Read for This Week’s Study: 1 Cor. 5:1-13, 2 Cor 2:5-10, 1 Cor. 6:1-13, 1 Thess. 4:1-8, 1 Cor. 6:19-7:9.

Memory Text: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20, NIV).

Opening Question: What are we to do when we find blatant sin in the camp? How do we respond to situations where there is a difference between what is professed and what shows up as practice?

The official lesson this week is based mostly on 1 Corinthians 5-7. Even a cursory reading of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians reveals that the church there had lots of troubles. One of them was a rather blatant case of sexual immorality, most probably a case of incest between a man and his step-mother. In ancient times, incest was prohibited as it is in current times. The problem there was not just the relationship but also the fact that what was going on was apparently accepted by the church and its members. When Paul heard of the situation, he did not spare his words telling the congregation not only to remove the man from fellowship, consign him to Satan, and then refuse even to eat with him!

This instance brings up a lot of things to talk about:

• Why is incest so frowned upon almost universally?
• What do we make of Paul’s comment that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit?
• Why do you think the church was at least tacitly accepting of the inappropriate relationship in their midst?
• The whole question of tolerance comes up rather readily here. What can be tolerated and what is not to be tolerated? What do we make of the old saying that “tolerance is something advocated by those who have no moral principles!”
• We could talk of church discipline here. The church disciplining a person is something not much done any more. Beyond that, it is often frowned upon as being judgmental. What are some of the “rights-and-wrongs” of church discipline processes?
• How do we act redemptively when faced with sin in the camp?
• Think about the wreckage that has been brought about in human affairs by sexual issues that become unbounded.
• Why are sexual sins inveighed against so consistently in the Bible? And why are sexual sins worse than other sins? Or are they?
• One of the things Paul at least alludes to is protecting the reputation of the church community. Do you think that is necessary? If so, what is the best way to protect a church’s reputation?
• One of the features of life is that we are all affected by our surroundings. Over time, this drift can affect what is acceptable in a religious community and what is not. How do we prevent this kind of negative drift?

Paul does propose an antidote to immorality. It is to be filled with the Spirit. When a person is washed, sanctified and justified thereby entering into the family of God, the spirit, if allowed to, drives out some of the old ways and ideas. The key is to continue to allow that process to be ever on-going.