Epiphany 2B 2nd Reading
Chris Reiter
Paul is masterful in his writing of this letter to the church in Corinth. There is a series of tensions that have surfaced in the church and Paul systematically works through them, all-the-while being sure to orient Jesus at the center of this Christian faith and the church.
He begins with an all to familiar tension, and that is one of popularity among faith leaders. The people of Corinth are arguing over who they “like” as a leader, Paul, Apollos, Peter… Perhaps not unlike our arguments concerning modern day authors and leaders; Some like Rob Bell and others are ready to excommunicate those who read him, the tensions can be high in regard to preference of thought.
Paul’s response to this is to reorient the focus, that this faith is purely and solely wrapped around the person of Jesus. It is in Christ and his love that this faith revolves. Paul, throughout the letter is attempting to move a people away from their own desires and whims, or that which tickles their ear, to find themselves oriented around the person of Jesus. Under his reign, life is centered around his love, not our desire.
Human desire is pretty intense. James K.A. Smith argues that we are more of a desiring being than we are thinking being. He argues against Descartes’ quote, “I think therefore I am” to more of, “I desire, therefore…” What I am understanding Smith to be speaking to is our human consumption of all things desirable. In other words, humanity has an insatiable appetite to satisfy self and that desire trumps our thinking. This is not to say we are not thinking beings, it simply claims that we are driven first by our desires. We are compelled to consumption based on desire. I might argue this is why capitalism is so highly regarded. It gives license to consume as much as one wants—for it is legal to do so. Arguably, we have seen this play out in the financial gain and business savvy of our culture’s rich. To gain personally at another’s expense is simply “good business” and it is legal. The argument for Paul, though, is not concerning legality or weather something is lawful, but rather is it beneficial. Does it serve the purposes of God?
So here in the second half of chapter 6 Paul has a conversation with himself playing both the roles of the Corinthians and himself. We might see it like this, “You say, ‘I can do whatever I want,’ but I am telling you, legal or not, you are under Christ and in him being reoriented.” Paul is speaking directly to a church that is experiencing the influence of a self-absorbed culture that holds freedom as it’s highest virtue. Perhaps Paul was the first to make efforts at separation of church and state. While freedom in Christ does release us from religious “law,” and grace does cover ALL sin, it does NOT free us to antinomianism. It does not free us to our bodily desires. Paul comes against the Corinthian church’s view on freedom in Christ for a more robust understanding of faith in the resurrection. For Paul, the resurrection means that in Jesus the eschaton has broken in, now! The Kingdom of God has come! And if this is the case then it is critical we live in such a way. For if we are to live into “Thy kingdom come”, then we are to live not to self, not to our desire, but unto Him who has already come. Just as God raised Christ from the dead, so too he has raised those who belong to him. We cannot therefore live to the desires of the flesh if we are to live under the reign of King Jesus.
The Corinthians were simply living into a common Greek duality that separates the internal from the external. If sexual activity was simply external pleasures then it did not affect internal matters. In this thinking it would be fine to engage in all sorts of activities that pleasure the body, be-it sex, gluttony, alcoholism or any other physical desires especially when coupled with bottomless grace. But Paul links body and soul in deep and profound ways, that this life of faith is not about “just getting by,” or knowing what we can get away without going hell.
In this letter Paul is pushing a church to understand that this whole faith thing is bound up in Christ; his life, death and resurrection. Christianity is only about us insofar as we are recipients of what God has done and is doing in the world, otherwise it is not about us, our desires or that which we love but about God, his desires that which he loves.
Chris Reiter
Pastor, The Connection Church of the Nazarene. Castle Rock, CO
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