Everyday Church Sermons Everyday Church

We will look at Paul's teaching on and affirmation of singleness. Then we will look at how we build communities of faith that honour both singleness and marriage. And finally, we will reflect on how Paul’s teaching challenges the spirit of our age, both in Corinth in the first century and in our world in the 21st century.

Paul has recalibrated the Corinthians understanding on the importance and the place of sex in a believer’s life. He has done this by reinforcing the biblical foundations of sex as a covenant act within the biblical covenant of marriage. He has reminded them that the covenant of sex is rooted in creation and points towards the greater covenant between Christ and his church. In the previous chapters he has brought this teaching to counteract sexual promiscuity, now he is seeking to correct a misunderstanding about abstinence and celibacy within marriage. The first foundation Paul lays for his teaching is one of identity.

Belong, believe, behave - how grace changes the rules.

As we celebrate Easter, we’re going to look at the most important promise ever made, one that changed the course of history, and a promise that we celebrate coming to pass at Easter. It’s the promise of the resurrection – when Jesus, the Son of God, died on a cross, and then rose from the dead three days later. Just as he said.

We can see the issue for the Corinthians, and we can work through Paul’s arguments. But what about us? We live in a sex obsessed world. We all have our own sexual history both in terms of how we think and how we behave. How do we process this teaching without simply being paralysed by guilt and or shame? How do we apply this truth personally and corporately?

The use of the past tense in this passage is hopeful as well as humbling. Paul is not setting them or us up for a fall. We do not have to give in to our flesh. We can move on from our petty intolerances. Because we have been washed, sanctified, and justified. God has done a work in us, is doing a work in us, and will finish the work he is doing in us on that day of days when Christ returns. We are not helpless or hopeless - which is what guilt tells us. We have hope in the one who promises to help.