Category: Digging in Deeper

Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 8:9

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“But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

When it came to the issue of eating or not eating meat that had been offered as a sacrifice to an idol, Paul’s position was that because idols were nothing, eating the meat was not in any way morally problematic in and of itself.  In other words, the act was not sinful.

But…for some folks in the church, the idea of eating such meat was really problematic for them and for their conscience.  Some Gentile background folks who had grown up as pagans and who were really into idolatry before following Jesus could not eat the meat without being tempted back into their old life.  Similarly, many of the Jewish background believers couldn’t eat it without feeling like they were sinning against God by participating even indirectly in an act of idolatry.   Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 8:1-3

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“Now concerning food offered to idols; we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’  This ‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up.  If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.  But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

You’ve perhaps heard the phrase, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”  The idea is that when we get just a little knowledge, the temptation is to think we have more than we actually do.  When we try to act on that knowledge, if we are not willing to listen to those who have even more, we can quickly find ourselves in a tight spot.   Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 7:6-11

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“Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)‬‬

Singleness, marriage, and divorce are tough issues to talk about.  They are emotional ones.  Singleness is a difficult journey in and of itself.   Cultural pressures to be sexually active regardless of marital status combined with pressures from the current culture of the church for everyone to be married and which suggest that singleness is a kind of second-class status make it even more difficult.  Marriage opens us up to a level of intimacy that is often a lot scary and hard to maintain.  Its “til-death-do-us-part” mantra is daunting, especially when you start it young.  And, once again, culture puts all kinds of pressure on us to make it something entirely less sacred and permanent that it was designed to be.   And, because of the intimacy of marriage, divorce is always messy.  If the Scriptures are right in that the married couple becomes one flesh, a divorce for any reason is akin to amputating a part of our body, and not something small like a toe.  It’s more like taking off an entire leg or arm.  In other words, these are big issues.   Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10

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“Or 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, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

– ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭6:9-10

Two things here.  First, the list of sinful behaviors pursued unrepentantly which will keep us from access to the kingdom of God is long and varied.  There are many, many ways to separate ourselves off from God, some of them large and obvious, some of them small and easy to hide.  In some ways it is better to be caught up in a big, obvious sin, because then everybody knows you are doing wrong and you can be called to account more easily.  Sometimes the smaller, more culturally acceptable and easy-to-overlook sins can be deadly traps because we don’t believe we are doing anything worthy of repentance or needing of forgiveness all the while we are on a road headed directly out of a relationship with God.  That’s the easy part.  

Second, this is one of the few passages in the Scriptures that specifically mentions the sinfulness of homosexual sexual interactions.  Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (Part 2)

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“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people–not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. . . .For what have I to do with judging outsiders?  Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?  God judges those outside.  ‘Purge the evil person from among you.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

So in the last note, we talked about the fact that there are times and situations when it is right and appropriate for the church to remove an incorrigibly errant member from its fellowship.  I said at the end that there is another part to Paul’s argument here.  Verse 11 (the focus of part one) is surrounded by verses dealing with this other part.  The ratio is 4:1.  Why so much more on this here than that there?  Because Paul likely understood that our temptation would be to get his intention in v. 11 backwards (boy was he right!) and he wanted to try and keep us from doing that.   Read the rest…