Saints in a Sin City - Study 5/26/11
Saints in a Sin City
Introduction to the Letter to the Corinthians
There is this saying that “What goes on in Las Vegas stays in Vegas”. Even if you have not been to Vegas like me, it is not hard to understand the saying. In fact you do not want to know what goes on in Vegas. There is a scripture that says “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret (Ephesians 5:11-12). In the American context, Vegas has the characteristic honor of being known as the “sin city”. I guess that was true before the sixties. Lately, many cities in America and around the world would or have earned such names as the sin city.
In the New Testament Bible times, Corinth was known as the sin city among other things. At the time Apostle Paul was in Corinth, about A.D. 55, the city of Corinth had a population of about 650000. It was the chief city of Greece in commerce, culture, religion and immorality. It had everything worldly going for it and its people. Corinth is an isthmus and a commercial city for goods exchanging hands between east and west. It was very prosperous.
Its religion and immorality worked hand in hand. Corinth had about 12 different temples representing different gods. There was the Ascelepius temple, for the god of healing. There were temples for the gods of the sun, the Appollo. And the most infamous at the center of the city was the Aphrodite, the goddess of love, “whose worshippers practiced religious prostitution”. With the sanction by their religion, everything and anything goes in Corinth. “At one time 1000 sacred prostitutes served her temple. So widely known did the immorality of Corinth become that the Greek verb “to Corinthianize” came to mean “to practice sexual immorality”.
It is within this prosperous, immoral city that the Church at Corinth was born through the preaching of Apostle Paul and some friends (see Acts 18). How do you become a saint and continue to be a saint in a sin city? It is no wonder the Corinthian Church was plagued with numerous problems that Apostle Paul had to address in his Letters to the Corinthian Church.
The Letters to the Corinthians is so much for us today as we are still dealing with the same issues that confronted them such as immaturity, instability, divisions, jealousy and envy, lawsuits, marriage problems, sexual immorality and misuse of spiritual gifts. In the midst of these problems, God gave us the most important and eloquent chapters on Love (chapter 13) and on the Resurrection (chapter 15).
As we embark on this study, let’s keep in mind that the problems encountered by the church does not make them less of saints of God. “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1 Corinthians 1:2). Paul did not stop calling them “brothers and sisters”. The Letters give all of us HOPE in the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. We have been saved and we are being saved. It is a progressive sanctification. My daughter, Grace is about two and half years old and in diapers. That does not mean that she will always be in diapers and will not grow up some day as the beautiful woman God has made her to be. Being in diapers does not make her less of a human and less in our family. She is just growing up and we must have patience with her.
Please read all of the 16 chapters of first Corinthians. Let’s dig in and study to continue in our progressive holiness (being set apart for God’s glory every day of our lives). Are you living in a sin city? Be encouraged and in fact all of us do live in a sin city. May God sanctify us on a daily basis as He did the Corinthian Church through His Word. Amen.
1 Corinthians 1
1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritual Gifts at Corinth
4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sectarianism Is Sin
10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 12 Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. 16 Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.
Christ the Power and Wisdom of God
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:
“ I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”[a]
20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks[b] foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Glory Only in the Lord
26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— 31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”[c]
Introduction to the Letter to the Corinthians
There is this saying that “What goes on in Las Vegas stays in Vegas”. Even if you have not been to Vegas like me, it is not hard to understand the saying. In fact you do not want to know what goes on in Vegas. There is a scripture that says “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret (Ephesians 5:11-12). In the American context, Vegas has the characteristic honor of being known as the “sin city”. I guess that was true before the sixties. Lately, many cities in America and around the world would or have earned such names as the sin city.
In the New Testament Bible times, Corinth was known as the sin city among other things. At the time Apostle Paul was in Corinth, about A.D. 55, the city of Corinth had a population of about 650000. It was the chief city of Greece in commerce, culture, religion and immorality. It had everything worldly going for it and its people. Corinth is an isthmus and a commercial city for goods exchanging hands between east and west. It was very prosperous.
Its religion and immorality worked hand in hand. Corinth had about 12 different temples representing different gods. There was the Ascelepius temple, for the god of healing. There were temples for the gods of the sun, the Appollo. And the most infamous at the center of the city was the Aphrodite, the goddess of love, “whose worshippers practiced religious prostitution”. With the sanction by their religion, everything and anything goes in Corinth. “At one time 1000 sacred prostitutes served her temple. So widely known did the immorality of Corinth become that the Greek verb “to Corinthianize” came to mean “to practice sexual immorality”.
It is within this prosperous, immoral city that the Church at Corinth was born through the preaching of Apostle Paul and some friends (see Acts 18). How do you become a saint and continue to be a saint in a sin city? It is no wonder the Corinthian Church was plagued with numerous problems that Apostle Paul had to address in his Letters to the Corinthian Church.
The Letters to the Corinthians is so much for us today as we are still dealing with the same issues that confronted them such as immaturity, instability, divisions, jealousy and envy, lawsuits, marriage problems, sexual immorality and misuse of spiritual gifts. In the midst of these problems, God gave us the most important and eloquent chapters on Love (chapter 13) and on the Resurrection (chapter 15).
As we embark on this study, let’s keep in mind that the problems encountered by the church does not make them less of saints of God. “To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1 Corinthians 1:2). Paul did not stop calling them “brothers and sisters”. The Letters give all of us HOPE in the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. We have been saved and we are being saved. It is a progressive sanctification. My daughter, Grace is about two and half years old and in diapers. That does not mean that she will always be in diapers and will not grow up some day as the beautiful woman God has made her to be. Being in diapers does not make her less of a human and less in our family. She is just growing up and we must have patience with her.
Please read all of the 16 chapters of first Corinthians. Let’s dig in and study to continue in our progressive holiness (being set apart for God’s glory every day of our lives). Are you living in a sin city? Be encouraged and in fact all of us do live in a sin city. May God sanctify us on a daily basis as He did the Corinthian Church through His Word. Amen.
1 Corinthians 1
1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritual Gifts at Corinth
4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5 that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sectarianism Is Sin
10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11 For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions among you. 12 Now I say this, that each of you says, “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of Cephas,” or “I am of Christ.” 13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. 16 Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Besides, I do not know whether I baptized any other. 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.
Christ the Power and Wisdom of God
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:
“ I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”[a]
20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks[b] foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
Glory Only in the Lord
26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— 31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”[c]
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