Scripture

This words of Paul to the people of Corinth seem a bit harsh. But discipline always feels harsh when you are in the midst of it.

Let me tell you a little about the Corinth. It is situated on the north end of the Peloponnesus, on a very small isthmus connecting it to the main part of Greece. In ancient times this was the megalopolis city of commerce. It was the central hub dividing the west from the east shipping lanes. The Aegean Sea on the East and the Ionian Sea on the west. Almost any trade ships going anywhere would end up traveling through Corinth. The smaller ships were literally carried on a human powered rail system across the isthmus, a distance of about 5 miles. Larger ships had to either go around the storm laden Peloponnesus or break their loads down into smaller ships to be carried on the rail system. Either way, Corinth was the main stopping off place.

Being such a commercial center Corinth drew entrepreneurs of every kind from every region of the known world. The market place, known as the Agora, was the gathering place for every kind of trade imaginable. Being a significant port town the sea captured a lot of their thoughts and efforts. It was here that the worship of oceanic deities, Poseidon, Dyonius, and others flourished. Rooted in the polytheistic culture of the Greeks and in the liberal-minded sector of society where everything was permissible Corinth drew a wide, cross section of people from every culture.

To honor Poseidon the Corinthian people hosted a series of athletic games, similar to our Olympics, the "Isthmian Games" held every two years. As modern Olympics do, these games drew people to the region. Athletes, spectators and especially gamblers came to take advantage of the opportunities there.

Corinth was sacked about 150BC and left in ruins for over 100 years when Julius Caesar had the city rebuilt. He established it as the center of his eastern government and populated the city with slaves and criminals from Rome and with the Jews that he forced out of Rome.

With multiple religions, multiple gods, and open ideologies Corinth had lots of temples and thousands of temple prostitutes. The main temple, to the goddess Diana, had over 1000 prostitutes on duty at all times; day and night.

Orgies, parties, communal bath houses, and an abundance of immoral people made the alcohol trade very lucrative and these parties always offered lead flavored wines as a special treat. It wasn’t until many years later that we figured out the danger of lead to the human body. Some suggest that the lead wine caused Caesar to become mentally unstable as he made poor decisions causing the fall of the Roman empire.

Lump all this together; multiple cultures, strange ideologies, gambling, honest and dishonest tradesman, sailors and longshoreman, polytheistic gods and immoral religious practices; and you can see the things Paul was facing in starting a church in Corinth. I imagine it would be a little like a single Christian evangelist going into the French Quarter of New Orleans in the midst of Mardi Gras trying to win converts... only Paul’s situation was a lot worse. He had very little backup and no Christian history to fall back on. ... But he did have the Lord!

Jesus told Paul to preach the Gospel with boldness; to take on even the worst of the worst in the very city of Corinth. But he wasn’t alone... there were already some converts there from other places, some people who had learned of the Lord on their travels around the region. It was in Corinth that Paul met Priscilla and Aquila; his two greatest supporters in the city.

There was another great difficulty in the church in Corinth... Judaizers! These were the Christians converted from Judaism who demanded that all Christians must follow all the Jewish practices... sort of like before you can be a Christian you must first convert to a Jew, then you can convert to Christian; but you must always follow and obey all the Jewish laws and rituals.

Paul found himself in the very heart of evil. From every direction he turned in the city he found decadence and immorality and then even within the very body of Christ he found sacrifices to idols and false prophets. There was so much evil surrounding him that the text of his letters to the Corinthian church addresses these issues. Paul’s word of wisdom to the Christians in the company of wolves was to run, full speed, away from all evil. Turn with me to 1 Timothy 6:11-14, "11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ..."

I say, outrun your friend if you have to... let him be the sacrificial meal to the hungry bear... run, as fast as you can from evil. I want you to note that Paul didn’t always say to stand your ground... in this case he tells us to flee from evil. He takes us back to those Israelites that left Egypt under the guiding hand of God. They prayed for deliverance from Pharaoh for 400 years. The time finally came and the prophet Moses lead the charge. Protected by God, guided by God, gifted by God, fed by God, healed by God when they were bit by deadly snakes; they traveled with God before them and behind them.... maybe a million Hebrews left Egypt. But they were disobedient, they found reasons to grumble against God, they formed idols, they resisted God’s truth. As a result God kept them in the wilderness 40 years... until every last one of the people fleeing Egypt died along the way. Only Caleb lived to actually enter the Promised Land.

These people thought they had it made... God was on their side, God was protecting them, God was clearing the way for them... they thought they were good, obedient people. But God knew otherwise.

Christians today, as they did in Paul’s time, may fully think they are good people... doing God’s will. But Paul warns us that this isn’t always true. We need to be careful about doing the things that Jesus tells us to stay clear of, and failing to do the things that Jesus tells us to do. The problem is that we let little things slip in to our lives and before we know what happened we are deep in sin and headed the wrong direction.

Just because you claim your activities are acceptable to God doesn’t mean they really are. Some years ago I attended a conference on the American Baptist struggle with the issue of homosexuality. The idea was that we would all come together; those in favor of accepting homosexuality as acceptable to God and those who opposed such thinking. We were to listen to each other for three days of discussions and lectures and, according to the hopes of the organizers, come away with a single mind on the issue; struggle resolved. However, no one really was moved to change their thinking.

In our last small group discussion I finally spoke up telling my group that it really didn’t matter what we all thought. It wasn’t about us. The only thing that mattered was what God thought about the issue. Our mission is to determine what God says and then accept that as truth and live by that. It isn’t about a group of pro or con people... what does God say about homosexuality? Don’t rationalize, don’t twist words, don’t take things out of context or proof text... just read what God says and live by that.

This is the very thing that Paul is saying. Don’t let yourself think you are in God’s good graces... double check yourselves everyday... ask yourself, "Have I done anything today that would embarrass Jesus? Have I missed any opportunities to reach out in Jesus’ name?" If the answer to either of those questions is YES then you need to realize that you are falling prey to the very things that plagued the church in Corinth...

The bottom line is that ... even though a person is a Christian they are not exempt from the pains that come from disobedience. Are you allowing faulty thinking to lead you astray. Do you favor personal comfort over conviction? Are you really willing to give up your gods (little g) for God (big g)? If you are not... if you continue to think like the Hebrews leaving Egypt did; that what you are doing is OK, then you are destined to find yourself perishing in the wilderness instead of making it to the Promised Land.

God calls us to accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we have our names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and have an eternal home in Heaven. But those two words; Lord and Savior mean we understand and accept that we will make the effort to be obedient. We WILL make the effort to be obedient. We will make the EFFORT to be obedient. Success isn’t the issue... the effort is.

God calls us to do four things when we become members of His family. First we worship Him, and Him alone... no more gods of hunting, sleeping in, technology, sports, clothes or any other thing that might get in the way of worshiping God. Two that we love God with all our hearts, minds, strength and souls and to love our neighbor as ourselves. That means we obey the golden rule... we treat others as we want to be treated. That being the case there is no place in our conversation for gossip or talking behind someone’s back. Three that we intentionally deepen our understanding of God. That comes by reading Christian books, magazines, watching Christian shows, listening to Christian radio; but comes best by participating in small groups designed to develop our Christian understandings. That means Bible study, church school and worship. If you aren’t attending some type of intentional study you are missing the biggest and best opportunity to learn. And lastly, to make sure that everyone you come into contact with has the opportunity to hear the Good News. What we have is not intended to be a secret... we are called to tell. If you haven’t told someone outside the faith about your relationship with Jesus you are missing it.