We live in a society which is obsessed with the notion of ‘human rights’. In this world, it’s almost inconceivable that someone would actually choose to forego their rights — but that is exactly what Paul does in this passage. Why dud Paul find it necessary to give up his rights, and what does that teach us about how we should live as Christians today?
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Is the Christian life primarily about knowing information? The Corinthians seemed to make a lot of “knowledge,” but they hadn’t realised the most important thing. Knowledge, without love, means nothing. It needed to make a difference to the way they treated those they considered to be without knowledge — and everyone else.
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A majority of young people still desire marriage as a ‘life goal’ — according to a 2022 YouGov survey, 60% of 18-34 year olds desire to get married. But is it right to desire marriage? Does marriage conflict with serving God? How should Christians think rightly about relationships? This passage from 1 Corinthians helps us to explore all these questions and more.
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In this passage, Paul teaches the Corinthians how to deal with questions of marriage and sexuality with godly wisdom. This is a message we need to hear today in a world where we face the same kind of issues. What does it mean to be godly and wise and face questions such as sexual temptation, divorce, and unbelieving husbands or wives?
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The sexual revolution of the 1960s promised freedom from the old, oppressive rules of Christianity. However, looking back over the last 60 years, it seems that freedom is the last thing that it has brought us. How should Christians think about the body and what it means to live rightly in this world?
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Sometimes we can learn as much by looking at the wrong way of doing things as we can from studying the right way. This is the case with the Corinthians: they had been dealing with sin in the church in completely the wrong way. We saw that last week, but this week we’re focussing on a particular case study in how they managed to get things wrong…
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Have you ever known anyone expelled from a church because of immoral behaviour? Perhaps that is because most churches simply gloss over Paul’s teaching here about how important it is to purify the church. If we don’t take this teaching seriously, then God will.
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One of the most off-putting things about people is hypocrisy: we hate it when people say they believe one thing, but then do something completely different. This is doubly the case for Christians, where our lives should reflect God. What does that mean for us, and how can we avoid hypocrisy?
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Do we out-grow the gospel? Some Christians or churches give the impression that the gospel is there for the start of our lives but we move beyond it as we grow to maturity. But the truth is, we do not out-grow the gospel message of Christ crucified — in fact, it is how we grow.
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Many people in the world have started to look for wisdom over the last few years. A lot of people have even turned to the Bible. But how do we really find wisdom? In this passage, Paul explains that there is a difference between godly wisdom and worldly wisdom — and he shows how we can get godly wisdom.
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