"But you were washed..."

Well Paul is really going to get after them tonight!

In ch 6 he is telling the Corinthians to live as who they are in Christ, not who they were in sin. Our lives should look different when we become Christians, but so often people put their faith in Christ but fail to find out what it truly means to live for Him. They just sit back and wait for it to come to them and keep living as they were until they find out differently. Paul is telling us differently tonight!

pray

As Christians, we should have a different way of thinking and behaving than the world.

Interact differently

We should seek to be at peace with others, especially those in the church.

read and explain what’s happening in vv 1-8

There’s a board game called Risk. The goal of the game is world domination. You can play with up to four people. Those other people are only there to be conquered by you. You can make alliances with them, but you only keep them for as long as it helps you out. Friends are not made when playing Risk! Some of the members in Corinthian church were treating their church family like people they were playing Risk with.

The Bible tells us to love others and to see them as God’s creation. Fellow image-bearers. To see other Christians as our brothers and sisters. Not as people we use to get what we want.

John 13:35 ESV

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

What can happen when we see other people as those we can use to get what we want?

Paul is also frustrated at what they are doing to the reputation of the church here.

What will outsiders think if they see people in the church, a community that claims to be about love, taking advantage of each other, arguing with each other, suing each other?

We have to treat our brothers and sisters in Jesus with love, even in the way we disagree. We can disagree in a loving way! Do your best to not treat others poorly. Go out of your way to treat others well.

When you have disagreements with other Christians, handle them with love for each other! Handle them with humility and the other person’s best interest. Handle them in a way that does not reflect poorly on Jesus or his church.

Trying to take advantage of each other is not the way that god’s people are called to live.

Live differently

We should live as people who have been sanctified by Jesus.

read 9-11

What if you turned 16 and got your driver’s license and never drove a car? What if you won the lottery and never spent any of the money? That would make sense! It doesn’t make sense for Christians to not live in the new life they have received.

Paul is telling them that they are not behaving like Christians. They are living like the world, and those who are a part of the kingdom of this world will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Their culture said all that is ok. Our culture says all that is ok. But God tells us something different. We have been saved and we have new life if the Spirit!

Why do we live differently when we become Christians?

If you are a Christian, God has called you out of your old life of sin to live in new life with Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

We have to strive to leave behind a life of seeking to honor ourselves and live a life seeking to honor God. To do that, we have to think differently than the world.

Think differently

Christians leave behind the philosophies of the world for the philosophy of God.

read vv12-20

What if a football player forgot to change the way he was thinking when he got to basketball season? He just tried to run with the basketball? You have to change your thinking when the situation changes.

You know how you mock somebody who says something kind of dumb? “Oh ok, you’re gonna...” That’s what Paul is doing here.

This is kind of like the TikTok trend right now where people say something they don’t like and then that music comes on and they argue…

The philosophy in Corinth said that money solves problems and you can do what you want if you have it.

They also thought that everything physical would one day disappear, so it didn’t matter what they did in their bodies.

Neither of these are correct!

We need to have a biblical understanding of life. We’ve got to learn where it differs from the world.

Romans 12:2 ESV

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We should not sit back and wait to find out how the world’s ways of thinking and understanding things is different than God’s. We need to get into God’s Word to learn the truth about the world so we can live according to the truth!

If we truly trust God, that He loves us and wants our good, then we trust that his instruction for us in the Bible is true and is the best way for us to live!

If you are not a Christian…

I would bet that all the you’ve found in this world has left you still feeling empty. That’s because you’re searching for Jesus, whether you know it or not. . .