If you were here last week, you will know that we’ve just begun a new sermon series in the apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:
• A letter written around 54 AD, probably whilst Paul himself was resident in Ephesus.
• A letter addressed to a new, young church in the affluent Greek city of Corinth. A church that Paul himself had founded on his second missionary journey, as described in Acts 18.
• A letter seeking to help the members of this young church remain united, despite their diverse socio-economic backgrounds.
In last week’s passage we looked at what it means to be wise. We saw in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians that a spiritually wise person believes in Christ crucified for salvation. Indeed, a wise person proclaims the gospel of Christ crucified, confident in its power to transform lives. But today, as we move forward to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, we’re thinking about holiness, rather than wisdom – what does it mean to be holy? And why should we pursue it?
Most people in our secular society have little conception of what holiness is, or what it entails. If you believe what you see on TV or watch in films, a ‘holy’ person is someone who walks around in a bed sheet, says little, gazes into the middle distance and wears sandals! But for Christians being holy is means living like Christ. It means exhibiting those famous fruit of the Holy Spirit, qualities like kindness, self-sacrifice, compassion and love.
And so for Christians, personal holiness must be one of our very highest aspirations. Indeed, it’s our Heavenly Father’s great aspiration for us – in this world he wants to make us holy, to conform us to the likeness of his Son. Indeed, I think its fair to say that in this life, God is more concerned with our holiness than our happiness – especially if someone’s pursuit of happiness is at the expense of others. In Scripture God repeatedly calls his people to be holy, as he himself is holy. God knows that only once we are holy will we be truly, deeply happy.
Why bother being holy?
But pursuing holiness in this world can come at a cost doesn’t it? After all, consistently obeying our conscience and imitating Christ may make us unpopular – we may be called killjoys, party-poopers or puritanical – or regarded as old fashioned or ethically out of date. In addition, pursuing personal holiness and resisting temptation may often be tough, a painful struggle against strong contrary desires. After all, Jesus himself warned that following him will often feel more like “carrying a Cross”, than eating a piece of cake.
But in today’s passage Paul provides us with at least three reasons why we should strive to be holy:
Firstly, we should be holy because we belong to God. We have been adopted as his children, so we have a responsibility and duty to obey him. For example, Liverpool footballers can’t suddenly start playing for Everton or any other team. They belong at Anfield; they have an exclusive contract with Liverpool FC. In a similar way, Christians have an exclusive contract with God. At the Cross, Jesus purchased us for himself. He paid the ultimate price to save us and to own us, and we owe him our total loyalty in return. As Paul puts it in verse 19 today: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.” Indeed, in verse 14 Paul reminds us that one day our mortal bodies will be “raised” by God – so it very much matters how we use them.
Secondly we should pursue holiness because we are grateful to Christ. In verse 11 Paul reminds us that Jesus has washed away our sin, sanctified our hearts and justified us in the sight of his Father. Christ has made us heirs to the Kingdom of God. Having been saved from sin, therefore, how ungrateful we would be to willingly return to it? It would be like diving back into a shark infested sea or jumping back into a river teeming with crocodiles having just been rescued by a lifeguard. Think how much it cost Christ on the Cross to rescue us from sin. How could we possibly want return to it?!
Thirdly, Paul urges Christians to be holy because we are temples of the Holy Spirit. Verse 19 today reminds us our bodies are sacred spaces. As he writes: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” If we were expecting King Charles to stay at our home we’d make sure that it was spotless for him. In the same way, let’s keep our lives and bodies morally clean, because God’s Holy Spirit has – rather wonderfully – taken up residence within us.
What holiness looks like…
So Paul provides us with ample reasons to pursue personal holiness. But what does a holy person actually look like in practice? Thankfully, in our passage Paul provides a list of unholy behaviour (v.9-10). A catalogue of acts that displease God – acts that Paul says are incompatible with citizenship of the Kingdom of God. “Do not be deceived,” he writes, “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” In other words, a holy life is distinctive in the way we treat our own bodies, distinctive in the way we treat other people, and distinctive the way we treat God. Holiness involves:
• Exercising self-control, not indulging in sexual immorality, greed or drunkenness.
• Loving others, not slandering or swindling or stealing from them, and
• Serving God instead worshipping idols like wealth, power or popularity.
It won’t have escaped your notice that Paul’s particular emphasis in today’s passage is sexual holiness. That’s because first century Corinth was a permissive society – a society where sexual freedom was prized, where prostitution was rife, and where all sorts of relationships were permitted. It was a culture that put individual Christians (and the Church as a whole) under enormous pressure. Pressure to conform to the standards of their non-Christian peers. Pressure to say that sexually anything goes, that everything is permissible. It is obvious, I hope, that Christians in twenty-first century Britain face similar pressure to conform to the sexual standards of our surrounding society, rather than to conform to God’s intentions for our sexual behaviour. In his letters, Paul therefore stresses that personal holiness includes chastity and abstinence for Christians who are single, and complete faithfulness to our spouse for those of us who are married. For some the temptation to resist might be adultery, for others it might be lustful thoughts, fornication or pornography. But whatever form sexual temptation takes, Paul reminds us in verse 20 that our desire should always be to “honour God” with our bodies – by fleeing sexual sin.
Conclusion
As I finish, today’s passage from Paul has provided us with a rich portrait of personal holiness. It’s a passage that describes what holiness looks like, and provides motivation for us to pursue it.
And if you think a holy life sounds impossible, remember the Holy Spirit! He is the holy Spirit after all! Across his letters the apostle Paul urges Christians to “live by the Spirit”, to “be led by the Spirit”, and to “keep in step with the Spirit” . In other words, we are to be prayerfully attentive to the Spirit’s guidance in our daily lives. We are to listen carefully when he speaks in our conscience. And we are to pray for his strength to resist temptation.
And for those times when we do succumb to temptation, or those times when we feel guilty about an act in our past, remember that forgiveness is possible. The Christians in Corinth came from a pagan past. Verse 11 suggests that many of them had significant skeletons in their closest. But their faith in Christ made them clean. To use Paul’s words they had been washed, sanctified, and justified through their faith in Christ crucified.
So when we sin we shouldn’t despair, but repent and ask for mercy. The solution to a guilty conscience is not self-pity, but confession to God – and for Christ’s sake, out of his abundant grace, we can be confident of our Heavenly Father’s forgiveness in return.