These practices should have no part in us!

Good morning, Church!

xin nian meng en! Blessed Chinese New Year, and a Happy Valentine’s Day to you...

I hope you’re having a good time over the last two days, visiting one another, having good food, or just chilling at home…

doing all these while practicing good Safe management measures...

and even if you’re not Chinese, I do hope that you’re making good use of this extra holiday to catch up with friends or some sleep...

indeed, thank God that we’re now in phase 3 of our post-circuit breaker period and we’re able to do so much more than we could compared to during the circuit breaker period...

we’re given the liberty and freedom to engage in the practices that are perhaps so iconically associated with Chinese New Year...

like wearing new clothes… such as what I’m doing today… a red shirt specially prepared for Chinese New Year this year...

and going house-visiting, and giving red packets to bless our children...

this sense of tradition and these practices done for generations are so much a part of our life and our culture are wonderful, because they give us a sense of continuity and connection across generations...

help us to continue to be connected with one another, teach us to respect our elders and allow us all to take some time off our busy schedule and let our hair down for a period of time...

Indeed, many of us engage in these practices even without thinking about it, because it’s so much a part of our culture and tradition...

but of course not all practices should be practiced by us...

such as smoking, gambling and drinking, and other vices...

certainly these are practices are sometimes associated rightly or wrongly with this season...

and for sure, there’s no law against smoking, gambling, getting drunk...

they are permissible, but certainly not beneficial for you...

smoking is an act that damages your body by introducing cancer-causing particles in your body...

gambling is (and i quote from our Social Principles in the Book of Discipline) “an expression of one’s desire to instant wealth… a form of bondage...” gambling cause you to be under bondage… that’s certainly not good for you…

while getting drunk and excessive alcohol intake damages your liver and drunken behaviour damages our witness to the world as well...

(and promiscuity and fornication are not part of God’s design for the family and relationships… they break down the family, causes distrust, and tears you up in ways than we know…)

These, and many other practices, while so widely practiced in our environment, though are permissible, they are not beneficial...

and because of that, these and many other harmful practices should have no part in us!

something that is done by many or even most people doesn’t mean that it is right and we should follow the majority...

we need to exercise discernment and be careful not to engage in practices that are not good for us....

and friends, if you’re able to appreciate the struggles we go through, needing to sometimes fight against the prevalent culture, be counter-cultural and be a light in the world,

then, you can appreciate the world from which our reflection for this morning is based on, which is 1 Corinthians 5 and 6,

and let me highlight and read a few verses from these two chapters that we want to focus on this morning…

namely 1 Corinthians 5:6b-11, 6:7-8 and 12

let us now listen to the word of the Lord: <slide>

1 Corinthians 5:6b–11 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—

<slide>

10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.

<slide>

1 Corinthians 6:7–8 NIV (Anglicised, 2011)

7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.

<slide>

1 Corinthians 6:12 NIV

12 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything. <slide>

<This is the word of the Lord, pray>

<slide>

Friends, have you heard of the name Hiroo Onoda?

https://www.history.co.uk/shows/lost-gold-of-wwii/articles/the-japanese-soldier-who-kept-on-fighting-after-ww2-had-finished

<slide>

His rank and name is Lieutenant Hirro Onoda, and who he is, is that he was an intelligence office with the Imperial Japanese Army who had been sent to the island of Lubang, Philippines during the World War II...

and his job was to prepare the island to hinder an expected Allied invasion of the island in early 1945...

and he was to do so, by blowing up the harbours and airstrips so that the Allied forces would find it hard to invade the island...

the order given to him by his commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi was to stand and never surrender...

and indeed, the anticipated invasion of the island came to past on the 28th of February 1945...

and most of the Japanese soldiers on the island were either captured or escaped, but because Onoda operated in secrecy and did clandestine work, he continued to operate and live deep in the jungles, away from sight, and away from the Allied forces… the Allied forces probably don’t even know he was there...

eventually, as you know from history, Japan surrender on the 15th of August 1945, and war world II officially ended on the 2nd September 1945... <slide>

and with the declaration of the end of the war, there was no longer a need for Onoda to a soldier anymore...

he could go back to being a farmer once again… and didn’t have to continue the miserable life of being a soldier in the middle of a deadly war...

But Onoda didn’t know…

with the end of the war, he no longer needed to continue to live his life in fear on a daily basis, fearful that the enemy may one day overrun the island and shoot him… but he didn’t know that...

no longer did he need to live in a life of utter lack of simple facilities and sanitation… but he didn’t know that...

no longer did he need to ravaged by mosquitoes on a daily basis, and risk having diseases such as malaria, dysentery...

and he didn’t have to be constantly malnourished, surviving on a diet of coconuts, bananas, some stolen meat and rice, constantly harassing villages of the island and sometimes killing them to get food to survive, and suffering the effects of war...

but he didn’t know…

he didn’t know his status had changed and he didn’t know he could stop engaging in those behaviour that he would never do as a civilian...

behaviour and actions that he would regret later...

he didn’t know that those practices of his should have no part of him, in his new status as a civilian...

he continued to live a life as a drafted soldier for another 30 years in the jungle, long after the war had ended...

<slide>

as a free person, he could have lived his life that was more be aligned to his new status as a free person... but he didn’t

<pause>

As it was for Onoda, it is the same for the church in Corinth,

<slide>

because you see,

Corinth was a very famous city because of its strategic location at the isthmus that joins the Peloponnesus to the rest of Greece,

so as you can see, it is well connected by land and by sea, and it’s two harbours are popular for ships to dock and transfer their cargo from one side to another so that they don’t have to sail round the dangerous seas of Cape Malea...

this, therefore brought prosperity and lots of people to Corinth, and the place was populated even from the 4th millennium BC!

that’s even before the tower of Babel was built or during the time of the great flood during Noah’s time!

and because there was a buzz of activity, and there’s where they could make lots of money, many sailors who tended the ships arrived, as well as many who came to take advantage of the situation (by building restaurants, shops, gymnasiums, baths, latrines, a theater and of course a brothel to serve the mixed groups of people who were there, and to make a living...)

and with them, they brought their cultures and religions with them, and some of these religious practices included some of the unsavoury practices that we read about in our text today...

So by the time Paul came on the scene around 60 AD, there were already a lot of temples there, dedicated to the various deities that the different groups of people in Corinth give their allegiance to (including of course the sanctuary to the Asklepios, the God of healing, which is so famous that many people come from all over Asian Near East to Corinth to seek healing and medical care in that sanctuary...)

so you can imagine what it is like to live in such a place with lots of riches, temptations so freely practiced and enacted upon, and is so entrenched in the culture around them...

and the line between religious activities, economy and social life was so thin,

no wonder, the new Christians that Paul evangelised to and converted, found it hard to navigate this ethical minefield… they found it hard to do the right thing… they sometimes don’t even know what is the right thing!

which is why in our text for today, Paul shared with them a few practices they, Christians,

children of the living God should not practice in…

because they are not pagans anymore…

but they are now of a new status, as sons and daughters of God...

they are no longer people who had to go to an external manmade temple to seek God, but Paul reminded them in 1 Corinthians 6.19 that they are now <slide>

“temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19)

in whom God Himself abides in...

and in 1 Corinthians 6:11 that they had been

“washed… sanctified…[by] Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11, NIV (Anglicised, 2011))

and now, according to 2 Corinthians 5:17 "...a new creation” because of Jesus Christ...

and being a new creation, they must act according to so, because this new status they have is not something that they acquired to throw our weight around as if they have the right to do anything they wanted,

as if they now belonged to some exclusive club and now can flaunt their newly obtained freedom by engaging in any activities they wanted, immersing themselves in worse immoral acts than they did before they were Christians, just because they’re Christians!

they had confused truth of God with the key to be able to sin without consequence, and they confused freedom with the ability to sin more...

in other words, they’ve confused freedom from sin with freedom to sin

and what they did was they ironically, instead of living the truth, they became more embroiled with in more lies,

and instead of having true freedom, they were getting themselves in more deeply into the bondage of sin...

that’s why Paul was telling them...

and i’m paraphrasing heavily here ok?

‘hey… wake up… don’t live in deception anymore! don’t use the wisdom of the culture around you as your wisdom… don’t be like a pig who had just been cleaned to jump into the mud immediately after getting yourself showered!

act like a Christian! don’t act like a pagan anymore!’

don’t engage in these practices that should have no part in us anymore!

<slow>

and friends, as this was for the Corinthians, this is a reminder for us today as well...

Don’t be like the Japanese soldier who continues to live as if he’s still in a war when the war has ended...

don’t continue to engage in activities that we should no longer engage in anymore because they belonged to our old self…

I mean, do you think that Lieutenant Onoda after realising that the war was over continues to live in the jungle, exposing himself to mosquitoes, diseases, wild animals, sleep on a make-shift bed, living in misery, continue to be malnourished, feeding on coconuts and stealing from the farmers?

of course not!

after he realized that the war was over, he gave up his grenades, sword and rifle, settled down as a cattle ranger, and enjoyed the rest of his life as a married person, in modern society with modern day amenities, not needing to steal food anymore, but in fact producing food for others, and even setting up a school for troubled children...

no longer fearing for his life on a daily basis...

<slide>

likewise friends, don’t short-change yourself...

you are children of the most high..

and we shouldn’t behave like we’re living in the jungle,

don’t be caught in the lie that we should live like we’re in the jungle...

or behave like we need to be selfish and steal from others or take advantage of others in order to be successful in life...

we can and should trust God to provide for our needs...

<slide>

in fact, this list here in 1 Corinthians 6.10 is basically a list of what people do when they are selfish, self-centred and inward looking instead of trusting God to provide for all our needs...

i means thieves are basically people who steal from others in order to satisfy their own needs and wants...

swindlers are people who use falsehood and deception to achieve the same thing… and wants to satisfy his own needs or wants at the expanse of others...

what is translated in some bibles as revellers or slanderers have this idea of this person who abuses or treats someone else with great disrespect of insult… not recognising the dignity of the person, being a creation of God too...

while this term for drunkards are not just referring to people who intake excessive alcohol, but anyone who engages in self-gratifying activities of any sort, to achieve a sense of temporal euphoria, so they include abuse of mood-altering psychotropic substance as well

<slide>

then there, where your bible talks about greedy people, Paul was not referring to people who eat a lot… or like to eat (thank God)...

the word is is πλεονέκταις (plenek-tais) which is used to describe someone who desires to have more than is due and thereby has this idea that he is willing to accept the fact that others have less so that he has more...

again with the idea of fulfilling their own desires and wants...

again, very selfish and self-centred in nature...

and this probably arise from the fact that they have not fully internalised the fact that the Lord will provide all their needs, and hence are still behaving in a very carnal, worldly nature...

<slide>

to people with these tendencies, Paul gave a very stark and serious warning that people who are self-centred, selfish and do not trust God, will not inherit the kingdom of God… (1 Corinthians 6:9)

that’s why Paul urged the Corinthians not to behave like they are paupers, belonging to a deity with finite resources and requiring the devotees to struggle and fight and cheat in order to prosper...

The Corinthian Church, just like us, worship a God that is the creator of Heaven and Earth and everything in it!

<slide>

Isaiah 66:1 tells us that the Heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool...

are you afraid that our God don’t have enough for you?

are you afraid that our God will run out of resources?

do you really need to behave in such horrible manner to one another so that you have a good life?

Paul is saying here… Don’t do that!

Let us now behave in a way that is fitting to our status as dwelling place of the Holy Spirit...

let us live as truly freed people, living in true freedom,

which is the ability to live a life that is free from sin and free from questionable behaviour that only serves to damage others and ourselves...

don’t steal, don’t swindle, don’t slander, don’t clamber for more than your share at the expense of others...

these practices should have no part in us...

and this is my first point for us this morning, which is: <slide>

1. Selfish practices that hurt ourselves and others should have no part in us

and friends, an application from this point is this...

if you don’t already do so, you can on a daily basis, do a daily examination of our own lives...

<slide>

maybe for just a few minutes at the close of the day, just before you sleep...

just go through your day… and to make it easier maybe breakdown your day into three segments, morning, afternoon and night

and ask yourself this question...

is there anything i did that was selfish and not pleasing God?

if there is or if there’s a lot, friends, do not fret… do not be discouraged...

commit the act or practice to God,

ask him for help...

and allow him to slowly remove those behaviour and tendencies from you… one at a time...

and you will notice that the Lord will slowly bring you one step closer, day by day...

to what our founder, John Wesley, calls Christian perfection...

just like Lieutenant Onoda needed some time to adjust from being a jungle dwelling soldier to a farmer in the 21st Century, God will bring you through the steps of sanctification slowly,

and allow these practices that should have no part in us disappear from your life...

and so our first point for us once again is that…

1. Selfish practices that hurt ourselves and others should have no part in us

the second thing that we can gleam from today’s passage is that

<slide>

2. We must help one another not to have these selfish practices in them...

Going back to the story of Onoda,

do you know after he finally realised that the war was over,

he went back to the dreaded jungle for one more thing?

he went back to tell his compatriot, Private Teruo Nakamura, and shared with him the great news that the war was over… and likewise he didn’t have to fight a war anymore...

He didn’t keep the good news to himself and forget about his fellow soldier in the jungle

He didn’t think about leaving his brother-in-arm to suffer anymore when he was himself was freed… but he helped Private Teruo to enjoy life of true liberty and freedom...

<Slide>

Other than the evangelistic truth that is evident from this story,

Another reflection that we can have from this story is that, we must love each other as a community of faith, and we must grow and develop deep and authentic relationships with one another...

perhaps starting with our pastoral care groups, where we can truly share lives and have genuine life-giving friendships with one another...

and have that level of trust with one another, so that we are able to remove from our community,

practices that have the tendencies to damage our relationship with God, relationship with one another and ourselves...

this is of course not a simple thing and requires long standing relationships that is built over time…

and i am not asking us to share, or to speak and chastise everyone we come across just because we don’t like the way he stands, or sits, or talks....

please please don’t take this as an opportunity to release all your grouses and displeasure you have with one another…

What I’m saying is that we need to grow in maturity as a family of God...

one that truly cares for one another… and deepen our relationships with one another as a church...

develop deep friendships, that is built on the love from Christ...

and have genuine care for one another...

one that if one of our church member strays away from God and engages in such terrible behaviour and practices,

we wouldn’t feel disgusted as much as we feel pain for our dear sibling-in-Christ...

<Slide>

in fact, 1 Corinthians 5:2 urges us to moan for our siblings…

and the word for moan here has this idea of feeling deep anguish because someone had died...

died because one who continues in those practices essentially is rejecting the giver of life and hence life itself...

and i know the next few verses is very confusing, and can sound very harsh, but the point is this...

you cannot treat it as if the sin is not there and everything is honky-dory...

you must face the elephant in the room and address the selfish and sinful practices…

and even if the person is threatens to leave your fellowship,

it would be better for the person to be upset with you for pointing out his/her issues, leave your fellowship,

(which is metaphorically presented as the realm of Satan in verse 5 because they have chosen to leave God’s fellowship)

reflect upon God’s goodness, seek repentance and come back to your fellowship,

than to pretend that all’s good and allow the person to propagate upon his life of destruction...

and why must we take the risk to do this?

<Slide>

1 Corinthians 6:20 tells us that “we were bought at a price...”

and the verb “bought” here ἠγοράσθητε (ego-rasthe-te) has the idea of a slave that had been redeemed by someone at the slave market...

and for us, this someone is not an ordinary person, but God...

and the price paid was not simple silver coins, but the very life and blood of Jesus Christ Himself...

and if ignoring the sinful and selfish practices of the person means allowing that person to continue on his life of destruction,

this very person who had been redeemed by Jesus, was in the fold of God, now turning away from God,

shouldn’t we try our best not to let the person slip away from God?

even if it means losing our friendship with the person?

<Slide>

That’s why Paul urged the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6:7, to be willing to be wronged and accused of things for the benefit of the community, and urged them to rather be wronged than to be right at the expense of losing a precious child of God...

it is better to lose the friendship and to accept being wrong and sacrifice, for the sake of a sheep that Christ gave His life for...

but friends, I think while Paul was addressing times in which there is a need to go through extreme measures in order to try to win a brother or sister in Christ back,

but I think prevention is better than cure…

I think even before we allow our brothers and sisters or even ourselves from getting into such a position whereby we need to take extreme measures to address extreme sinful practices,

We should have a culture in which we are able to allow God to speak into our lives on a more regular and more gentle basis…

And I think what we can do is to seek and find a small group of people we can accountable to and we can trust and thereafter have deep conversations with on a regular basis

Giving each other the permission to speak into each other’s lives...

that way, we can continually sharpen each others life, way before the need to go to such drastic actions...

and continue to prevent selfish and self-centred practices from entering our community of faith in the first place…

this way, rather than needing to address the wrong practices, we can address the spirit before it manifests itself and prevent it from proliferating in our community,

described by Paul as yeast in verse 6 that slowly but surely spreads across the batch of dough...

it’s this spirit of community, and always looking out for each other and practices that may hurt ourselves or others, present in ourselves or others,

remembering that we are all precious children of God, purchased at a very high price,

that we can ensure a genuine and spiritually healthy community of faith,

always looking out for each other,

supporting each other in times of need,

drawing each other back to God at all times,

and preventing the proliferation of practices that hurt ourselves and each other…

that way, not only will we be a healthy community, but we will also be an attractive community, drawing people even outside the fold of God, into his kingdom…

<Slide>

So church, let us heed Pauls’ advice to the Corinthians and to us as well, to constantly be on the lookout and remove

1. Selfish practices that hurt ourselves and others that should have no part in us

and let us love our neighbours enough to be willing to

1. help one another not to have these selfish practices in them...

so that we as community of God, we can spur one another on, and be continually being polished by God, being made perfect and being prepared for the great reunion at the end of day...

so that as a community of faith, we can stand in front of God at the end of times and hear the words from our God “well done good and faithful servant”. Amen