1 Corinthians 7
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Chapter
7
Intimate
marital relations
1. Now
concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have
sexual relations with a woman.”
2. But
because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own
wife and each woman her own husband.
3. The
husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to
her husband.
4. For
the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.
Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife
does.
5. Do
not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that
you may devote yourselves to prayer but then come together again, so that Satan
may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
6. Now
as a concession, not a command, I say this.
The Bible provides answers for all areas of life… even very delicate
areas… and the Corinthians were not embarrassed to ask Paul about them. As a
result, we can simply read these first verses, without commentary, and know very
clearly how to handle certain issues. I will mention one thing: The Roman
Catholic church teaches that intimate, physical marital relationship is
strictly for the procreation of children. That is the basic reason for it, but it
is not the only reason that the Bible gives. Paul gives another reason in verse
2 and I commented on something else in an earlier chapter. I pointed to a verse
in Proverbs, which I will quote here: “Rejoice in the wife of your
youth… be intoxicated always in her love. Why should you be intoxicated, my
son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?” (Pro.5:18-20). You
may want to review it again, as well as Hebrews13:4. A married man and his wife, committed to one
another for a lifetime, fulfill a
natural desire of the body and share intimacy.
Paul goes on to
write about something that he calls “conjugal rights”, belonging to both the
husband and the wife (3-4). He means that in marriage neither one nor the other
hold selfish possession over their own bodies, but must share them. There may
be mutual agreement in a Christian marriage to set a time apart for abstaining
from intimate physical contact, just as time may be set apart for fasting.
However, these are temporal seasons, when Christians want to devote themselves
exclusively to seeking God in prayer. The normal, day-by-day Christian life
includes regular eating habits, as well as a physical relationship between
husband and wife (5). Paul is covering some areas that Jesus did not mention in
the gospels, of which the Corinthians questioned him, but that does not mean
that his answers are not inspired (6).
There is no
suggestion of polygamy in the New Testament, nor was there any place for it in
the beginning, when God created Adam and Eve. There is only teaching concerning
a bond of love between one man and one woman. I should not even have to mention
any kind of homosexual bond, because common sense teaches that all such filth
is perversion and rebellion against the Creator. That was understood in Bible
times by all reasonable people and it is a sign of the wickedness of our day,
that we should even have to bring up the subject. The Bible clearly condemns
all such practice.
1 Corinthians 6
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Chapter 6
Not living up
to spiritual potential
1.
When one of you has a grievance against another, does he
dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?
2.
Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?
And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial
cases?
3.
Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much
more, then, matters pertaining to this life!
4.
So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before
those who have no standing in the church?
5.
I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one
among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers,
6.
But brother goes to law against brother, and that before
unbelievers?
7.
To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a
defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?
8.
But you yourselves wrong and defraud – even you own
brothers!
Our time on earth is short…
that is for sure! “What is your life?
For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (Jm.4:14).
Earthly life is a vapor, a gas, the most unstable of all forms of matter. You
cannot grasp it; it is temporal and always changing. Job made several statements about it (Job 7:6-7;
9:25-26; 14:1-2) and the Psalmist followed with still more verses on the theme.
Here is one example: “Behold, you have
made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!” (Ps.39:5; study also Ps.89:47;
90:5-7; and 102:3). I was not yet two-years-old, when I was taught this verse
in Peter: “All flesh is like grass and
all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower
falls” (1 P.1:24). Jonathan Edwards wrote:
Where will all
of our worldly enjoyments be, when we are laid in the silent grave?
Resolved, to
live as I shall wish I had done, when I come to die.
Resolved, to
live as I shall wish I had done, ten thousand ages hence.
Lord, stamp
eternity on my eyeballs!
1 Corinthians 5
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Chapter 5
1.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality
among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has
his father’s wife.
2.
And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let
him who has done this be removed from among you.
3.
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as
if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
4.
When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and
my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
5.
you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction
of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
We have come to a portion in
this book, where Paul passes judgment against sexual immorality. I don’t think
that I am telling you anything new, when I say that immorality is a huge
problem in the church today and it has been the downfall of many pastors and
other leaders. The fact is, it was also a problem in biblical times, beginning
in the book of Genesis.
Sexual misconduct is
different from unnatural addictions, which come from nicotine, alcohol, and
numerous kinds of drugs and barbiturates, in that it is a natural appetite innate
to the human body, as is hunger and thirst. One cannot expect deliverance from
it, but must learn to control it, just as he must control his appetite for
food. Sexuality is very basically a part of human nature, in order to insure
the procreation of the race: therefore it is a good thing.
However, all sexual activity,
biblically speaking, is limited strictly
and exclusively to a man and his
wife, after they have committed themselves publically to each other for life.
Solomon shares his wisdom on the matter in Proverbs 5:18-20, if you would like
to look it up, and the writer of Hebrews gives us a solid New Testament
position: “Let marriage be held in honor
among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the
sexually immoral and adulterous” (He.13:4).
1 Corinthians 4
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Chapter 4
The importance of God’s judgment
1.
This
is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the
mysteries of God
2.
Moreover,
it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.
3.
But
with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human
court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.
4.
For I
am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is
the Lord who judges me.
5.
Therefore
do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will
bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes
of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
How are we to look at those, who are called into the
ministry? Paul gives the Corinthians the true guidelines, which can be trusted,
as the correct view concerning leadership in the church today. A little later,
he will define particularly the apostolic ministry, but in the first verse he
puts two titles upon himself, along with all others, who have a specific
ministry to the church. This is not a position in a local church, but in the
church, in general.
These are to be seen as 1) servants and 2) stewards. In
the last chapter we saw that ministry is synonymous with servanthood, and that
comparison still holds, as we begin this chapter. However, Paul has chosen
another Greek term for servant now, huperetes.
Its definition is, literally, a subordinate
oarsman. There are some Greek words which are very interesting and important in this chapter. It describes the slaves, who rowed the Roman ships. It is quite
the opposite extreme of expecting honor as a captain, which is the picture that
the Corinthians had formed of their favorite leader. They are to be seen, Paul
shows, as galley slaves, chained to the bench and subject totally to Christ. If
we are to apply this term literally, they are the oarsmen, who move the church
forward through the sea of life. Obviously, there is no justification for those
who lord it over others, so Peter warned the elders as a fellow elder, “Not domineering over those in your charge,
but being examples to the flock” (1 P.5:3).
The other term, which Paul uses is that of a steward. Stewards
were household managers to a well-to-do family, under the authority of the head
of the house. They managed the purchasing and the distribution of the food. A
steward to the church, in this context, must collect and distribute the
mysteries of God. He does it under the direction of the Holy Spirit, who
reveals these secrets to him, after which, the steward must distribute them for
the benefit of the body of Christ. Once again, he is a servant to Christ and to
the church.
1 Corinthians 3
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Chapter 3
Carnality versus spirituality
1.
But
I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the
flesh, as infants in Christ.
2.
I fed
you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you
are not yet ready,
3.
for
you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you,
are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?
4.
For
when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not
being merely human?
The Corinthians were in a contradictory state. On the one
hand they were certainly people, who were recipients of the grace of God. They
were rich in Christian speech and wisdom, and were receiving and practicing spiritual
gifts. Yet, Paul said that they were still in the flesh. He went to Corinth
somewhere near 52 A.D. and this letter is written from Ephesus around 56 to 57
A.D., so they had been Christians for four or five years. They are still
infants (1).
Fleshly-minded people follow men and put their trust in
men and their ministries. Because different men and ministries have been
presented to the Corinthians, there are different opinions about which one has
been the most profitable to them (4). Therefore there is jealousy and strife
between the different members of the church (3). In his second letter to them,
Paul revealed his goal to betroth “you
to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Co.11:2). When
this goal is reached in a practical, heart-felt sense, then Christians reach a
spiritual state and the factions cease.
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