Week 45 Corinthians
Paul talks about Life in the Church.
Life in the Church is different from life not in the church.
Church is a kind of halfway house between Life in the Natural World and Life in the Kingdom of God. I map it out and it looks a bit like this:
Life in the Natural World (the Before)
Life in the Church (the Now)
Life in the Kingdom of God (the Eventually)
Paul spells out how I got from the Before to the Now: now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you… So that’s the technical description behind starting my Life in the Church. Things are different now. Technically speaking. At the same time – in terms of actual real-life practices – quite a few things get imported from the Before into the Now (Paul includes a list of ten examples of things that come into the church from the Before. Things that don’t fit there.)
According to Paul Life in the Church is supposed to be different from Life in the Natural World. If Life in the Church isn’t different then Life in the Church is pretty much the same as Life in the Natural World. Meaning it isn’t really Life in the Church anymore.
Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NLT)