Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon Illustration

A Little Girl Walking In A Garden Noticed A ...

A Little Girl Walking In A Garden Noticed A ...

Contributed by Ted Sutherland on Mar 26, 2001

A little girl walking in a garden noticed a particularly beautiful flower.

She admired its beauty and enjoyed its fragrance.

“It’s so pretty!” she exclaimed.

As she gazed on it, her eyes followed the stem down to the soil in which it grew.

“This flower is too pretty to be planted in such dirt!” she cried.

So she pulled it up by its roots and ran to the water faucet to wash away the soil.

It wasn’t long until the flower wilted and died.

When the gardener saw what the little girl had done, he exclaimed, “You have destroyed my finest plant!”

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t like it in that dirt,” she said.

The gardener replied, “I chose that spot and mixed the soil because I knew that only there could it grow to be a beautiful flower.”

Often we murmur because of the circumstances into which God has sovereignly placed us.

We fail to realize that He is using our pressures, trials, and difficulties to bring us to a new degree of spiritual beauty.

Contentment comes when we accept what God is doing and thank Him for it.

Scripture Passage

1 Corinthians 17:24

There are a few key principles that Paul is highlighting within Chapter 7 and these verses.

Paul has been telling the Corinthians about marriage, divorce, singleness and so on.

In the midst of his discourse, Paul emphasizes “remain in the place God has given you.”

Paul states this 3 times.

Here he uses 2 illustrations to convey this message.

1. Circumcision and Uncircumcision.

2. Slave and Freedman.

These 2 illustrations provide context for the next section on marriage and a Christian’s responsibility to God.

Recall from last week:

A. This is Paul's most extensive discussion of domestic relationships.

He deals with

1. sexual immorality, 6:9-20; 7:2

2. marriage, , ,

3. singles, , ,

4. virgins,

5. remarriage of widows and widowers,

6. the recurrent theme is, "stay as you are," , , , , , , , ; because of the current crisis and the expected coming of Christ, although he allows for exceptions

B. Chapter 7 is a very good example of how the local and temporal situation must be taken into account before one can accurately interpret the Bible or draw universal principles for application.

The principle applied by Paul is that one should seek to serve and follow God, after conversion, in the state in which one is called, be it circumcised or uncircumcised, slave or free, unmarried or married.

This teaching is not to bind a Christian in a rut, but to assure him or her that God is at work in the circumstances in which he or she is converted.

Thus he makes quite clear that if an unmarried person does marry, he or she has not sinned, but that there is a down-side to marriage as well as an up-side.

It really depends upon individual circumstances...

Paul’s overriding principle: contentment with one’s calling

This is a much misunderstood passage in Paul that has been used variously to support the continuation of slavery and even a failure to recognize women’s leadership roles in the church and society.

Paul believed that Christ was going to return soon and with impending crisis at hand, all other matters such as singleness or marriage, slavery or freedom—all things had to be seen in light of the most important task of sharing God’s Good News as that day of the coming of the Lord was fast approaching.

Before that day, there were many hardships also falling on the early Christians and, given the deprivation that some were facing, it seems that singleness was a significant option facing many young Christians and those who had been widowed.

While urging that Christians remain in the social condition in which they were called by God, namely—in this case—their married status, Paul appeals to well-known social categories to make his point.

Without question the one that has troubled many Christians over the centuries is the call to remain in slavery.

1 Corinthians 7:

In the broader scope of the passage, however, Paul is claiming that there is no social status higher than another in Christ and, whether married or single, slave or free, Gentile or Jewish, such categories are irrelevant to one’s calling of God in Christ.

Paul makes the point here and elsewhere (Gal.

3:28) that there are no social distinctions in the salvation that comes to those who are in Christ.

For Paul, there is no superior social class in the family of God based on gender, ethnicity, or other arbitrary classes of society.

Let us take a closer look.

ONLY - This introduces the expanded implications of Paul's discussion about sexual issues.

The Greek terms ei mē can mean "unless," "except," or "but."

as the Lord has ASSIGNED - means "to divide or distribute."

It is used in the Septuagint for the division of the Promised Land to the Jewish tribes by YHWH (cf. ; ,,; ), which makes it a metaphor for God's people as does the next verb, "called."

YHWH "called" His people and they "called" on His name.

In this context both verbs refer to God's special giftedness (cf.

), which allows people to serve Him (cf.

,).

Whatever their life situation when they were called, saved and gifted, they are now to serve (i.e., "stay as you are," ,,,,,).

You have heard the expression: “Bloom where you are planted” with God's help and some exceptions.

This introduces the expanded implications of Paul's discussion about sexual issues.

The Greek terms ei mē can mean "unless," "except," or "but."

means "to divide or distribute."

It is used in the Septuagint for the division of the Promised Land to the Jewish tribes by YHWH (cf. ; ,,; ), which makes it a metaphor for God's people as does the next verb, "called."

YHWH "called" His people and they "called" on His name.

In this context both verbs refer to God's special giftedness (cf.

), which allows people to serve Him (cf.

,).

Whatever their life situation when they were called, saved and gifted, they are now to serve (i.e., "stay as you are," ,,,,,).

Bloom where you are planted with God's help and some exceptions.

God has called each one Refers to those whom God called to be saved (1:26), not the call to ministry service (compare Acts 13:2).

Paul encourages the Corinthian believers to maintain whatever marital situation they were in when they first heard God’s call.

LET him WALK - literally "walk" (i.e., Present active imperative), which is a biblical metaphor for lifestyle.

It refers to the believer walking with God to complete a complete circuit ("course") directed by Him.

Walking "full circle" means hearing the Lord's voice and doing what we hear.

Obeying the faith God imparts or inbirths, enables us to walk in each scene of life on a divinely-approved course – or what we refer to as His preferred-will.

This is literally "walk" (i.e., Present active imperative), which is a biblical metaphor for lifestyle.

Utley states that the phrase ▣ "so I direct in all the churches" is repeated often in 1 Corinthians (cf. ; ; ; ; ).

The Corinthian church thought of themselves as "special," "privileged," and "uniquely gifted."

Paul counteracts this false arrogance by asserting that he teaches the same truths in all his churches.

This phrase indicates:

in all the churches Emphasizes that the Corinthian believers have deviated from the standard practices in other churches founded by Paul.

Insert reality check: have we deviated from the standard practices in other 1st century churches founded by Paul and the other Apostles?

must not undo his circumcision Refers to an epispasm—a surgical procedure intended to disguise the marks of circumcision.

Many Gentiles despised circumcision and considered it mutilation.

This may have caused some Christian Jews in Corinth to feel ashamed about their circumcision and to seek surgery.

Paul advises such people to remain circumcised.

"Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing" This shows Paul's view of the OT rituals and regulations (cf.

; ,; ; ; see Special Topic at ).

This was the very issue brought up at the Jerusalem Council of and exploited by the Judaizers in the churches of Galatia.

Paul's theology at this point is very clear.

Gentiles do not need to perform Jewish rites, rituals, and cultic procedures.

Believing Jews must not be proud or ashamed of OT covenant practices they had participated in in the past.

True circumcision is of the heart (cf.

; ; ), not the body, and it issues in "circumcised" ears (cf. ) to hear God and lips (cf.

,) to speak His message, His new message in Christ (cf.

,).

The ancient practice of epispasm [ep-i-spasm] or removing the marks of circumcision had social implications as well...

In the ancient world, many Jews tried to reverse the visual signs of circumcision by a process known as “epispasm” (Greek = epispastho), mostly to allow them to attend the baths at gymnasiums and participate in Roman activity without the ridicule that might attend their nakedness in these public places.

This operation was most often done during the age of puberty or before so young men could enter into the athletic and gymnastic activities of their Hellenistic counterparts without the stigma of circumcision being a source of ridicule for them.