We hear both lost people and professing Christians today use the excuse that what they do with their own bodies is their business. The Christians in Corinth offered similar excuses in order to justify their immoral behavior. We can learn from Paul's response in 1 Corinthians how we can and should glorify God through bodies. He not only tells us what is wrong but the effects of immoral behavior, and how to avoid it.
The young believers in Corinth had come out of a lifestyle filled with immoral behavior with regard to physical indulgences of eating, drinking, and sexual expression. Many had begun to use the excuse that, since they were followers of Jesus, these sins were still permitted. You have a chance this week to enter into a very deep discussion regarding the sins and to provide Scriptural reasoning that helps believers understand the effects of immoral choices on believers' lives.
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The teaching helps include examples of dumb excuses people use in order to justify their behavior. This can be used to draw the group into the discussion related to the excuses used by the Corinthian church. Here is a list of those examples:
- A man was arrested for DUI while driving to work and used the excuse, "Beer is my morning Coffee."
- An athlete blames pot for his failed drug test, "I got high and forgot I wasn't supposed to get high."
- A woman blamed the President of the United State when she was arrested for spending counterfeit bills.
- A Florida man blamed zombie attack for throwing pieces of concrete at a hotel.
- A carjacker told the police his stealing a car was part of the batman script for the movie filming nearby.
- A famous actress said she bought crack because her dog died.
- After one actress engaged in a drunken high-speed chase in a stolen SUV, the cops discovered cocaine in her pants pocket. She explained, "I'm wearing someone else's pants."
I have provided a handout at the end of the teaching helps that includes various slogans used by businesses to promote their products. The purpose is to help the group understand that, just as companies use slogans today to draw us to their products, it seems that the Christians in Corinth had been using slogans or catchphrases such as "everything is permissible for me" and "food is for the stomach and the stomach for food" as a license to live any way they pleased.
Be sure to check out the ways outlined in the teaching helps that Paul describes the effects of immoral sexual behavior both spiritually and physically, and on even on those not associated with the immoral behavior.
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