Last updated on November 22, 2024
Today’s reading is on 1 Corinthians 5-10.
As I begin to write, I want to acknowledge that there are verses in these passages that have caused a great deal of harm. I come away with some frustration reading them again this morning. Do I believe that Paul meant them to cause harm? I don’t. I have had the belief for a couple of decades that Paul wouldn’t have believed that someone halfway across the world (me) would be reading the letters he wrote almost 2000 years later. If he had known this, I think he would have written differently. That doesn’t mean that I don’t think what he wrote was inspired by God (God-breathed). I do. But I also believe it was Paul writing. Further, I think we need to remind ourselves that he wasn’t writing to us. He had a specific context in mind. He was writing to individual churches that were going through specific situations. That was his goal. I’m good with that goal, but I think it’s important to understand that.
I want to go back to something that had happened just a few years before. After the first missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to share with Peter, James and the others why they they were adamant that the Gentile believers did not need to be circumcised (and thus be Jewish). This story is found in Acts 15. Peter, James and the other leaders listened to both sides, and in the end they agreed with Paul and Barnabas. They decided to write a letter, which would then be read among the new churches.
The phrase that has stood out to me in their letter is, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” There was no direct revelation from God. It wasn’t as black and white as they would have liked, but they were confident that they had listened well. There had been good discussion. And they had sought to surrender the decision to God through prayer. At the end of all of that, this was the best they could do: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”
But they did have a couple of black and white issues that they wanted to make sure that these Gentile churches followed. “You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:29).
Now fast forward just a few years later and we see Paul writing from Ephesus to the church in Corinth. Again, the purpose of this letter is to respond to questions they had but also to address problems that he has heard about. And he’s still no doubt contending with those Jewish leaders who believe strongly that these new Gentile believers must follow their Jewish law and customs.
Paul has been asked about whether or not they can eat food that has been sacrificed to idols. Most of the meat that was sold at the markets came from animals that had been slaughtered at pagan temple ceremonies. They wanted to know if they could still purchase it. And they knew what a challenge it would be to even know whether or not the meat they were buying was from an animal that had been sacrificed. This was very practical to this church, so Paul wanted to do his best to answer them.
Paul knew that this setting was night and day from Jerusalem. Peter had spent a little time in Galatia, but at this point he had probably never been anywhere as cosmopolitan and pluralistic as the city of Corinth. Because of that, Paul was about to take something prescribed by the church leaders in Jerusalem as black and white (don’t eat food that has been sacrificed to idols) and make it gray.
Here’s the gist of what he had to say: Don’t eat food sacrificed to idols if you’re eating while worshiping idols in a pagan temple. But other than that, unless you choose to be a vegetarian, it’s fine to continue to purchase meat from the marketplace, even if it’s from an animal that was sacrificed to an idol.
Today we could care less about this issue, but it was a big deal then. I imagine that Peter and James were less than thrilled when they first heard what Paul had said.
From the time that Israel became a nation, circumcision was a big deal. No one questioned it…until Paul. And then Peter and James. And not eating food sacrificed to idols was a big deal that no one questioned…until Paul.
What is the point of all this? It’s that I have problems with some of the things that Paul says. If I were to give just one example, it would be marriage. Paul was single. He chose this. It fit who he was and what he was called to do. And he says it pretty clearly to the members of this church: “It’s good to stay unmarried, as I do. But if you can’t control yourself, then you should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion” (1 Corinthians 7:8-9).
I’ve officiated a few weddings in my day. Can you imagine the response if I had led with this!
Paul didn’t have a very high view of marriage. Does that mean that God doesn’t have a high view of marriage? No. It just means that Paul didn’t, at least not then. Maybe he changed his mind over time.
There are a lot of people today who believe that if you question something that Paul said, then you are also questioning God. I believe that puts God in a very tiny box. I’m a big fan of Jesus’ words that we must come as a child to God. We’re called to trust, and there are a lot of areas with my relationship with God where I continue to lean in, to trust, when things are difficult or I simply don’t understand. But I also want to put my big boy britches on and lean into thinking and questioning. That’s the way to go deeper in knowledge and understanding. These two things go together.
This line of thinking has not led me away from Scripture. It’s led me towards it. Having the freedom to wrestle has actually been life-giving to me.
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