... have seen the last couple of weeks, especially since several of you weren't able to be here for both of those sessions.

I'd say that the general theme, the principal theme of this letter that we're studying of 1 Corinthians is that of building up and being the body of Christ.

The theme is building up and being the body of Christ. And we saw that God gives to his church gifts. And that becomes the focus of the discussion, particularly toward the end of the letter. He gives gifts, and we defined gifts as supernatural empowering for service.

We're going to elaborate that in a couple of weeks. But I want to deal with this quickly tonight because I know there were some question marks last week. There have been other studies on this, and if you wanted to go into it in greater depth, I'd advise you to get the Holy Spirit series that we did a couple of years ago, and in particular the session on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Very quickly, there are four principal areas in the New Testament where the gifts are discussed. Four lists that are given of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12,

Romans 12,

Ephesians 4 and 1 Peter 4

and if you were to go through and this I would really urge you if you have never done this go through and study those passages with some care and look at all the things that are mentioned as gifts of the Holy Spirit you'll come out with a list of something in the neighborhood of 20 specific gifts say something in the neighborhood because depending on which translation you use, some of them may be synonyms for others.

But somewhere around 20 gifts of the Holy Spirit are mentioned when you add them all up from all those four lists. And they run a very wide gamut of things that are mentioned. There are some which appear to us as distinctly supernatural. Things for which there is no normal run-of-the-mill explanation. Things like the ability to speak in a language that I've never studied, called tongues. Or the ability to interpret a language that I've never studied, called interpretation. Or prophecy, speaking God's word, not because I've studied it, but because he inspires me to speak it in the way Isaiah did or Jeremiah did or what have you.

Healings, where I lay my hands on somebody's broken body and he's supernaturally restored. Other kinds of miracles are mentioned. These are some of the dramatic gifts of the Holy Spirit. There are other things that are also mentioned which would probably not strike us as being at all supernatural.

Things like giving aid, giving comfort, giving money. That's mentioned as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. One that you may need to come into. Serving. Showing mercy.

Gift of being an administrator. Good business talent. Where does it leave off something that is kind of a latent natural ability or something that I go to business school to study? Where does that leave off and it become a specific anointing of God's spirit? It may be very hard to tell in some cases.

Teaching, pastoring, apostleship, evangelism, knowledge, wisdom, faith, All these things are mentioned as gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now, we don't have the time, and it would be beyond our purposes, to go into a careful study of all of these, but suffice it to say a couple of things.

From the point of view of the New Testament, all of them are equally supernatural.

Now, there may be a natural talent for administration which has nothing to do with God's Spirit, which a total non-Christian may have to a great abundance. But when it's released within the body of Christ, when it's released to the service of God by someone who is himself a Christian and open to God's spirit, as I said a moment ago, it may be very hard to tell where the natural talent leaves off and the supernatural anointing begins, but from God's point of view, it is just as supernatural as one of these more dramatic gifts, like the working of miracles.

We said last time, God gives different gifts to different Christians.

And we mustn't covet each other's gifts. I need you in your particular uniqueness. You're not to be a carbon copy of me, nor I of you. We need each other. We're made to be mutually interdependent. Alright? Different gifts for different Christians.

Now we saw in the first chapter, in verse 7, the comment that Paul made, you are not lacking in any spiritual gift. So we're dealing with a church which had received all of these.

And I would even go on to suggest to you that since those various lists are not identical lists, It was never the intention of any of the New Testament writers to give us an exhaustive list. That they're simply saying, these are what the gifts are like. These are some of the gifts. So that the Corinthian church presumably may have even had many other kinds of gifts that aren't even here mentioned. This is a church that has been dramatically anointed and visited with God's spirit and the distribution of gifts, ministries. for service.

But far from this being the mark of maturity,

they completely misunderstood their gifts. And we saw last time that one of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to help us to understand the gifts that God has given.

Gifts can be given to people who are very immature in their Christian walk. and Paul's rebuke to the Corinthians is that's precisely the case now here they are congratulating themselves because they are so gifted and that is simply a mark of their immaturity now you might think of it like this if I was a very rich man and showered upon my children material abundance

okay baubles of all sorts expensive toys and huge bank accounts, all right? That would in no way tell you anything about their maturity. In fact, I might have done it the day they were born. When I was a chaplain at Miss Porter's, I know of parents who the moment their daughters were born enrolled them in Miss Porter's school for 18 years later.

That is no mark of the child's maturity. The fact that the parent has been lavish in the distribution of gifts is no mark whatsoever of the child's maturity. The mark of maturity is how you handle whatever you've been given, whether it's a great deal or a very little.

Do you see that? So it may be that the child who has a materially barren childhood is far more mature than the kid who has all sorts of things to squander. And in fact does.

I think that's one of the points that can be drawn from Jesus' parable of the talents. It's not how many talents you've been given. The guy who has five, or the guy who has three, or the guy who has one. It's what you do with what you've got. And the guy who had one would have been just as faithful and just as much applauded by his master had he gone out and invested it as the guy who had five.

but instead he hid his talent in the ground. You understand the point I'm making? Terribly important and basic point. Now the gifts are empowerment or equipment for service. When God gives a gift of any sort, any sort, be it one that we would initially think of as being a human talent, a natural kind of a facility to do something, or be it a dramatic kind of an unmistakably supernatural anointing. Whenever God gives a gift, he gives it for service.

Not because I'm so great, but that I might be better equipped to serve my brother, my sister. The purpose of the gifts is the building up of the body. That's the purpose of them. Corinthians had totally missed that, and instead saw their many gifts as occasions for boasting. for pride for arrogance in fact for looking down upon each other because I value my gift more than I value yours

and what I said two weeks ago I want to come back to that they took a carnal approach to spirituality that's a very awkward phrase that seems almost a self-contradiction But that's exactly what they were doing. They were using worldly attitudes to something that is supremely and sublimely spiritual. The giving of supernatural Holy Spirit gifts they were dealing with on an entirely natural and carnal level.

Their attitudes were all wrong.

I defined carnal this way.

as being taking something which is good in itself

out of the context for which God gave it.

As if it had no broader meaning, no deeper meaning. Taking something good in itself out of the purpose for which God gave it. Now think of how that applies to sex, which is the word that we would usually associate with the idea of carnality. Sexual immorality is taking something which is good in and of itself. God created the body and he said it's good. It's very good.

It is a vehicle for expressing a oneness between husband and wife that can be a mirror image of Christ's love for the church.

That's what it's for. is very good. God is not anti-sex. He invented the idea.

But carnality is taking my sexuality out of that context and trying to enjoy it just in and of itself as if it had no meaning. As if just the physical pleasure of it were enough by itself. That's carnality. Do you see that that's exactly what they were doing with the gifts?

As jarring a concept as that is, God gave the gifts of the Spirit not so that I'd get puffed up and proud of myself, but so that I could be a better servant of you.

When I take my gift, whatever it might be, out of that context and begin to think of myself as something very special, I'm doing exactly the same thing with the gift of the Spirit as we can do and so many people do with their sexuality.

It's against that backdrop that we come to the passage tonight of chapters 5 to 7.

And I think unless you have all that in mind, you will really miss what Paul is up to in chapters 5 to 7 because they're usually treated as Paul's statement on marriage. It's a very incomplete statement on marriage. And I don't think it was Paul's intention to give us a full-blown treatment of the subject of marriage. In fact, what he's really dealing with is the subject of carnality.

And of necessity, he has to talk about marriage and dealing with it.

He's addressing himself specifically when he comes to chapter 7 to some questions which they had written him. We see that he had written them a letter in chapter 5. He says, verse 9, I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with him moral men. So there has been previous correspondence. He wrote them a letter. They responded to his letter with a series of questions. And he begins to address himself to their questions in chapter 7. But it comes in this context.

And I want you to remember one other thing as we move very quickly through these three chapters tonight. Namely, that the city of Corinth was a terribly carnal city. It was known for its carnality. And what was happening was the attitudes, the values, the ethos of the city, of the culture, were infiltrating and infecting the Christian church.

Okay?

So that's the backdrop, and he comes in chapter 5 to say, it is actually reported among you that there is immorality in your midst.

So they've been carnal in terms of their spirituality, the last place where you might have expected it, but they're carnal in terms of their physical relationships as well, all the way through permeating. He goes on to say, it's so shocking. It's a kind of immorality that wouldn't even be countenanced among the pagans. A man living with his father's wife. And you are arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

For though absent in body, I'm present in spirit. And as if present, I've already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who's done such a thing. When you are assembled and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.

For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Least from the marriage and free to marry again. The Episcopal Church, after agonizing over this, has concluded that it means you would be free to marry again.

That it is in addition to what Jesus said under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to Paul, that this would be an extension of the exception to the rule, that when you are released because your unbelieving spouse wants out, you are really released.

Some very difficult questions for us in that regard. Have I really done absolutely everything I can to preserve this marriage? Or have I become so obnoxious that I am forcing my partner to want out, and then blaming him or her because he doesn't share my faith.

The implication here is that the only thing that would lead the unbelieving partner to want out is the fact of Christ himself in the middle of the marriage.

And the other question that is raised is, what if a believing spouse, in spite of all this teaching, says, I want out, what then happens to his or her partner?

and that's even more difficult and I think the Episcopal Church has concluded without passing judgment on that person's eternal salvation that if they do that they're putting themselves in the place of an unbeliever

alright it's not to say that I have the right to pass judgment that they're going to hell for it but if they totally ignore what's here written but God says you're in a marriage you are a Christian and you do not have the option to initiate separation and if you choose to ignore all that and go ahead and initiate the separation you are putting yourself in the place of an unbeliever and your partner is not bound but we could spend about three or four more years on those questions

Let me add only one point to this section, and that is that Christians are to marry only other Christians if the decision comes after their conversion rather than before it. Verse 39, talking about a widow, he says, If the husband dies, she's free to be married to whom she wishes only in the Lord. 2 Corinthians 6.14 says, Do not be mismated with unbelievers. When you stop to think about it, it's hard to imagine that a Christian who is serious about his or her commitment to the Lord would want to try to share his or her life with somebody who didn't also make the Lord Jesus the center of everything.

But sometimes we come into that realization by very small steps, don't we?

Second, and we're going to move very quickly, said there are three things here the first is the sanctity of marriage second the preferability of singleness

verse 7 I wish all were as I myself am says Paul as a single man this he says in verse 26 is a matter of the present distress the fact that the time has grown very short verse 29 and the form of this world is passing away verse 31 It's quite clear that Paul anticipated Jesus coming back very abruptly, perhaps within his own lifetime.

He said it's the end of the age, time's out. We're the last generation. We're to be out there evangelizing. The world is in a mess and we don't have enough time. And therefore, it's better to live uncluttered lives and you'll be much more free to be responsive to whatever God tells you if you don't have the responsibilities of a family. Verses 32 to 35, he makes the argument that attention to your partner is distraction from the Lord.

Verse 38, he says that refraining from marriage is better than keeping your vows of betrothal. Here you are engaged. Now you've become a Christian. Wise up, buddy. Don't get married.

And verse 40, he even goes so far as to say you'll be happier unmarried.

alright

that's the second thing the preferability of singleness

now the third thing having said all of that having said all of that I want you to go back and note a distinction that runs through this whole chapter and it is totally consistent

totally consistent A distinction between what the Lord says and what Paul says.

There's only one other area in the whole Bible that I'm aware of in which you can find that distinction being made. And that's in the book of Ecclesiastes. Where repeatedly, cast in Scripture, we have a whole bunch of statements that are not from God, but are from a person. Perhaps it was Solomon, we don't know for sure, who just sees everything as vain and hopeless and worthless and pointless. That's not God's opinion on the matter.

That's the opinion of whoever it was that wrote the book of Ecclesiastes.

Notice, running all the way through this chapter, verse 6, I say. Verse 7, I wish. Verse 8, I say. Verse 10, I give charge. And then he makes a distinction. I give charge, not I, but the Lord.

Compare that with verse 12. I say, not the Lord. I say, not the Lord. Verse 25. I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion. Verse 26. I think. Verse 28.

I would spare you that. Verse 29. I mean. Verse 32. I want you. Verse 35, I say this, verse 40, in my judgment, I think.

Now, watch this. Watch this. Watch this close. Check me out. Don't take it on my say-so. You go do your homework. Check it out. When Paul speaks of the sanctity of marriage, He takes his stand boldly, firmly, unmistakably on what the Lord has said.

And where he speaks in this chapter of the preferability of singleness,

he consistently is offering us his own opinion.

Watch that.

I think that is a very powerful thing.

I think Paul is inviting me to offer my opinion.

Paul is bending over backward to say, now I want you to consider this. I speak to you as an apostle and I think I'm right, but I want it very clear that I have no command from the Lord. I am only giving you my opinion. That's what he's saying. I'll give you my opinion.

I think he's wrong.

and rather than that being an attack on the authority of scripture I find it remarkable that the only instance in which I would presume to think that Paul is wrong is in the one instance where he says this is my opinion and it's not from God

isn't that interesting that he would have such a sensitivity to the fact that my best judgment as an apostle of Jesus Christ, my considered opinion that I want you to pay attention to, I distinguish very carefully from the word of the Lord to you.

Now, he was wrong. Jesus didn't come back in his generation. It's been 1900 years and he hasn't come back yet. I think he's even wronger than that. I think that as the end of the age comes, God is not only going to be calling us to marriage, He's going to be calling us to community. I think we need each other. That's my opinion for what it's worth.

But I find it absolutely fascinating that in this particular instance, and it's the only one in the New Testament, Paul bends over backward to tell us this is my opinion.

And that leaves us the room to disagree with it. Watch that.

the theme then is carnality infecting the church and the thing that comes out with great clarity and beauty is that God has a higher standard it's a standard of the loveliness and the sanctity of marriage which is to be a mirror image of his love for the church God so loved the church that he gave his son to be its bridegroom.

He pledged himself to the church with eternal fidelity, and he invites us to reflect that in our marriage relationships. He invites us to purge out the leaven, the corruption, the old worldly mentality, both from our sexuality and from all of the other areas as well.

Let's bow our heads.

Father, if the city of Corinth was a place of carnal corruption,

we would have to admit that our whole society

has been infected with attitudes and values and points of view which have absolutely nothing to do with you.

And if the great threat to the life of the church in the city of Corinth was that spiritual people would think in the ways of the world,

we confess to be subject to those same pressures.

We confess that the church of Jesus Christ is under pervasive and massive attack by the carnality of our culture, by the paganism of the society in which we live, by a value system which totally repudiates you, however much we give you lip service as one nation under God.

father we pray for our leaders that they would have wisdom and courage to follow after righteousness and to allow you to be lord in their lives and to mold their thinking but we pray more especially for the church that there would be a purity of the visible church that we would take seriously enough our confession as Christians that we would want to support each other in righteousness call each other in love to the standards that you've set before us and if need be help each other to repentance we would clean out all of that old leaven

and be what we're called to be the new, fresh, and unleavened bread of the Paschal Feast.

Yes, I thank You for this teaching tonight. As hard as it is, help us to understand it more deeply and to apply it courageously

for Your name's sake. Amen.