A Lesson from the Corinthians

The church in Corinth had some interesting problems. There were Christians who were struggling with sexual sins like adultery, promiscuity and prostitution. Others faced the demons of alcoholism, fraud, idolatry and even arrogance because of their spiritual giftedness. It's certainly fair to say that culture had infiltrated the church.

It's so easy to draw comparisons to the Corinthian church. That's one place in our Bible that we can always go to feel better about ourselves. Their sinfulness wrote a textbook for how not to do life as a Christian. But are we really that different? How long can we pretend that these issues don't exist today? We may find our idols in different temples. But that doesn't mean that we haven't built plenty of temples to suit our desires. And maybe, after two centuries our sin looks a little different. But it's there.

You know, I wonder if there isn't really just one thing that differentiates us from the Christians that Paul was writing to. And it's not our culture or our sin. I think it's our response to sin. You see, on some of these issues, the Corinthians really didn't know any better. These were a bunch of first generation Christians who were learning on the go. And they hadn't yet learned to live with embarrasment and shame.

We've since mastered these two concepts. Being embarrased or ashamed of sin is not a bad thing. In fact, it's a positive sign that the Holy Spirit is working on you. But living with embarrasment and shame is a very bad thing. Satan uses these to steal away our freedom and strip us of our joy. Embarrasment and shame keeps us from confronting the sin and moving forward. Embarrasment and shame keeps us from asking for help. Embarrasment and shame keeps us chained to that same sin that birthed these horrible feelings.

Paul wrote to the Romans that Jesus only needed to die one death, and that took care of all the sin - forever. And because we are united with Christ we get to live without the awful aftertaste of sin. It's Jesus' blood that washes away that aftertaste. And its God's grace and love that makes it all possible.