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1st Corinthians 6
Hear the Voice of our Great Shepherd
melody
Hear the voice of our Great Shepherd
Let His judgment rule the eye
Of our council; lest we ever
Heed the wisdom of the blind.
For one day we will judge angels
and the world, therefore begin
To relay God's leading, faithful
To upraise His lambs from sin.
Holy is our pastoral setting
where God's pastures, bathed in blood,
Cleanse and free us from sin's letting
To express His breath above.
May our hearts, in sober wonder
Of our Master and His word,
Bow our bodies unencumbered
Whole to serve...as we have heard.
Led to be God's habitation,
Raised for His design of rest,
Placed as one on His Foundation,
From where blood and Spirit vest.
May these Living Stones so treasured,
Judge themselves with eyes aflame,
As the Corner's plumbs measures;
Make alight these earthly frames.
Words: ©2015 by Stephen Popovich
Music: Blaewern 1905 William P. Rowlands
1st Corinthians 6
Summary:
The church functions as the body of Christ on earth. Only those inside the body are authorized by the Lord to care for the spiritual matters of his body. Our body of flesh is the carrying case for the soul. When Jesus paid the price to redeem our soul, the case was included in the purchase price. As such, there are now special handling instructions.
Authorized Personnel Only
(1)Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?
Paul was stunned that a dispute between two believers would erupt into a lawsuit before an outsider. This was a very reckless action to take since doing so is in direct contradiction to the Lord’s command. Disagreements among the saints are to be settled only by the saints, for only they have been given authority by the Lord (Matt.18:15-18).
Hear the voice of our Great Shepherd
Let His judgment rule the eye
(2)Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts? (3)Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?
"You have forgotten who you are"
For one day we will judge angels
and the world, therefore begin
Cleanse e're sins greater than Sodom
Gifting there from breath above
(4)So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? (5)I say {this} to your shame. {Is it} so, {that} there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren,
The Corinthians should have had by now at least one mature undershepherd among them who could settle matters between brothers (1Pet.5:1). But apparently they did not and as a result the gate of the sheepfold was left wide open to an outside judge who had no authority given by God to take up church matters.
Of our council; lest we ever
Heed the wisdom of the blind.
As well intentioned as that judge might have been, he was not authorized by the Lord, nor equipped with His wisdom, to rule in God's house. Those on the outside of God's kingdom are to have no authority in kingdom matters. In matters of everyday life outside the church, we are to subject ourselves to the laws of our government. That's why we pay taxes and obey traffic signs. But on matters of the church, only elders have the authority to rule as under-shepherds of our Great Shepherd.
(6)but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
In God's eyes, the mere action of a lawsuit between believers represented two wrongs in the body of Christ---two wrongs that were compounded by bringing it before an unbelieving judge for resolution. That's makes three wrongs in one short verse.
(7)Actually then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? (8)On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. {You do} this even to {your} brethren.
As we saw in chapter four, Paul was way down the road in the mind of Christ. When wronged by a brother, Paul's response was primarily concerned about the impact on the Lord's work, not on himself.
To relay a leading faithful
To upraise His lambs from sin.
(9)Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God...?
In the last chapter Paul rebuked the Corinthians for failing to sweep the leaven of an unrepentant sinning brother out of God's house. Here he rebukes them for letting an outsider rule in church matters. They had things backwards; the unrighteousness of words and behavior are supposed to go out, not in.
Holy is our Shepherd's Kingdom
(9-10)...Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor {the} covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
The Corinthian's had an open door policy to things of the world. Satan blew in winds of a doctrines of demons that we shall see in more detail in verse thirteen.
Paul lists here two categories of sins; sins of the flesh that "don't hurt anybody" as well as sins of the heart that do hurt others. The former inevitably lead to the latter. They are the sins that thrived in the kingdom of Sodom and Gomorrah and also Corinthian city life. The Corinthian's had an open door policy to things of the world and were allowing doctrines of demons to seep into the church, misleading them to turn their gaze back to the ways of the unrighteous that have no place in God's kingdom.
Fornicators and adulterers commit sexual sins that aren't against nature, but they are against God's laws.
Effeminate and homosexuals represent a further spiraling down into perverted desires of the flesh where acts are committed against the laws of both nature and God.
Idolatry can be overt as it was at Corinth where temple prostitutes tempted "worshippers" in the temple of the Greek gods. But idolatry can also be subtle and apply to anything of the world that is exalted with the hope of providing gratification (1John 2:16).
Coveting is a subtle sin. Paul said he wouldn't even be aware of it if God hadn't mentioned it in the ten commandments. Coveting is the seed from where most sins germinate. If only we could keep from coveting, our sin count would fall dramatically. For example, the kernel of coveting led to the fall of both Lucifer and Adam and Eve.
Drunkards represent another avenue of flesh indulgence that crosses a line set by God.
Thieves, revilers and swindlers commit sins that are of a different category than the others listed here---they do hurt someone else. Paul likely included them because they were relevant to the court case involving the two Christian believers.
(11)Such were some of you;
where His pastures bathe in blood,
Believers are never referred to as unrighteous once they have been born anew in Christ. But they can allow their bodies to be vessels of unrighteousness.
Likewise, we see in the story of Lot in Sodom, a typical account of a righteous one living amid sin. As the city burned under God's judgment, Lot's wife turned to gaze upon its works and became a pillar of salt. This is a metaphor of a heart that turns back toward spiritual Sodom resulting in a condition good only to be trodden underfoot by man.
Lot was counted among the righteous because at some previous time in his life he placed his faith in God's promises just as his Uncle Abraham had done, and that faith was accounted by God as righteousness. But sometime later his heart turned back and he chose to live amid Sodom's sin. Lot and the Corinthians had much in common. They placing their affections among the dwelling place of the unrighteous.
(11)...but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God .
Water and wind
The Corinthian believers had made a clean break with unrighteousness the moment they were washed in the blood of Christ. It was then they were justified and set apart into his body by the Holy Spirit which was 'breathed' into their lifeless hearts. If our works could justify us or keep us justified in God's sight then we would be justified in our own name, not the name of Jesus.
The record of Lot and the Corinthians emphasize how our righteousness dependant on Christ's righteousness, a righteousness that does not fall short or miss the mark anywhere along God's ways. As believers, Christ's righteousness has been imputed to us through faith and we can not add nor subtract from it by anything we do or don't do.
Cleansing sins e're more than Sodom
Gifting there from breath above
(12)All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.
The world is a basket of God's creations that match up to our five senses. But before we go digging in, there are two questions we need to ask ourselves: How uplifting will this be for others? And, am setting up some object or pursuit that will have mastery over my life?
Jesus is the only master of our bodies. If we permit created things to master our ways, we become useless for God's work. Flee idolatry!
May our hearts in sober wonder,
At our Master and His word,
(13)Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
"Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food". This motto is a summary of a teaching that had invaded the Corinthian church. It is similar to the current fallen-man-made tradition of "If it feels good, do it!". In other words, if God has designed the union of food and the stomach, then who are we to set up anywhere between the flesh and its desires.
Paul corrects this error with three counterpoints:
Bow our bodies unencumbered
Whole to serve...as we have heard.
(14)Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power.
The Father’s Eternal House
God's word has revealed that our bodies are not disposable vessels to be used once on
earth and then replaced by a new body for heaven. Rather, our bodies are transformable and reusable; like chunks of coal to be translated into diamonds for heavenly employ.
We are designed as a dwelling place for God. The blue prints were drawn up before the earth was created. The price is astronomically precious to God. Our earthly bodies are part-and-parcel of God's purchased plans. If all creation belongs to God, certainly all re-creation doubly belongs to Him. We should remember that the next time we think our bodies belong to ourselves (1Pet.1:18).
Led to be God's habitation
Raised for His design of rest
(15)Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body {with her?} For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH." But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit {with Him.}
One with Jesus
If Jesus is in heaven and we on earth, how is it that our bodies are members of Christ? The answer is found at the end of verse seventeen; the Holy Spirit has proceeded from
the Father through the Son and into our hearts.
The Father has given Jesus authority over his church. Jesus, in turn, has granted us authority to serve him by serving others. Our bodies don't merely go along for the ride but are essential members of our service. How great is the disconnect if we take these bodies, with their heavenly contents and divine purpose, and attach them to a prostitute?
Placed as one on His Foundation
From where blood and Spirit vest
(18)Flee immorality. Every {other} sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
Judge ourselves with eyes aflame
Preventive body care
Firemen famously polish their fire engines and keep them safe from harsh weather in a firehouse. This they do even though they don't own them. It's as though these shiny red vessels must not be defiled by the world's dirt or they will be disqualified from their noble calling of service. That is something of the attitude we are to have concerning our bodies that are owned by God.
Paul tells Timothy that in the masters house there are vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor. Vessels of honor are for the Master's service of honor. Vessels of dishonor are like coffee cans used to bail water out broken toilettes. Paul offers a two-word summary for preventing our bodies from being corroded from the world: flee immorality! That is, the things of the world that tempt our flesh.
(19)Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God...
As the Corner's plumbs and measures
Make alight these earthly frame.
The Spirit’s habitation
As Paul revealed in chapter three, believers are collectively the temple of the Father
with Jesus as our Cornerstone; but individually we are temples of the
Holy Spirit who was 'breathed' into us by Jesus. The Spirit now resides within the flesh tabernacle of our bodies.
Seeing then this divine tri-party claim on our bodies, what manner of stewards ought we to be? (Acts 2:33)
(19)...and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
May we, Living Stones so treasured,
A Believer's Claim to his own body
No Claim! None! A believers
has no claim to their bodies. When God purchased our hearts with the blood of
Jesus, the carrying case of our bodies was included in the package.
A guitar case exists to promote the guitar within---reflecting the guitar's shape and so enabling it to accomplish the owner's expectations of service.
email comments to steve@biblepopcorn.com
© 2015 by Steve Popovich