This week’s New Testament epistle passage packs quite a punch. But what is left out is even more powerful.
The passage from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians as prescribed in the Lectionary begins at Verse 9 with the phrase, “Or do you not know that…” That statement follows other information Paul gave them that should have been sufficient to change their behavior, because “or do you not know that…” is a means by which an author adds more evidence to his claim. It is never the start of a statement or argument.
So, let’s look at what Paul was initially speaking about before this transitional statement in Verse 9.
For what is it to me to judge those outside? Should you not judge those inside? 13 But those outside God will judge. Remove the evil person from among yourselves. 1Does anyone among you, if he has a matter against someone else, dare to go to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if by you the world is judged, are you unworthy of the most insignificant courts? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels, not to mention ordinary matters? 4 Therefore, if you have courts with regard to ordinary matters, do you seat these despised people in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. So is there not anyone wise among you who will be able to render a decision between his brothers? 6 But brother goes to court with brother, and this before unbelievers! 7 Therefore it is already completely a loss for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you wrong and defraud, and do this to brothers! — 1 Cor 5:12 – 6:8
Paul’s letter did not include chapter or verse markings, and it was meant to be read at a single church gathering in one sitting, not broken up over weeks. We lose a lot of Paul’s thought flow by sectioning passages off from
each other; however, we can summarize some of his criticism leading up to Verse 12 to keep the context intact. Paul has just admonished the Corinthian Christians for allowing someone to stay part of their Christian community, despite that person’s notorious sin (“notorious,” as it is used in the Book of Common Prayer, simply means public, or well-known, and does not indicate a level of severity; it shares the same root with Notary Public, a person involved with the public verification of records and contracts). This person was having sex with his stepmother, and the congregation was pleased with themselves for their tolerance of behavior for which Paul says they should have been ashamed.
He calls them to maintain discipline within the Christian community, but not to expect Christian behavior from the outside pagan world of the Roman Empire. Hence his statements in verses 12 and 13 regarding judgment of people outside the church.
Paul then reminds the Corinthians that people who engage in that sort of behavior (and he lists a few “notorious” types of sins) will not be with the Christian community in the next life, so they should not be mingling in this one. It’s not that by doing bad things instead of good they won’t go to Heaven; it’s that this sort of behavior
shows they have not really repented—turned away from their sins. They are still participating in them, thinking they are forgiven. Jesus consistently describes repentance as a key ingredient of forgiveness. Unless they repent,
they are not forgiven. Thus, Paul advocates sending this particular sinner away from the community, hoping that he will eventually truly repent and return to them, yet realizing the “one bad apple can spoil the whole barrel”
proverb.
Let’s look at the text for what he describes.
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Neither sexually immoral people, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners, 10 nor thieves, nor greedy persons, not drunkards, not abusive persons, not swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And some of you were these things, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. — 1 Cor 6:9-11
Corinth, in Paul’s time, was the ultimate liberty port for Sailors, and many of the locals engaged in that licentious lifestyle. The church in Corinth was composed of those types of people who turned from their sinful existence and decided to following the teachings and commands of Jesus. Paul reminded them that the legality of the behavior according to Corinthian or Roman law did not make it allowable for Christians, who are all called to
obey Jesus instead. Sexual sin has an especially dangerous spiritual aspect to it, as it unites us with another person spiritually as well as physically in a bond that is designed to establish oneness between the two.
[Jesus said,] “Have you not read that the one who created them from the beginning made them male and female 5 and said, ‘On account of this a man will leave his father and his mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate.” — Matt 19:4–6
The rationale of “if it’s legal, it must be OK” is in our own culture even today. Society has worked diligently over the past few decades to ensure that crimes such as adultery, sodomy, and abortion are no longer criminal, and in fact, advocated as exemplary behavior. Don’t believe it? In 2007, an all-female law firm advertised with a provocative billboard picture and the slogan, “Life’s short. Get a divorce.” The billboard showed the six-pack abs of a male torso and tanned female cleavage bulging over a black lace bra. The ad worked, and business boomed.
Adultery is illegal in 17 states (and Puerto Rico) but is rarely prosecuted. The quickie divorce offered by this law firm solves that problem.
Sodomy laws were overturned in 2003 by the Supreme Court in Lawrence V. Texas and homosexual marriage was declared legal by the court in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015. The mad rush by the left to ensure mothers can still annihilate their offspring following the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision shows the depth of our culture’s depravity.
All these things are legal; and all damaging to our soul and society. The Corinthian’s culture embraced the Gnostic view that the spiritual things were good and permanent, while material things were bad and temporary. Hence any physical activity—such as gluttony and sexual perversion—are totally fine. Paul points the Corinthians and us to a different perspective:
All things are permitted for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be controlled by anything. 13 Food is for the stomach, and the stomach for food, but God will abolish both of them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God both raised up the Lord and will raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Therefore, shall I take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For it says, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a person commits is outside his body, but the one who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God with your body. — 1 Cor 6:12–20
Many things are legal, but that does not make them good. Jesus tells us to follow his commands, many of which included not participating in behavior that Rome saw as legal or even advocated.
In our culture today, the Gospel message is the same. The temptation in our culture to engage in behavior forbidden in Scripture in the name of tolerance and inclusive is real. But we are called to reject that and recognize that we are each set aside by God to be examples of his holiness, as living parts of his Temple—the Body of Christ. Sin is a desecration of that Temple. Glorify God instead.
Your Brother in Christ,
Fr. Austin