Sermons
Live the Difference
Dirty Laundry
1 Corinthians 6:1-6:11
We are going back to 1 Corinthians and pick up where we left off last November, so if you want to follow along turn to chapter 6 and we’ll get there in a moment.
A woman went to a computer dating service and said she didn’t care about looks, income or background. All she wanted was a man of upright character.
Then a man came in and told them the only thing he was seeking in a woman was intelligence.
The service matched them together at once because they had one thing in common - they were both compulsive liars.
Have you ever noticed that some people shade the truth? We have all heard those little fibs that make you say, “Oh, I have heard that before.”
For instance…
- The check is in the mail.
- Give me your number and the doctor will call you right back.
- Leave your resume and we’ll keep it on file.
- Your table will be ready in a few minutes.
- Open wide, it won’t hurt a bit.
- It’s not the money; it’s the principle.
We have been studying a letter the apostle Paul has written to the church in Corinth. Corinth was a city of philosophical and intellectual arrogance. It was a city known for its unbridled sin. And it was from that culture that the people in this church had been saved.
Yet, the church in Corinth definitely reflected their Greek origin. It was apparent that at the very least, they had a hard time leaving their old way of life. They were competitive, assertive and arrogant.
A specific area of their past was the going to court to sue for one’s various rights. Litigation was a part of the Greek way of life. It was considered to be an intellectual challenge, even to the point of being entertainment.
As we come to our passage today, we are going to discover that lawsuits had made their way into the early life of the church. Unfortunately, they made their way in without great difficulty. As a result, the church was unable to “live the difference the Spirit makes” that they were called on to live.
The reason was as Christians, we have trouble living the difference when we believe things that are not true. The Corinthians were really struggling to live differently.
In so many areas of their lives, they had resorted to living in the same way they had before. And as a result, the church was in chaos. Simply, it was because they were believing the wrong things.
We will find in our study of I Corinthians 6:1-11, three lies that prevent us from living as we ought to in the church. The lies find themselves in the context of lawsuits, but I think we will observe that there is a wider context that will help each one of us today.
I. The first lie is “WE CAN’T SETTLE THIS” (1-6).
You noticed that we live in a sue-happy world also.
There are children suing parents.
There are students suing teachers.
There are players suing coaches.
Unfortunately it also gets into the church.
There are Christian neighbors suing each other.
There are Christian teachers suing administrations of Christian schools.
There are churches suing one another.
There are pastors suing churches.
There are churches suing pastors.
There was a cartoon in Christianity Today; On the church platform is a soloist about to sing a number as the pianist prepares to play the introduction. With microphone in hand, he says, “I’d like to share a song with you that the Lord gave me a year ago and even though He gave it to me any reproduction of this song in any form without my written consent will constitute infringement of the copyright law which grants me to sue your pants off, praise God.”
The reality of the matter is as Christians we don’t always agree. And many of us live with the fiction that we can’t come to agreement when we’re disputing one another.
The truth is, “We can settle this if we truly understand our true identity in Christ. We will discover that we have an inherent ability to work things out. We don’t have to look elsewhere. And we definitely don’t have to look outside the church.
When we are dependent on the Spirit, we can settle matters of disagreement.
You see, we are to exercise our God-given wisdom.
Paul is very critical of this foolhardy act that has taken place. How dare they go to court against one another? It is outrageous.
When Paul thinks about the present, he also thinks about the future. What we do now affects the future. Paul understands that we are to rule and reign with Christ.
So, if we are going to sit on God’s Supreme Court over the world, and even judge the angels, then aren’t we qualified to judge the trivial matters of the present? For these present disagreements are small in comparison to the vastness of our future.
The reason we don’t see our ability to work these things out is our poor understanding and application of our place in Christ. We have tremendous resources. We have supernatural understanding of truth, justice, love, kindness, and grace as the people of God.
We have been given the mind of Christ. We are not to go to the public courts and show our dirty laundry. We are not to take our disagreements to unbelievers. Why? Because that is not the place for them.
We are to work on them among ourselves. We are not to hold up the church to public scrutiny and ridicule. Paul’s reasoning for this is simply that unbelievers are not wiser than Christians. This is not meant to be a “Oh we are so much better than them” type of thinking. No, of all subjects, this is no time for arrogance.
Paul wants us to understand that the secular judge does not understand the relationship of one Christian to another. He has no concept of the Fatherhood of God and the family of believers. He does not understand that we are members of one another.
So, Paul wants to know, why not take it to the church? If we as believers are dependent on the wisdom of God, then we should keep it in the church, and use the wisdom of God.
It is really a matter of trust. What do we trust more? Do we trust the secular court system? Or do we trust the application of God’s design – the church?
Which brings us to, the second lie, “I HAVE MY RIGHTS” (7-8). [7] To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? [8] But you yourselves wrong and defraud — even your own brothers!
We live in a culture that is so bent on asserting our rights.
So often we hear…
“I have my rights!”
“I don’t have to take that from you!”
“I want what is coming to me!”
You see, our job is not to see that every wrong we suffer, whether it is imagined or real, be brought to justice no matter what. So often, we think the application to ourselves ought to be our first priority. But Paul challenges us to think differently.
He challenges us to think of the bigger picture.
Paul tells the church at Corinth that they have already lost. They have already lost because when we focus on our rights, we lose sight of our testimony.
It is Paul’s conclusion that it is better to lose financially than to lose spiritually.
As a Christian, we must understand that there is a watching world. People are turned off when they see believers fighting each other in open, aggressive ways. Their conclusion is…
“You Christians are no better than we are.”
“There is nothing different about you.”
“You have nothing to offer.”
And they come to this conclusion all in the name of our wanting our rights.
The truth is that we are to be a desirable alternative. We must be willing to be wronged rather than having to be right.
These are Paul’s questions to them…
Why not rather be wronged?
Why not rather be cheated?
Is self-protection and self-gain that important?
Our true purpose is much higher than wrangling over a property line. We should not be more concerned about our rights than being an ambassador for Christ.
The real tragedy is not the loss of our rights. The real tragedy is lost people who remain lost as a result of going to court. The real tragedy is the church not functioning as it ought because we can’t forgive one another.
Now we come to Paul’s concluding points in this argument and the lie we ought not to believe…
The third lie is “THIS IS WHO I AM” (9-10).
[9] Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, [10] nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
People love to excuse their behavior by saying, “This is who I am.” “This is not my fault; this is just the way I am.” When the Corinthians made this claim, Paul’s response was to the contrary. No…The truth is, “This is who you were.”
Christians are not to continue in behaviors that are destructive, violent and contrary to the will of God.
We are not to say that we can’t help it.
As believers, we have been absolutely freed from the tyranny of sin. We have a choice. We don’t have to go that way anymore. We are to make sure that our lives are not characterized by our past.
Even as Christians, we can fall for the deception of Satan. And if we are willing to listen, he will sell us. A few moments of pleasure is what he advertises, but the aftermath is painful, worthless and empty.
Paul gives us a list of self-destructive behavior.
It is behavior that is not right with God. It falls outside of His design for His creation and His kingdom.
These are behaviors that are not within the sphere of salvation.
They are: those that are sexually immoral (those that seek intimacy without Commitment).
Those that are idolatrous (those that are enamored with a false belief system that replace God with that which is created.
Those that are adulterers (willing to participate in intimacy in order to break the exclusive bonds of marriage).
Those that practice homosexuality (willing to go outside of God’s design for intimacy; for God has made man and woman for each other) the design is rather obvious.
Those that are thieves and greedy. Those that practice covetousness because they are not content with what they have been given or what they have earned.
Those that are drunkards. Those that willingly give up self-control, often to the embarrassment of their own selves and to others and become dangerous to all involved.
Those that are revilers. Those that willingly destroy others with their tongue with slander and lies.
Those that are swindlers. Those that are willing to steal discreetly and indirectly.
All of these behaviors are outside the realm of salvation. If, as a Christian, you know that you are participating in behavior that is contrary to God’s will, you have a choice.
You are not powerless.
It is a choice we can make.
We are new creations.
We each have a new inner personhood made out of God’s own person.
So the pattern of unbroken and habitual unright-eousness does not need to happen anymore. We are no longer slaves of self-indulgence, self-gratification, and self-destruction. There is to be a visible difference.
To go on living in a lifestyle that is outside of God’s will is entirely incompatible and inconsistent with the Christian profession of faith.
You see…WE ARE TO LIVE THE DIFFERENCE.
Paul finishes this section with…[11] And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
The Corinthians had come a long way. But they could not settle where they were. They still had much more to go in their growth in Christ. As much as they wanted to feel as if they arrived, they were yet to fully apply what was already true for them.
Paul writes in Titus 3:5… he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
God has washed the filth from our lives. He has cleaned us up. He has given us new life. So, we are not to go back to the dirt and grime of sin.
We have been made holy.
We have been changed.
We have been set apart so that we will live differently than the rest of the world. He has given us the ability to have new behavior. He has given us the ability to live in such a way that is pleasing to Him. And, we have been declared right with God.
In this section about lawsuits, Paul uses the legal term of justification. He points us to the fact that our salvation is a finished work in the sight of God.
We don’t add to it. We have been declared right.
Therefore, we have a new standing before God.
And it was accomplished in the name of Jesus.
It was done by His authority and power, won through His death, and made victorious by the resurrection. So now we are able to live the difference because of the power of the Holy Spirit within us.
A few years ago, Chuck Colson was standing in a long line is Jakarta, Indonesia. He, and some Prison Fellowship colleagues, had been traveling all night. It was now early morning. The terminal was hot and steamy, and they were tired.
As Chuck relates in his book, Being the Body, Passport in my sticky hand, I was exhausted and exasperated at the long, inefficient line snaking ahead of us. I was worried we would miss our next flight and the ministry friends who were waiting for us.” But Chuck adds, “I was also determined not to let my frustration get the better of me. I talked with my friends; we laughed and made the best of the situation.”
Two years later, he received a letter from a businessman who lived in Singapore. The man had been a follower of Confucius, but he sent his children to Sunday School at a Presbyterian church for moral training. One Sunday, as he picked up his kids, he heard the end of the sermon. A visiting missionary held up a copy of Chuck’s first book, Born Again. On the cover was a picture of Chuck.
A few months later, this businessman was stuck in a long line in the steaming Jakarta airport. Glancing over into the next line, he spotted the same face he’d seen on the cover of Born Again. He was so impressed by Chuck Colson’s calm demeanor and cheerfulness that when he got back to Singapore, he got the book, read it, and committed his life to Christ.
Are we living in such a way? Are we living the transformation that has taken place in us?
Live the transformation…you have been washed – so live cleanly – don’t carelessly get dirty when you have the choice and the ability to live untainted.
Live the transformation…you have been sanctified – so live holy – don’t get caught living the old behaviors – instead live the difference, the set apart way, that will win the world for Christ.
Live the transformation…you have been justified – you have been given the right standing in God’s court – so live it – live rightly.
Amen.