1 Corinthians 6:11,12 - and this is what you were

6:11

The section closes with a declaration of the glory of the gospel. The things listed here “is what some of you were”! The world, and sadly large parts of the church, want men and women to remain as slaves to sin, and in doing so they claim they are acting in love. They are doing no such thing, they are condemning people to destruction. In Christ we are washed, sanctified and justified, through the blood of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit. There is a sense in which the work is all completed the moment we believe, i.e. we are totally acceptable to God, but there is then an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit bringing about changes in our lives.

6:12

Paul now deals more generally with the issue of sexual immorality. Corinth was infamous for sexual immorality, and this affected the church.They needed to understand why avoiding sexual immorality was so important. In the next chapter Paul will deal more positively with marriage. 

“I have the right to do anything”. The Corinthians seem to have taken a rather superficial, not to say stupid, view of the freedom we have in Christ. Remember that in Galatians Paul is majoring on freedom, saying “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1). The Corinthians were misapplying this principle. Benjamin Franklin said “Sin is not hurtful because it is forbidden, but it is forbidden because it is hurtful.”. There is a significant amount of truth in this statement. Moreover, if we sin we become mastered by that sin, they become a slave to sin (John 8:34). So if we have an ounce of common sense we will try to avoid sin!

1 Samuel 13:9-12 - What have you done?

13:9

In response Saul decided to take charge of making an offering himself. He probably got priests to carry out the actual offering, but Saul was overseeing the event and so was responsible. There are two main possibilities for Saul’s offence here. One is that he was stepping outside his remit. He was the king, not a prophet or priest. So he had no authority to offer the sacrifice. The other is that he did not seek the Lord, and was disobeying the words of the prophet. The whole picture of Saul that is presented in 1 Samuel is of a very double minded man, who does not know his own mind, and does not know God. As mentioned earlier, Saul’s agitation at Samuel’s delay was understandable, and we can all experience such moments. However, when we do, regardless of the inward pressure that we experience, we must not act outside of God’s word.

13:10-12

Just as Saul finished making the offering Samuel arrived. I think that this makes it most likely that Samuel arrived late on the seventh day. Samuel immediately asks Saul “What have you done?”. Saul says that he reacted in response to Samuel’s late arrival and that the men were scattering. In addition the Philistines were gathering at Michmash. Saul then seeks to put a religious gloss on his actions, saying “I have not sought the Lord’s favour”, so he is seeking to cast his actions as though he was trying to please the Lord. What he was actually doing was acting in response to his own fears. “So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering”. Saul was indeed compelled, compelled by the fears within. Decisions based on fear are rarely good decisions. Saul saw the burnt offering as a superstitious act, rather than an act of faith.

1 Corinthians 6:9,10 - Wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God

6:9

Paul now widens things out. The Corinthians needed to be more concerned with their own wrongdoing. Wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God. The gospel is not just about being forgiven. It is certainly not a matter of getting away with sin! The gospel does offer forgiveness, but it is about our being saved from sin so that we can become Christlike. Paul then names a number of other vices: sexual immorality, adultery, idolatry and homosexual acts. There are those who seek to say that the New Testament condemnation of homosexual acts refers only to pederasty (an older man taking advantage of a young man or boy). Such arguments are groundless and are merely an attempt to excuse sin. The Greek here refers both to the passive and the active partner in the homosexual partners are considered guilty.

6:10

The list continues with: thieves; the greedy; drunkards; slanderers and swindlers. Note that the list does include various forms (all forms) of sexual immorality, but is in no way limited to that. Now should we consider the list as exclusive, i.e. the same principle applies to all sins. In God’s kingdom there is no sin, and Jesus came to save us from our sins.

1 Samuel 13:5-8 - The troops were quaking with fear

13:5-7

As expected the Philistines prepare to attack Israel, gathering an army with three thousand chariots, six thousand charioteers and a vast number of soldiers. They massively outnumbered Israel, and were much better equipped. The Israelites saw the seriousness (direness?) of the situation, and so hid in caves and other places. It is worth recalling verses such as these when we read verses such as Rev 6:15. Some of them crossed over to Gad and Gilead. This probably means that they crossed over the Jordan to seek refuge among the Transjordanian tribes. Saul remained behind to face the music. However, all the troops who remained with him were quaking with fear. Things were not looking good for Israel.

13:8

The time of seven days set here presumably refers back to 1 Sam 10:8. However, Samuel had not arrived. The whole incident described here is, at least at face value, open to different interpretations. When it says “but Samuel did not come to Gilgal”, it is not absolutely clear whether Samuel had not arrived at all on the seventh day and the seventh day was over, or whether he only arrived very late on the seventh day. If Samuel did arrive late on the seventh day, then the matter is fairly straightforward, and Saul should just have waited a little longer. Some commentators think Saul is being treated harshly, and Samuel is being unduly grumpy. This latter suggestion has to be rejected as having no foundation Scripture. Even so, Saul’s reaction is at least partially understandable. Saul’s men were already filled with fear, and this situation got worse and some started to scatter.

1 Corinthians 6:7,8 - You have been completely defeated

6:7

“You have been completely defeated already”. The point of taking a civil case to court is to “win”. O those in the Corinthian church who were doing this were seeking to win their case. However, Paul tells them that the very fact that they have taken the case to court shows that they have lost. They needed to change their whole attitude. As Paul says in Romans 12:2 they needed to be transformed by the renewal of their minds, not conformed to the world’s ways as they currently were. It would have been better for them to have been cheated by their brother. So is it ever right for Christians to go to court with a civil case? If the other party is not a Christian that would seem to be allowed, though it is always wise to seek other ways of resolving the matter. If the other party is a fellow believer, then it might be right if it was a genuine attempt of the pair to resolve the matter by getting a legal ruling. I.e. it was not a matter of trying to defeat each other. 

6:8

Paul then turns the screw even tighter. He declares that the person taking the other to court was cheating and doing wrong! They were seeking to gain advantage over a brother, but using legal means to do so. 

1 Samuel 13:2-4 - Let the Hebrews hear!

13:2

Whatever the opening verse is meant to say, we now get on to more solid ground. Saul set about gathering an army. Following the ESV line of translation, he started to do this after two years of his reign. The gathered army was split into two divisions, one of two thousand with Saul, the other of one thousand with his son Jonathan. Neither army was particularly large.

13:3,4

“Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba.” Jonathan was getting on with the job, taking the initiative. The Philistines, unsurprisingly, heard about it. Saul also heard about it, seemed to think this was the way to go and issued a clarion call (actually with a ram’s horn) throughout Israel, heralding the event. However, the attack meant that Israel had become “obnoxious to the Philistines”. Prior to this Israel was under the Philistines thumb, but was causing little trouble. Now they would have to do something about Israel. So the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal, in preparation for dealing with any action that the Philistines might take. So far Saul, as has been the case throughout his life, is responding to events. He neither takes the initiative, nor does he seek guidance from the Lord.

1 Corinthians 6:4-6 - I say this to shame you

6:4

The latter part of verse can be translated in two key ways. NIV has “do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church?”. KJV has “set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church”. The KJV line has Paul saying “even the least if you are equipped to judge these matters”, NIV takes the line “you scorn the ungodly, yet you let them judge these matters for you”. The NIV line is the more likely of the two approaches, but either way Paul is mocking the approach taken by the church.

6:5,6

Paul is saying this to shame the church, to bring them up short. They claim to be so clever, yet their actions show how little they actually know, and how much they need to grow. Their actions shame the church in front of unbelievers. Paul says “one brother takes another to court”. Families should seek to resolve matters within the family, it is a matter of shame for a family to get others to sort the matter out. If the church was truly mature, they would be able to resolve these matters themselves.