Four Points Church

At the beginning of chapter 9, Paul argued that those who minister the gospel deserve to make a living from the gospel. After all of this buildup, one would expect Paul to request the Corinthians to pay up! But that is not where he is going with his argument. We will see in this passage that Paul’s main point in chapter 9 is to demonstrate that though he has a right to claim payment for his gospel ministry in Corinth, he gave up that right for the sake of the Corinthians, and ultimately for the sake of the gospel. Paul laid down his liberties so that the gospel could be proclaimed without hindrance.

In the previous chapter, Paul uses himself as an example of someone who has given up certain rights for the sake of others. As an apostle and a minister of the Word to the Corinthians, Paul has a biblical right to receive financial support from the church. In fact, all those who labor diligently in the ministry of the Word have a right to claim financial support from the church in which they serve. Those who receive the Word owe support to those who sow the Word.  Look at Paul’s argument in the text.

When we think of the topic of love in the Bible, one of our go-to passages is 1 Corinthians 13, and rightly so, but the theme of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ flows throughout Paul’s response to the ethical issues at the church in Corinth. Paul’s answer to a question about eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols is spread out over three chapters of the book, but he begins in chapter 8 with the crucial question: what does it look like to love your brother in Christ in this situation?

In the previous passage (1 Corinthians 7:7-8), the Apostle Paul mentioned that he is single (and not as a suggestion that he’s available to date!). Church history tells us that he remained unmarried for the remainder of his life. In this passage, Paul speaks about singleness and the unique way it offers opportunities to serve the Lord. He also reminds all Christians of how the return of Jesus should cause us to focus on eternal things and to increase our devotion to Him.

Paul just finished advising Christian husbands and wives to remain in their marriages if their spouses are unbelievers and are willing. This is because those circumstances do not hinder God’s grace from bringing unbelieving spouses into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 7:17-24, Paul hits on the point again that earthly circumstances do have an impact on God’s saving grace. In fact, when God calls someone into a relationship with Himself that person is to live out his calling wherever God has sovereignly placed him “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” (1 Corinthians 7:17). Paul lays out two examples of earthly circumstances that may be causing some division within the Corinthian church: circumcision versus uncircumcision, and bondservant versus freedman.

The overall message of 1 Corinthians 7 deals with marriage in various ways. In this particular section, Paul discusses three main issues: singleness, divorce, and the unbelieving spouse.

At the conclusion of chapter 6, Paul addressed the issue of sexual immorality within the Corinthian church. In his argument, Paul spoke against sexual immorality by providing the theological implications associated with sex outside of the boundaries God has prescribed in Scripture. Paul begins chapter 7 by addressing a series of questions that have been raised by the Corinthian church in their letter to him. The first question seems to be regarding sex.

Paul has already addressed a specific sexual sin that has infiltrated the church (see 1 Corinthians 5:1-13). In this section, Paul further investigates the issue of sexual immorality, another area in which the Corinthians have adopted the values of the pagan culture. Paul’s argument is simple, yet profound. What we do with our bodies matters! Our call as believers is to glorify God with all of ourselves, which includes our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:20).

Perhaps when you were young, you did something so foolish that your parents sat you down and proceeded to ask you a stream of rhetorical questions, one on top of the other. By the time you formulated an answer to one, the next one was on its way! In this passage, the Apostle Paul is similarly vexed with the Corinthian church. In 1 Corinthians 5, they refused to confront someone who was clearly in sin. Here, they are confronting one another, but in the wrong way. The Corinthians are dragging each other before the local courts, bringing reproach on the church and disrupting its unity. Paul corrects them by teaching them about their role in Jesus’ judgment at the end of the age, and then reminds them that those who hold on to their sin will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul then graciously reminds the Corinthians of what Jesus has done for them, and encourages them to live out these realities.

A certain amount of tolerance is important in any church, as we all come to differing conclusions about matters of conscience. Should we partake of alcohol, or abstain? Should we homeschool, or send our kids to public or private schools? Such tolerance is an expression of bearing with one another in love (Romans 15:1; Ephesians 4:2) and is an aspect of being brothers and sisters in Christ. However, when it comes to things that the Bible calls sin, tolerating sin actually becomes sin (Romans 1:32). In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul rebukes the church for tolerating grievous sin among them. This passage demonstrates how the practice of church discipline can be used to restore people, and helps us to see the importance of purity in the local church.