Letters of Paul to the Early Church. Robert H. Mounce
trustworthy. It is of no consequence to me how you or any other human court might judge me. I don’t even judge myself. My conscience is clear but that doesn’t make me innocent. The Lord is my judge and he will weigh the evidence and deliver the verdict. So stop passing judgment before the appointed time, that is, before the Lord returns. He will bring to light all that is hidden in darkness, even the motives of the heart; that’s when each will receive from God the praise they deserve.
Dear friends, I have applied all this to myself and to Apollos so that you can learn from our example how to “play by the rules.” If you do, none of you will be puffed up in favor of one leader against another. You have no basis for that kind of arrogance because everything you have is a gift from God. How can you boast as if it were your own?
You think that you already have it all! You’re rich! You’ve begun your kingly reign and you’ve done it on your own! Well, I wish you really were kings so we could share the prestige! However, it appears that God has placed us in the enemy’s victory parade, like captive warriors headed for the gallows. What a spectacle for the entire universe, angels as well as the human race! We are considered fools because of our allegiance to Christ, but you are the wise men of the Christian community. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored but we are despised. Even now we are hungry and thirsty. We dress in rags. We are cruelly beaten and have no place to call home. We work with our own hands to stay alive. Yet when people revile us we bless them; when they abuse us we put up with it; when they lie about us we correct their misconception with gentleness. In spite of this, we are treated like the scum of the world, as if we were nothing but garbage.
I’m not writing this to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as my own dear children. Even though you may have had numerous guardians in your Christian life, you have but one father in Christ and I became that father by bringing you the Good News. So I urge you to take me as your role model. That’s why I sent Timothy to you. He is my dear and faithful son in the Lord and will remind you how I live out my Christian faith, and how I teach these principles in every church wherever I go.
Some of you have become quite arrogant, thinking I might not come back again. I have news for you; I am coming back and it won’t be long, the Lord willing. Then I’ll find out in a hurry if those arrogant people are merely good talkers or if they actually have the power they claim. For the kingdom of God consists not in talk but in power. What do you prefer? Shall I come with a rod to punish you or with love and a gentle spirit?
Chapter 5
I’m told, though it’s hard to believe, that there are some among you who take part in a form of sexual immorality that not even the pagans tolerate. A man is living in sin with the wife of his own father! And you boast about it. Shouldn’t this have given you great sorrow? And why hasn’t the guilty man been removed from your fellowship? Even though I’m not there in person, I am in spirit. You need to know that I’ve already passed judgment on this man in the name of our Lord Jesus, just as though I were there in person. So when you’ve assembled and I’m there in the spirit and power of our Lord Jesus, you are to send this man back into Satan’s world and let the destructive forces of sin do their work. That way the man’s spirit will be saved on the day the Lord returns.
To tolerate a sin like this would be the ruin of the church. You know the saying, “Just a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough.” So remove the old yeast from your assembly and you will be a fresh batch of unleavened dough; that’s what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Lets celebrate that festival with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, not with bread leavened by sin and wickedness.
In a previous letter I told you not to associate with people who are sexually immoral. I wasn’t referring to unbelievers who have chosen that lifestyle, or to others who are greedy or dishonest or worship idols. You’d have to leave the world to get away from people like that! What I meant, and I repeat myself, is that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer but is sexually immoral, greedy, worships false gods, lies about others, drinks way too much, or cheats. Don’t even share a meal with a person like that.
It’s not my business to pass judgment on unbelievers, God will take care of that. But it is our responsibility to judge members of our own fellowship. Doesn’t scripture say, “Expel the evil-doer from your midst”?
Chapter 6
When one of you has a legal dispute against another believer, how dare you take it to a secular court for settlement! Things like that should be decided within the fellowship. Don’t you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since your going to judge the world, aren’t you qualified to decide trivial differences that arise in your group? Someday we will judge angels so certainly we are able to resolve disputes down here below. When issues like this arise, why do you take them to secular judges who play no role in the church? You people ought to be ashamed! Are you telling me that there is no one in your assembly wise enough to settle a dispute between fellow believers? So instead, believers sue one another in a civil court where the whole pagan society can watch?
The very fact that you go to law against one another is itself a defeat for you. Why not accept the offense and let it go? Why not let yourself be cheated? Instead, you yourselves are the ones who are doing the cheating, inflicting damage on your own fellow believers. Perhaps you’ve forgotten that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t be deceived! None of the following will be there: the sexually immoral, those who worship false gods, adulterers, homosexuals (both active and passive), thieves, the greedy, drunkards, those who lie about others, and swindlers—none of them will be in God’s kingdom. Some of you used to live that way, but you were cleansed from sin and made holy. You were put right with God when by the Holy Spirit you become one with the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Everything is permissible for me,” you say. Perhaps, but not everything may be for the best. While it’s true, as you say, “Everything is permissible for me,” I’m not going to let an outlook like that control my life. You say, “If we weren’t supposed to eat food, God wouldn’t have given us a stomach.” True, but some day God will destroy both food and stomach. You are wrong if you think the body exists simply for sexual immorality; the body is intended for the Lord and the Lord for the body. God raised our Lord by his power and will someday raise our bodies. Don’t you understand that your body is a part of Christ? Should a man take a part of Christ and use it for sex with a prostitute? Absolutely not! You understand, do you not, that when a man joins himself to a prostitute, their bodies become one? As scripture says, “The two become one body.” But the person who is joined to the Lord is spiritually one with him.
Have nothing to do with sexual immorality. No other sin affects the body in the same way. That’s because sexually immorality is a sin against one’s own body. Or are you unaware that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you as a gift from God? You don’t belong to yourself because God bought you at a price. So use your bodies for the glory of God.
Chapter 7
Now regarding some issues you brought up in your letter: You said, “It is good for a man not to have sexual contact with a woman.” Yes, but not the way you meant it. Some of you men are practicing chastity, but unable to control the urge you have turned to prostitutes. It would be better for you and your wife to maintain normal sexual relationships with one another. The husband should fulfill the desires of his wife and the wife those of her husband. In marriage, both husband and wife have committed the right to their body to the other. Don’t withhold sex from the other, except perhaps for a limited time so you can devote yourself to prayer. But after that, resume normal relations so Satan can’t take advantage of your lack of self-control. This is a concession, not an order. I could wish that all of you were celibate as I am, but each has a special gift from God, one has this gift, another something different.
For those who have never married or are widows, I believe it is better for you to remain single, as I am. However, if you lack self-control it would be better for you to marry than to keep on burning with desire.
As for those who are married, here is my charge, well, not mine, but the Lord’s: A wife must not leave her husband—if she already has, she is to remain single or else rejoin