Several years ago, on a Sunday morning, I was responsible for the children’s story. I wanted to help the children think about Jesus as their friend, so I began with this question: Who would you go to if you had a problem? One child said he would go to his grandma. Another said he would go to his teacher. Another said his mother. Then an 8 or 9-year- old, who must have thought I hadn’t got the right answer yet, said, “An attorney?”
We live in a litigious society. In Ohio alone we have 34,856 lawyers, one for every 315 people. By comparison, Japan has one for 8,195 people. The U.S. leads the world in lawyers and litigation. Suing people who get your goat has become a pastime in our country.
According to some scholars, that is the way it was in the city of Corinth. The church Paul was writing to was located in a wealthy city where law courts were not only a way to settle differences, they were a source of entertainment. The problem was that members of the church were using secular courts to settle differences among themselves, and that is not the way of the cross.
For those of you not here last Sunday, we are preaching from this letter to the Corinthian church during the weeks leading up to Easter. Those of you who were here last Sunday will recall that Paul emphasizes the way of the cross in chapter 1. He says the cross may seem like foolishness to unbelievers, but to those who believe, it is not only the instrument of salvation, it is a pattern for living. And it is that pattern of living that Paul wants to impress upon this young congregation. The way of the cross is the pattern of living for the Christian community. Let me ask you, have you embraced the cross as the pattern for your life?
So, what does the way of the cross mean for a community of believers who live in a society where attorneys and courts and judges and juries are everywhere, just waiting to take your case and decide your disputes?
I want to begin with the last verse of today’s passage –v 11, because it serves as the lynch pin to Paul’s argument. The first point is:
1. The way of the cross means a transformed identity. “This is what some of you used to be.” And Paul gives a short list of behaviors that go against everything the Kingdom of God stands for. Maybe you can find yourself in the list.
What is Paul talking about? He’s saying that when you turned your face toward the cross, you turned away from the values and standards and behaviors society lives by. Your point of reference is Christ. Like a butterfly that leaves behind the habits of a caterpillar, the reality of your life has changed. Have you ever wondered how different the world must seem to a butterfly when it has been used to being a caterpillar all its life? When you were baptized, or washed as Paul says, God placed you in a new reality. The Bible says you were cleansed of your sins, forgiven for what is past.
In addition, Paul says you were sanctified, set apart for God’s service. Throughout the Bible, beginning in the OT, we see that people and utensils were set apart for God’s purposes. In 1:1 Paul says the members of the Corinthian church are “sanctified in Christ Jesus.”
And you were justified. That is, you were placed in right relation to God within the community of God’s people. The walls that kept you from a relationship to God and his people have been broken down. Being baptized into Christ means you enter a new reality in which those things that used to give you status, security, and identity no longer count. Now we find our identity in Christ alone.
An old story about St. Augustine says that he had been anything but a saint as a young man, visiting prostitutes and doing things young pagans do. One day he heard God speak to him and he became obedient to Christ. Soon after his conversion, as he was walking down the street, a prostitute began to walk after him, calling his name. He paid no attention and kept walking. She called louder. “Augustine, it’s me,” she said. And he replied, “But it’s no longer me.”
Don’t underestimate the impact of a new identity. The implications are out of this world. I heard of a preacher who asked his congregation, “How many of you want to go to heaven?” Everybody raised their hands. The pastor went on, “Good. Now then, beginning tomorrow….” A new identity means new behavior.
Paul wants to remind us that we are no longer what we used to be. The way of the cross calls us to a new identity and that means that we do not ask secular society to solve our differences.
2. The way of the cross means unity in community. All of you know what it is like when you are with a group of people and something important happens - the lights go out, you help each other during a snow storm, you all work hard on a project – you feel especially close to each other. You have become a kind of family or community for awhile.
You can’t read Paul’s letter to the Corinthians without realizing that when people gather around the cross and claim Christ as their Lord, they become bound together in a special relationship, a community that finds its unity in Christ. It’s an experience different from any other. And Paul makes a special point of it. In chapter 1 and again in 6:1, Paul calls the members of this community saints. He is not talking about a few holy people. Rather, he is talking about everyone whom God has called to be set aside or (there’s that word again) sanctified for God’s purposes. All of these people together are in a special relationship to God.
We also see another way to talk about it. Here in chapter 6, the translators of the NRSV have missed an important word. Look at v.5,6. The word believer, is really the word brother in Greek. The word picture Paul is working with is family, the family of God.
We all know that families are unique. We act differently with our families than we do with people who are outside our family. There are certain boundaries we maintain. We may use certain words or language in our family that we don’t use beyond our family.
But the one quality of family that makes a family different is the way a family sticks together. Family members protect each other; they help each other. They take responsibility for each other. And when they don’t members of the family feel betrayed.
And that was the problem in the church at Corinth. Paul was upset with them because they failed to take responsibility for each other. Instead of finding Christ-like ways to settle their disputes, they were going to outsiders, to unbelievers, to the secular courts. V.6 says they are going to court against a brother and before unbelievers at that. And Paul is ashamed of them. These outsiders are unrighteous, Paul says v. 1. They don’t belong to God’s covenant community. So, what is the problem?
1. These Corinthian Christians were placing the values of the pagan culture over the community of faith. The values of society say, “If I don’t look out for myself, nobody else will.” The values of Christian community say that we look out for each other. The values of society emphasize self-assertion. The values of Christian community emphasize love and humility. By going outside of the church, they were not letting the church be the church. They were letting the world squeeze them into its mold. For the Christian, the community of faith takes priority over the pagan culture.
2. They were breaking down the unity of the church. By going to court, they were pitting brother against brother, as the NIV says in v. 6. Instead of working with each other, they were working against each other. Instead of helping each other, they were hurting each other. Those of you in sports know that when team members work for themselves, they lose sight of what the team can accomplish. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we should never forget that we are all on the same team. If we run into a disagreement, let’s solve it in the church house, not in the courthouse.
In the Northern Ohio district we have what is called a Shalom Team, a group of people who get training and can help churches understand how to deal with differences and who will go to that church to assist, if they ask for help. Sue and I have served on that team and we have gone to several churches over the years. I think Paul would have been happy to have a team like that in Corinth, so they could have solved their differences inside the church.
When we lived in Iowa in the 70s, one middle-aged couple in the congregation decided to divorce. Rather than go to attorneys and courts, they came to the church to ask for help in working out some of the issues they had to deal with. The church formed a task team to work with them to resolve the issues. I think Paul would have been happy if the church in Corinth had done that.
The way of the cross means unity in community
3. The way of the cross means working for justice using Jesus’ example. Paul doesn’t give details of the case he has in mind, but the Corinthians would have known.
The problem seems to be that some people in the church were taking advantage of others by using the court system to get their way. V. 8 says “You yourselves wrong and defraud – and brothers at that.” This sentence is loaded. You is emphasized with a double use of “you.” We might say, “You of all people.” The word defraud means to rob, to get something that doesn’t belong to you. And if you look back to the kind of people they used to be, those categories are about people who tried to get things that didn’t belong to them, whether it’s someone else’s body or their property. As Christians that should not be going on anymore. But, some people may have been taking advantage of the poor in the congregation to line their own pockets and they used the court system to enforce it.
What should they have done? We get the answer in v. 7. Christians should suffer wrong rather than do wrong.
I read about a man who lent another Christian some money. He was having trouble getting the man to pay the money back. He talked to him about the matter and still he would not pay the money back. He went to the deacons and they talked to the man, but still he wouldn’t pay. Finally one day, the man who had borrowed the money received a receipt in the mail for the money he had borrowed. Surprised, he called the lender and asked why he had sent him a receipt since he had not paid the money back?" The lender said, "I did everything I could to get you to pay the money back. So I talked to the Lord about it, told Him about the situation, and He said He would pay me back and collect from you. (Sermons by Ken Trivette from First Corinthians http://www.thelivingwordtbc.com/1cor19.htm.)
Paul was saying that it would be better to suffer the loss of financial and material things than the loss of spiritual things.
There is much more to consider in this passage. For example, what impact will a court case in church have on the unsaved? Are we willing to sacrifice our testimony for a pocket full of change?
Conclusion
Just yesterday a man who was recently baptized called me. A teenager had broken into his house and stolen things and it was caught on camera. Should he press charges or not? It turns out that the teenager used to attend the church he attends. What would be the Christian thing to do? It’s a heart-breaking case. How could the church help work it out? I wonder what advice Paul would have.
This chapter challenges us to consider the way of the cross as we approach Easter. How does our transformed identity express itself? Are we experiencing unity in community? Are we working for justice, not just in the world around us, but among ourselves? The way we do that will affect not only ourselves and our church, but also our testimony to those outside.
(Outline for use in bulletin with appropriate blanks)
1. The way of the cross means a transformed identity.
We have been washed
We have been sanctified
We have been justified
2. The way of the cross means unity in community
We are called saints.
We are called brothers (and sisters)
The community of faith takes priority over the pagan culture.
Unity means we are all on the same team.
3. The way of the cross means working for justice
Christians should suffer wrong rather than do wrong.
Resources: Richard B. Hays. First Corinthians commentary. Interpretation series. 1997
