In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul used his own life as an example of this. Paul had rights as an apostle (9:1), rights as a Christian minister (9:1), and the right to be supported in ministry (9:3-14). Yet he often set these rights aside. Paul didn’t always give up these rights, but when he knew it would be for God’s glory and the benefit of others, he denied himself what he deserved, what was his “right.”

All this came back to the issue of Corinthian believers eating meat that was sacrificed to pagan idols. A believer in Corinth might say, “I have the right to eat that meat!” Paul would answer, “Yes, you do have that right. But in this situation Christian love compels you to set that right aside. I have done this kind of thing many times. In this situation, eat a salad instead.”

Paul lived and taught this because he wanted to win the world for Jesus Christ. He even said, I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. We should not think Paul changed his doctrine or message to appeal to different groups. In fact, he specifically denied this in 1 Corinthians 1:22-23. However, Paul would change his behavior and manner of approach. To those under the law, he would come as under the law. To the weak, he would sympathize with their weakness. He would make themselves a servant to all, that he might win more to Jesus (1 Corinthians 9:19).

I don’t know if Paul, as a Christian believer, ate pork, shellfish, or other non-kosher foods. I do think Paul understood he had the “right” to eat those things, as he wrote in Colossians 2:20-23. Yet Paul would never eat shrimp while trying to talk to Jewish people about faith in Jesus!

Paul would set aside such things and do it for the gospel’s sake. Paul was willing to offend people over the gospel, but he wanted to offend them only over the gospel.

Finally, notice Paul did this for the gospel’s sake. Not for the sake of pleasing the world, not for the sake of denying God’s truth. Paul knew where he could bend, and when to stand firm. May God give us the same wisdom!

In 1 Corinthians 5, the problem was sexual immorality. Verse 1 explains that someone counted among the Christians of Corinth openly lived in an on-going sexual relationship (either as married or living together) with his stepmother. The woman involved wasn’t a believer because Paul didn’t address her.

Paul said that they must take the man away from among the church: This was part of God’s answer to the problem – to take this notoriously unrepentant man away from the protection of the fellowship of God’s people. Yet, the Corinthian Christians didn’t do this. Why not? How could this kind of thing be allowed?

They allowed it because they were influenced by their surrounding culture. Remember that Corinth was a city notorious for sexual immorality, and the pagan religions did not value sexual purity. It wasn’t hard for a Corinthian to think you could be religious, yet still act any way you pleased when it came to sex. Greek culture matter-of-factly said: “Mistresses we keep for the sake of pleasure, concubines for the daily care of the body, but wives to bear us legitimate children.”

They allowed it because they didn’t know or didn’t apply the Scriptures, such as Leviticus 18:8, which forbids a man to have sex with his stepmother.

More than anything, they allowed it in the name of “tolerance.” The Corinthian Christians said to themselves, “Look how loving we are. We accept this brother just as he is. Look how open-minded we are!”

The Corinthian Christians were proud (puffed up) over their acceptance of this man; they thought it said something good about them. Instead of glorying, they should have grieved, both for the man and over what God wanted them to do with the man: put him out of the church until he repented.

Generally, Christians are to be a tolerant people. In the broader world, we should love even those who are enemies to the Christian faith (Matthew 5:44). Yet leaders among God’s people have the responsibility of dealing with believers who are in open sin, refusing to recognize it as sin or to repent. In those situations, it’s a grave error to pretend everything is OK or the church should be praised for its so-called tolerance.

May God give leaders in the church the wisdom and strength to deal rightly with open sin among God’s people.

It’s important to recognize that those whom Paul addressed were part of the family of God; they are called brethren. In a sense, that was their problem. They were not behaving like spiritual people, but like carnalpeople – that is, fleshly people. They behaved like immature Christians, as babes in Christ.

There are some who think that there is no such thing as a carnal Christian. Some say it is a contradiction in terms; that what Paul really meant was that these carnal ones were not Christians at all. Yet Paul clearly called them brethren, and he said they were babes in Christ. It’s hard to see how Paul could consider them brothers and call them babes in Christ if they weren’t in the family of God and as babes in Christ, had made a genuine start in the Christian life.

These Corinthian Christians, to some extent, were thinking and acting according to the flesh, not the Spirit. Of course, the flesh did not dominate every aspect of their life, or they would then have had no evidence of being born again. But Paul confronted them where they were clearly thinking and acting in a carnal (fleshly) manner.

Paul didn’t mean that our material substance – the cells and tissues that make up our body – are inherently sinful. There is weakness associated with being “made of flesh,” but this weakness isn’t automatically sinful (2 Corinthians 3:3). Here, the problem with the Corinthian Christians was they were carnal, that is “fleshly” – they were characterized by the flesh. This speaks of the believer who can and should live differently but does not. They aren’t spiritually minded, but they are fleshly minded.

Paul told the Christians of Galatia that they must “walk in the Spirit” and then they would not “fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:6). There were more than a few among the Corinthian Christians who were losing that battle; they were believers, but at least in some ways, their life was marked more by the ideas and actions of their flesh instead of the ideas and actions of the Spirit of God.

Paul spoke of three categories.

– The natural man (1 Corinthians 2:14), is patterned after Adam and rejects the things of God.
– The spiritual man (1 Corinthians 2:15), knows the things of God and endeavors to think and live according to the Spirit.
– The carnal man knows the things of God, yet in some significant ways doesn’t walk in the Spirit, but is characterized by the flesh.

Which one are you?

As his two letters to the church in Corinth show, the Corinthians Christians had a lot of problems. 1 Corinthians shows that at times, they had moral problems, doctrine problems, church government problems, spiritual gift problems, church service problems, and authority problems.

What do you do with a “problem church”? Paul thanked God for them. That’s what he said: I thank my God always. Paul spent a lot of time in this letter rebuking sin and correcting error, yet he was still sincerely thankful for God’s work in the Corinthian Christians.

Those who feel called to rebuke sin and correct error in the church today should follow Paul’s example. Unfortunately, many of them never communicate any encouragement with their correction and advice.

Paul was especially grateful for the grace they received by Jesus Christ. Everything good, everything worth being thankful about among the Corinthian came to them by grace. Grace means that God gives freely, for His own reasons.

God’s grace had an effect among the Corinthian Christians. The Corinthians were a “rich” church, not only materially, but also in their speech and knowledge of Jesus (all utterance and in all knowledge… the testimony of Christ, 1:6), in their abounding in the gifts (come short in no gift, 1:7), and in that they lived in anticipation of Jesus’ coming (eagerly waiting, 1:7). In these things, they were genuinely enriched.

On could say that the work of God in the Corinthian Christians could be seen by what they said, by what they learned, by a supernatural element in their lives, and by their expectant anticipation of Jesus’ return.

When Paul looked at the Corinthian church, he could say: “These people proclaim Jesus, they know about Jesus, there are the supernatural gifts of God among them, and they are excited about Jesus’ return.” All those things made him thankful, so Paul’s gratitude was sincere.

Whatever problems the Corinthians had, they also had these impressive strong points. Can even this much be said about many churches today? We may pride ourselves on not having the problems of the Corinthian Christians, but do we have their positives?

Yet, these positives were no great credit to the Corinthian Christians themselves. They were not the spiritual achievements of the Corinthians, but the work of the grace of God in them.

If you’re around some problem people or problem churches, there are probably still reasons to give thanks for them. Be real about the problems; but find a way to give thanks.