Sermon Tone Analysis

Foundational Text: 1 Corinthians 7:1-9

7:1 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

3 The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.

4 For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.

Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

6 Now as a concession, not a command, I say this.

7 I wish that all were as I myself am.

But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.

8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. 9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry.

For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Introduction

Majoring in the Minors

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote…

This particular statement is the introduction to Paul’s response to a letter written by the Corinthian church that we’ve never recovered.

So, we don’t know all the subjects that were addressed in the letter.

Nevertheless, a striking point immediately comes to my mind when I read this statement in verse 1.

We’re seven chapters into this letter to the Corinthians and he’s just getting around to answering questions about their issues!!!

In what is pretty much a response to the Corinthian letter, the issues that they asked Paul about aren’t addressed until the 7th chapter.

So, here’s the question…why would Paul wait to address their questions?

Here’s my observation: Paul decided to address their questions later because, for Paul, there were bigger issues going on in the Corinthian church that needed to be addressed before the questions the Corinthians had were addressed.

As a matter of fact, ignoring the bigger issues could have very well been the source of the other trouble that the Corinthians were experiencing and were asking about.

This is a common tendency of people in general.

It is absolutely amazing how much we miss the minors because of our neglect of the majors!

[EXAMPLE: Judging a house based on the framing job when the foundation is the problem]

So, like the house, if you repair the major issues, the minor issues might be automatically fixed in the process but even if they aren’t, fixing them becomes a lot more helpful to your overall goal.

So what were the major issues that Paul addressed 1st in this letter?

We had divisions, sexual immoralities, Christians suing each other and all of sorts of things, and Paul used some of the 1st chapters of 1 Corinthians to address some of these issues that required his attention and authority, BUT I believe there was an even bigger issue plaguing the Corinthian church that Paul had to address in the 1st six chapters.

I also believe that correcting this one major issue would automatically have fixed many of his other issues.

1 Corinthians 2 uncovers the main issue Paul was concerned with:

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.the Gospel is the engine that everything else hinges on.

It’s the building block for everything

The issue in two words is “BAD GOSPEL.”

Their Bad Gospel seemed to have been impacting everything else they were concerned about.

To miss the essence of the Gospel is to really miss everything else.

Everything gets its meaning…its purpose…its value from the Gospel, and so, for example, while they were asking about issues with marriage in the letter to Paul, Paul was thinking about reestablishing their understanding of the Gospel first so that they could understand marriage later.

Get the main thing wrong and you could very well get everything wrong!

So, get the Gospel right!

Don’t Touch: Corinthians’ Position on Marriage

Last Sunday, we explained that the historical Christian description of sexual immorality as any sexual activity outside of the covenant boundaries of one husband and one wife and much of the early chapters of this letter uncover many of the sexual temptations that the Corinthians struggled with: Engaging in prostitution, fornication, and even shameless adultery with one’s own father’s wife.

We also talked about how sex was apparently seen by some in Corinth as a bodily act that was, for the most part, disconnected from the spirit of a person.

It was seen more as just humans giving into their natural uncontrollable cravings.

Just like we have to eat, we have to have sex with whomever, whenever, wherever and to deny those cravings was to oppress and suppress one’s ability to live a free and satisfying life.

And we discussed how that same cultural vibe is alive and well in our culture and age…”If it feels good, it is good”

However, as we move from chapter 6 to chapter 7, we notice a significant swing of opinion.

On one side you have this unrestrained sexual immorality that we just described, but on the other side, it appears that some in the church saw the damage that such freedom could cause on the soul and in relationships, so they adopted the complete opposite position as Paul describes it in verse 1...

So, sexuality has been so tainted in the minds of the some of the Corinthians that they appear to have adopted a position of complete abstinence including within marriage

On one hand, you have a group of members saying “TOUCH ANYBODY and EVERYBODY” and on the other hand, you have a group of members saying “TOUCH NOBODY” including your spouse.

As a result, it appears two things were taking place

1. Celibacy was becoming the preferred life of some members even the MARRIED...

2. People were divorcing and separating from their spouses because of their understanding of sex/marriage.

Sex/Marriage/Relationships had been so tarnished by the sinful flesh that they thought it was irreconcilable to a life seeking to please God!

It almost seemed that there was a basic understanding that “If you wanted to please God, you had to leave relationships alone”

In chapter 7, Paul addresses both of these issues.

This week, we’ll deal with the first one: The goodness of marriage and sex in marriage and the dangers of celibacy in marriage and outside of marriage.

Due to the complete desecration of the purpose of sex within the culture the Christians in Corinth were really struggling with understanding what to do with it.

The culture around them had defiled sex and relationships so much so that many in T Corinthian church thought that the practice of sex was irreconcilable with pure living!

They thought that it was irredeemable

However, God uses the institution of God-GLORIFYING, Christ-CENTERED, Self-SACRIFICING marriage to restore sex to its original holy intent, restore it, and remake it into something enjoyable, selfless, and beautiful.

Defining God-GLORIFYING, Christ-CENTERED, Self-SACRIFICING Marriage and Intimacy

Now before I move to much further in chapter 7, I want to pause and work through this phrase you keep hearing me use: God-GLORIFYING, Christ-CENTERED, Self-SACRIFICING Marriage

I’m being very careful and intentional in my use of the phrase because it matters.

God-GLORIFYING

That is to say marriage and sex done within the confines of biblical command, biblical principle, and biblical wisdom;

For example, marriage and sex between one husband and one wife!

Paul says in verse 3 of Chapter 7 “each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband”

So, for the Christian, to be God-GLORIFYING would be to obey this command.

And if we try to step outside of those confines because we’ve listened to the voice of the culture and the devil and they’ve told us this will revitalize us or bring satisfies us, we’re moving outside of the bounds of honoring Christ with our marriage.

Christ-CENTERED

That is living out our marriages and sexual relationships with an understanding of how the Gospel is to be reflected in it.

Christ-Centered Marriage and Intimacy is living it out with the understanding that MARRIAGE AND INTIMACY is ultimately TOOL by which Christ is shaping us into His image and likeness

For example:

He’s humbling us in marriage

In intimacy, He’s teaching us to submit our will to another; to live not simply for our own delight and pleasure but for the delight and pleasure of another

In marriage and intimacy, He’s training us to love unconditionally through hardship and difficulty.

Through trials and storms

Notice Paul here puts the wife’s attention on CHRIST as the motivation for living selflessly, for following her husband’s lead, but Christ-CENTERED doesn’t stop with the wife...

Paul puts the husband’s attention on CHRIST as the DEEPEST motivation for HIS CONTINUALLY SERVING HIS WIFE BY LAYING HIS OWN LIFE...

Christ-CENTERED Marriage is to hold a DEFAULT position of LOOKING PAST our spouses to JESUS for our deepest motivation to love, to serve, to submit, to humble ourselves, and to lay our lives down for them.

Most of our DEFAULT positions is looking at our spouses first for our DEEPEST motivation to love, to serve, to submit, to humble ourselves, to lay our lives down for the other…and as a result, our ability to love, to serve, to submit, to humble ourselves, and to our lay our lives down is always resting on the behavior of a fallible, sinful, human being...

NOW HERE MY WORDS…I said we have to look past our spouses to our Christ for our DEEPEST MOTIVATION.

That doesn’t mean that our spouse carries no responsibility to motivate us towards love, sacrifice, humility with their own love, sacrifice, and humility…it means that they CANNOT be the PRIMARY MOTIVATION.

The Christian marriage draws its first strength not from the conduct of the spouse but from the faithfulness of Christ…That is Christ-Centered...

So, God-Glorifying...Christ-Centered...

Self-Sacrificing

That is simply embracing the idea in deeply in your heart that marriage and sex is an expression of love meaning that it is primarily an expression of giving ourselves over to the other versus taking from the other.

It is first about your spouse not about YOU!

Did you hear that?

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does…The husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

This verse signifies a giving over of ourselves to the other.

NOW be very careful before you turn this own its head.

This is mutual giving over, mutual sacrifice, both parties working towards an end of living sacrificially and intimately for the other.

The marriage relationship is intended to be the closest human relationship in all of creation behind only our relationship with Christ (Ephesians 5).

No other 1 to 1 relationship except our relationship with Christ is described in the terms that marriage is described in (1 Corinthians 6)!

Flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone...

Two becoming one...

Terms reserved for marriage alone.

In some unique way, those of us who are married not only belong Christ, but we belong to our spouse.