In the name of + Jesus. Amen.
There are two kinds of legalism, and the Corinthians were practicing both. The first kind is litigiousness. They were suing each other in Caesar’s courts instead of working out their issues internally. St. Paul considers it “incompetent” that the Christians could not “try trivial cases” themselves, without appealing to secular tribunals. It is always a tragedy when family members sue one another. It frays the natural bonds of affection, leading to internal strife. It often has a generational effect. Once one goes down that path, there is usually no reconciling. And this is especially terrible for the family that is the church. Paul uses the familial term “brothers” to describe our relationship to fellow Christians. Paul urges brother and sister believers to even be willing to “suffer wrong” and “be defrauded” rather than to allow generational enmity into the church.
But there is another kind of legalism, one that equates morality with legislation. It seems that the Corinthians were justifying their sexual immorality by saying “All things are lawful for me.” Their pagan culture legalized sexuality that was contrary to God’s Law. To complicate matters, for the Christian, there is truth in this statement that we are free from the Law. Christ, by keeping the Law on our behalf, frees us from the Law’s accusations, guilt, and punishment. But this doesn’t create a new Law that is permissive, rather it creates a New Man that wants to live in accordance with his original created nature.
In other words, Christians are not simply rule-keepers, but renewed creatures who love God and their neighbors.
Paul calls the Corinthians to repent of their sexual promiscuity, not based on a legalistic recitation of rules and regulations. Rather he appeals to God’s will and the created purpose of our bodies: “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” Because God created us, because God took incarnate flesh in a body like ours, our bodies have a divine purpose. “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:3-4).
Paul doesn’t appeal here to a law, but rather to a purpose. Paul doesn’t cite a rule or regulation, but rather reminds us of God’s design of how all things – including our bodies – were meant to work. This is also Paul’s argument against same-sex sexuality – that it is “contrary to nature” (Rom 1:26-28). Even without the revelation of the Law to Moses, we can observe the divine design and purpose of our bodies, including the fruit that flows from our submission to God’s will: namely life. And this is the argument that Paul makes against prostitution – which was treated as a normal part of Corinthian life. For as objects of divine creation with a holy purpose, one’s body “is a temple of the Holy Spirit” that should not be profaned.
And so rather than making morality a function of legalism – complete with Pharisaical loopholes, workarounds, and human reason – Christian ethics are guided by the divine purpose. “You are not your own,” says the apostle, “so glorify God in your body.” Indeed, the New Man, “bought with a price,” who prays for God’s will to be done (Matt 6:10), doesn’t see the Law as legislation to be enforced by a court, but rather as God’s purpose to be lived.
Amen.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Thank you!