November 6, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Numbers and 1 Corinthians? Here’s today’s reading:
1 Corinthians 6 (NIV)
Lawsuits Among Believers
1 If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people? 2 Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!……Continue Reading
1Corinthians 1-3
1 Corinthians 6
My take away from the first half of this chapter is a call to “act right” As Christians we should be treating each other well and we should be forgiving when an occasional wrong is done against us. It seemed that the Corinthians were like many people today suing over every little offense.
Then Paul gives a great reminder how easy it is for us to view our sin as not as bad as another in an effort to justify it. However, Paul makes it clear that every person who is characterized by a sin (ie:fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, etc.) are that way because they are choosing to live in that particular sin, but the reality is they all started that path with a single sin. So when we justify any sin in our life based on just doing it once or because it doesn’t seem as bad as someone else’s we are just potentially starting ourself down a path to being characterized by sin as well. In the case of sexual sin, we live in a world that believes if it feels good to do it (Paul’s comparing sexual desires to our physical appetite was spot on for this world) and that anything goes so all the more we need to protect ourselves from the world’s standard and remember God’s expectations for sexual relations.
1 Corinthians 6
1 Corinthians 2-6; Numbers 13-20
“All things are permitted for me, but not all things are of benefit. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, however God will do away with both of them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.” (1 Corinthians 6:12-13 NASB2020)
Paul here is pointing out the flawed worldly logic that the purpose of food is to be eaten and the purpose for our stomachs is to eat food; which extends to the idea that the purpose of our sexual organs is to have sex with them. This is very similar to the mentality in our day (as Ecclesiastes says, there’s nothing new under the sun) that our sexual orientation is a large part of our identity and purpose (and that’s for any sexuality, including heterosexuality). But as Paul points out, the true purpose of our bodies is to honor God.
And even for the things we might do that are allowed, they may not be beneficial or worse may have some level of control over us. Honoring God with our bodies goes beyond just avoiding sin, but also avoiding non-sinful things that can lead us astray.
Good points, Josiah.
These words are as useful to us today as they were 2,000 years ago. God has given us means to resolve conflict and address behaviors and offenses, so we don’t need to seek the world’s wisdom or approaches to make things right. As we all understand the truth and Who it is we are living for and through, as we have the character and principles that Jesus enables, we should have clear consciences and great relationships, addressing things or not addressing things according to the level of offense given. And so much of this has to do with what is in our hearts (and behaviors) in the first place, righteousness or impurity? So naturally this works best when we are dealing with believers. We also need to be conscientious of the things we participate in and what they are leading to. We need to recognize the destructive nature of sexual immorality and how it destroys our bodies, minds, souls and spirits. God has intended sex to be part of a committed relationship between a man and a woman. But when we break that barrier and engage in things outside of that dynamic, we bring destruction on ourselves. The world, sin and satan are all about giving the body everything it desires. But we are best to honor God with our bodies because He knows how He has made us and therefore what is best for us.
”Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.“
I Corinthians 6:19-20 NKJV
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your bodyfn and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6
1 Corinthians 6