1 Corinthians 6 (Scripture Passage: New International Version)
Lawsuits Among Believers
1If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? 2Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? 3Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! 4Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church![a] 5I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? 6But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers!
Discussion questions:
1. Why is not proper for Christians to sue each other in secular courts?
2. How should Christians resolve legitimate disputes? Why is this important?
3. Who will Christians judge? List all who will be judged by believers in the above verses?
7The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.
Discussion questions:
4. What does lawsuit within a church indicated about them?
5. Why is it good to take the moral higher ground and when is appropriate to take legal action?
9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. 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.
Discussion question:
6. What is Paul trying to remind them of? Why is important to remember you identity (in Christ)?
Sexual Immorality
12"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13"Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"—but God will destroy them both. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."[b] 17But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. 18Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 19Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
Discussion questions:
7. What “type” of sin is sexual immorality? What are the implications?
8. What is your body now as a believer? What does this mean?
9. Purity of thought, purity of living – what are some safeguards we must have to keep us from falling into sexual temptations?
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ReplyDeleteJust thinking about the term "adultery", which is from the same root as "adulterate" :
ReplyDeleteFrom Merriam-Webster -- "to corrupt, debase, or make impure by the addition of a foreign or inferior substance or element ..."
I think this helps illuminate why even wrong or inappropriate thinking is destructive both to us and to our relationships, in ways we often do not quickly detect or realize. It also shows how constant the battle is, because wrong thinking is always trying to get a stronghold in our minds and hearts. The more spiritually sensitive we become (by ingesting and making use of the Word under the guidance of the Spirit), the earlier we can catch and nip things in the bud before they really start to grow and produce those thorns and bad fruit.
Also, regarding "it's just sex": how like the Corinthians our culture is today ! The Hebrew view of humanity did not separate body, soul, and spirit for practical purposes, although it acknowledged all three. It was assumed that a dysfunction in one was associated with a dysfunction in the others -- although sometimes they got it backwards ("it is not what goes into a man that defiles him"). The idea that you can do something "just with your body" without necessary spiritual consequences is more in line with the pagan world view that the body and what we do with it (except where humanitarian concerns are invoked) is ultimately unimportant. That is not really the biblical viewpoint. If our faith is not "private", our sins are not either.
P.S. "podraigh" is my blogger name .. Gavin