1 Corinthians 5:1-8
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Oh, the First Century.
Using the opportunity of New Laws to create new Trouble.
Consider with me, if you read Paul, Peter and Luke explaining the First Century they don't complain: About Politics. The Synagogues or the Rulers. The Emperor. About Sin. About anything but faithlessness.
And then, it's time to Complain.
The Greeks lived differently than the Romans, although they were under the Roman Empire. The First Century is filled with new marriage laws. We talk about this sometimes. But the Greeks leaned back on old ways.
Oikos!
The ancient Greek word Oikos refers to three related but distinct concepts: the family, the family's property, and the house. The Greeks were and were not Homebodies. 40 percent of Greece were slaves. The rest were farmers, self-employed people and slaveholders who spent most of their time doing the same things. Going to the public places to debate. And they travelled in the Rough Greek terrain for days on foot speaking to one another. If one wanted to see the Olympics, it was typical to walk 6 days across Greece. Ships were avoided to avoid kidnapping and shipwreck and sailing in poor weather to avoid shipwreck. This whole nation had communication as their idea of most days.
Greeks were always exceptionally religious and debated everything.
You can bet they debated the new Laws. Because in Greece unlike Rome, women, Aristotle explained were inferiors working with their superior men to run the household with slaves. Even as the Roman Laws were changing, we see Greece was not. Why would a woman associate with her step-son. To test boundaries of marriage, perhaps. Or to become pregnant when her husband was aged.
The Church decides to intervene because the foundation of society is God and Oikos.
They do not want to see society allow a woman to be degraded to breed cow or harem hack. They don't want a family to exist as a commune of free for all morality. We read so many times in the Book of Acts there was suddenly a riot around the Disciples of Jesus. This intervention does not cause even one upset. Society wants to be held to normal patterns of morality.
Rarely does the Bible point out someone and rattle their cage unless they are tearing apart the Structure of Society. This Upheld Morality is going to allow the slaves and the women to be free from being a sexual usefulness. And in doing this women in Greece were going to become landowners, employers and filling a happier position in the structure of Society. To be thought of as a human being. And not just another excuse for sexual freedom.
And in this freedom is Peace.
Women were being made to be free and contribute to Society. The family can continue to all live in the Villas and promote trade and safety. Being kidnapped to slavery was common. This unity promoted physical safety too. The levels of morality reach to trade, upward opinions of independence, peace, family units allowing more opportunities for each other.
The newly formed Church could have turned a blind eye or lumped it. Instead, the Saints of God want us all to do as Jesus did in Acts 1 and Rise to God. Without oppression.
Vineyards of Ancient Greece allowed room for the Family to grow Corn or other vegetables between the grape rows. More fruitfulness in compact areas. This Section of Scripture does the same, exact thing. To be fruitful, Women are helped by God.
Romans were builders. Greeks lived in notoriously poorly built houses. Whether Paul is in Rome or Greece, like God, He wants the People of God to be truly and sincerely built up.
Abba, Father God,
Help us to seek and find You first, Father God.
And in setting our basic compass up to have the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart, be just and pleasing to You
Lord God,
Our Rock and Redeemer.
May the Word of God
Live in us
with Mercy and Justice
in Jesus healed them All.
Healing for Elliott
and Janet
and all those God draws to Himself
and pray for healing now in these
difficult but hopeful times.
May God's Willingness to Bless
Surround and uplift us ALL.
In Jesus Christ, Amen.
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