Making Sense of 1st Corinthians CH6

What’s the best way to build a church? I remember talking with a pastor friend about this, years ago, and I said, “I think the best way to build a church is to just preach the Bible. People want to go to a church that just preaches the Word of God. Not all this self-help fluff.” And that’s what we’ve been trying to do at NewChurch since day one but starting in January we put that idea in overdrive with this “Making Sense of the Bible” series and then since Easter, we’ve just been reading through 1st Corinthians verse by verse and trying to make sense of what it might mean for Christians living in Katy, Texas. 

Definitely leads to some straight to awkward moments when you do that. Like last week on Mother’s Day when the text talked about a guy getting freaky with his mother-in-law. I have a feeling this week’s going to be just as awkward. 

It’s never going to be politically correct but I think it’s probably the best way to not mess everything up—just read through the Bible and see what it says.

Let’s pray as we get started: 

Lord,

Help us hide Your word in our heart,

    that we might not sin against you.

We praise you, O Lord;

    teach us your decrees.

Including the decree that You give us through Jesus, that we are washed clean by His blood, by the promise of His Word, by grace through faith. AMEN

1st Corinthians chapter six. Paul is still talking about what kind of people God actually called them out of the world and saved them to be. 

When one of you has a dispute with another believer, how dare you file a lawsuit and ask a secular court to decide the matter instead of taking it to other believers! 1st Corinthians 6:1

“How Dare You!” They were apparently taking each other to court to settle disputes instead of handling things inside the church. Remember, Jesus said in Matthew 18 how we’re supposed to handle conflict in the church. They just ran to the courts.

Don’t you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can’t you decide even these little things among yourselves? Don’t you realize that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life. 1st Corinthians 6:2-3

He said all this as if they should have known these things. He must have already told them. Do we know any of this? Do we know that when Jesus gave us His authority in the Great Commission when He said we would be kings and priests on this earth, that He literally meant we would rule and reign with Him? I don’t think we know that. I don’t think that’s part of our vision of living in the Kingdom of God when Jesus comes back. Surprise!

 If you have legal disputes about such matters, why go to outside judges who are not respected by the church? 1st Corinthians 6:4

Hmm. Pagan Roman courts were ruled by pagan Roman judges. They didn’t know anything about God’s Word, or the Teaching of Jesus. Man, I’m sure glad we don’t live in a country where courts and judges and politicians are confused about right and wrong. 

I am saying this to shame you. Isn’t there anyone in all the church who is wise enough to decide these issues? But instead, one believer sues another—right in front of unbelievers! 1st Corinthians 6:5-6

Jesus said, “they’ll know you are Christians by your love for one another.” Taking each other to secular courts was a bad look. It ruined their testimony. There’s nothing any different about those Christians, they’re just as greedy and backstabbing as everyone else.

Even to have such lawsuits with one another is a defeat for you. 1st Corinthians 6:7

And then this next line is the kicker. You think someone owes you money? You think someone is trying to take advantage of you? Paul says...

Why not just accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated? (Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?) 1st Corinthians 6:7 

I don’t know if there are words in the Bible that punch us in the gut harder than those. We don’t want to feel like someone is taking advantage of us. Paul says it would be better to let it go than to take a brother or sister from your church family to court. Everyone who follows Jesus follows Him to a cross, remember?

By the way, it’s not saying we can’t ever take someone to court. This is specifically talking about members of a local church who are quarreling over money or property. Not criminal matters or dealings with people outside the church. 

He’s talking about greed. He’s talking about sin. He goes on...

Instead, you yourselves are the ones who do wrong and cheat even your fellow believers. 1st Corinthians 6:8

Now he’s going to talk about what it looks like to be in the kingdom of God. To have Jesus as their King. To be in the Kingdom of Heaven. This is a list of the kind of people who will not be part of it. 

[Or 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, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you.] 1st Corinthians 6:9-10

Hey there, did you hear that? He said “homo.” That’s the only thing I heard. Did you hear anything else?

Let’s look at that list a little deeper. Paul says there’s a good chance that these are the kind of people we used to be before Jesus found us and brought us into His family—into His kingdom. Let’s double-click on those words and see if we can find anything that looks like the old sinful self that any of us might be tempted to fall back into.

The sexually immoral. This is one word in Greek—pornio. Porn. Anyone here ever struggle with that? It means what it sounds like it means, it also means fornicator, which is any sexual activity outside of marriage. Girlfriend, boyfriend, phone, computer. I understand that our culture thinks there’s nothing wrong with hooking up and shacking up, or looking at naked strangers online—they think Jesus is being a prude when He tells His followers to keep it in their pants. It’s a big problem in our society. Most of us have been this person and continue to be.

If we’re not living with Jesus as our God and King, then what are we doing? We’re acting like we serve another God and King. Which makes us idolaters—the next word on the list. Our lives are supposed to be a living sacrifice to God. If we don’t pay any attention to what He’s told us, then who are we listening to? Who are we worshiping? He says idolaters will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Nor adulterers. He doubles down on this one. Fornication is any sexual activity outside of marriage but adultery is worse—adultery is also breaking a promise that we made to another person. Breaking our marriage vows. God takes this one very seriously because we are the bride of Christ. We’re being doubly unfaithful when we commit adultery. When a Christian cheats on their spouse, they’re also cheating on Jesus.

And then we come to the Big H. The word we dare not say in church anymore. Homosexuality. We’re more sensitive about this one than anything else on the list. Everything else in this list is fine. I mean, talking about them as sin is fine—it makes us prudes and old-fashioned but it’s safe to bring up. But how dare we talk about God forbidding anything on the LGBTQIAPK+ spectrum.

I know. This is awkward. It would have been awkward when it was read in the church of Corinth, too. There was a huge homosexual population in the Greco-Roman culture. 

I’m going to spend a little time talking about this today because we need to learn how to talk about it as Christians. Truth in love. Not with condemnation. Not with disgust. Love and humility.

First, let me talk about the Greek words being translated as “men who practice homosexuality.” That’s actually a really polite way of translating what it actually says.

There are two words being translated here and most of the English translations are trying to clean up Paul’s language a little. The first word is “catamite.” It means the soft, feminine partner in a homosexual relationship. The passive sexual partner. 

The second word is “sodomite.” The dominant, masculine homosexual partner. Obviously, the word is from when the men of Sodom tried to rape the angels in Genesis 18—they might have skipped that one in Sunday school when you were a kid.

And, just in case you’re wondering, God didn’t forget about the ladies, lesbianism is specifically forbidden in a similar list in Romans 1:26. It’s pretty easy to find a verse forbidding every letter of the spectrum.

So, how does me talking about this make you feel? Some of you probably feel smug, “That’s right Pastor Frank! Preach the truth! The whole Word of God! Don’t be bullied by our culture that wants to silence the church!” 

Some of you are probably like, “this makes me uncomfortable. I have gay friends and I don’t want to hurt their feelings. Aren’t we supposed to love everyone? We’re all sinners, what makes this particular sin any worse than your favorite sin?” 

I’ll admit that’s a fair point, as long as we all agree that sin is sin.

I understand this is a very unpopular thing to talk about these days. I have gay friends, too.

And there’s bound to be some of them who hear this message, I’m not trying to hurt anyone’s feelings. The best I can hope for is if one of my gay friends ever hears this message they’ll be able to say, “that’s fair. I don’t agree but that’s fair.” 

I mean, what else are they supposed to do with this? If their identity is that of a gay person, this doesn’t exactly feel like a warm invitation to the Gospel, does it?

So, how are we supposed to talk about these things?

Let me talk to my gay friends first. Them and anyone who’s offended that some narrow-minded preacher would dare to call a person’s sexual orientation a sin.

I get it. I understand your concern. There has been a lot of hate and cruelty done in the name of religion when it comes to gay people. I’m sorry about that. I really am. I didn’t do any of it. I don’t condone any of it, and I don’t hate gay people. Not any more than I hate fornicators, adulterers, or anyone else in this list of sinners. I’m on this list, too. Everyone I know is on this list. We all need grace, not condemnation.

But my religion says some things are sin. I believe God’s Word says homosexuality is sin. I understand that your religion might not say that. Your religion, your belief system might line up with popular culture, you might understand the Bible differently than I do or not believe in Jesus or God’s Word or any of this stuff at all. That’s fine. You don’t have to. I don’t think popular culture and all that worldly wisdom is going to make you happy or give you any peace—but you are welcome to continue believing whatever you want to believe until Jesus comes back and sorts everything out. I trust that He’ll do the right thing.

If He never comes back then, fine, you were right and I was wrong. If He does, well, that’s between you and God. It might be awkward—just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

But for now, you can continue believing whatever you want. I’m not going to try and force you to believe what I believe.

Can you say the same? That you won’t try to force me?

I’m probably taking a bit of a risk even talking about this. If there’s any persecution coming for the church, it’s going to be focused on this issue. Saying these things is the new blasphemy. How long before we could be kicked out of a public school for even talking about it? How long before simply reading 1st Corinthians chapter six is considered “hate speech?” How long before some Bibles remove the word “homosexual” from these sections? Look up this list in the Message translation, see how it dances around the subject.

My faith, my religion, says that I have to believe everything in God’s Word. Whether I like it or not. When the Bible calls something a sin, then I have to just accept that it’s a sin. Doesn’t matter how I feel about it. Doesn’t matter how you feel about it.

I promise that I’m not going to try and force you to believe any of this if you don’t want to. I’m asking that you don’t try to force me to deny my faith just because you don’t like some of the things it calls sin. I didn’t write the Bible, I’m just supposed to believe it. And I do.

Sometimes when I say that, people laugh. They’re like, “so what about all those silly-sounding rules in the Old Testament? Do you eat bacon? Or Shrimp? Do you wear mixed-fibers? There are 613 commandments in the Old Testament, some of them sound pretty strange to modern ears. Isn’t it hypocritical to pick and choose which ones you’re going to pay attention to?

I love when people think they know more about my faith than I do.

This is what we believe, as Christians. It’s not very complicated. If the New Testament, the teaching of Jesus, if it upholds any law from the Old Testament—then it still applies. Like when Jesus taught through the Ten Commandments in The Sermon on the Mount. If it specifically does away with a law—like it does with all the dietary laws, and the sacrificial system, the civic laws of Israel, and the cultural dress code—then they don’t apply to the Christian Church. We don’t have to look like or act like Jews to be Christian. Half the New Testament was written to make that point. You should read it sometime.

But there is still such a thing as sin. There are still things that are forbidden. This list in 1st Corinthians is an example of who we’re not supposed to be anymore.

We live in a fallen world. We were all born into sin. We were all born bent, twisted, oriented away from truth, righteousness, and holiness. 

Sometimes people say, “but I was born this way.” Yes, you were. You were born a sinner. You were born in sin. So was I. 

But I believe Jesus when He says I don’t have to stay that way. I’m always going to struggle with my old sinful nature in this life but Jesus has promised me that’s going to come to an end when He comes back and makes everything new. That’s what I believe. That’s my hope. 

So, where were we in our list of the kind of people who won’t inherit the Kingdom of God… Nor Thieves. The Greek word is “klepto” like kleptomaniac. You don’t get a free pass to steal just because a psychiatrist says you have a condition.

Nor greedy people. Covetous, grasping, arrogant. You know, the kind of people who are trigger happy with lawsuits.

Nor drunkards. “Methyo.” Sounds like Jessie from Breaking Bad. “Meth Yo!” I heard someone say one time, “I think I’ll be an alcoholic when I grow up, that way I’ll always have something to do.” Not a good life choice, yo.

Nor revilers. Not really a word we use anymore. The NLT translates the word as “the abusive.” The NIV says “slanderers.” It’s talking about the kind of person who is verbally abusive and likes to hurt people with insults. You know, like people who go around saying hurtful things about gay people.

Nor swindlers. Which, to me, sounds like the kind of person who pretends to be a Nigerian prince in an email scam—but it’s actually talking about a robber. Someone who uses violence and force to take what they want.

He says anyone who insists on being any of these kinds of people will have no place in the Kingdom of God. He’s not talking about people who sin and repent and keep returning to Christ’s mercy and forgiveness. Those people are just called Christians. He’s talking about people who wear their particular sin like a favorite T-shirt. They identify themselves at a core level with the sin they don’t want to let go of.

What we’ve been talking about today isn’t about sinning or not sinning. It’s about who gets to say what is sin and what isn’t. 

And then Paul does what he always does. He comes back to the Gospel. He doesn’t leave them twisting in the breeze guilty as sin. He doesn’t even tell them to try harder next time. This is what he says next:

But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:1–11

It’s not about whether we sin or don’t sin. It’s about who we are. Paul tells them who they are now. This is who you are now: You were washed. Baptized. Made clean. You were made right with God. You were born again. You didn’t have anything to do with being born the first time and you don’t have anything to do with being born again, either. God found you and picked you up and made you holy. He sanctified you. You don’t sanctify yourself, that would be impossible. You were dead, now you’re alive. You can’t resurrect yourself. You have been given a new life. You are no longer who you used to be. You are no longer WHAT you used to be. In the heavenly court, the only one that really matters, you were acquitted, vindicated, set free—you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 

Paul always ends with grace and mercy and forgiveness. So we will too. You are forgiven because of Jesus. Walk in that forgiveness. Thanks be to God.

I’ll pick up at verse 12 next week.

Let’s pray:

Lord, we have heard Your word, help us hide it in our heart,

    that we might not sin against you. That we might not think of ourselves as anything other than Your forgiven, beloved children.

We praise you, Lord;

    We thank You for Your kindness toward us. For Your mercy.

Help us to follow Jesus, to keep His name holy, and to love one another. AMEN