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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In this passage, we see that the message of the cross looks different from where we are standing: the world thinks it is foolishness, whereas Christians see it as the power and wisdom of God. This has implications for what we believe about God and how he relates to us, and how we should live in the light of it.
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We are living in a more divided time than ever — from the wider political realm to friendships and marriages. That makes this passage from 1 Corinthians 1 especially relevant to us: the message of unity through the gospel is one that we need to hear and take to heart.
If you’d like to see the video I made about denominations, it is available here.
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