to how the Bible teaches and encourages us to live the new life as Christians, what we call “sanctification” or “holiness.” And so it is with that surrounding context that we too will be able to say, “Glorify God in Your Body.”īut imagine that were all that was here, just a couple of commands, telling us what to do. There’s a whole lot more here than just giving orders. Would that be enough? Would that get the job done? No, I don’t think so. “Flee from sexual immorality.” “Glorify God in your body.” OK, you’ve got your orders. The other is stated in terms of what we should positively do.īut now suppose this was all that Paul had to say to us here. One is stated in terms of what we should flee from. “Flee from sexual immorality.” “Glorify God in your body.” Two imperatives, two commands, telling us what to do. “Flee from sexual immorality.” “Glorify God in your body.” Now those are two direct quotations from today’s Epistle reading, 1 Corinthians 6. “Glorify God in Your Body” (1 Corinthians 6:12-20)
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