Treating Causes Versus Treating Symptoms

Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.  All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. (1 Corinthians 6:11-12 NASB)

One minor difficulty with 1 Corinthians 6 is its internal relationship, and its relationship to the previous chapter (ejecting the sinful man from the congregation).  Within this chapter and even at the beginning, the typical transition used by Paul to introduce a new topic is missing:  "Now about..."  The result is that what transitions are there are left to the reader to piece together, and internal relationships are expected to be picked up along the way.  It's probably easier if one reads ancient Greek and is familiar with ancient Greek literature and informal writing.  Most people don't fit this description and instead rely on a variety of translations.

So, in the previous chapter, a man who has been publicly guilty of incest (with his father's wife) is to be expelled from the congregation.  It's a clear admonishment to address sin within the congregation.  The final element to Paul's argument tells them not to judge 'outsiders' but instead only those within the congregation.  This actually dovetails well with the first element of chapter 6 which deals with outsiders judging issues between believers; which Paul commands them to stop doing.

It is the linkage between the first admonition to keep civil cases within the church and addressing sexual sins that we might miss the connection.  The only grammatical transition is found in the above verses, but they may seem difficult to connect in theme or topic.  But if I step back, I think I can see a literary transition when I connect the final piece of chapter 6 with Paul's charge in chapter 5.  In fact, all along to this point, I believe Paul has been trying to wake the congregational leaders up to their complete neglect of sin within themselves.  And I believe he wraps up that argument here in chapter 6.

Their perspective of these sins which have been plaguing them has been that they either don't see them at all or seem them completely differently from how God views them.  Paul's correction has been less about specific behavior and more about shifting their paradigm through which they view them.  He has used sarcasm, biting criticism, and logical argument to correct these deviations from the teaching he first gave them.  His method has been partly in response to their disrespect for him on top of all else.

So in verses 11 and 12, what we see is Paul's return to paradigm correction.  He moves from their current status (washed, sanctified, justified) and begins to use that to correct the paradigm.  He starts in verse 12 by conceding their belief that they are not under law (see my previous blog entry), but adds to it, adjusting their perspective to include what is profitable to them and their being mastered by what isn't profitable.  I believe the reason for this is that he wants them to apply those foundational truths about themselves from verse 11.

But even topically, what verses 12 through 20 are about might actually provide a partial view of why the incestuous man was permitted to remain in the congregation.  If sexual sins were actually rampant in that participating in prostitution was actually a common practice, then accepting the man with his father's wife would suddenly make a lot more sense.  While it's not clear how common this practice was in the congregation, that it warrants its own section indicates it was far too common.

So, I see this final part of chapter 6 wrapping up Paul's correction of the paradigm which forms the broken framework supporting the rest of his sections in this letter.  In other words, what he is addressing in the first six chapters is the causes of the rest of the problems, not additional symptoms.  He refers to symptoms to support his points, but his aim is deeper.  He continually uses their 'words' or their twisting of his against them, each time shifting them away from the broken view they have to the more right view of their Master.

Okay, so what I derive from this is that I too need a paradigm shift.  Perhaps I need it constantly, and maybe we all do.  But I think that repentance is that process of correcting my perspective on my behavior to bring it more in line with my Master's perspective.  Repentance aligns my mental framework with His, which requires reconstruction of mine to more closely match His.  I get this concept of what my Master's framework looks like from Scripture.  So, basically, I begin to think more like my Master through studying Scripture.  Or at least that's how it's supposed to work.  I wish it made me smarter too.  Clearly there's more to it...