I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Corinthians 5-8

Everything in today’s passage comes down to two central points which Paul makes (I hope that I can tie these two points together, but we will see).  First, we do not belong to ourselves, but rather we belong to God.  Therefore we should not live to please ourselves, but rather to please God.  This runs exactly contrary to the argument our society makes about human sexuality (and many other things).  Our society makes the argument that people need to fulfill their sexual desires, whatever those desires may be.  Paul tells us that sexual immorality effects our bodies, bodies which have been joined with Christ.   Paul reiterates what Genesis taught about sexuality, that having sexual relations with someone joins us to them.  In fact, Paul tells us that this joining causes a potential conflict with our being joined to God, which is why he recommends that Believers remain unmarried and refrain from sexual relations.  However, he also tells us that not everyone is capable of such sexual discipline and those who are not should marry.  What I find interesting about today’s society is that the most libertine among us have decided that being blessed with little or no sexual desires belongs among their perversions.

The other main point which Paul makes in this passage regards judgement in the Church, among Believers (I still hope to show how this connects with the other point, but I am not yet sure I will be able to do so).  He tells us that as Believers we should not take our disputes to secular courts.  Instead, when we have a dispute with another Believer which we cannot work out between us, we should take that dispute to someone in the Church whose judgement we both trust and allow them to decide between us.  If the Believer with whom we have the dispute is unwilling to submit to such a resolution, it is better to allow ourselves to be cheated rather than take our dispute before those who apply worldly wisdom to such things.  Paul makes this point after telling the Corinthians to put the man bragging about sexual immorality out of the Church, thus connecting the two ideas.  First, Paul tells us that we should not associate with those who claim to be Believers who indulge in sexual sins, are greedy, worship idols, are abusive, or are drunkards.  He explicitly tells us that those who place themselves outside of the Body of Christ are not subject to our judgement on such behaviors, but we should judge such behavior among those who claim to be one with Christ and with us.