I Corinthians 7:17-40
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1 Corinthians 7. Rough Draft
As you
I Corinthians 7:17-40
Big Idea - Stand firm in your identity.
After spending 2 weeks already on chapter 7 - my desire is to finish out the chapter today. We’ll do this by focusing on verses 17-24 and then doing a brief overview of 25-40.
Next week, John Russell will be preaching for us.
October 11th, We have Harvest, Day. Dr. Thomas Hammond the executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board will be with us.
Dr. Thomas Hammond will begin for us a 4 week series called Impact.
-Challenge to you, to share Jesus with the people in your life who don’t know Jesus. Would you be praying that God would give you 5 people that you could share Jesus with.
Read I Corinthians 7:17-24
Pray
Illustration of how I was uncertain about a situation in my marriage.
When Susan and I were newly married we had to work through a situation where we had a strong disagreement with my parents.
-There was an emotionally charged issue that we had a disagreement about and feelings had been hurt.
-I remember having these very conflicted feelings and thoughts.
-I love my mom and dad & don’t want to disappoint them, but as a married man I don’t see this situation the same way they do.
-I want to honor my parents, but I am also commanded to protect my marriage and love my wife.
I remember thinking, “What does Christ want me to do?”
Is there any clear teaching in the Bible that addresses this situation?
In our passage today, the Corinthians were searching for answers to similar questions,
“How does following Christ practically effect my relationships?”
-They didn’t have a New Testament they could look in.
-They were guided by the Apostles - specifically Paul.
-In chapter 7 Paul is giving answers to questions that they perviously wrote to him about.
3 weeks ago in chapter 7 we looked at how knowing Christ effects marital intimacy.
2 weeks ago we looked at how knowing Christ effects marriage and divorce.
Today we look at how knowing Christ effects our identity.
Paul’s main message in our text today regarding our identity is to
“Stand firm in who you have become in Christ.” x2
This is going to be our first point.
I. Stand firm in your identity in Christ.
17 Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.
Live the life God has given you, be the person God has made you, when you were called you to salvation.
We see the issue of Identity immediately being addressed with Paul speaking about circumcision.
-Let’s just be honest, When we talk about circumcision it’s an uncomfortable topic, especially for those who are more modest.
18 Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision.
There were some Christians who after they had become Christ Followers desired to become uncircumcised, and even some who desired to become circumcised.
Paul says, No, stay as you are. Don’t have any physical procedures done.
Why would a man want to have this procedure undone?
In major cities there were greek public men’s bathes and greek gymnasiums. These gymnasiums are where athletics took place. Men would hang out there and play sports together. These places the bathes and gymnasiums, were visited by many men (both gentile and hellenized jews).
There are 2 things you need to remember about the baths and gymnasiums:
1) The custom of the time was that men would be naked as they publically bathed and also as they competed in sports and exercised.
2) Sports were not the only important thing that took place in the gymnasium. Pause.
When business men play golf there are many business deals that are closed on the golf course.
In the greek gymnasium there were important business relationships that were established as well.
Here enters part of the problem. Greek men were disgusted by those who had been circumcised. They thought it was a vulgar practice.
This was a problem for the Jewish man who wanted to not only have a friendship with a greek man, but to build a business relationships with a greek man.
To gain better status among the Greeks and to improve business some hellenized jewish men would have a circumcision reversal procedure.
Be reminded that this took place without anesthesia.
Some men were very desperate to change their look, to become Greek or to look Greek.
-They were in essence changing their public cultural identity.
Paul simply says, Keep your same identity as you had when God called you to salvation.
Don’t try to become someone else.
Application
We live in a culture that celebrates people getting to choose their identity. Specifically their gender identity and their sexual identity.
-As Christ followers we know that God has blessed us by assigning to us a gender and sexual identity.
-God speaks to the Corinthians, Don’t change your cultural identity.
-God speaks to us today, Don’t change your gender or sexual identity.
-The brilliance of the Bible and the Gospel is that before we knew we needed guidance on identity, God already had it waiting for us.
-When you were born you were given an identity.
When you were saved you were given a new identity.
You are no longer your own.
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
I Corinthians 6:19-20, “… You are not your own, you were bought with a price.”
For the Christ Follower, when God took possession of you He gave you a new identity.
Once you were an enemy of God and his wrath was focused on you.
You were not God’s beloved, you were not a child of His. You were a child of the Devil.
Through Christ the Christ Follower is:
-A saint, Viewed by God as sinless.
-You are accepted by God, no longer rejected
-You are set free from sin and guilt, no longer in chains to sin
-You are covered by His grace, not under condemnation from failure
-You are adopted as His child, no longer a spiritual orphan
“What matters is not what our culture and others thinks about us, but what God thinks about you.”
“The approval of other people no longer is to have reign over how you think about yourself,
because God looks at you through Christ’s completed work and lovingly accepts you. He lovingly approves of you.”
God has set your identity in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
The great news if you are not a Christ follower is that God desires to save you from your sin today, right now.
He calls you to Himself right now.
He invites you to walk in a new identity that He has made for you. Right now.
Don’t wait another moment. Say, “Yes” to Jesus.
For the Christ Follower, Our passage today is a call of God to live your life, not out of what you desire your identity to be.
Live life out of an identity focused on what Christ is doing spiritually in you and around you.
Illustration - My wife Susan has had some significant stomach/digestive issues for the past 2 months that we’ve been working through. There have been times it has been difficult. We are seeking specialists help and have seen some significant improvements.
-But God is calling us to see His spiritual work in this.
-We’ve had multiple conversations about how God has been at work through the weakness and frustration.
-God is proving to us that He is good.
-God is driving home to us that He is in control we are not.
-God is drawing us closer together in our marriage in a deeper love and grace for each other.
As a new creation, when God gives you a new spiritual identity we are to view the world through spiritual lenses. Looking for what God is doing. Joining Him in His work.
Transition - Then Paul shows us that we are to find our meaning in Christ, not in our job or social status.
II. Be content in your job and social status.
Read,
21 Were you a bondservant when called? Do not be concerned about it. (But if you can gain your freedom, avail yourself of the opportunity.) 22 For he who was called in the Lord as a bondservant is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a bondservant of Christ. 23 You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men.
The word bond servant (KJV - Servant) in the greek the word for slave.. The kind of slave who is the complete property of another, like cattle.
Being a slave was not only a persons social status, but also his job.
-It was a low job.
-Paul says if you can legally gain freedom, do so.
-It was the lowest and least respected of positions in the Roman World. It was a place of humility.
-Becoming a free man, going up in your job to greater levels won’t fill the place in your heart that is meant for God.
Paul says this -
vs. 22, Your position in society is the lowest, but in the Lord you are the Free. Your position in society is despised, but in Christ you are exulted.
Question - Do find joy in your social status, or do you find joy in your spiritual identity in Christ.
-Do you concern yourself with what kind of car/truck you drive?
-Is clothing or fashion something that rules your mind?
-Does what people think of your career choice matter to you?
Illustration - The Oil and Gas Tycoon John D. Rockefeller in today’s money was worth $1.2 Trillion dollars.
-If you spent 1 million dollars a day it would take you 2,800 years to spend 1.2 Trillion dollars.
-One day Rockefeller was asked how much was enough money?
-Answered, “Just a little more.”
-Your job was never meant to satisfy your heart.
-Your social status was never meant to prop up your ego.
Your energy doesn’t need to be focused on the next level of attainment. It needs to be focused on God’s greatness.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Our great satisfaction and joy in life doesn’t come from owning the respect of the world.
Our great satisfaction and joy in life comes by being owned by Jesus.
So, we are content with our job. We are content with our social status.
We are in love with our Savior.
Transition - Paul applies this same idea to becoming married. vs. 25-40
3.Be satisfied in your marriage status
Read, I Cor 7:25-40
Just as an overview here are the key teachings:
-Remain as you are. vs 26
-If you are married, stay married, vs. 27
-If you are not married, don’t seek marriage, vs. 27
-If you must be married, that’s ok, vs. 28
Why? Why does give these odd teachings on marriage?
He has an eternal viewpoint.
Illustration - Did anyone who was invested in the stock market for their retirement look at their balance in April after Coronavirus hit?
-Lots of money just disappeared. In a short amount of time it vanished.
-Something that we wanted to take security in was pulled out from under us.
vs. 31, This world is passing away. The things of this world will not last.
Paul continues his encouragement to seek after the spiritually eternal in our lives.
-What God is doing is what will last.
-Your spiritual relationships will last.
-That person who came to Jesus, will last.
-How you are spiritually talking to your children about the Lord will last.
-How you are a light for Jesus at work and encourage others will last.
Paul brings up not getting married because - If you are not married, you can commit much of your time to serving the Lord versus serving your spouse or your family.
Illustration - Friend in college took this passage very seriously.
In Bible college it is popular to look for a husband or wife.
This guy chose to not assume it was God’s will that he was to marry.
Most people live life thinking they will be married, not this guy.
He assumed that it was God’s will for him to be single, until God showed him otherwise.
Why?
-The identity that you find in this world will pass away.
-The social status you have in this world will pass away.
-Your career progress, advancements will pass away.
-At our death, our marriages pass away.
This young man wanted to invest in what would last for eternity.
This young man wanted to invest in what God is doing to build His Kingdom.
God wants you to embrace the identity He has given you in Him.
God desires to help you be content in your social status & work.
God wants to transform you in your marriage.
He is building His Spiritual Kingdom and becons you to be a part.
Will you take ahold of what He has for you or will you miss it?
One of my most helpful prayers is to pray. God help me see myself as you see me, not how I see myself or others see me. Help me see myself as you see me. Help me join you in your Kingdom work.
If you are an unbeliever, if you have not followed Jesus as your Savior,
Will you say “yes” to Him right now?
In the quietness of your seat will you give your life completely over to Jesus today?
In your heart and mind know who you are.
God is doing something much bigger than establishing an earthly Kingdom where bondservants were free.
He is freeing people from the slavery of sin, Satan and self.
Your worth and value is not what others think of you.
Your worth and value is in what Christ thinks of you.
Christ Follower, God sees you as:
You once were a child of the Evil one, but have been changed to child of God.
You once were an enemy of God, but now Friend of Jesus.
Once your sin condemned you, but Christ has accepted you.
Your soul once was a black hole of selfishness, but now is a temple of the Spirit of God.
You once were a slave to sin in poverty, but now you are an heir to God’s Kingdom.
God’s desire is for you to focus not on what is surrounding you, but to focus on Him and the Kingdom that He is building.
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