Well, good morning, church.
Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 to 11.
We're doing a series this year through this whole book, one of Paul's most lengthy epistles.
And this morning we are at chapter 6, starting at verse 9.
As a parent raising kids and living in downtown New Haven,
I find myself constantly warning my kids about potential dangers.
When they were a bit younger, it was simple things like,
when we're walking to our car, don't cross the parking lot unless we're with you.
Or when we come to a crosswalk, don't walk into the street unless you're holding an adult's hand.
When you're climbing the tree near our front door, don't climb higher than you can climb down without help.
When we're at the playground, don't pick up random pieces of trash,
because you really never know what they're going to be.
Now, after reinforcing all these warnings, what feels like hundreds of times over,
our kids are now 5 and 3, and we can take a walk around downtown without fear of grave danger.
But along the way, we've had the occasional scare when our kids have disregarded our warnings.
One day my wife was home alone.
She gave me permission to share this story, by the way.
And she was changing our daughter's diaper, who had just woken up for a nap upstairs.
Our 2-year-old son was playing downstairs, and for some reason, he decided to open the front door,
which he had just learned to do.
And not only did he walk out onto our front porch and onto the grass,
but he walked down the walkway and toward the street.
And when my wife realized what had happened and found him just a moment later,
he said, Mommy, I saw a bus go by.
Well, let us say that was both an occasion for a stern warning and some strong comfort.
And it hasn't, nothing like that has happened again.
Well, the Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians, he describes himself in chapter 4 as a spiritual father
who is writing to admonish his beloved children in the church at Corinth.
And so he begins with today with a word of warning, but he ends with a word of encouragement.
So let me read this passage to us, 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11.
Paul says,
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived.
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 inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you.
But you were washed.
You were sanctified.
You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
This passage begins with a very strong warning.
Paul says,
Do you not know?
Paul uses this phrase a few times in his letter.
Chapter 3, verse 16.
And several times in chapter 5 and 6.
Most likely referring to basic Christian teachings that he had personally communicated to them
during his visit to Corinth.
Just a couple of years before he wrote this letter.
And he says,
Do not be deceived.
In other words, this should be obvious to you, but I know you are prone to forget or think that you know better.
Don't be deceived.
And twice he repeats himself,
The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now you might wonder what motivated Paul to issue such a strong warning.
Was Paul an angry religious traditionalist,
venting his frustrations about all the sinful practices of godless Corinth?
Well, no.
That's not Paul's motivation here.
Paul certainly had his concerns about and criticisms of Corinthian culture.
But Paul was not writing an open letter to the Corinthian parliament.
Or to the city of Corinth as a whole.
Paul was writing first and foremost to the Christian church.
And Paul's burning concern was that the Corinthian church was falling into,
or perhaps running headlong into,
the self-promoting, self-indulgent, and ultimately self-destructive patterns of the culture in which they lived.
So look back at chapter 5, verse 1.
Chapter 5, verse 1, we learn that a man in the church was sleeping with his stepmother.
And the church as a whole thought nothing of it.
In fact, as Paul says in verse 2, they were arrogant.
They celebrated it.
And it seems like they thought as follows.
We have freedom in Christ Jesus.
We're no longer under the law.
We're under grace.
And therefore, everything is lawful for us.
We can do whatever we feel like.
And Paul says no.
In this case, he says, you must no longer treat this man as a fellow Christian.
Because his pattern, his ongoing pattern of life is so far out of line with his profession of faith.
Chapter 6.
Beginning of chapter 6, we learn that some church members were suing each other in court.
Most likely, this involved a civil dispute over money or property.
And again, Paul responds very strongly.
Verse 7 and 8, he says, this is a shame.
Is there no one in the church wise enough to mediate?
If you're hauling one another into court, you've already lost the battle.
You're wronging each other.
This is not how the church is supposed to be.
You see, Paul's underlying belief here is that being a Christian means belonging to the kingdom of God.
In other words, living under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Romans chapter 14, verse 17, Paul described the kingdom of God.
He said, the kingdom of God is characterized by righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
And Paul is concerned that many of the Corinthian Christians' patterns of life were way out of line.
That instead of displaying righteousness, joy, and peace, there was evidence of disloyalty and division and dissatisfaction.
And Paul says, you can't have it both ways.
This is a walking contradiction.
Now, before we dive into the content of verse 9 and 10, let me make two broader observations about these verses.
First, in one commentator's words, that Paul is not talking about isolated acts of unrighteousness,
but a whole way of life pursued persistently.
The words in this list are nouns.
He says, the sexually immoral or idolaters.
In other words, these are ongoing patterns that have come to define a person's character.
Second, this is not an entrance exam for joining the Christian community.
So it's not like a job application where you have to answer a series of yes-no questions.
Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
Have you ever been evicted from a prior apartment?
Are you a U.S. citizen with proper ID?
Did you finish high school?
And if you answer even one of those questions the wrong way, you're automatically out.
That's not what Paul is doing here.
In fact, in verse 11, he says, such were some of you.
Now, what Paul is doing is he's warning against patterns of unrighteousness, what he calls unrighteousness,
that don't belong in God's kingdom.
Paul does this a few places in his letters, most extensively in Galatians 5 and Romans 1 and 2,
more briefly in Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5.
But here, Paul focuses mostly on two categories in this list.
He focuses on sex and he focuses on money.
And that's not an accident because, as we saw, the issue in chapter 5 was sexual immorality,
and the issue in chapter 6 was a dispute over money.
In chapter 6 and 7, Paul gives more extensive teaching about sex and marriage.
In chapter 11, he addresses, among other things, divisions between the rich and the poor and the community.
Paul has already addressed issues of power and status in chapters 1 through 4.
So, the big picture is Paul's concern that the Corinthian Christians are using power, money, and sex in order to gratify themselves
rather than to advance God's kingdom.
And Paul wants to reorient their thinking.
Now, if we think about money and sex,
the prevailing assumption in our world,
which is similar to that of ancient Corinth,
is that money and sex are basically private matters
where each individual should determine what is right for themselves.
All right, so many people would say
that sex is generally okay
as long as it's between consenting adults.
As long as you don't violate someone else's autonomy and privacy.
And similarly with money.
Right?
Nobody else needs to know how much you earn
or how much you give
or how you spend your money.
That's your business, not theirs.
Let me put it this way.
Have you ever raised a serious concern
with someone,
perhaps a close friend,
about their attitude
or their practices
with regard to sex
or money?
And if so,
how did they respond?
Right?
Most of us are naturally very self-protective
in both of these areas.
We think no one ought to tell us otherwise.
It's not an accident
that two out of the three
most common factors in marital conflicts
are sex and money.
The other one is the in-laws,
which is sometimes a power issue.
Right?
Sex, money, and power.
And for the most part,
the only time we seek help in these areas
is when our lives have nearly fallen apart.
If there's an affair.
Right?
Or when we're facing bankruptcy or eviction.
But the Bible has an entirely different vision
of the purpose of money, sex, and power.
You see, in the kingdom of God,
power, money, and sex are not our own
to use as we please.
They're gifts from God entrusted to us
for the sake of building God's kingdom.
So in God's kingdom,
money is a blessing from God.
Deuteronomy says,
it is God who gives you the power to get wealth.
First Timothy says,
God richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
But it's a blessing not just for ourselves,
it's a blessing to be shared
with God's people in need throughout the world.
Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians,
chapters 8 and 9, quite extensively.
At that time, he was raising money
to help the famine-stricken Christians in Jerusalem.
And he says this,
he says,
you will be enriched in every way
in order to be generous in every way.
And the result will be thanksgiving to God.
Money, which is inherently temporary and fleeting,
is a tool for serving and blessing
and honoring people who will last forever.
That's the purpose of money in the kingdom of God.
And therefore, greed, when money becomes an idol,
Paul says it's out of place in God's kingdom.
Now, of course, very few of us self-identify as greedy.
There was a pastor who was teaching a Sunday school class
on the seven deadly sins.
Greed is one of those.
Greed was the lowest attendance of all the days,
by far.
Right?
People came when it was pride and lust
and sloth and gluttony,
but not greed.
You see, greed is insidious.
Sometimes it's manifested in envy,
fantasizing as we browse catalogs or store aisles
or internet sites, even if we don't buy anything.
Maybe it's manifested in anxiety,
constantly checking the account balances
or feeling that our security correlates
to our financial status.
Or distraction.
We become so engaged in enjoying and managing
and increasing our possessions
that we ignore the people who are right next to us.
That was an issue in the church in Corinth.
Later on, Paul goes on and he says,
when you gather together to eat,
one of you is going hungry
and the other is getting drunk.
Some of you are so focused on enjoying yourselves
and overindulging yourselves
that you're completely ignoring
the person next to you
who's hungry,
who doesn't have enough to eat.
Greed sometimes blinds us
to the basic needs of our neighbors
who we pass on the street
or sitting next to us in church.
Jesus said,
be on your guard against all kinds of greed,
for life does not consist
in the abundance of possessions.
Now in God's kingdom,
just as our money belongs to God
and God enriches us
so that we might be generous,
our bodies belong to God.
So in God's kingdom,
sex is not primarily a biological drive
or a means of self-expression.
Sex is the embodiment
of God's covenant faithfulness.
Sex is intended to be a physical union
that accompanies a whole life union.
Sex is meant to be a reaffirmation
of the marriage promises,
a way of saying,
I would marry you all over again today.
And so in God's kingdom,
marriage is not just two people
entering into a mutually beneficial
arrangement to please one another.
It's two people vowing to display
to the world something far greater
than themselves.
Paul says,
Christian marriage depicts the union
of Christ and the church.
That is two fundamentally different entities
joined together as one for all time.
And you know,
if you think about it,
the way we think about money
and the way we think about sex,
we tend to think of them
in a self-centered way.
And when we hear about this
God's kingdom way of thinking,
it feels different to us.
Right?
Marriage is not primarily
about the two of you.
No!
Not in God's kingdom.
It's about displaying to the world
Christ's love for his people
and the union between
two fundamentally different entities.
And that is one reason
why the Bible,
including Jesus himself,
always describes marriage
as male plus female.
That is,
our fundamental difference
is inscribed on our very own bodies
and in our unity together
we display the reconciling grace of God.
That's the broader biblical vision
for the purpose of marriage
in God's kingdom.
And that is one reason
why Paul includes
men who practice homosexuality
alongside the sexually immoral
and adulterers in verse 9.
Now,
that is the elephant in the room
we have gotten here.
Okay?
So,
let me take a few moments
to clarify three things
about what Paul is saying
and what Paul is not saying
in including that in the list.
Number one,
Paul is speaking about
sexual practice,
not what we would call
sexual attraction
or orientation.
So,
Paul is not saying
that the only people
who belong in the church
are those who feel
exclusive attraction
to the opposite sex.
If you're a Christian
who experiences
homosexual feelings,
you will have
particular struggles
as well as particular
insights and gifts
to bring to the church.
We need you.
One book that's
particularly insightful
in this respect
is called
Washed and Waiting
by a guy named Wesley Hill.
It's available
on the bookstall downstairs.
I'd recommend it
to anybody
who wants to explore
this topic
and wants to hear
his insights.
So,
sexual practice,
not sexual attraction
or orientation.
Second,
Paul mentions
gay sex
generally
as a practice
that does not belong
in God's kingdom.
Now,
some scholars
have argued
that Paul
is referring
specifically to
prostitution
or exploitation.
But there is
a pair of Greek words
that refer specifically
to sexual relations
between an older man
and a younger boy,
which was one
prominent form
of homosexuality
in the ancient world.
Paul did not use
those words
in this list.
If you look
in the Pew Bibles
or the ESV,
there's a text note
at the bottom
which rightly says
the two Greek words
translated by this phrase
refer to the passive
and active partners
in consensual
homosexual acts.
In particular,
the second word
Paul uses
is arsenokoitai.
It's a compound word
from arsen,
which means male,
and koitai,
which means bed
or intercourse.
It's derived
from the Greek translation
of Leviticus 20.13,
which says,
whoever lies with a male
as with a woman,
they have both done
what is not pleasing
to God.
So that's the second thing.
Third,
though Paul mentions
gay sex
as one among
many practices
that do not belong
in God's kingdom,
Paul does not
single it out.
If the church
preaches
against homosexuality
while tolerating
or ignoring
other sins
in this list,
that displays hypocrisy
and self-righteousness
of which we must repent.
To take one other example
from this list,
along with the sexually immoral
and the greedy,
which are sort of
the true major categories,
Paul lists in verse 10
revilers.
Reviling means
verbal abuse,
slander or gossip
that destroys
someone's reputation,
misrepresenting
someone else's views
in order to undermine them,
treating someone
with scorn
and derision.
Sometimes
the LGBT community
has received this
from the church
and it is wrong.
Our world is full
of reviling,
especially on the internet.
But Paul says,
reviling has no place
in the kingdom of God.
In chapter 4,
Paul said,
when reviled,
we bless.
Chapter 13,
he says,
love is patient
and kind,
is not arrogant
or rude.
So this is Paul's warning.
Paul's warning
is that
to the church
in Corinth,
Paul's warning
to the Christian community
today is that
those who persist
in patterns of unrighteousness
will not inherit
God's kingdom.
We are called
to be part
of the kingdom of God
and to orient
our whole lives,
sex,
money,
power,
our words,
under the authority
of Jesus Christ
and for the good
of our neighbors.
So that's the warning.
It's a strong warning,
but it's also followed
by an even stronger
word of encouragement.
Paul says in verse 11,
such were some
of you,
but
you were washed,
you were sanctified,
you were justified
in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ
and by the spirit
of our God.
Such were some
of you.
The Corinthian church
was not a social club
dominated by people
with impeccable
moral and religious
upbringings
from nice
middle-class families
and everyone
who didn't fit
that profile
was marginalized.
No.
The Corinthian church
included people
who had complicated
sexual histories.
The church included
people who had
manipulated others
financially
in order to get ahead.
The church included
people who had
turned to alcohol
to drown their sorrows.
The church included
people who had
slandered others
behind their backs.
The church included
people who had been
hurt by people
who had done
all these things
to them.
Paul says,
such were some
of you.
And he says,
God didn't choose
you to be part
of his kingdom
because you were
better suited for it
than everyone else.
God chose you
in his mercy.
And the door is open
for anyone
who wants to come in.
Paul says,
such were some
of you,
but God has intervened
and set your life
on a new course.
In Jesus Christ,
through the Holy Spirit,
you have a new identity
and a new calling.
You were washed,
you were sanctified,
you were justified.
Now, those aren't
three things that happen
one after the other
in sequence,
but three ways
of describing
what it means
to become a Christian,
to be brought
into the kingdom
of God.
First,
we've been washed clean
from sin and shame.
I mean,
think about how you feel
if you don't take a shower
for a few days.
Before my freshman year
in college,
I went on foot
on freshman pre-orientation
camping trip,
hiking on the Appalachian Trail
for four days.
By the end of the trip,
we all stank.
Our clothes had got wet
in the rain,
we were sweaty
and dirty.
Now,
when we were on the trip,
all of us could tolerate
each other
because we were all
in the same boat.
We were all stinky.
And then when we got
back to campus
and met our new roommates
for the first time,
we were immediately
self-conscious,
immediately aware
of how dirty
and stinky we were
compared to everyone else.
But of course,
it's a lot easier
to shower and change
than to cleanse
our conscience
from shame.
Maybe you felt shame
because of past
sexual sin,
whether it's adultery
or pornography.
Perhaps you've been
sexually abused
and you bear the shame
of what someone else
has done to you.
Whatever the source,
shame can make us feel
extremely self-conscious,
maybe even self-hating.
It can make us anxious
and unsettled
around other people
that we perceive
to be clean
relatively
in some way
or other.
We feel dirty.
We don't know
how to deal with it
and so we try to hide.
We don't want anyone
to know about certain
parts of our past
or some of our present
struggles and temptations.
Paul says there is
good news.
There's a way
to move
beyond shame
because God
and Jesus Christ
has come to find us
in our shame,
in our ugliness,
in our dirtiness.
He has come
to embrace us
and to wash us clean
and clothe us
in his beauty
and his love.
Wesley Hill
in that book
Washed and Waiting
writes,
God has cleansed
the stains of sin
from the crevices
of my mind,
heart,
and body.
He has included me
in his family,
the church,
where I can find support,
comfort,
and provocation
toward Christian maturity.
Of course,
that's what baptism
symbolizes.
God washing us clean,
renewing us
through his Holy Spirit,
making us part
of his family
and Paul says,
live as people
who've been washed.
You know,
if you've been washed clean
through Christ
and the Holy Spirit,
you can approach God
with confidence.
You can face your past
with honesty
and transparency
instead of hiding
and defensiveness.
You don't have to go around
extremely self-conscious
feeling like you're
stinky and dirty
because you're not
anymore
before God.
God's washed you clean
from the inside out.
Your past
doesn't define you anymore.
Second,
Paul says,
we've been sanctified.
That word means
set apart
for God's holy purposes.
It was a word
that was used
in the Old Testament
for the priests
and for the instruments
in the temple.
They were sanctified.
That is,
set apart
as fitting vessels
in which God's presence
could dwell
and through which his glory
could be displayed.
Andrew Walls wrote,
not only does God
in Christ
take people
as they are,
he takes them
in order to transform them
into what he wants
them to be.
It's like the great sculptor
Michelangelo
walking through
a stone quarry
and coming upon
a large slab
of marble.
And he says
to the owner
of the quarry,
I want to buy
that piece of marble
because I don't just
see a large slab
of marble
with some jagged edges.
I see the sculpture
that I will one day
make from it.
It will take
a long time.
I will have to
chip away at it
relentlessly,
but one day
it will become
one of my masterpieces.
That is how God
looks at us
through Jesus Christ.
Or it's like
a restoration architect
coming upon
a boarded up house
with peeling paint,
a leaky roof,
and a backyard
full of trash
in the middle
of a bad neighborhood.
And he says
to the real estate agent,
I want to buy
this house.
I'm not buying it
so I can become
a slum lord
and make minimal repairs
and rent it out
at the highest price
I can
and make money.
No,
I'm moving in.
I'm buying the house
so I can move in
and renovate
the whole thing.
I'm going to clean up
the yard
and plant a garden.
I'm going to fix up
the roof
and put in a balcony.
I'm going to
knock down the side wall
and put on an addition.
When the renovation
is finished,
you will hardly recognize
what it once was.
But this will be
my home.
Ephesians 2 says
in Jesus Christ,
we are being built
together
into a dwelling place
for God
by his spirit.
God has claimed us
for his own.
He has bought us.
We have been sanctified.
That is set apart
for his holy purposes
and so that means
our lives will never
be the same.
God,
the master artist,
will gradually chip away
at everything
that does not display
his glory,
at our greed
and our lust
and our anger
and our power
hungriness.
God,
the master architect,
will not allow
the garbage
to remain
in the backyard
because he has come
to dwell in us
by his spirit.
You see,
God doesn't just
wash us clean
and then say,
here's a bunch
of rules to follow,
work really hard.
He comes to dwell
in us.
He's with us
every step
of the way.
When the spirit
came on Jesus,
when he was baptized,
it said the spirit
descended on him
and remained on him
and when the Holy Spirit
came upon the church
on the day of Pentecost,
it descended upon them
and it didn't fly back away
but the Holy Spirit
remained with God's people.
When the Holy Spirit
comes to you,
when you ask Jesus
to fill you
with his spirit,
he comes to dwell
and to remain
and to be with you
every day,
we've been sanctified,
set apart
for God.
Third,
we've been justified.
That is,
given a new status
before God.
The word justified
means to be declared
righteous.
That is to be
on good terms
with God.
We've received pardon
for our past offenses.
We have a place
in his family.
Some time ago,
I was talking
with a guy
who had been
in and out of prison
multiple times.
Even though he hadn't
been convicted
of a crime
in several years,
his life was still
very much constrained
by his past offenses.
His criminal record
made him ineligible
to apply for most jobs,
so he struggled
to find steady work.
Because he struggled
to find work,
he couldn't pay
for an apartment,
so he bounced around
from one place
to another.
He was on probation,
which created
additional demands
and restrictions.
But if he violated
his probation,
he would end up
in jail again,
and he was often
depressed and fearful
and anxious.
When you're on probation,
you're living under
the shadow
of a guilty verdict.
And the burden
is on you
to demonstrate
to the courts
and to society at large
that you're worthy
of obtaining freedom
once again.
Now,
from a human perspective,
the rationale
for probation
is understandable,
though the system
can be flawed.
But when it comes
to our relationship
with God,
Jesus Christ,
through his death
on the cross,
has provided
not probation,
but pardon
for everyone
who repents
and turns to him.
You see,
we don't have to live
under the shadow
of a guilty verdict.
Through Jesus Christ,
we live in the light
of resurrection promise.
Jesus Christ died
for our sins.
He was condemned
for us,
and he was raised
to life
for our justification.
It is his verdict
that matters.
In Jesus Christ,
there is no condemnation.
And so we can live
in that freedom.
We can live
in that joy.
we've been brought
into the kingdom
of God.
The kingdom
of righteousness,
peace,
and joy
in the Holy Spirit.
That is Paul's
encouragement.
May we heed
his warning
and be strengthened
by his encouragement
today.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus,
we thank you
for your transforming
power.
That is at work
in this world.
That is at work
in us
who trust in you.
Lord,
we pray that we would
live in that new identity
that you have given us.
Lord,
that we would walk
in our identity
as people
who have been washed,
who have been sanctified,
who have been justified
by you.
We pray these things
in your name.
Amen.