Christians Really Are Really Generous (A Theme from Acts)

Scripture: Acts 2.42-47; 4.32-37; 5.1-11; 6.1-7; 11.27-30

Translation: ^2.42And they were focusing on the teaching of the Apostles and to sharing, to the breaking of bread and to prayers. ⁴³And fear was coming into every soul, and many omens and signs were happening through the Apostles. ⁴⁴And all the people who were believing were at the same place and they were holding absolutely everything as shared. ⁴⁵And they were selling their property and possessions and distributing them to all the people as much as anyone would have a need. ⁴⁶And daily they were focusing their time in the Temple with a shared impulse, and they were breaking bread house-by-house, they were sharing food with heartfelt celebration and simplicity [lit. celebration and sincerity of heart], ⁴⁷praising God and having generosity towards/before/with all the people. And the Lord was adding those who were being saved daily at the same place.

^4.32And the heart and soul of the huge group of people who believed was one. And not even one was saying that any of the possessions belonging to him were his. Rather absolutely everything was shared for them. ³³And with great power the Apostles were giving out the eye-witness-testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace/generosity was on all of them. ³⁴You see, there was not even any poor person among them, because all the people who really were owners of pieces-of-land and houses, after selling [them], were bringing the prices of the things being sold ³⁵and putting them at the feet of the Apostles. And they were giving out to each person as much as someone was having need of. ³⁶And Joseph, the one nicknamed Barnabas by the Apostles (which is translated “son of encouragement”), a Levite, someone born on Cyprus, ³⁷sold a field that really did belong to him [and] brought the money and put it before the feet of the Apostles. ^5.1And some guy with the name Ananias with Sapphire his wife sold a piece of property. ²And he [secretly] kept back some of the money paid for himself, and his wife was in on it. And after bring a part [of it], he put before the feet of the Apostles. ³And Peter said, “Ananias, why did Satan fill your heart, such that you lied to the Holy Spirit and kept back [some] from the money paid for the land? ⁴Didn’t it stay yours and wasn’t what was sold really in your power? Why is it that you put this action in your heart? You didn’t lie to humans, but to God!” ⁵And when Ananias heard theses words, he fell down and breathed out for the last time. And a great fear came on all those who heard. ⁶And young men got up and gathered him up and took [him] out and buried [him]. ⁷And it happened after an interval of three hours that also his wife, who didn’t know what had happened came in. ⁸And Peter responded to her, “Tell me if you were paid this much for the land?” and she said, “Yes, that much.” ⁹And Peter [said] to her, “Why is it that lying to the Spirit of the Lord was agreed by you? Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out!” ¹⁰And she fell immediately before his feet and breathed out for the last time. and the young men came in and found her dead. And they brought her outside and buried [her] with her husband. ¹¹And a great fear came on the whole church and on all those who were hearing these things.

^6.1And in those days when the followers were multiplying, grumbling of the Hellenists came against the Hebrews, because their widows were being looked over in the daily serving. ²And the Twelve summoned the huge group of disciples and said, “It is not pleasing that we should be neglecting the message of God to serve tables. ³But, brothers, examine 7 men from yourselves who are attested , full of the Spirit and wisdom, who we will appoint over this need. ⁴And we will dedicate ourselves to prayer and to the serving of the message.” ⁵And what was said was pleasing to the whole group. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philipp and Prochoros and Nicanoras and Timon and Parmenas and Nicolaos, a proselyte from Antioch, who they stood before the Apostles. And praying, they put their hands on them. ⁷And the message of God grew and the number of followers in Jerusalem multiplied greatly, and a huge crowd of priests obeyed the faith.

^11.27And in those days, prophets came down from Jerusalem into Antioch. ²⁸And one of them with the name Agabos got up and signaled by the Spirit that a great famine was about to be over the whole known-world, which happened during Claudius. ²⁹And from the followers, just as anyone had plenty for themselves, each of them determined to send to the brothers living in Judea for sake of serving. ³⁰Which they also did by sending [it] to the elders through the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

Interpretation

1.      Structures

a.       Acts 2.42-47

b.      Acts 4.32-5.11

                                                              i.      Summary: General State of the Church: Generosity

                                                            ii.      Transition: Barnabas is introduced and used as a positive example of Generosity

                                                          iii.      Ananias and Sapphire

1.      Intro: the sell land and hide some of the money

2.      Ananias lies and dies

3.      Result: fear came over all who heard

4.      Sapphire lies and dies

5.      Result: fear came on the church and all who heard

c.       Acts 6.1-7

                                                              i.      Problem: Widows neglected

                                                            ii.      Solution: Appoint Godly men

                                                          iii.      Resolution: Godly men appointed

                                                          iv.      Result: the church grew like crazy, even priests got saved

d.      Acts 11.27-30

                                                              i.      Setting: Prophets come to Antioch

                                                            ii.      Issue: Agabus prophesies a famine

                                                          iii.      Response: the Church gives money to the Jerusalem church to help with the famine

2.      Themes

a.       Generosity

b.      Grace

c.       Holy Spirit

d.      Unity

e.       Growth

f.       Sincerity

g.      Sharing the message of Jesus boldly

3.      Doctrines

a.       Christians are really generous naturally.

b.      The Holy Spirit empowers Christian generosity to a crazy level.

c.       There are consequences for sins sometimes

d.      Trustworthy men should handle the money

Applications

1.      Generosity is a natural impulse for Christians. it just is. For Christians the question is not can I be stingy or do I need to be generous, but how generous can I be.

2.      This generosity is crazy. They sold their stuff for the sake of their Christian family. They sold houses and land so that their brothers and sisters could have enough to live off of. Even crazier, 4.34 said that there were no poor people among them, because people were so generous that no one was in need. This means that Mr. Levinson sold his condo in Bermuda so that the Goldberg family wouldn’t get evicted and starve. This means Mrs. Clark gave some of her social security check to the church, so that Ms. Aemilius would have a dowry for marriage. It would mean today that some gipsanim would sell his 68 Camero so that someone from a poor family could go to college. It would mean someone lets me live in their house with them for little rent, because I can’t afford it. And actually someone does do that.

3.      There is a profound danger however that our generosity if it becomes the norm could tempt some of us to be generous for the wrong reasons. One of the craziest elements of Christian generosity, of how these early Christians used money, is that were generous with the proper motives, with pure hearts. They were generous because they wanted to be generous. They were generous because they actually loved one another and because they actually loved God and they were all about living out the Gospel! Ananias and Sapphire died, not just because they lied, because surely someone somewhere in the church had lied before this. No, they died, 1) because of Who they lied to; but also I think 2) because of what they lied about, and in so doing they violated not just the trust of the whole community, but they provided a strong temptation for people to let their generosity be corroded by the prospect of personal gain. The problem was that they wanted to be generous enough to be thought of as generous. But the problem is that in so doing they overturned generosity. If they had been honest and given part of the money there wouldn’t have been a problem But they wanted to be thought of as good and superspiritual. They wanted people to believe their hypocrisy. And the truth is that doing the right thing can quickly be compromised with wrong motives. And there is a temptation to be Godly not because we love God and our fellow believers and even non-believers, but because we want people to think of us a certain way. Which means that then what we do is not really generosity or goodness, it is simply a tool of social manipulation. Let’s say someone comes and they are a really good drummer, and so they ask to join the praise team and we all are thankful that God sent us a drummer and that he has lots of talent. But while on the outside this person talks about how he is doing it for the Lord, out of a desire to worship God, on the inside he is only doing it for the attention—not because he loves God, or loves us, or even loves expressing his gifting, but simply because he loves the attention. Is he being generous with his talent, or is his using his talent to manipulate us into gratitude and attention-giving to him? Or what if a poor person joins our youth group, and we know that they are really poor, and they sacrifice and give us a great gift of an amazing new speaker system. But what if that person has made such a generous gift, not to be generous but to thought of as a generous person? What if on the other hand, a rich person gets saved and joins our group, and this person as tons of money, but chooses to sell a jersey he had signed by Michael Jordan and give the money to fund all our missions trips for the next 10 years. But no one knew about his amazing generosity but me and the elders and deacons who handle the money. Was he generous? Yes, I think so.

4.      Look at how natural the responses are of all the Christians. they see a need, and the people who can provide abundantly. And we are going to see next week even more clearly that this was not just something rich people did, but even the poor sacrificed to be generous.

5.      Bluntly put, being a faithful Christian will probably cost you something, not just in terms of identity, destiny, autonomy, and other things like that, but also it will likely cost you money. And if you are not willing to part with money, there is something seriously lacking in your Christian growth and development. Because the natural impulse of Holy Spirit-filled Christians is to really be really generous.

6.      Being generous was so key to the church that when a problem came up where some people were not being treated as generously as they should have been, the Apostles have the church appoint 7 Godly men to make sure the whole church is benefiting from the generosity of the church.

7.      Ok fine, but sharing everything sounds a bit like Communism. Well ok fine, if you think so, there are some distinctions, such as the Church is a Spiritual entity that exists beyond geopolitical boundaries, where as the government is a state. Also, the sharing is pretty clearly in the Bible, so if you don’t like it because of Marx, I would suggest you get over your predisposed opposition, since just because someone you don’t like also suggested something similar, that doesn’t mean you should get rid of all ideas that are in anyway similar. Moreover, if anyone stole from anyone Marx clearly stole concepts from the Bible than visa versa. On top of this, this crazy kind of generosity was natural for the Christians, they couldn’t have stopped if they had wanted to, so perhaps the better question is how much do we love our money that we have such a strong opposition to crazy generosity? Also, the money was being handled by Godly men, rather than the Communist Godless men. The money was not be redistributed based on merit, but based on needs.

8.      A further implication of the general tenor of the stories in Acts seems to be that this crazy generosity drew many non-Christians to trust in Jesus and become Christians, at least when it was coupled with the bold witness of the message about Jesus. So, one reason our church has not been growing, among others is that we are NOT known for our generosity, nor are we really focused on bringing the Gospel to our friends and coworkers and whoever. Look, Christians who act like Christians are incredibly compelling. Our love for God and especially for one another is what hooks people. But our love has to be being lived out clearly and be matched with the gutsy sharing of the Good News about Jesus with the people we know and meet.

9.      Questions:

a.       How can you be generous if you don’t have any money?

b.      How generous are you personally? And how generous are we as a community? Scale of 1-10. What makes you say that? Be specific J

c.       What is keeping us individually and us as a community from embodying the generosity of God in our world like the early church did in theirs?

d.      What would it look like for us to be really generous personally, as a group, as a church, as part of the Universal Church (all true Christians and churches everywhere)? How crazy generous are we willing to be?

Christian Dating and Romance

Scripture: Acts 2.42-47; 4.32-37; 5.1-11; 6.1-7; 11.27-30

Translation: ^2.42And they were focusing on the teaching of the Apostles and to sharing, to the breaking of bread and to prayers. ⁴³And fear was coming into every soul, and many omens and signs were happening through the Apostles. ⁴⁴And all the people who were believing were at the same place and they were holding absolutely everything as shared. ⁴⁵And they were selling their property and possessions and distributing them to all the people as much as anyone would have a need. ⁴⁶And daily they were focusing their time in the Temple with a shared impulse, and they were breaking bread house-by-house, they were sharing food with heartfelt celebration and simplicity [lit. celebration and sincerity of heart], ⁴⁷praising God and having generosity towards/before/with all the people. And the Lord was adding those who were being saved daily at the same place.

^4.32And the heart and soul of the huge group of people who believed was one. And not even one was saying that any of the possessions belonging to him were his. Rather absolutely everything was shared for them. ³³And with great power the Apostles were giving out the eye-witness-testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace/generosity was on all of them. ³⁴You see, there was not even any poor person among them, because all the people who really were owners of pieces-of-land and houses, after selling [them], were bringing the prices of the things being sold ³⁵and putting them at the feet of the Apostles. And they were giving out to each person as much as someone was having need of. ³⁶And Joseph, the one nicknamed Barnabas by the Apostles (which is translated “son of encouragement”), a Levite, someone born on Cyprus, ³⁷sold a field that really did belong to him [and] brought the money and put it before the feet of the Apostles. ^5.1And some guy with the name Ananias with Sapphire his wife sold a piece of property. ²And he [secretly] kept back some of the money paid for himself, and his wife was in on it. And after bring a part [of it], he put before the feet of the Apostles. ³And Peter said, “Ananias, why did Satan fill your heart, such that you lied to the Holy Spirit and kept back [some] from the money paid for the land? ⁴Didn’t it stay yours and wasn’t what was sold really in your power? Why is it that you put this action in your heart? You didn’t lie to humans, but to God!” ⁵And when Ananias heard theses words, he fell down and breathed out for the last time. And a great fear came on all those who heard. ⁶And young men got up and gathered him up and took [him] out and buried [him]. ⁷And it happened after an interval of three hours that also his wife, who didn’t know what had happened came in. ⁸And Peter responded to her, “Tell me if you were paid this much for the land?” and she said, “Yes, that much.” ⁹And Peter [said] to her, “Why is it that lying to the Spirit of the Lord was agreed by you? Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out!” ¹⁰And she fell immediately before his feet and breathed out for the last time. and the young men came in and found her dead. And they brought her outside and buried [her] with her husband. ¹¹And a great fear came on the whole church and on all those who were hearing these things.

^6.1And in those days when the followers were multiplying, grumbling of the Hellenists came against the Hebrews, because their widows were being looked over in the daily serving. ²And the Twelve summoned the huge group of disciples and said, “It is not pleasing that we should be neglecting the message of God to serve tables. ³But, brothers, examine 7 men from yourselves who are attested , full of the Spirit and wisdom, who we will appoint over this need. ⁴And we will dedicate ourselves to prayer and to the serving of the message.” ⁵And what was said was pleasing to the whole group. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philipp and Prochoros and Nicanoras and Timon and Parmenas and Nicolaos, a proselyte from Antioch, who they stood before the Apostles. And praying, they put their hands on them. ⁷And the message of God grew and the number of followers in Jerusalem multiplied greatly, and a huge crowd of priests obeyed the faith.

^11.27And in those days, prophets came down from Jerusalem into Antioch. ²⁸And one of them with the name Agabos got up and signaled by the Spirit that a great famine was about to be over the whole known-world, which happened during Claudius. ²⁹And from the followers, just as anyone had plenty for themselves, each of them determined to send to the brothers living in Judea for sake of serving. ³⁰Which they also did by sending [it] to the elders through the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

Interpretation

1.      Structures

a.       Acts 2.42-47

b.      Acts 4.32-5.11

                                                              i.      Summary: General State of the Church: Generosity

                                                            ii.      Transition: Barnabas is introduced and used as a positive example of Generosity

                                                          iii.      Ananias and Sapphire

1.      Intro: the sell land and hide some of the money

2.      Ananias lies and dies

3.      Result: fear came over all who heard

4.      Sapphire lies and dies

5.      Result: fear came on the church and all who heard

c.       Acts 6.1-7

                                                              i.      Problem: Widows neglected

                                                            ii.      Solution: Appoint Godly men

                                                          iii.      Resolution: Godly men appointed

                                                          iv.      Result: the church grew like crazy, even priests got saved

d.      Acts 11.27-30

                                                              i.      Setting: Prophets come to Antioch

                                                            ii.      Issue: Agabus prophesies a famine

                                                          iii.      Response: the Church gives money to the Jerusalem church to help with the famine

2.      Themes

a.       Generosity

b.      Grace

c.       Holy Spirit

d.      Unity

e.       Growth

f.       Sincerity

g.      Sharing the message of Jesus boldly

3.      Doctrines

a.       Christians are really generous naturally.

b.      The Holy Spirit empowers Christian generosity to a crazy level.

c.       There are consequences for sins sometimes

d.      Trustworthy men should handle the money

Applications

1.      Generosity is a natural impulse for Christians. it just is. For Christians the question is not can I be stingy or do I need to be generous, but how generous can I be.

2.      This generosity is crazy. They sold their stuff for the sake of their Christian family. They sold houses and land so that their brothers and sisters could have enough to live off of. Even crazier, 4.34 said that there were no poor people among them, because people were so generous that no one was in need. This means that Mr. Levinson sold his condo in Bermuda so that the Goldberg family wouldn’t get evicted and starve. This means Mrs. Clark gave some of her social security check to the church, so that Ms. Aemilius would have a dowry for marriage. It would mean today that some gipsanim would sell his 68 Camero so that someone from a poor family could go to college. It would mean someone lets me live in their house with them for little rent, because I can’t afford it. And actually someone does do that.

3.      There is a profound danger however that our generosity if it becomes the norm could tempt some of us to be generous for the wrong reasons. One of the craziest elements of Christian generosity, of how these early Christians used money, is that were generous with the proper motives, with pure hearts. They were generous because they wanted to be generous. They were generous because they actually loved one another and because they actually loved God and they were all about living out the Gospel! Ananias and Sapphire died, not just because they lied, because surely someone somewhere in the church had lied before this. No, they died, 1) because of Who they lied to; but also I think 2) because of what they lied about, and in so doing they violated not just the trust of the whole community, but they provided a strong temptation for people to let their generosity be corroded by the prospect of personal gain. The problem was that they wanted to be generous enough to be thought of as generous. But the problem is that in so doing they overturned generosity. If they had been honest and given part of the money there wouldn’t have been a problem But they wanted to be thought of as good and superspiritual. They wanted people to believe their hypocrisy. And the truth is that doing the right thing can quickly be compromised with wrong motives. And there is a temptation to be Godly not because we love God and our fellow believers and even non-believers, but because we want people to think of us a certain way. Which means that then what we do is not really generosity or goodness, it is simply a tool of social manipulation. Let’s say someone comes and they are a really good drummer, and so they ask to join the praise team and we all are thankful that God sent us a drummer and that he has lots of talent. But while on the outside this person talks about how he is doing it for the Lord, out of a desire to worship God, on the inside he is only doing it for the attention—not because he loves God, or loves us, or even loves expressing his gifting, but simply because he loves the attention. Is he being generous with his talent, or is his using his talent to manipulate us into gratitude and attention-giving to him? Or what if a poor person joins our youth group, and we know that they are really poor, and they sacrifice and give us a great gift of an amazing new speaker system. But what if that person has made such a generous gift, not to be generous but to thought of as a generous person? What if on the other hand, a rich person gets saved and joins our group, and this person as tons of money, but chooses to sell a jersey he had signed by Michael Jordan and give the money to fund all our missions trips for the next 10 years. But no one knew about his amazing generosity but me and the elders and deacons who handle the money. Was he generous? Yes, I think so.

4.      Look at how natural the responses are of all the Christians. they see a need, and the people who can provide abundantly. And we are going to see next week even more clearly that this was not just something rich people did, but even the poor sacrificed to be generous.

5.      Bluntly put, being a faithful Christian will probably cost you something, not just in terms of identity, destiny, autonomy, and other things like that, but also it will likely cost you money. And if you are not willing to part with money, there is something seriously lacking in your Christian growth and development. Because the natural impulse of Holy Spirit-filled Christians is to really be really generous.

6.      Being generous was so key to the church that when a problem came up where some people were not being treated as generously as they should have been, the Apostles have the church appoint 7 Godly men to make sure the whole church is benefiting from the generosity of the church.

7.      Ok fine, but sharing everything sounds a bit like Communism. Well ok fine, if you think so, there are some distinctions, such as the Church is a Spiritual entity that exists beyond geopolitical boundaries, where as the government is a state. Also, the sharing is pretty clearly in the Bible, so if you don’t like it because of Marx, I would suggest you get over your predisposed opposition, since just because someone you don’t like also suggested something similar, that doesn’t mean you should get rid of all ideas that are in anyway similar. Moreover, if anyone stole from anyone Marx clearly stole concepts from the Bible than visa versa. On top of this, this crazy kind of generosity was natural for the Christians, they couldn’t have stopped if they had wanted to, so perhaps the better question is how much do we love our money that we have such a strong opposition to crazy generosity? Also, the money was being handled by Godly men, rather than the Communist Godless men. The money was not be redistributed based on merit, but based on needs.

8.      A further implication of the general tenor of the stories in Acts seems to be that this crazy generosity drew many non-Christians to trust in Jesus and become Christians, at least when it was coupled with the bold witness of the message about Jesus. So, one reason our church has not been growing, among others is that we are NOT known for our generosity, nor are we really focused on bringing the Gospel to our friends and coworkers and whoever. Look, Christians who act like Christians are incredibly compelling. Our love for God and especially for one another is what hooks people. But our love has to be being lived out clearly and be matched with the gutsy sharing of the Good News about Jesus with the people we know and meet.

9.      Questions:

a.       How can you be generous if you don’t have any money?

b.      How generous are you personally? And how generous are we as a community? Scale of 1-10. What makes you say that? Be specific J

c.       What is keeping us individually and us as a community from embodying the generosity of God in our world like the early church did in theirs?

d.      What would it look like for us to be really generous personally, as a group, as a church, as part of the Universal Church (all true Christians and churches everywhere)? How crazy generous are we willing to be?

Christian Sex and Marriage (1 Corinthians 7)

Scripture: I Corinthians 7

Translation: ¹Now, about the things you wrote: “It is good for a man not to touch a woman.” ²But because of sexual sins, each man had better have his own wife. And each woman had better have her own husband. ³The man fulfill the obligation to the woman, and likewise the woman to the man. ⁴The woman doesn’t have authority over her own body, rather the man does. But also likewise the man does not have authority over his own body, rather the woman does. ⁵Don’t deprive one another, except by agreement for an amount of time, so that you can focus your effort on prayer and can be together again, so that Satan can’t tempt you because of your lack of control. ⁶But I say this according to a concession not according to a command.

⁷And I want all humans to be like myself, but each one has his own gift from God: one like this, another like that. ⁸But I say to the unmarried people and the widows, it is good for them if they stay like me. ⁹But if they can’t control themselves, they should get married, because it is better to marry than be burning. ¹⁰And I command the married people—not me but the Lord—that a wife had better not be separated from the husband, ¹¹(but also if she is separated, she had better stay unmarried or she had better work things out with the husband) and a husband had better not divorce a wife. ¹²And to the rest I say—me not the Lord—if any brother has an unbelieving wife and she agrees to live with him, he had better not divorce her! ¹³And a woman, if any woman has an unbelieving husband, and this guy agrees to live with her, she had better not divorce the husband. ¹⁴Because the unbelieving husband is made holy by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy by the brother, since then your children are unclean, but now they are holy. ¹⁵But if the unbeliever separates himself, he had better be separated. The brother or sister is not enslaved with those kind of people. And God called you in peace. ¹⁶Because what do you know, wife, if you will save your husband? Or what do you know, husband, if you will save your wife?

¹⁷Anyway, as the Lord apportioned to each person, as God called each one, in this way he had better walk. And in this way I commanded in all the churches. ¹⁸Someone circumcised was called, he had better not pull over the foreskin. Someone was called with the foreskin, he had better not get circumcised. ¹⁹Circumcision is nothing and the foreskin is nothing, rather keeping the commands of God [is something]. ²⁰Each person, in the calling in which He was called, in this [calling] he had better stay. ²¹A slave was called, it had better not worry him. But also if you can become free, make the most of it. ²²Because the person called by the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedperson, likewise the person called as a free person is Christ’s slave. ²³You were bought at high cost. Don’t become the slaves of men. ²⁴Each person, in what condition he was called, brothers, in this condition he had better stay for God.

²⁵But about the virgins, I don’t have a command from the Lord, but I give you some advice as someone given mercy by the Lord for being faithful. ²⁶So, I think this really is good because of the present necessity/suffering, namely that it is good for a man to be this way. ²⁷Are you bound to a wife, don’t seek a release. Are you released from a wife, don’t see a wife. ²⁸But also, if you would marry, you don’t sin, and if the virgin would marry, she doesn’t sin. But these kind of people will have suffering in the body, and I want to spare you. ²⁹But I say this, brothers: the time is limited. Finally, so that also those who have wives should be as those who don’t have, ³⁰and those who are crying, as those who aren’t crying, and those who are rejoicing as those who aren’t rejoicing, and those who are buying, as those who don’t have, ³¹and those who are making us time, as those who don’t use, because the way of life of this world is on the way out. ³²And I want you to be worry-free. The unmarried man worries about the things of the Lord, how he should please the Lord. ³³But the one who gets married worries about the things of the world, how he could please his wife. ³⁴And he worries about himself. And the unmarried woman and the virgin worry about the things of the Lord, so that she could be holy both in the body and the spirit. But the woman who gets married worries about the things of the world, how she could please her husband. ³⁵But I say this for your own benefit, not so that I can put a noose on you, but for what is honorable and productive for the Lord without distraction. ³⁶But if someone thinks to be acting shamefully against his virgin, if she is past puberty and she ought to become that way, what he wants he had better do, he doesn’t sin. They had better marry. ³⁷But who stands first in his heart, not having the need, and he has authority about his own will and he judges this in his own heart, to keep his virgin, he will do well. ³⁸Therefore, also the one who marries his virgin does well and the one who doesn’t marry does better. ³⁹A wife is bound for whatever amount of time her husband lives. But if the husband would be asleep, she is free to marry who she wants, only in the Lord. ⁴⁰But it is more blessed if she would stay that way, according to my opinion, but I also seem to have God’s Spirit.

Interpretation

1.      Structure

a.       Response to “It’s good not to have sex.”

                                                              i.      It is Good and Necessary to have sex with your spouse (vv.1-6)

                                                            ii.      Both Marriage and Celibacy are Gifts from God (vv.7-9)

                                                          iii.      Don’t Get Divorced (vv.10-16)

b.      Transition with “Stay the way you are” (vv.17-24)

                                                              i.      Stay in the social location you were when saved (v.17)

                                                            ii.      Stay circumcised or uncircumcised (vv.18-19)

                                                          iii.      Stay in the social location you were when saved (v.20)

                                                          iv.      Stay a slave unless you can get free, and if free stay free (vv.22-23)

                                                            v.      Stay in the social location you were when saved (vv.24)

c.       Response to how to treat your fiancée

                                                              i.      Not a command, but a wise and somewhat binding advice (vv.24)

                                                            ii.      Get married if you want, or don’t get married, but the present suffering will make marriage difficult. But it is not a sin to get married or not to get married (vv.25-28)

                                                          iii.      Time is limited, so understand the present reality is on the way out, don’t get too attached to it (vv.29-31).

1.      If you’re married, be like you’re not

2.      If you're crying, be like you’re not

3.      If you’re celebrating, be like you’re not

4.      If you’re buying, like you’re not getting

5.      Because the present state of the world is on the way out

                                                          iv.      Marriage divides your interests between God and Spouse, so there is an advantage to singleness for working for God, but it is not a requirement (vv.32-35)

                                                            v.      If you feel like you should get married, get married, if not, don’t; both are good, but singleness has some advantages (vv.36-38)

                                                          vi.      If you get married, stay married, if widowed, you can remarry, but there is advantage in not. (vv.39-40a)

                                                        vii.      Paul has the Spirit, so his advice is valuable (v.40b)

2.      Themes

a.       Sex

b.      Marriage

c.       Singleness

d.      Time is limited

e.       Divided interests/worry

f.       Circumstances have some influence

g.      Stay in whatever social condition you were in

3.      Doctrines

a.       Marriage is good

b.      Sex is good in marriage

c.       Singleness is good and has some advantages

Applications

Questions

a.       Does sex in marriage sound a like a good thing? What do you think makes sex in marriage so good and sex outside of marriage not good?

b.      Paul says people who have difficulty controlling their sexual urges should marry, do you find it hard for you to deal with your sexual desires?

c.       What are the pros and cons of being single and being married?

d.      When Paul says that this current world is on the way out, what in your life is affected by understanding this? 

Your Sex Life is Part of Your Spiritual Life (1 Cor. 6.9-20)

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6.9-20

Translation: ⁹Or do you not know that unrighteous people will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived! Neither sexual sinners, nor idol-worshippers, nor adulterers, nor effeminate people, nor homosexuals, ¹⁰nor thieves, nor greedy people, not drunks, not verbally abusive people, not robbers will inherit God’s Kingdom. ¹¹And some of you were these things, but you washed yourselves, but you were made holy, but you were declared righteous in the Name of the Lord Jesus the Messiah and in the Spirit of our God! ¹²All things are allowed for me, but not all things help! All things are allowed for me, but I will authorized by anyone/mastered by anything! ¹³Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, and God will do away with this and these. But the body is not for sexual sin, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body! ¹⁴And God raised the Lord and will totally raise us through His power! ¹⁵Or do you not know that your bodies are body parts of the Messiah? ¹⁵So then, should I make the body parts of the Messiah the body parts of a prostitute? May it never happen! ¹⁶Or do you not know that the person who joins himself to a prostitute  is one body [with her]? Because “they will become” it says “the two into one flesh”! ¹⁷And the person who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit [with Him]! ¹⁸Flee sexual sin! Every sin that a human could do  is outside of the body. But the person sinning sexually sins against his own body! ¹⁹Or do you not know that your body is the Temple Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit in you, Who you have from God? And you are not your own, ²⁰because you were bought at high cost, so glorify God in your body!

Interpretation

1.      Structure

a.       Don’t Sue Each Other (6.1-8)

b.      Transition: God deals with sinners, but you are no longer sinners so live like it (6.9-11)

                                                              i.      General Point: Unrighteous People don’t get to enjoy the Kingdom of God (6.9a)

                                                            ii.      Point Detailed: These kinds of sinners are unrighteous people who won’t see God’s Kingdom (6.9b-10)

                                                          iii.      Encouragement: God Saves Unrighteous People, including Some of You in Jesus’ Name by the Holy Spirit (6.11)

c.       Sexual sin is still sin, get away from it, for lots of reasons (6.12-20)

                                                              i.      Response to Misunderstood Freedom (6.12)

                                                            ii.      Response to a Misunderstanding of Human Purpose and Destiny, especially as it relates to Sexuality (6.13-17)

1.      False Belief: “The Body exists for Sex and vice versa, besides God will get rid of sex and bodies” (6.13a)

2.      Corrected Belief: “The body does not exist for sex, but for the Lord and the Lord for the Body, moreover, bodies are not going away, that’s the point of the resurrection” (6.13b-14)

3.      Teaching they should already know: Christians’ bodies are body-parts of Christ’s body (6.15a)

4.      Implication of the Teaching: having sex with a prostitute connects Jesus to a prostitute (6.15b)

5.      Teaching they should already know: Sex unites you to the other person’s body (6.16) and Uniting with Christ unites you to His Spirit (6.17)

                                                          iii.      Explicit Teaching on Sexuality and the Purpose of the Body:

1.      Teaching: Stay away from sexual sin

2.      Nature of Sexual sin: It is against your own body

3.      Teaching they should already know: 

a.       Your Body is the Holy Spirit’s Temple

b.      You Don’t belong to Yourself, because God bought

4.      Main Point: Glorify God with Your Body!

2.      Themes

a.       Sex, Sexual sin (πορνεια, πορνος, πορνη, μοιχοι, μαλακοι, αρσενοκοιται, πορνευων)

b.      Kingdom of God

c.       Grace, the Transformation that God gives at salvation

d.      Misunderstanding

e.       What should already be known

f.       Body

g.      Spirit

h.      Union

                                                              i.      With people you have sex with

                                                            ii.      With Jesus and His Spirit

i.        Purpose

3.      Doctrines

a.       Being a Christian means a life of Holiness, not sexual sins

b.      God saves all kinds of sinners, even sexual sinners

c.       Christians are united with Christ

d.      Christians are part of the Body of Christ

e.       Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit and thus serve as His Temple Sanctuary

Applications

1.      Stay far away from sexual sin

2.      Use your body and life to glorify God

3.      Us belonging to God and being the Temple Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit means that what we do with our body matters, and it means that we should be using our bodies to glorify God. However, it also means that we should be treating our bodies as if they are God’s Sanctuary. And this means more than just staying away from sexual sins, but alls sins, but in particular sins that violate or degrade the Temple of the Holy Spirit! This means for instance, not just that we should not have sex outside of marriage, but that because we are God’s Temple that we should care for it. This is why we should be wise about how we eat, and seek to stay fit and strong, because we exist to serve the One Who bought us and the One Who lives in us. It is also one of the reasons why cigarettes, drugs, excessive drinking, cutting/hurting yourself, suicide, and the like are wrong, because they are self-destructive. And all sexual sin is destructive as well.

4.      Homosexuality and gender identity issues are also wrong, while our culture would decry such things as intolerant and arrogant, what must be understood is that those sins are sins because they violate the purposes for which God created people, and because they are sexual sins, are in and of themselves destructive. Thus, it is not just that we think they are wrong, but that we believe that they are disordered, running contrary to God’s will, and are the kind of sin that does not just destroy others, but are inherent self-destructive

5.      Questions

a.       What kind of person were you before trusting in Jesus? What did He clean you from? What has He continued to clean out of you? What kinds of things need to be cleaned out from our community?

b.      Lot’s times Paul asks them why they are acting as if they didn’t know something that they should have known, so what are some things we are acting like we don’t know? What core Christian teachings are we not living out as individuals and as a community?

c.       Most sins committed are committed “outside of the body”, why then is sexual sin different, why is it against the body? Are there any other sins that are against the body?

d.      What are some other implications of you being the Temple that the Holy Spirit lives in? How can you glorify God with your body? How can we help one another glorify God with our bodies?