16 May 2023
The first few chapters of 1 Corinthians Paul devotes to reminding his readers of the context of serving Christ, and what it means in contrast to serving any other person or system in this world. The spiritual realm is not at all like the world; there is very little overlap.
After slapping down the fellow who married his father's cast-off trophy babe in Chapter 5, reminding us that some parts of the Law of Moses do overlap with the Law of Christ, Paul goes on to connect that with another fundamental element of moral truth. The issue is not that there are people out there doing immoral things. You cannot avoid those people.
The issue is that anyone claiming Christ had better cling to the things Christ taught. We cannot fellowship with professing Christians who reject any part of Christ's message. Jesus Himself indicated that the sexual morals in the Law of Moses were actually too weak. The real moral truth was much more stringent. His disciples suggested that, if things are that stiff, it's better not to bother with getting married.
Jesus responded that such was a matter of conviction. You cannot simply make it a rule for everyone in your community. The choice to marry or not is God's decision for you individually. It helps if you are fully aware of the challenges involved, because it was for that time and for our time today a bad context for get married.
The generation following Christ saw the first Roman crackdown on a Jewish revolt. The Lord warned that it was coming in Matthew 24-25. He also noted that it would be a very hard time for those with children in tow. Paul was almost certainly executed before that siege of Jerusalem occurred, and in his letters he also advised that it is not a good time to be married and building families. It was a time of persecution with shocking disasters on the way.
It's the same today. I maintain that the solar catastrophes are still on track to strike by the mid-2040s. At a minimum, the magnetic poles will shift, and to the best of our knowledge, that comes with a whole package of trouble that could eliminate the majority of the human race. This is not a good time to get married and build families unless your convictions demand it.
Nor can you afford to disassociate with every sinner, just like it was for the Corinthians. Rather, it is the false Christians we need to avoid. I'll grant that we are in a tight spot, with our Covenant faith so radically different than the mainstream churches, but I counsel that, for most purposes, you should treat them as non-believers, not false Christians. What we propose as the actual message of Christ is so different from what they have been hearing for decades that it's like not having heard at all.
Thus, the message of this passage in 1 Corinthians 5 is that you must be very careful about folks claiming the Covenant. You won't hear that claim from very many right now, so it's a small task. The moment someone says they are observant of the Covenant, that's when we apply the filter. Aside from the general warning about sinners repenting and kneeling before the Cross, we have no comment on their various sins. It's all part of the same package. What we discern and judge are the sins of those who claim to belong to Jesus. We get down to the details only within the boundaries of the Covenant.
Life is only going to get more difficult. Believe me, if you manage to live the Covenant well enough to harvest the covenant blessings, people are eventually going to want a piece of the action. They will do whatever it takes to worm their way into a bunk in the household. They will want what God provides His children despite the rising apocalypse. These are the folks for which you must keep your radar turned on.
Then Paul goes on in Chapter 6 to point out further implications of this basic principle of Covenant boundaries, and who is in versus who is out. This relates to an ancient principle of kinship. The meaning of "neighbor" is a covenant brother or sister. You do not betray them to outsiders. While the Covenant body is not exactly a national identity, what it does mean is that you do not have any worldly national identity, either. There is no entity outside the Covenant to which you owe any real loyalty. Thus, you do not go to secular law against the members of the covenant body.
Those outside folks will not inherit the promises of the Covenant. Do not treat mainstream church or secular leaders with the reverence you would a genuine covenant elder. If you cannot resolve an issue before the body to your satisfaction, how about letting the Lord take care of it? As Paul says, why not take a loss for the sake of the Father's glory? If worse comes to worse, and it really is such a big problem, move to another covenant body, or form your own. It's not "divide and conquer" but "divide and grow".
I can recall when, as member of a mainstream church, I called out a fellow member on something that I knew wasn't right. He acted like I was trying to damage his little kingdom. He insisted that if he could not get my ass via a church council meeting, he would use civil law. That was one of a collection of problems that pushed me out the door of mainstream religion forever.
The Law of Christ has boundaries.
Comments
DarkMirror
"I can recall when, as member of a mainstream church, I called out a fellow member on something that I knew wasn't right. He acted like I was trying to damage his little kingdom."
I've never had the stomach or aptitude to call someone out unless I was really close to them, personally. It's too easy for me these days to see and hear too much nonsense coming out of someone in a church leadership position, it's better for me to just ignore or leave.
Catacomb Resident
He made his mistake in front of the whole church. I wasn't the only one to mention it, and I wasn't the only one threatened.
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