8.16.2015

1 Corinthians 5-8

5
While you are bragging about your great spirituality, you are tolerating sexual immorality - incest, even.  You need to exclude him from the brethren, that he and you may be purified.  This is how we keep Passover today and worship the Lamb, Christ.
This doesn't mean avoiding anyone who is immoral, just those who claim to be believers.  Our job is to judge those within the church, not everyone in the world.

6
Why are you taking each other to court before unbelievers?  They won't inherit the kingdom but you will.  Surely someone among you can judge as well as they; you don't have to be so contentious in front of unbelievers - what a witness that is!  You've been washed clean by Jesus and His Spirit.
God cares about your body, so don't wreck it with gluttony or sexual immorality.  It doesn't fit with your union with Christ, who bought you.

7
The married should not deprive each other sexually, and not separate.
The single should stay that way if they can, but may marry.
If one spouse is an unbeliever and that unbeliever is willing to stay, do it.  If they leave, the believer isn't guilty and is free to remarry.  Stay together if you can, as the covenant household is sanctified by the presence of a believer.
You don't have to change your circumstances once you become a Christian: married, circumcised, slave or free.
Don't let marriage get in the way of discipleship, as it can.  You may enter marriage, but it may be better to abstain.  Widows may remarry, but it may be better not to.

8
Don't take pride in what you know.  You may "know" that demons don't exist, but we need to love those unused to this truth.  So don't eat meat sacrificed to idols in their presence.


How this is about Jesus
5 - Church discipline is a way we observe the Old Testament Passover today, by cleaning all the leaven out of our houses.  Christ is the connection from Old to New Covenants.
6 - Jesus redeeming us from sin means there are some things we may not do.  He is our Lord.
7 - Paul builds on Jesus' teaching on marriage and divorce in a new situation, where the Gospel is going beyond Israel into new territory.
8 - Jesus died for your fellow Christians, so don't do anything to endanger their salvation in your life together.


Application
5 - We need to give greater priority to the purity of the church than the purity of the world.
6 - Christianity is not just thoughts and feelings, but affects what we do with our bodies.
7 - Christianity changes your choices about marriage, divorce and sex.  It isn't your life, but the Lord's.
8 - Accommodate each other's scruples in the moment, while teaching the truth in more objective times.

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