Thursday, March 30, 2023

Today’s Scripture Reading 
1 Corinthians 6:6–20

But a believer goes to court against a believer — and before unbelievers at that? In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud — and believers at that.

Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers — none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,” and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is meant not for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said, “The two shall be one flesh.” But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. (NRSV)

Reflection

This particular text is definitely not my favorite, since it has been used so often as a weapon to harm and demonize. And yet it is a part of our Holy Scripture, so we will wrestle with it together. First, it is important to remember that this letter is a part of a longer correspondence between Paul and the church in Corinth. In particular, Paul was increasingly concerned that the church was beginning to once again resemble the larger society, with a growing emphasis on the social stratifications of power and privilege. Paul saw divisions beginning to grow wider and deeper within the faith community. And so he used quite a bit of hyperbolic speech to get their attention!

I think what can get lost in this passage is the promise of Paul’s understanding of the gospel. As scholar Charles Campbell has written, “Embodied Christian freedom cannot simply be a negative freedom, freedom from. It has an ... ultimate purpose that shapes it: ‘Glorify God in your body.’ Believers have been set free from the powers of this age and set free for lives that glorify God, both within the community of faith and in embodied human lives.”

Furthermore, glorifying God in our embodied human lives also means being in proximity with those whose lives are full of suffering, of oppression, of all the “isms.” For in the midst of all his rhetorical flourish, Paul is sure of one thing: In Christ, we are all new creation. And that means our faith community is also to live as a new creation — one that looks more like God’s household, rather than the world’s household that is still full of the stratifications of power and privilege.

Prayer

Gracious God, please help me to live into the freedom with which you have blessed me. May all I do and say this day indeed glorify you and your claim on this world. Keep making me a new creation day after day. Amen.

Written by Shannon J. Kershner, Pastor

Reflection and prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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