This Way and That

In the city of Corinth, there’s a church. A church planted. A church led by Paul, by Apollos, by other capable, godly men. In the city of Corinth, there’s a church. A God-ordained city on a hill. A light in the dark.

In the city of Corinth, there’s a church. A church pulled this way and that by conflicting social and personal pressures.

A church pulled this way and that. A church that moves with culture. A church that sways in whichever direction the societal wind is blowing.

A church pulled this way and that.

In the small town of Rich Hill, there’s a church. A church planted nearly 140 years ago. A church that has been led by capable, godly men. In the small town of Rich Hill, there’s a church. A God-ordained city on a hill. A light in the dark.

In the small town of Rich Hill, there’s a church.

We face what Corinth faced those many years ago. We face what any and every other church faces—the very real possibility of being pulled this way, pushed that way, moved in this direction or that by the world around us. We let the world influence us individually—it goes to follow that this will have a very natural effect upon the gathered assembly of God’s people. Should the Lord tarry, it could very well be said that there was, in the small town of Rich Hill, a church pulled this way and that.

We must intentionally and purposefully guard against such pull. This church in Corinth was fighting this battle on several fronts. In the realm of marriage and sexuality, it was struggling to be salt and light to people outside their gathering. The church in Corinth had been pulled this way and that and, in these areas, looks virtually no different than the world around it.

So Paul writes to them. He confronts them (5:1), answers their questions (7:1), and addresses their thoughts on the topic.

>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 7. Keep them open in front of you this morning. We’re going to cover a lot of ground, a section at a time.

Let’s start with 1 Corinthians 7:17-24:

1 Corinthians 7:17–24 NIV

17 Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. 18 Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? He should not be circumcised. 19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts. 20 Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. 21 Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. 22 For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave. 23 You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. 24 Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.

In the middle of this section which is almost entirely about marriage, Paul seemingly interrupts himself. In the middle of a chapter on marriage and sex, why is Paul talking about circumcision and slavery?

The answer is that he’s using them to illustrate the larger point he’s making which we find repeated three times here (vv. 17, 20, 24). The point for the larger discussion is obvious: you shouldn’t feel under any pressure either to get married if you’re single or to separate from a spouse if you have one.

But why does Paul choose to speak about circumcision and slavery here? Of all things?

One of Paul’s basic principles centers on these two things.

Galatians 3:28 NIV

28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

This chapter—1 Corinthians 7—is about how male and female is to work out in the Christian community. So to illustrate it, Paul chooses the other two parings: Jew and Greek and slave and free.

Paul’s point is that the social, cultural, ethnic, and even gender distinctions are nothing compared to the new life brought through the gospel.

God’s calling is more important than worldly status

Christians should not allow social pressures of whatever sort to force them into thinking that the most important thing they could do was to change their status into something else. That would undermine the very thing he had been urging in the first two chapters.

Remember: God chooses the nobodies of the world.

If the nobodies then decide they want to become somebodies, what would that say about God’s design?

In the city of Corinth, many Jewish men in Paul’s day were under pressure to pretend they were Gentiles, and some even tried surgery to make it look as though they were uncircumcised after all (Greeks went naked when they exercised, or used public baths, so Jewish identity was all too obvious).

Likewise, Gentile men were under pressure from certain Jewish groups to get circumcised—this is what Paul is referencing in verses 18-19.

Paul cautions the Corinthians not to be pressured into seeking to change their social status one way or the other. “Don’t get circumcised or make it look like you’re not circumcised; none of that matters. What matters is that you’ve been called.”

Called. 8 times in 8 verses Paul writes about their calling (vv. 17, 18, 18, 20, 21, 22, 22, 24).

This is referring to the effectual call from God to salvation. The Corinthian Christians had been called by God to become Christians.

This is not a call to a specific job or vocation; this is God’s call to salvation. If you’re a Christian, it’s because God called you to Himself.

So Paul says, this is what’s most important. God’s call, the salvation you’ve found in Him, is primary, numero uno, of first imporantance.

There were people in Corinth (and people around today) who would urge believers to change their social circumstances (including marriage) in order to be more spiritual or gain a better status.

No change in status is going to add even one iota to our salvation or our spirituality.

Paul cautions the Corinthians not to be pressured into seeking to change their social status one way or the other. “Don’t get circumcised or make it look like you’re not circumcised; none of that matters. What matters is that you’ve been called.”

In Christ, you have all the status you need!

Even the slave/free distinction doesn’t matter compared to the status the Corinthians had in Jesus.

To the Corinthians, Paul says, “If you were a slave when you became a Christian, you shouldn’t be constantly seeking to become free as though everything depended on it.”

God’s call through the gospel, the call through which people come to faith and become part of God’s people—that call is far more important than social or cultural status.

The most important thing about you isn’t your status, your position, your earthly place. The most important thing about you isn’t your last name, your job title, your position in the church, or anything that can be measured by a worldly metric.

Everything you need is in Christ. If you’re a Gentile and Christian, a slave and a Christian, an ethnic Jew and a Christian, a Barbarian and a Christian; if you have no status, but you’re a Christian you are immeasurably blessed. You have been bought at a price, and that gives you inestimable value and worth.

When we’re being pulled this way and that, we need to remember that fitting in or measuring up to someone else’s standard, some worldly standard is insignificant; what we’re tempted to think is important, isn’t.

Don’t be pulled this way or that. Don’t be tricked into thinking that is most important. What’s important—all that matters—is that you’ve been called by God to be one of His.

>Now Paul is in a position to get back to the subject of sex and marriage:

1 Corinthians 7:25–31 NIV

25 Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy. 26 Because of the present crisis, I think that it is good for a man to remain as he is. 27 Are you pledged to a woman? Do not seek to be released. Are you free from such a commitment? Do not look for a wife. 28 But if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. But those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this. 29 What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; 30 those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31 those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

These are some of the most difficult verses in any of Paul’s letters; just so you know. We won’t wade into all of the technical and grammatical issues here (you’re welcome).

After pulling out what little hair I have left, I’ve surmised that the thrust of this passage teaches:

God’s people must have an eternal perspective and eternal priorities

There’s a lot going on here, but it continues from what Paul has just said. He says plainly (v. 26)—I think it is good for a man to remain as he is, whether married or unmarried.

And this, because of the present crisis.

Paul left Corinth around AD 51. Right around that time, and for a few years afterward—exactly the period between his leaving and his writing this letter—there was a severe shortage of grain around the Greek world.

Other people writing at the same time mention it. Many Roman citizens had taken it for granted that the great Roman empire would keep them safe, sound, and well-fed. Suddenly, the food had run out.

A question mark hung over the whole imperial world. Was everything going horribly wrong? The poor—that would be most of the Christians in Corinth—would be feeling the pinch.

It was a time of great distress.

Because of this present crisis and the ever-imminent return of Christ, Paul urges the Corinthians to adopt an eternal perspective and eternal priorities.

There will never be a time when Christians can settle down and treat the world as though it’s going to last forever.

In this world, there is trouble. Time is short. And what we focus upon is, often times, temporary and fleeting.

Those who marry will face many troubles in this life, and I want to spare you this.

What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short.

For the world in its present form is passing away.

The Christian is not to be alarmed by the various turbulent things that happen in the world, nor be distressed if troubled times affect our lives in big and small ways.

Yet, how often we are alarmed! We seem almost caught off guard when the times are troubled, as if such a scenario was unknown to us.

We should be the least surprised, least shocked people on the planet. The evening news should surprise us not.

This we know: the present world will one day give way to the world that is to be, the world in which Jesus will have completed His kingly work of defeating hostile powers—including death itself—and will have set the world at rights.

Eternal perspective is needed. Can we see everything clearly now? No sir. We see as through a glass, dimly. We don’t see perfectly clearly at the present. But we must keep an eternal view of things; an “as if” view.

We must learn not to abandon appropriate and legitimate involvement in the world or common affairs of life. Rather, we pay attention to those modern day prophets, 38 Special. We “Hold on loosely, but don’t let go” to all the matters of this present earthly life.

We view marriage as if there is a relationship that’s more important.

We mourn as if what we lose doesn’t deserve our whole emotional energy.

We are happy as if we know even the most incredible human joy is fleeting.

We buy as if material possessions don’t really matter.

We use the things of the world as if our pleasure isn’t wrapped up in them.

It’s about ordering our priorities rightly. This world is passing away, like an actor leaving the stage. Don’t put all your investments (money, time, energy, loyalties) into this world.

Where all these topics and truths are concerned, it’s going to require eternal perspective and priorities from the Corinthians and from us.

When we’re pulled this way and that, or when the world tries to pull us this way and that way, we must stand firm and keep our eternal perspective and hold fast to our eternal priorities. Keep our eyes looking up and remember what and Who are most important.

>Paul concludes his thoughts on these topics in verses 32-40;

1 Corinthians 7:32–40 NIV

32 I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife—34 and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world—how she can please her husband. 35 I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord. 36 If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if his passions are too strong and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married. 37 But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin—this man also does the right thing. 38 So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does better. 39 A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but he must belong to the Lord. 40 In my judgment, she is happier if she stays as she is—and I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

Paul’s concerned about the concern of the Corinthians. I’d like you to be free from concern...

And so, Paul teaches some more on singleness (7:6-9), arguing that singleness allows for a more undistracted and single-minded attention to the Lord.

We are distracted, by good things even; by the affairs of this world, how we can please our spouse. We are a people of divided interests. We are pulled this way and that.

Paul says the right way to live is to live in undivided devotion to the Lord.

Undivided devotion to the Lord will mark God’s people

One’s service to the Lord belongs in 1st place. This is tough, but it’s so important. Christian, your spouse isn’t first in your life. Christian, your kids aren’t first in your life. Christian, the Lord is to be first in your life.

It seems that Paul is saying only single people can be undivided in their devotion to the Lord. But elsewhere Paul stresses that a married person’s sacrificial love toward his or her spouse is the expression of one’s undivided devotion to the Lord (see Ephesians 5).

It’s a matter of where your chief concern is.

Paul doesn’t want to dictate to the Corinthians what they must do. He doesn’t want to restrict them (literally put a noose around their neck), but he makes the case that the single person will have an easier time; their attention isn’t divided.

For the married Christian, it is divided. I don’t spend all my time doing church stuff or sermon prep or visitation. I don’t and I won’t and you wouldn’t want me to. I’m married. There are times, many times, I will choose to spend time with my wife over anything else. I’m a dad. There are times I will opt to go to a ballgame or read them a bedtime story or chase my kids around the house. I will work when they sleep so I can spend time with them.

In a way, my love for Meghann is an expression of my devotion to the Lord. My love for my kids is an expression of my devotion to the Lord.

The single Christian gets to devote their time to the Lord, entirely undivided. But, you see, it’s the posture of your heart before the Lord determines your devotion. In your life, in the decisions you make (decisions like vv. 36-40), you can express your undivided devotion.

Ask yourself: “If push comes to shove, where’s my devotion? To what or who am I most devoted?”

If you answer “wife” or “kids” or “work” or anything but the Lord, you’ve missed it. You’re wrong.

Satan would love to push you this way or pull you that way, until your devotion moved away from Christ and moved toward someone or something but Christ.

There’s a point where our devotion to Jesus will cause division. Jesus taught clearly:

Luke 12:51–53 NIV

51 Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. 52 From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

When we’re pulled this way and that, or when the world tries to pull us this way and that way, we have to let them know that we are undivided people—we will choose Jesus again and again and again, no matter the cost. Our devotion is to the Lord, and that will play itself out in any number of ways, depending on our station in life. But it’s to Him that we are devoted.

>This life is a tug-of-war. We are caught in the middle, being pulled this way and that. Our only hope is to cling to Jesus, to anchor ourselves to Him, to understand that we have been called by Him, to see things with eyes fixed on eternity, to be undivided in our devotion and worship to Him.

On our own, we will lose the tug-of-war, and hard. With Christ, in Christ, anchored to Christ, we cannot lose—nothing, in fact, can separate from Him.