Judge in accordance with the gospel - Part 2
In a southern Indian town and popular holiday destination, one thing in particular helps this town stand out in a very visible way. Three brothers own three different restaurants and each of them competes fiercely with the others for customers. So fiercely, in fact, fists have flown between these brothers which happens easily and often as two the restaurants are across the street from each other while the third is just a bit further down the same lane. The menus of each restaurant are nearly identical, in part because the three brothers were once partners who started in the business together as a family endeavor, but not anymore. Now the brothers even brawl in the street in front of their customers, baffling tourists who frequently get caught in the middle when they are stopped on the street by two of the brothers giving pitches for their rival restaurants. All in all, the public feud just comes across as ridiculous while, so to speak, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of prospective customers. Any faithful local church is a community of sinful works in progress on a road to being fully redeemed by Jesus Christ, so, disputes are bound to arise from time to time. In this Sunday’s text, Paul was less concerned about disputes in the church than he was about how the church was handling the disputes. Whether in dealing with unrepentant sin in the church (last week’s text) or with disputes in the church, the Corinthians failed to judge in accordance with the gospel. Paul’s point to them was this: the gospel brings new life and a new community of people who become citizens of God’s kingdom, and a local church needs to regard and honor the body of Christ as a special creation of God’s grace by the power of the gospel.
We invite you to come join us this Sunday morning for our in-person worship service at Leptondale Bible Church in Newburgh, starting at 10:55 AM. For those unable to attend, our service can be viewed live on the church’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/leptondalebiblechurch. This Sunday, we’ll continue a sermon series from 1st Corinthians titled “Written for Our Instruction” with a message from 1st Corinthians 6:1 11 titled “Judge in accordance with the Gospel – part 2.”
God bless!
Pastor Mike