1 Corinthians 6:1-11 May 19, 2024
Introduction:
How broken does something have to be to be really broken? Can something be so broken it’s beyond restoration? Both really important answers depend on what we’re talking about.
If you’re talking about the visor in your car being broken...it really doesn’t stop the whole vehicle. If you’re talking about a completely rusted out 65 mustang... that’s different.
We have a tendency to judge brokenness in terms of our own brokenness and also how society judges brokenness. The Catholic Church uses two terms for sins: “mortal” sins (really bad ones that will damn your soul) and “venal” sins (little ones that aren’t good, but won’t send you to Hell). Major sins and minor sins.
Do you know who commits major sins: other people. And do you know who commits minor sins: ME!
But God’s Word says in the book of James “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For He who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder you have become a law breaker...(Then there’s a command) Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:10-13) pg 848
James says God’s rules are like a “Waterford crystal vase” you break the handle or the spout and you’ve broken it all beyond use.
You might not have murdered, but if you’ve lied or coveted, you’ve become a spiritual criminal. One separates us from a relationship with God just as much as the other. We don’t like that because murder has much more terrible worldly consequences than idolatry. But spiritually, they both separate us as lawbreakers.
I think this is important for us to understand as we read
1 CORINTHIANS 6:1-11
You see, we cannot expect those people who are outside the kingdom to live like they’re in it. But, we should expect repentant and redeemed people to live like it.
I. DEALING WITH RELATIONSHIPS INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE CHURCH
Corinth was a church absolutely packed with people like me...people with pasts. There weren’t any “grown up in church” kids at Corinth. Each of the people who made up this congregation were hopeless messes that had been saved. All of them were like the Samaritan Woman at the well. So much so that “mortal sins” were common. And there was a man sleeping with his father’s wife (1 Cor. 5:1). And, the Corinthians were proud of the fact they were “tolerant” of this sin. They treated it as “no big deal.”
Paul says “you should have been in mourning. You should have handed him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” Your boasting...your tolerance of this sin...it’s harmful to the body of Christ, because a little leaven, leavens the whole loaf. Sin will be treated as if “Oh well, so what, It’s not as bad as Levi’s (You know he’s living with his father’s wife).
Listen to what Paul writes...it introduces our text.
1 CORINTHIANS 5:9-13
Those who claim to be your brother and sister in Christ but are sexually immoral, greedy, idolaters, slanderers, drunks or swindlers...Don’t hang out with them.
The problem is we in the American Church won’t share our lives with each other. Maybe a few, but church discipline is treated so cautiously it’s never done, or not done effectively. We don’t want to judge. We’d rather be tolerant. But what happens when you have never dealt with gossip or as Paul calls it (slandering). It not only gets a foothold, it becomes a church’s cancer. Or greedy people, where money becomes the first question concerning a ministry decision...or how about this church sin:
JAMES 2:1-4
What if the guy that’s living with his father’s wife was really likeable, or tithes a lot, or more likely was a gossip...hateful and scared people with his bitterness...and nothing was done for those reasons.
If you show favoritism for these reasons...either out of fear or out of position...have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”
But it’s different with people in the world. Paul says, “I’m not talking about the people of the world who are immoral, or greedy, and swindlers and idolaters...in that case you’ve have to leave the world.”
Verses 12 & 13 in Chapter 5 says, “what business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? ARE YOU NOT TO JUDGE THOSE INSIDE? GOD WILL JUDGE THOSE OUTSIDE.” EXPEL THE WICKED PERSON FROM AMONG YOU.”
Wow, easy right. Tell the gossip to shut up and leave, the couple living together to stop or not come, the cheater, the greedy business man, see ya! What Paul is saying is you cannot have a saving encounter with Jesus and leave the same. And wickedness will affect the body of Christ with a cancerous leaven...if it’s not dealt with.
Today’s Father’s Day...and when I think of my father disciplining me I never think...wow...he was trying to hurt me...I look back as a father and grandfather myself and realize...discipline is hard, but it’s purpose is to teach...to deal with wrong things and point towards right things. It’s why we exist, or at least one of the big reasons we exist as dads or papaws.
Hebrews 11:7 asks, “For what children are not disciplined by their father?” Then he answers it...those who do not have fathers or father figures in their lives...because love requires that true sons and daughters are disciplined.
[Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinckett Smith are under investigation for their parenting practices...probably because of this statement: “We never discipline Jadon (15) and Willow (13). We let them make their own mistakes.” And then a picture of 13 year old Willow in bed with a 20 year old “friend” of the family came out.]
We are all rebellious by nature. 13 & 15 year olds will push every limit possible as they search for their own independence. They don’t need a green light to run out into the middle of the street. They need someone, a father or mother, who loves them enough to keep them from getting run over.
Listen to our text again in
1 CORINTHIANS 6:7-10
II. DON’T FORGET WHO YOU WERE AS YOU DEMAND WHAT YOU DESERVE
There are some really tough questions with no really easy answers in this portion of scripture. Like “if you never make people face consequences how can they feel repentance? Is my witness to the unbelieving world more important than it being made right?”
No easy answers for either of those issues...but in Corinth the situation involves lawsuits and court cases between people who claim to be Christ followers.
“One brother takes another brother to court – and this in front of unbelievers!” (v. 6) and then Paul really gets down to the real issue.
“The fact that these lawsuits exist show you have already let Satan win.”
Remember God’s plan is always restoration, and that we be at peace.
But not everyone wants to follow that plan! Even within the church, “Instead you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sister.” (v. 8)
Two big issues cause this problem:
1. Lack of accountability and
2. Selfishness
If there are not individuals who are spiritually mature, and humble enough, and brave enough to deal with wrongs...then correction and change are not possible. I’m not talking about “nuns with rulers!” I’m talking about spiritual mothers and fathers, older brothers and sisters...who realize their own “sawdust verses planks” but who build relationships that allow for honest growth to take place because “correction” or guidance comes from a place of love. That’s exactly what Galatians 6:1-3 is saying:
GALATIANS 6:1-3
Only those who live by the Spirit should be involved in restoration ministry, and even then it’s to be done gently with a constant heart of self evaluation.
[By the way, one of the most hurtful ways of trying to make things right, is for someone to be the enabler of someone else. Instead of telling an individual, he or she should go directly to the person. They become the supposed communicator of hurt feelings. By doing this the person who receives the communication is frustrated, and the individual who is hurt or angry...isn’t ever asked to become more mature...and be obedient to scripture...which always tells us to go directly to the individual.]
I’d be a billion dollars some of this has occurred to cause the selfishness and lawsuits of these broken people in Corinth. Look at the church and its leaders in 1 Corinthians 3. There are jealousies and quarreling. They operate just like the world...and they make some people more important than others.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-4
Let’s draw up teams. Let’s brag about who we follow. Let’s operate just like the world...and Paul says, “you’ve forgotten your purpose”...and who makes it grow because of selflessness.
What’s the answer to all this?
GOD’S PEOPLE MUST REMEMBER HOW WE RECEIVED OUR INHERITANCE
Verse 9 is pretty plain...“wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
And there’s a list: sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers (in a different category I guess than no. 1), those who participate in homosexual acts, thieves, greedy people, drunks, slanderers (gossips, criticizers), swindlers...These are all active tense...”People who do these things and keep doing them.”
And then Paul reminds the Corinthians “and that is what some of you were.” So lets ask again....
Which is the worst wrongdoer on the list? Which one of those sins is “mortal” and which is “venal?” Which one is major and which one is minor? “Don’t be deceived...each separates us from God and His kingdom.”
I won’t ask you to raise your hand as I go through a list of sins...I won’t write them in the dirt with your name written in dirt beside it.
But the key word to our hope is found in verse 11...It’s used 4 times (any guesses?)
“Were” past tense...you no longer are! It doesn’t say you no longer struggle with sin...but God’s Word clearly teaches...you cannot have a saving encounter with Jesus and leave unchanged. Suppose you were a slanderer before you claim to have met Christ...and on the other side of your death, burial and resurrection, your baptism into Christ...you remain a slanderer...a gossip...what would most people deduce from that? “Christ changes no one.” You can live as an adulterer before your conversion and after...and still claim to be in God’s kingdom...The Holy Spirit always changes us.
The only person like that in the N.T. is Simon the Magician...He tried to purchase the Holy Spirit. Philip told him “may you perish with your money.”
I wonder how many church attendees have tried to purchase the H.S. with their works, their service, but end up discovering that God’s Spirit cannot be purchased or earned. It’s a gift...We become heirs of an eternal life because we are born again...or literally “born from above.”
Washed, Sanctified, and Justified.
Made clean...Set apart...Declared “Not Guilty.”
Think of that promise in Christ through the Holy Spirit...your past is cleansed, your calling...your purpose is realized...and your death sentence has been committed by God Himself...to eternal life with Him.
Paul wrote in Romans chapter 8...“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. (v. 16 & 17)
God’s children...washed, sanctified and justified.
God our Dad...Romans 8 says because the H.S. lives in us we “cry” ABBA.
That’s the word for “daddy” and crying something is different than saying it.
[The other day Peanut my grandson came up the stairs and said, “Papaw, I love you.” No prompting, no presents...it wasn’t “I love you too.” He initiated it. He needed and wanted to tell me those words. So I grabbed his face and said, “Peyton....I love you too” and I started crying...Peyton said, “what are you crying for?”
And I said, “Because my heart’s full...It’s leaking.” And he said, “Papaw, you’re silly and walked away.”
None of us are so broken that the glue of God’s love can’t restore...and when we are restored, through God’s Spirit...our hearts are full..and our lives cry out...”Abba, I love you.”]
