Rules and Rights

I shared a meme this week on Facebook that suggested if the Apostle Paul were writing today, the letter would begin, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, to the churches of the United States of America – grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ: I don’t even really know where to begin with you guys…”

I think we can learn a lot about what Paul would say by reading First Corinthians. When the Corinthians received Paul’s letter, they gathered to listen to it read aloud, and it was no short note. It takes more than an hour to read it. We considered where Paul began with the church in Corinth last week, and I imagine it might be the same starting place he would have with us. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul addresses the church’s internal discord, with some preferring the teaching of Apollos over Paul’s, some claiming to be followers of the Apostle Peter, others claiming to be true followers of Jesus. And he makes an appeal for unity within the church, asking, “Is Christ divided?” I imagine Paul would have something to say about the church’s inner discord today, about churches splitting every time they disagree, and he would probably ask whether the church’s witness really is stronger with 38,000 denominations than it would be if we lived together in unity, without demanding uniformity. I mean, after all, is Christ divided?

That’s not all he’d heard, though, about what was going on in Corinth. The passages I read this morning are the beginning and end of a section of the letter dealing with external challenges the congregation faces. There are two main issues Paul addresses, engaging in sexual immorality and eating food offered to idols. Both issues related to the worship of false gods and goddesses and to what is being sold in the market square in Corinth.

I told you a little bit about Corinth last week. It was a wealthy port city; halfway between Turkey and Italy, on a narrow strip of land, the only way to travel north and south in Greece, with ports on either side, it was a hub of trade. It also was a worldly city with temples to Roman and Greek gods and goddesses. A Greek historian, Pausanias’s, description of Corinth has survived. Describing the central market square, he lists “temples and statues for Dionysus, Artemis, Baccheaus, Fortuna, Poseidon, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hermes, Zeus, Zeus of the Underworld, Zeus Most High and the Muses.” Greek geographer Strabo wrote a description of Corinth’s temples around 16 or 17, during Jesus’s life, before his ministry began. Strabo said that the temple of Aphrodite there had acquired more than a thousand prostitutes, young slaves, boys and girls, these slaves had been “donated” to the service of the goddess, to be used to raise funds for the goddess. So, that was one thing that was for sale in the market square of Corinth.

The rest of the square was made up of “two general markets [that] hugged the wall of the great archaic pagan temple and a fish and meat market was across the street. [Then,] on the west side of the [square] was a huge temple dedicated to the imperial cult….The sacrifices were the property of the priests of the various temples and what the priests could not eat, they sold. During the numerous feasts there was an inevitable glut in the meat market, and the price would drop accordingly….[and] if a person didn’t ask the butcher, he or she would never know whether a particular piece of meat had been offered to an idol or not.”

The argument of the Corinthians was that the law had been abolished, so the rules of Judaism didn’t apply to them. They had the right to do anything. Like a parent talking to an 18 year old who says, “I don’t have to follow your rules anymore! I’m going to do whatever I want to do.” Paul essentially says, “You are right. You don’t have to follow the rules, but those rules were there for a reason. Before you decide not to follow them, you should understand WHY those rules exist.” “You say “I am free to do anything,” but not everything is beneficial. Not everything is constructive.

To be honest, as I read Chapters 5-10, as Paul addresses the external challenges the Christians are facing because they live in Corinth, I am a little surprised he didn’t start with “I don’t even know where to begin with you guys….” Paul addresses specifically several external issues the church is dealing with because of the culture in Corinth and some church member’s insistence that they have the freedom and right to do what they want and they don’t have to follow the rules to be saved. Paul has received questions about the issues, so he answers with practical advise for the good of the community and the people involved.

But Paul has two main concerns about what is happening in Corinth in the market square that he addresses theologically: engaging in sexual immorality and eating food offered to idols. In response to both he says, “Run, don’t walk, away from the temples.” And to both he responds with 3 truths about our relationship with God that are the foundation for the rules.

Some of the members of the church in Corinth are going to the temples of the gods and goddesses and engaging in intimate acts with the prostitutes there. In response, Paul writes, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” Why?

First, Paul says, “By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.” At the conclusion of the letter, Paul goes into detail about how our bodies will be changed in the resurrection, and still be our bodies. God created us, not to be spirits, but to be embodied. Our bodies matter; when God formed us, God declared us good. To misuse your body, that God has entrusted to your care, is to disrespect God.

Next, Paul argues that our bodies are temples. “Do you not know,” he asks, “that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” And “Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” There is no such thing as casual sex. A new relationship is established, with a unique connection and loyalty and a new identity. Paul says, before you engage in intimate behaviors, be aware that they may not be beneficial to your connection to God. Richard Hays, a New Testament Professor at Duke Divinity School, wrote about Christians today needing to hear and understand this passage. He said, “Sex education in the church might begin by seeking to cultivate a deep awareness of the indwelling presence of God. An authentic reverence for the reality of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our bodies” might “reshape [our] moral imagination.”

Finally, Paul argues that our bodies are not our own. Christ bought us at a price. Therefore, we are to honor God with our bodies. We are not to do whatever we want with no regard for the rules. The reason we have bodies is to glorify God.

The other thing being sold in the market square, and bought by some of the members of the church, is meat that has been offered as a sacrifice to an idol, and some of them are eating meat that has been sacrificed when they are a guest and it is served to them. The rules about clean and unclean meat have been abolished, so why should they not eat it?

Paul’s first argument, again, is that God is the Creator. Paul says, we know those idols are nothing; those gods and goddesses don’t exist. We know that God created the earth and all that is in it. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with buying that meat at the market and eating it.

The second argument, again, relates to our identity being shaped by our actions. Unlike with intimate acts, nothing spiritual happens in casual eating. You can eat food just to satisfy your hunger pains and it won’t impact your spirit. You don’t become one with what you eat. Your identity isn’t changed because you eat something. Paul says, “Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, or if an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience.”

And the third argument, again, is that we have bodies to glorify God. Even though we know that the food offered to idols isn’t changed because we know that those gods and goddesses don’t really exist, Paul tells them, not everyone knows it, or is as sure of it. And it is easy for knowledge to puff us up and make us strut our rights, but there is something more important than what you know when you are acting to glorify God – how you love. Love builds up and makes us more concerned about our brothers and sisters than our freedoms and our rights. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others. Your concern should always be that you not cause someone else to stumble. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

If the apostle Paul were alive writing to us today, he would hear our insistence that we are free of the rules and we have rights and remind us that just because we have the right to do anything, that doesn’t mean everything is beneficial. Then he would share with us the same 3 foundational truths for how we live in relationship with the culture around us:

1. God is the Creator of earth and everything in it, all that is, good – including you. To misuse what God has entrusted to your care is to disrespect the Creator.

2. You are a temple for the Holy Spirit in the world, and your identity is spiritually changed by intimate acts, forever connected to another person. To casually engage another person intimately is to lack reverence for the Holy Spirit’s temple.

3. We are not our own. We were bought at a price by Christ and are to follow his example, seeking not our own good but the good of others. Whatever we do, we do it all for the glory of God – that’s why we have bodies – to glorify God.

May we hear and understand what the apostle Paul is writing to us and live accordingly. Amen.