16th November 2009
There was an important moral issue related to the situation in Corinth. But it wasn't about the food or the dedication of the food to false gods. It was about sanctification and growth in Christ. "But," said Paul, "take care that this right of yours does ...
12th November 2009
The first six verses of chapter eight reminded the Corinthian Christians that the knowledge they had was a consequence of their regeneration. Our knowledge of God is a reflection of His knowledge of us. Remember that God's knowledge of us and God's love f...
04th November 2009
"Therefore," Paul begins 1 Corinthians 8:4, concluding what preceded this verse. The first three verses of chapter eight establish the ground or basis of what follows. Because our love of God is based upon our mutual covenantal faithfulness, God's covenan...
30th October 2009
The other night my brother, David, was talking about the difference between ethics and morality. He recently heard someone argue that the difference between them is that the ethical person knows what not to do, but the moral person simply refuses to do it...
26th October 2009
"But concerning the sacrifices to idols, we know that we all have knowledge" (1 Corinthians 8:1). The context, "sacrifices to idols," involves holiday meals that were consecrated by false gods and celebrated by most everyone in the community. These religi...
16th October 2009
"From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none" (1 Corinthians 7:29). What in the world does this mean? Were husbands to ignore their wives? To walk out of their marriages? Not at all, that's not what Paul meant. But there's a sense i...
14th October 2009
The sense of verse 1 Corinthians 7:25 is the same as that of verse 1 Corinthians 7:12 in that Paul is not suggesting that people are free to disregard his advice, but rather that he is speaking about things that have not been covered in Scripture before.
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12th October 2009
"You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God" (1 Corinthians 7:17-24).
There is a contemporary saying that reflects the sense of this idea: bloom where yo...
08th October 2009
We know that the Holy Spirit is not awakened in God's people until they hear the Master's voice (John 5:25, 10:3, 10:27). God "chose us in him before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4). Salvation is a matter of hearing the voice of the Lord, of ...
06th October 2009
When Paul says, "To the rest I say (I, not the Lord)" in verse 12, he suggests that what he is about to say has not been explicitly said anywhere else in Scripture. He is not demeaning his comment, as if to say that we are free to disregard it if we are s...
28th September 2009
Paul continues to provide marriage counseling in 1 Corinthians 7:6-17. And the counsel that he provides is not a biblical command, but a personal recommendation based on his understanding of both Scripture and humanity. The recommendation was based upon h...
21st September 2009
Having discussed the prohibitions of Christian morality regarding immoral sexual relations, Paul now provides counsel regarding proper Christian sexuality. Seven chapters into Paul's letter to the Corinthians Paul is still discussing the same subject, whi...
16th September 2009
Paul uses an example of temple prostitution for two reasons. First, he has already identified that the Corinthians have misunderstood something significant related to God's teaching about sexuality, fornication in particular. And secondly, arguments relat...
05th September 2009
Paul, like a doctor examining a patient, put his finger on the Corinthian sore spot -- sexual immorality -- in order to determine and demonstrate to the patient that there was indeed a problem that needed to be treated. He began with the age-old idea that...
26th August 2009
Paul created a short list of those who will not inherit the kingdom of God: "neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inhe...
