CCK Blog

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Paul is challenging the Corinthians on wanting to have it both ways – of wanting to have both God and their idols. This is typical of human nature – wanting to have multiple gods – but you can’t just switch gods when it’s convenient; God has a right to us and a right to be our God because He made us and He is the only true God. We are made to worship Him alone – that’s where we find true life, that’s where life makes sense. Our relationship with God must be exclusive like a marriage – God won’t accept other idols, otherwise it means we don’t really love God.

We also can’t use the line of “being all things to all men” or trying to be culturally relevant as excuses for idolatry. We may think it’s harmless but we allow idols to have power over us when we worship them.

Paul goes back to the Exodus of God’s people to make his point. He says that they did the right “Christian” rituals – once saved by God out of Egypt, they had their own equivalents of baptism and communion – and yet God still overthrew them in the wilderness and all but 2 out of 2 million failed to fulfil their destiny, even though they still remained God’s people and didn’t go back to Egypt. We are foolish if we take that lightly.

Paul says that eternal life is something we need to “lay hold” of. We are saved – by grace – for a reason; we have a God-given purpose to fulfil. And the hurdle we fall at is tempation.

1. Be ready

• Prepare to be tested. Be careful, don’t be cocky, because testing will come. Wake up!
• Do not misunderstand or underestimate our enemy. 1 Peter 5:8 – our enemy, the devil, wants to destroy us. He is real and he will use anything at all – any desire or longing or thing we want – as bait to lure us away from God’s purposes for us.

2. “Special case” syndrome

• We so often make exceptions for ourselves, saying that we can handle certain temptations that others can’t, or that our circumstances excuse us from not giving into temptation because it is just to hard for us.
• But obedience to God is always hard and any temptation we face is one common to man.

3. Hold fast to Scripture

• This is the antidote to the devil’s lies, because when we give into temptation it means that we are believing the false promises of Satan and the false picture of the future that he presents.
• The devil casts doubt on God in our minds and makes us distrust Him – so we need to beat the devil’s promises with God’s promises.
• Whenever we sin, we are effectively saying that we don’t trust God, but we need to know that God is faithful and that the one who is trustworthy is the one who hung on a cross for our sake.

4. God is in control

• You are not “giving God a break” when you give into temptation – that is nonsense!
• God allows the temptation to happen – He knows how much we can handle and He always provides the grace we need to endure it.
• God does not tempt us, He tests us – to strengthen us. The devil tempts us to destroy us.
• God cares so much about us – He is our good Father.

5. It will end

• The testing won’t go on forever – God always has an escape (literally “outcome”) ready for us at the right time.
• The way to endure is to remember that God has an outcome prepared, that there is an end in sight.
• Sometimes we think we can’t go on any more, but God gives us the grace to just get through one day at a time.
• Jesus endured every temptation and endured the cross, and yet He really was abandoned – for our sake, and so that we can endure and reign in life with Him, never being forsaken.

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The apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth, addressing (amongst other things) the issue that sex and marriage is somehow “unspiritual”, Paul rebukes the idea. This is relevant to us today because this thinking is still prevalent in modern Christianity – that somehow marriage, sex and physical pleasure is “wrong” and unspiritual and shouldn’t be enjoyed. However, everything created by God is good (Genesis 1) and is to be enjoyed as long as we enjoy it as a gift from God rather than as a god itself. Also, Paul teaches that to forbid marriage is demonic teaching (1 Tim. 4).

Paul does have a place for singleness though. He agrees to an extent with the Corinthians that singleness is good, but for completely different reasons.

For those who are married – it is important that they hear this message because they are part of the Body of Christ, and need to know what the Bible teaches about singleness.

Paul’s message to all is this: let each person lead the life he is in, the life God has called him to. We don’t necessarily need to change our situation in order to live for God, or alter our conditions in order to be more spiritual – we can be pleasing to God, glorifying and worshipping Him in our current circumstances (marital state, job, etc). Think about the example of Joseph – He served and glorified God when he was a slave, a prisoner, etc.

Why honour singleness?

1. Practical reasons (it’s a gift)

• v.7 – it is a gift from God, a blessing – as is marriage.
• The context of Paul’s letter – ‘in view of the present distress’ (v.26) – it made singleness a wise option.
• Singleness is not a command from Paul, but a suggestion motivated by genuine compassion (v.25, v.40).
• It does not mean that you will never be tempted, or that you will love every moment, or that you won’t struggle with loneliness – but God does give grace for every season, and He always knows what He is doing with our lives.
• Singleness is a precious season where it gets to be just you and God – He cherishes that time He has with you.
• It is not permanent.
• It is a gift to be used for the Church. You are to use your gift (whether singleness or marriage) as a way of blessing the Body.

2. Spiritual/eternal reasons:

• In the Old Testament, the emphasis was on marriage and child-bearing to maintain a legacy and be fruitful. Jesus changed all that – we now leave an eternal/spiritual legacy.
• Isaiah 53 – Jesus is fruitful and has spiritual offspring, despite being single.
• The spiritual family we are a part of is greater than any physical family.
• Isaiah 56 – we have a name better than sons or daughters.
• In Jesus Christ we possess all things.

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Sexual freedom is supposed to bring liberty but instead it enslaves and controls people. We think that somehow our physical bodies are disconnected from the spiritual. We think that what we do with our bodies doesn’t affect us but it does. Jesus was a physical man after the resurrection and is now still a physical man.

The sexual act creates a union, we become one flesh. It is created to take place in a marriage relationship. Marriage itself is a foretaste of something greater, it points to our union with Christ, we are his bride. Also, sex points to something better, something greater. God created sex to point to the joy we’ll experience in eternity with him. Knowing God is profound union, sex is a picture of that.

Our application
We should flee from sexual immorality and deal ruthlessly with temptation