The difficulty with freedom, of course, is that when we try to define it, we discover it is not such an easy thing to do. When most people talk about freedom, they probably have in mind the ability to do anything we want to do. If I have freedom, I should be able to do anything I want. If in some area that desire is restricted, then in that area, at least, I am not free. The difficulty with that understanding is that life is filled with things just like that.
The difficulty with freedom, of course, is that when we try to define it, we discover it is not such an easy thing to do. When most people talk about freedom, they probably have in mind the ability to do anything we want to do. If I have freedom, I should be able to do anything I want. If in some area that desire is restricted, then in that area, at least, I am not free. The difficulty with that understanding is that life is filled with things just like that.
What do you do with sins that come from the world? Paul talks about this in the opening verses of Romans 12, where he writes that we are not to be conformed to the world, but are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. This means that you have to live close to God in the Scriptures, as you grow in the Christian life and allow God to enable you to think increasingly as God thinks rather than as the world thinks. For this to happen we need to draw near to God and allow the Holy Spirit to do that kind of transformation which makes us different people as the new life of Christ comes to fruition within us.
Another thing we need to remember is what Paul tells us in verse 13: “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” This is a verse you should memorize and get in your mind early in the Christian life.
And yet, at the very time Moses was up on the mountain receiving the law, recorded in Exodus 32, the people were down in the valley breaking that very commandment. They were making the golden calf, and falling down and worshiping it. At this point, even though they were identified with Moses in the exodus and were numbered visibly among the people of God, they committed adultery and were judged for their sin. The sin of the golden calf led to the sin of sexual immorality because the worship of false gods always leads to a false or debased morality.
We need to talk about some of the imagery Paul uses in verses 1-5 because it is both interesting and helpful. The matter of baptism in verse 2 has led to a number of interpretations by commentators.
I do not know of any book of the New Testament that is more practical than 1 Corinthians, at least in terms of the range of subjects that it addresses. Through the first nine chapters Paul has dealt with pride, sexual immorality, marriage, divorce, lawsuits, and how Christian freedom functions in the context of love. But of all those practical matters that are handled in this letter, I suppose the most practical and far-reaching of all is this matter of temptation, which Paul discusses in chapter 10. That is because it affects everybody in a way that the specific issues mentioned above may not. Temptation is an all-inclusive category, and therefore concerns absolutely every person in the human race.
Of course, that is not at all what Paul is doing. He is certainly not trying to work a situation to his financial benefit. His emphasis is entirely on the other side. Although he has these rights, he has willingly laid them aside in order that he might have the privilege of taking the Gospel to the Corinthians without cost. He does this because he does not want anybody to misunderstand his motivations.
Canadian Committee of The Bible Study Hour
PO Box 24087, RPO Josephine
North Bay, ON, P1B 0C7
