THIS WEEK AT IKON: 2.28.06

1CORINTHIANS 5:1-5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.

This is a tough one. One things for sure though, Paul is writing to Christians about their not making the choices Christians should. In fact, we never see Paul talking to someone outside the church about the need to behave better than they do - even though Paul is writing to Christians in a very debaucherous city: Corinth. It's the Christian he holds to a higher standard because right behavior and thinking is a response to knowing the love of God, experiencing the forgiveness of Jesus and being motivated by the Spirit of God. Only God in us and with us makes us willing and able to be "good." Only God's followers "hunger and thirst for righteousness."

So why do we/I so often expect non-Christians to abide by our standards for marriage, business ethics, war and peace, child raising etc? Are we wrong to do so? Is it possible to pass laws or stage protests tat can actually change a leopard's spots? Is it OK to MAKE someone outside our club behave as we should without their wanting to? These are just some of the questions we'll wrestle this week as we discuss 1 Corinthians 5 at ikon. We start around 8 PM every Tuesday at the People's Church in Franklin, TN. Stop by sometime.