New Christian Lifestyles
Lessons From 1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Theme: Lessons From 1 Corinthians.
Hope: To draw closer to God through a exegetical and topical study within the great book.
Starting in 1 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul has dealt a great deal with sexual immorality.
1 Corinthians 5 dealt with a man that was sleeping with his father’s wife.
1 Corinthians 6 dealt with false notion that “all things were lawful,” and since the body was made with sexual relations in mind why restrict what the body is meant for.
1 Corinthians 7 began dealing with the equally false notion that sex was sinful and thus wrong even if married.
As we pointed out last week from our text in 1 Corinthians 7:1-7, marriage is how God expects us to fight sexual immorality.
The apostle Paul then begins in verse 8 through verse 16 discussing the “New Christian Lifestyles” that were inevitable realities for those coming out of being lost and now saved. Let’s read our text now.
For those that are newly saved and have come out of sinful lifestyles there were a lot of question as to “where do go next.”
If I’m single do I stay single, or married do I stay married, or married to an unbeliever do I stay married to him or her?
So, let’s look this evening at these three groups in particular.
Paul begins by discussing the…
Unmarried
Unmarried
Who Would This Be?
Who Would This Be?
8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am.
Because the apostle Paul added “and the widows” to this list of “unmarried” it tells us we must understand who the unmarried are.
Had the apostle Paul written “to the unmarried it is good for them to remain single” we would have to assume that he is talking about anyone that is single.
However, because he added “and the widows” we know this isn’t the case because it would simply be redundant to say to “to all the single people and also the widows.”
So, who are the unmarried here?
His use of widows again gives us a clue by pointing out those that as it would appear to be a contrast to those that “have never been married.”
Also, the fact that he is going to address divorce later it is not likely they are under consideration either.
So Paul tells those that have never been married & widows he says to remain single.
Now remember what we said last week, Paul isn’t saying the “single life is the better life” but rather that there is nothing sinful about living a single life.
There was only one thing “not good” after creation and that it was man was single and alone.
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
However, there are those that have the gift, like Paul, of not being tempted by sex and can therefore live a fulfilled life for God as being single.
These people should not be pressured into marring and having children as there is nothing sinful about living a life of celibacy unless one cannot control their passions.
Summary
Summary
So, the apostle is simply saying to those that have never been married or those that have become widowed there is nothing wrong with being single, again unless they cannot exercise “self-control.”
1 Corinthians 7:9 (ESV)
9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
Paul then turns his attention to the…
Married
Married
Those Married In The Lord.
Those Married In The Lord.
Paul begins by writing to the husband and wife that have both obeyed the gospel and been saved by writing…
10 To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband 11 (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.
Now it is important to understand that the culture on divorce was just as bad then as it is now.
Corinth was by far a very sexually immoral place and as such divorce was rampant.
So, Paul makes clear God’s view on divorce, “don’t do it.”
Malachi would go so far as to remind the Israelites that God in fact “hates divorce.”
Malachi 2:16 (NASB)
16 “For I hate divorce,” says the Lord, the God of Israel…”
Because of what Malachi informs us about and because of what Paul has said in verse 10 & 11 it has led some to believe that it is sinful to “get a divorce.”
Though it is true God hates it, and it is true he doesn’t want those that are married biblically to get a divorce that doesn’t change that fact that sin can happen in a marriage wherein both are Christians.
As I have said many times, my uncle was an elder in the church for over 20 years and he ended up committing adultery and divorcing my aunt to live with his new girlfriend.
In fact Jesus even implies that the non-guilty party of a divorce remarrying has his blessing in Matthew 19:9.
Matthew 19:9 (ESV)
9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for fornication, and marries another, commits adultery.
Paul, inspired by God, sanctions divorce in this chapter for the one being force to leave God and follow their spouse.
15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.
As we continue in our text we find Paul address…
Those Not Married In The Lord.
Those Not Married In The Lord.
Before we get into this, I want to stop and point out a truth that I have only in the last few years really become more convinced God is clear on when it comes to marriage for the child of God.
I have heard it often said that Christian widows are to “marry in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:39) but as long as you are not a widow this doesn’t apply.
In other words, that God doesn’t say anything about marrying a non-Christian but the reality is this not the case.
14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
There is no greater “yoke” than marriage and therefor a Christian can certainly date a non-Christian, but it would spiritually wrong to marry a non-Christian and become unequally yoked.
Now with that said, there are thousands of people every year that obey the gospel “after they have married” and therefore are in a marriage with a non-Christian. To those in this situation Paul writes…
12 To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace. 16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
So what is Paul saying to this person who is a Christian now but is married to a non-Christian?
Stay married!!!
As long as the Christian’s spouse is willing to stay in the marriage there is sin in staying married because “the unbeliever is made holy by the believer.”
Wait a minute, didn’t you just say that a married couple isn’t to be unequally yoked?
Yes, but like with divorce where no divorced person is allowed to remarry “except the one whose spouse committed adultery on them” (Matthew 5:31-32; Matthew 19:9) we have here an exemption being made by God.
However, there is a caveat to this.
15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.
If the unbelieving spouse gives an ultimatum that you either give up God for them or they will divorce you God is clear, you are not enslaved to your spouse but God.
Summary
Summary
Oh how wonderful it would be if every person was raised in a faithful home, trained in the way they should go, and know God’s love for them, but that is simply not the case.
And as long as there are those that are not Christians obey the gospel there will be need of teaching on how to handle the “New Christian Lifestyle” they find themselves in.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Thanks be to God that we have this great letter to preserved by God’s providence and our godliness to understand how to navigate our past sinful situations we might find ourselves in.
…
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.