1 When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! 4 So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, 6 but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? 8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. 

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 

20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

— 1 Corinthians 6:1-20, ESV

I do not believe in a moral gospel, but I believe in a gospel morality.  

By moral gospel, I mean any religion or philosophy that purports salvation can be achieved through good works or good morals.  

Pharisaical Judaism preaches a moral gospel.  Keep the rules, be more upright (and uptight) than the average Josef, wear the kind of glasses that enable you to perpetually look down your nose at your neighbor, and you’ve got God in your pocket.   

But, as Jesus told the original Pharisees, this won’t work.  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves (Matthew 23:15).”  So much for their moral gospel.

Christian Fundamentalism preaches a moral gospel, albeit unintentionally.  From it I learned early on that salvation was found in short hair for boys, long skirts for girls, and a King James Bible for the whole family.  If you could keep yourself from smoking, drinking, and sex (and any movies or television shows that even hinted at sex), the kingdom of God was yours for the taking.  

Never did I hear the words justification, sanctification, and glorification.  I just heard don’t do this and don’t do that.  As soon as I began doing those things (at least two out of three), I figured I was failing, so I dropped out of church altogether.  So did most of the other people of my age.  So much for their moral gospel.

Civil Religion, by far the largest shadow denomination in America, preaches a moral gospel.  You need not belong to any religious organization, nor practice any spiritual disciplines to be saved in this system.  Just be good, or at least have reasonably good morals.  Be a good person, do more good things than bad things, and you along with all cats and dogs will go to Heaven.

Compare these moral gospels with the biblical gospel, perhaps best spelled out by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:8-10:  “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

We are not saved by works, but we are saved for works.  We are not saved by a moral gospel, but when we are saved we live by a gospel morality.  1 Corinthians 6 fleshes this out in full.

Gospel morality is God-centered (overview).

Take a look at the big picture of 1 Corinthians 6.  Focus and let it become your worldview.  It is rich with theology, anthropology, soteriology, and puts morality in its proper place.

God is One in Three.  God is “God” the Father (ref. vs. 9, 13, 14, 19, 20).  God is God the Son, “The Lord” or “The Lord Jesus Christ” (ref. vs. 11, 13, 14, 15, 17).  God is God “the Spirit” or “the Holy Spirit” (vs. 11, 19).  

Mankind is divided into two groups.  Consider them the proverbial goats and sheep.  “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-32).”

In our chapter there is “the unrighteous,” also known as “the world” and “unbelievers” (ref. vs. 1, 2, 6, 9).  These are the vast majority of people who are not right with God, live by worldly (ungodly) morals, because they lack true faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

In contrast, “the saints” are “brothers” (and sisters) in Christ, Christians, who have been “washed” in baptism, are being “sanctified” (and it shows in their morals), because they have been “justified” by grace through faith in Christ, literally “bought with a price,” and now live as veritable “temple[s] of the Holy Spirit” (vs. 1, 6, 8, 11, 19, 20). 

Out of this worldview of God, and blessed with the experience of grace that brought us into the kingdom of God, we can now forge a gospel morality.

Gospel morality displays brotherly love (vs. 1-8).

Gospel morality means treating your fellow Christians as family and friends, not adversaries or enemies, and the church as your home.

The greco-roman culture of Paul and the Corinthians in the first century (much like our world in the twenty-first century) was extremely litigation friendly.  People sued each other over everything.  Courts were open constantly to settle disputes and award damages.  As money changed hands, relationships were destroyed.

The Corinthian Christians had not broken this mold.  They were acting like “the world” instead of “saints” and “brothers.”  Their greed for the material was shattering their unity in the church.  It was bad faith for the church, and a bad witness to the community.  Better to keep such matters in house, in the church house, or even in good faith simply write off the wrong.

I am reminded of one of my favorite verses of Scripture.  “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).  It is not moral for a Christians to sue another Christian, for money, for divorce, for anything else.  We are called to give, forgive, and love.

Love leads to unity inside the church and evangelism outside the church.  Find ways to love, not ways to fight.  Gospel morality manifests brotherly love.

Gospel morality is biblically defined (vs. 9-13a).

Gospel morality means allowing God to determine what is right and what is wrong.  Rules and regulations cannot save you.  But if you are saved, you live by God’s rules and regulations.  For most of Christian history, God’s rules and regulations have been synonymous with a correct interpretation of God’s word, the Bible.

Paul points out nine deadly sins in the middle of this chapter.  He also points out that the Corinthian Christians had been guilty of them before they were saved, and should avoid the practice of them any longer.  “The kingdom of God,” in this context speaking of eternal life in Heaven with the Lord, is at stake.

I hesitate to harbor on the nine sins.  Sex is existent in three of them, and sex is always awkward to talk about, even though it is all we talked about in the previous chapter.  But the sixth chapter is different.  It is about forgiveness, distinctiveness, and confidence.  

First of all, God’s word, not the world, should define what sin is and what sin is not for the Christian church.  When we see sin in God’s word, we must admit we have been guilty of most or all of it, actually or mentally.  We found forgiveness not in our morals, but in God’s grace, and so can others.  

Secondly, Christian morals must distinctly model Christ, differ from the mainstream, and once again cling closely to the word of God.  Can you imagine Jesus doing any of these nine things?  Then you go, and don’t do likewise.

Finally, when we find repentance from these sins, which is also a gift of God’s grace, we should rejoice that our morals are attuned to Christ’s, and gain blessed assurance we are His, and He is ours.  

Gospel morality means following Christ in a biblical way that magnifies God’s grace as greater than all our sins.  

Gospel morality brings glory to God (vs. 13b-20).

Gospel morality means remembering where you would be without God in your life, avoiding things that diminish God in your life, and making God of first importance in your life.

I don’t mean to be too critical to the people of our church who were here before I arrived, but this church stunk, with an odor, I mean, that took us a while to figure out.  We eventually learned that our attic above the sanctuary had become a sort of Hotel California for squirrels.  A spindly hole had opened in a corner that let the squirrels come in any time they liked, but they could never leave.  

We cleaned out the attic and plugged the hole.  We cleaned our vents and our carpets.  As members and monies were given to the church, we cleaned up everything and made most of it look brand new.  Why would we do such a thing?

We did it for the glory of God.  We did it to enhance the worship of God, which is undertaken solely for His glory.  We wanted things to look fresh and new, because God’s grace makes our lives fresh and new every day.  

The church is not just where we meet on Sunday.  It is who we are every day of the week.  When God saved us He made us fresh and clean.  Everyday our morals should reflect the goodness of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s close to the chapter needs no embellishment.  It is the bottom line of gospel morality.   “You were bought with a price.  So, glorify God in your body.”