Page 54 - Biblical Ethics Course

have their entire lives—in terms of both belief and action—centered first and foremost on Christ. The good
news of Jesus’ saving act is meant to be transformative, and this good news should be unapologetically
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proclaimed.

1–2 Corinthians
Corinth was Paul’s problem church, racked by divisions, immorality, and even hostility toward him. In the
Corinthian letters, Paul urges the believers to lead faithful lives in a pagan world, and he holds up Christ’s
sacrifice on the cross as the example and authenticator of genuine Christian service.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul emphasizes how to live as a Christian community, which differs from the values of secular
culture. Their culture’s stories were distorting their views about following Jesus. The most serious problem of
the Corinthian church was worldliness, an unwillingness to divorce the culture around them. Most of the
believers could not consistently separate themselves from their old, selfish, immoral, and pagan ways. It became
necessary for Paul to write to correct this, as well as to command the faithful Christians not only to break
fellowship with the disobedient and unrepentant members, but to put those members out of the church (1 Cor.
5:9–13)
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Paul strongly criticizes the believers’ misguided attempts to live according to Christian values, pointing them
instead to life in the Spirit of God, based on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor.6:11). The Corinthians think
they know what wisdom is, but their wisdom looks no different from their culture’s. They think they know what
being spiritual means, but their spirituality leads them to be divisive, immoral, and selfish. By contrast, truly
living in the Spirit leads to unity, to putting others first, and to living a holy life. Paul tells the believers to see
themselves as a community, and as individuals, as God’s temple—as members of Christ’s body (1 Cor.3:16;
6:15).

Like the Corinthians, we live in a world filled with ideas and practices that are at odds with the gospel. Every day,
we hear stories about what it means to be wise and spiritual based on our secular culture, and these often cause
us to misunderstand our place in the world or distort the gospel for our own purposes (compare chap. 8; 10).
Paul challenges our desires to be sophisticated and powerful and shows them to be empty counterfeits. We are
challenged to walk away from immorality and live as God’s people, empowered by the Holy Spirit (chapters 5;
12–14).
Love is key to true Biblical Ethics.
A person can be Spiritually gifted and have right doctrine, but absent of love. Selfishness and
pride are the biggest enemy of love. Believers are called to pursue true love.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 (NASB95)
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does
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not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a
wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all
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things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there
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are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is
knowledge, it will be done away.

1 Corinthians 13:13 (NASB95)
13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

26 John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016).

27 1727.

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