IMMORALITY MOST SCANDALOUS!

I Cor. 5:1-2 ... "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst."

      It is believed Paul was at Philippi in Macedonia some 350 miles by land northeast of Corinth when he wrote this epistle to the church there. But even at that distance he had received news that a most shameful situation existed among the Corinthian brethren. Actually, the situation was worse than shameful. It was scandalous! Such immorality even exceeded the depravity of the Gentiles. One of the Corinthian brethren had taken unto himself his step-mother, (the probable meaning of "his father's wife"), and was regularly committing adultery with her. The standard of Christian purity could hardly be more flagrantly violated. But to compound the sin the church had taken no action of itself to admonish the brother and seek to induce him to repent, and if he would not, to expel him from their fellowship. To the contrary, they took pride in defending the liberty of the man to have his way.

      When God created the first human couple, He decreed that "a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh," (Gen. 2:24). In Matthew 19, Jesus interpreted this verse to show that it is God's will for one man to be joined to one woman for a lifetime. The only honorable release from this union is the death of one of the members, (Rom. 7:2-3). Only within the bonds of the marriage union does God sanction sexual activity between a male and a female, (I Cor. 7:2-5). Within marriage God blesses sexual intercourse, for it was He who fashioned the male and the female to perform the act in gentleness and in love. The brother in Corinth flaunted the divine will, and his brethren shielded him proudly in his sin. The apostle was appalled when he heard about this and chastised the Corinthians that they had not "mourned," declaring that their "boasting is not good," (v.6). He commanded them at once to "deliver" the man "to Satan for the destruction of his flesh that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus," (v.5). Paul thus demonstrated a radical solution to a radical problem, for the leaven of evil had to be purged without delay to protect the church as a whole, (vs. 6b-9).   

      Our present society has lamentably reached the position where there is little stigma, shame, or scandal associated with the sin of fornication. At least one incidence of fornication occurs in almost every movie and in many television shows. We find entertainment in watching the dramatization of the sex act and exhibit no shame when it is luridly portrayed on the screen. A prophet in the 6th Century B.C. said of his generation, "Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done? They were not even ashamed at all; They did not even know how to blush," (Jer. 6:15).  It has come to the same thing in our society. We are no longer scandalized by fornication. Many commit it with the full knowledge of their friends, and neither they nor others blush or feel shame. In fact, we have come to accept fornication as near standard behavior for our times. It is far past time for Christians to try to raise the level of morality of our society by stressing that fornication is strictly forbidden in the Bible and by treating it as the black sin which it is. Do we have the courage to proclaim this message?

NOT IN WORDS BUT IN POWER

I Cor. 4:10 ... "The kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power."

      Corinth was a city of the Greeks,a people who highly valued rhetoric, the art or science of using words effectively in speaking or writing. In the classical age they produced men who developed themselves in rhetoric to the point where they are still remembered today. One of them, Demosthenes, who lived in the 4th Century B.C., was perhaps the greatest orator of them all. In order to perfect his ability, he is said to have filled his mouth with pebbles on the beach and then practiced speaking articulately above the sound of the waves breaking on the rocks. The Greeks valued rhetoric so much, and so many tried to excel in it, that eventually it was overplayed and became somewhat ridiculous. This was the prevalent situation when Paul brought the gospel to Athens, Corinth, and other Grecian cities. The once great art had been degraded to artificial eloquence and mere showiness in language and style. And yet, it was what the people desired and esteemed. They thought that any speaker who did not employ it was unskilled and not worthy of an audience.

      In the Corinthian correspondence, especially, Paul emphasized that the power of God is not dependent upon such displays of speech. In I Cor. 1:21 he stated that, when he brought the gospel to them, he "did not come to you with superiority of speech ... proclaiming to you the testimony of God." In 13:1 he stated that "if I come with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." And in 4:20, quoted above, he contrasts eloquent speech with power, meaning the power of God. It is true that God's power is demonstrated through His word, the gospel, (Rom. 1:16). But that refers to the word of revelation per se and not to the manner in which men speak in their use of phrases, expressions, gestures, tones, and all that might be called "pulpit delivery." The power of God is contained in the word of truth itself, not in the style of vocal presentation. The Corinthians failed to realize that, and their failure is repeated even now.

      When someone today delivers a sermon in a dramatic way from the pulpit, most audiences are very impressed by the artful expressions, vigorous gestures, and dramatic voice projection. The louder and more commanding the voice, the more rapid the speech, and the more energized the personality, the more effective we think the speaker to be. It is just this evaluation that the Spirit, through Paul and other New Testament writers, counsels us to avoid. The power of a sermon or lesson lies in its truth to revelation, its sincerity of purpose, and its honest effort to draw attention to God rather than to the speaker. When a teacher or preacher has done a really superb job, the audience will be awed by God and not by the speaker. We must put our confidence in the power of God, not in the skill of men, to make things work, to build things up, and to establish continuity of success. In I Cor. 3:21-23 we read this: "Let no one boast in men. For all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God." When we go to church to receive a lesson or hear a sermon, we should not go to hear a certain brother but rather an exposition of truth from the word of God. If we put the stress on the speaker and his style of delivery more than on the content of what God has revealed, we are reversing the statement of I Cor. 4:20. We must also consider what we are told in I Cor. 3:7, "So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth."

THE CHURCH, GOD'S TEMPLE

I Cor. 3:16-17 ... "Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are."

      In the ancient world people built temples of stone, brick, or wood and ornamented them with gold, silver and precious stones. They usually sacrificed a significant part of their own wealth and even their means of life to make these structures as elaborate, beautiful and costly as they could. They understood that the temple was the house of the god they worshiped, and they felt they owed the deity the best they could provide. This was true of Israel's temple in Jerusalem. It was called the "house of God" or "temple of God," and God's presence was considered to be perpetually found there. Many times in the Old Testament, when someone is said to "come before the Lord," it meant the person came before the temple, or (previous to the temple), before the tabernacle. As Solomon dedicated the temple, he prayed to God, "I have surely built You a lofty house, a place for Your dwelling forever," (I Kgs. 8:13). God later replied, "I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually." Since God inhabited the temple, it had to be treated with great reverence. No one could enter it unless he had been ritually purified, and things could not be brought into it unless they were authorized and had been sanctified. Conduct within the temple had to be according to the standard prescribed by the Mosaic law.

      When the law of Christ replaced the Law of Moses, the physical temple in Jerusalem ceased to be God's dwelling place on earth. God still has a temple in which He dwells here, but it is not one made of stones, brick and timber. Paul declared in Acts 17:24 that God "who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands." In I Cor. 3:16-17 the apostle states that God's temple now is the church, the community of God's people in Christ. Christians are collectively the "temple of God," and the Spirit of God dwells in them and among them. As members of the church, therefore, people are privileged to live in the presence of God and in close fellowship with God. Since only priests are allowed to enter a temple, and since their duty there is to offer sacrifices, it becomes the lot of every Christian to be a priest and to offer sacrifices. Thus we read in I Pet. 2:5, "You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house  for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Christians do not need a huge, costly temple as the residence of their God and the fit place to serve Him in worship. We ourselves are that temple, and God dwells within us.

      It is still essential as it was in the time of the physical temple that no one  defile the temple of God. Since the present temple is the church as the community of God's people, the things that would defile it are whatever would disrupt the fellowship among its members or its fellowship with God. In the Corinthian letters Paul deals with a wide variety of things that were weakening the fellowship of the members:  sects identified by human names,  fornication, lawsuits, marriage problems, idolatrous influences, and varieties of false doctrine. As their fellowship with one another was broken down, their fellowship with God was also greatly disrupted. The realization that the church, (not the literal building but the community of Christians), is God's current temple should cause us to hold the church in highest esteem and treat it with the greatest respect we are able. We should be most careful lest we defile its sanctity and offend God.

NOT OF MAN'S WISDOM BUT OF THE SPIRIT

I Cor. 2:4 ... "My message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."

      The apostle Paul preached the gospel of Christ over a large portion of the Roman Empire, from Israel in the east to Rome (and perhaps even Spain) in the west. Congregations sprang up in country after country, and in city after city, and Christianity as a new religious movement became known to the average citizen in most places. We read such reports as Acts 19:10, "All who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks." In the Macedonian city of Thessalonica the enemies of the Christian missionaries are said to exclaim with alarm, "These men who have upset the world have come here also," (Acts 17:6). Paul and his assistants were preaching the gospel, the power of which was noticeably transforming society, for it contained essential truth able to penetrate people's lives, perfect them in righteousness, and fill them with hope for a better future.

      We might ask today, "What was the nature of the gospel which Paul and others preached to the people of their age?" In the second chapter of First Corinthians especially the apostle tells draws a contrast between human wisdom and divine wisdom. We must not think that formal education in school is a product of our modern age. The ancient world had great schools and academies where instruction was both regular and quite vigorous. Neither must we think that human science and learning were rudimentary then. Both were, in fact, advanced to a degree by the First Century that astonishes most people today when they first learn about it. Paul was evidently well versed in much of this wisdom, at least in the philosophical and literary areas. Yet, as he stood before audiences and proclaimed the gospel, he did not draw from that source to appeal to people to believe in Christ as the Son of God, to accept His doctrine as the standard for their lives, and to obey His plan for being saved from their sins. In vs. 1-2 previous to the text above he confessed, "And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified."

      It seems that many today have chosen to ignore the message of I Corinthians 2. There are congregations that choose only ministers who have doctorate degrees. Those who might know the Holy Scriptures far better, and who might be far more skilled in their interpretation and application, are passed over because they do not have multiple university degrees. One wonders if Jesus, or Peter, or Paul, or John would be allowed to speak from their pulpits, because none of them had academic credentials. There is growing evidence that many today seem ashamed and embarrassed by the content of the Scriptures because they do not incorporate the achievements of human wisdom during the past nineteen centuries. The preacher or teacher who tends to use the Bible less and human philosophy, science, and literature more gains greater recognition and praise than the one whose purpose is "to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." Do not think this writer is anti-academic. I have seven years of university education, all with superior grades. Also, I spent forty-two years teaching mathematics and physics. Now in retirement I avidly keep busy reading volumes of philosophy, history, social science and theology. And yet, I am very concerned that so many in the church today have come to the place where they seem to honor human wisdom more than the wisdom God has revealed to us in Holy Scripture.

THE FOOLISHNESS OF PREACHING?!

I Cor. 1:21 ... "Since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."

      To many people the word "preaching" has a bad connotation. It conjures up thoughts of sitting still and quiet on a hard pew for what seems like an interminable time while a man up front drones on in a dull speech that is entirely boring. To others it suggests a highly emotional address by someone who seems to want to convey the idea he is possessed by the Spirit. Still others think of preaching as a very negative, critical, condemnatory speech in which a very angry man, who seems to be exempt from his accusations, tries to overwhelm every listener with guilt. And some think of preaching as a meaningless activity that fills a necessary time slot in a church service, that is, a mere ritual that must be performed to be "proper." In all these views of preaching many people would readily welcome the application of Paul's phrase, "the foolishness of preaching." They would gladly support any effort to revolutionize preaching to make it interesting, stimulating, and relevant to their tastes and perceived needs.

      In spite of the varied abuses of preaching we must recognize that it is not an optional activity in a Christian worship service. In Mk. 16:15 Jesus commanded, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." Timothy was commanded to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction," (II Tim. 4:2). Honor and praise is bestowed upon the preacher in Rom. 10:15 in the exclamation, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring (or preach) good news (the gospel) of good things." The fault is ours if preaching is dull, boring, offensive, or meaningless. The preacher may be going about it in a way the Lord would not have him, being slothful and indifferent on the one hand or aggressive and fanatical on the other. The audience might be at fault in expecting something from preaching other than what the Lord wills, as II Tim. 4:3 predicts will indeed happen: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires."

      It is necessary to understand that Paul is not himself saying that preaching is foolishness. In v.18 he reveals whose assessment it is that preaching is foolishness: "For to those who are perishing the word of the cross is foolishness." It is among the unbelieving lost outside the circle of Christian fellowship that preaching is foolishness. They see no meaning or importance in it because they are unconcerned about God's will, about God's judgment, and about the course of their lives toward eternal destruction. Noah's preaching was evidently foolishness to antediluvian mankind, for they disregarded it, probably with ridicule and contempt. How relevant and necessary it must have suddenly seemed, however, when the water lapped over the highest peeks, and there was no where else to flee. Jonah's preaching did not seem foolish to the people of Nineveh, who listened seriously to the prophet's message and repented, (Jon. 3:5-10). Their sober response saved them from an early grave, as v.10 points out, "When God saw their works, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it." The people of Nineveh, therefore, were saved by the preaching of Jonah, even as I Cor. 1:18 says of anyone who listens and takes heed, "to us who are being saved it (preaching) is the power of God." When the gospel is preached in its fullness and in its truth in the spirit of love, (Eph. 4:15), it will lead those who pay attention to it unto faith, obedience, and eternal salvation.

ORIENTING OUR WISDOM

Rom. 16:19 ... "I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil."

      Knowledge is a wonderful thing and greatly to be desired. The tens of thousands of schools and the billions of dollars spent to operate them are evidence of the value we place upon education, the effort to plant knowledge in the minds of our youth. We admire those who store up great amounts of knowledge in their minds, and honor them with awards of many kinds. When an activity or situation promises a degree of acquiring knowledge to those who participate in it, we are usually willing to sanction it on that grounds if no other. There is a possibility, however, that benefits do not always result from knowledge. In the novel The Long Ships by Gunnar Bengtsson there is the story of a renegade priest named Willibald. For many years he sacrificed his comfort and risked his life to try to convert the heathen Vikings of Scandinavia to Christ. Then he came upon a copy of Ovid's The Art of Love, which he read with the most intense interest. What he learned  reshaped his mind and changed the course of his life. The knowledge he derived from that book, so scandalous that Caesar banished Ovid for publishing it, put the priest to thinking about things he had never thought of before. His appearance as a priest became no more than a guise for preying upon innocent women who put their trust in him as a man of God.

      This world is a mosaic of good and evil. We are challenged day by day to seek out the good and try to incorporate it into our lives. At the same time we must try to avoid the evil and exclude its influence from our lives. There is great reward in gaining knowledge of what is good, and there is often much misery that comes with the knowledge of what is evil. Jesus said in Jno. 8:32, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Although He probably spoke mainly of the truth revealed by God that leads one to salvation and liberation from the bondage of sin, Jesus' statement also applies to the knowledge of truth in the general sense. The knowledge of what is true and good is a powerful force to motivate us to live by truth and fashion our lives by goodness. In Rom. 16:19 the inspired apostle expresses his desire that those who read his words will make it their goal to become knowledgeable of what is good and then develop that knowledge into wisdom that will guide their lives in the proper course. We should want to know no more about evil than what is necessary to identify it, realize its disastrous ends, and be able to avoid it.

      In the second part of the exhortation the apostle holds forth the hope that his readers will be "innocent in what is evil." In some versions this phrase is translated "simple concerning evil." The word "simple," however, does not convey the meaning of "easy" or "uncomplicated" (and hence "uninformed") that we now attach to it. The word in the original Greek is akeraios, which means "untainted." It was the term used of metal to denote that it was unmixed with an alloy, and of wine and milk to certify they had not been diluted with water. It therefore signifies something that is absolutely uncontaminated and pure. The knowledge of evil which goes beyond what is necessary to resist and defeat it will, in time, corrupt the soul that acquires it. Thus we are advised in I Ths. 5:22 to "abstain from every form of evil." It seems we all have a natural curiosity about things that are evil. They have a strong, enticing, seducing force to them. (For example, if a movie is banned because of unsavory content, people feel a great urge to see it as soon as it is available somewhere.) It is far better to deny yourself the inclination to learn every alluring detail of evil and spare yourself the devastating power of its deception and consequent corruption.

SELFISHNESS, TEMPTATION'S OPPORTUNITY

Rom. 15:1-2 ... "We who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to his edification."

      A very strong case can be made for the affirmation that selfishness is at the base of every sin. The first recorded temptation is that of Satan beguiling Eve in Gen. 3:5 to eat of the forbidden tree: "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." The woman's appetite was whetted to gain something desirable for herself, namely, insight and wisdom comparable to God's. She was encouraged to seek for herself what was only within the province of God. And so it has been ever since with sin and the temptation to commit sin. The urge to gain something for one's self is the opportunity for temptation, and the concession to get it constitutes the temptation.

      It was the work of Christ to restore to man what was lost by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. To make His efforts effective in human life requires that a person learn to break free from the bondage of selfishness. Jesus stated in Mat. 16:24 that "if anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." The disciple of Christ must conquer the basic urge of our unregenerate nature to seek his own good first at every turn in life. One must develop the overriding policy of putting the interests of the Lord first in his life. The Christian's attitude must be that of Php. 3:7-8, "Whatsoever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I might gain Christ." Also, in this Christian requisite of self-denial, one must learn to consider other people, especially fellow disciples, before oneself. In Php. 2:3-4 the standard is set: "With humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself. Do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."

      Rom. 15:1-2 centers on this fundamental principle that Christians must purge themselves of selfishness and benevolently consider the state of being of others, at least those who are also in Christ. The consciences of some brethren are more sensitive than those of others because their knowledge and understanding are not as advanced. To apply one's greater knowledge in a way that will cause a weaker disciple to be offended is a glaring case of selfishness. In the reference to eating meat in Rom 14:15 the admonition is given, "Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died." Rather than demand "our rights" to practice something, which the Lord left to our consciences to decide, without regard to the impact it might have on weaker brethren is the epitome of selfishness and amounts to sin. Too many Christians ignore the view of brethren in certain matters, saying when challenged, "Well, it is THEIR problem if they object to what I do, not mine!" How insensitive and destitute of brotherly love is such an attitude! The verse following our text reminds us that "even Christ did not please Himself." In like manner, those who would follow Christ must not put pleasing themselves before the spiritual welfare of their fellow disciples, even when they consider that their choices are matters of opinion rather than matters of faith. Our goal should always be to seek that which is "good to his edification" for those in our fellowship whose faith and consciences are yet untrained and weak. Such a considerate, unselfish approach will work to build up weak faith and tender consciences to the height of knowledge and understanding where they can see clearly the reality of things. Otherwise, weak brethren are often offended to the point where their Christianity collapses under a weight of disappointment and confusion so that they desert their place in the family of God.