Living By A Different Standard Series

As Christians, knowing God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, we live by a different code of conduct. We live by God’s standards.

• They are not standards we abide by to gain God’s favour; they are standards we live by because we have been saved from sin and changed by God.

• We are redeemed, forgiven of our sin and made new because of Jesus. And with this new life comes a new way of living.

• We live in obedience to God because that’s our new nature in Christ.

Therefore having a relationship of incest is not acceptable, Paul said in chapter 5.

• It is wrong for the Christian and it is wrong for the church to let it continue.

• The man has to change his ways or be cut off from the fellowship of the church.

It is also not right for us to sue each other in courts when we have disputes, Paul said in chapter 6.

• We have God’s Word as our guide and the wisdom God gives us to settle matters among brothers and sisters in Christ.

• We do not need to bring matters to the secular courts and subject ourselves to the laws of society. We seek God’s will and settle disputes within the family.

What if we cannot resolve it? Then choose to suffer wrong or be defrauded if need be.

• We forgo the material gain from the dispute (which is temporal gain) and save the relationship with our brother (which is eternal).

• As Christians, we follow a different code of conduct because we live by God’s standards. We go by a different set of values.

Paul continues his emphasis on the right Christian conduct in today’s passage.

1 Cor 6:9-11 ESV

9Or 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, 10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And such were some of you. 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.

Paul warns the Corinthians of the danger of continuing in their old ways of living after knowing Christ.

• He warns the “saints” that if they persist in the same deeds as “sinners”, they are in danger of being judged like them.

• Are they deceiving themselves or allowing themselves to be deceived, thinking that they are among the saved when they are persistently sinning.

It’s a warning. If they are true believers, then the warning is no warning at all.

• Yet Paul says he is confident that they know better, that they are saved and therefore urges them to change their behaviours.

• Listen to his emphasis: “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.” (6:11)

Notice the work of the Triune God. Our heavenly Father brought us into His Kingdom, through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus, accomplishing it by the power of the Holy Spirit!

• Our lives have been saved by the work of the Triune God and we are no longer the same. We WERE sinners in the past but not NOW.

• We live like one who is washed, sanctified and justified. All three words point to the same salvation experience.

So live like one. We are no longer our OLD selves but NEW CREATIONS in Christ.

• Apostle Peter said it well in 1 Pet 1:14-16 “14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

• Know WHO you are in Christ and you will live RIGHT.

I heard this illustration a long time ago: “For a Christian who sins, he is like a pig, having been washed and cleaned but returning to the mud and rolled in it again.”

Later I realised this metaphor is not good, because, in Christ, I am a new person.

“I am not a pig. I am a sheep who now recognises the voice of my Shepherd and wants to follow Him!” That’s who I am and He is my hope of finding pasture and security.

So live like it, Paul tells the Corinthians. Live like one who has been saved from sin – washed, sanctified and justified! True salvation results in morality.

Paul went on, in the next section, to address another prominent sin among them – going to the prostitutes.