The Grass Isn't Always Greener

When we read Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, we see a church whose attitudes and actions are sometimes indistinguishable from the Roman culture around them. The church in Corinth is messy and divided, but it belongs to God. The letter of 1 Corinthians shows us a beautiful picture of how the gospel can bring transformation and renewal to every area of life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The sermon text today is from 1 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 17 through 24. And on the Bible in the pew, it's on page 1738. Listen as I read God's word. Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. Was a man already circumcised when he was called? He should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called? Then he should not become circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's words, excuse me, keeping God's commands is what counts. Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you. Although, if you can gain your freedom, do so. For the man who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord's freed person. Similarly, the one who is freed when called is Christ's slave. You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of human beings. Brothers and sisters, each person as responsible to God should remain in the situation that they were in when God called them. Here ends the reading.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Good morning, everyone. If I've not yet had the chance to meet you today, my name is John. I get to serve as the lead pastor here at Elmwood. And let me be another voice saying, especially if you were here for the first time with us this morning, whether you sort of stumbled across us online, but especially if someone from Elmwood invited you here, we just want you to know that we are grateful to be together with you this morning. As we come to these verses, uh let me invite you to join me in a word of prayer. God, as we come once again to sit under your word, we ask that you would be gracious to us in these moments. God, we uh look to your word as a source of life, as a source of nourishment for our souls. God, we recognize that we all come here today from different places. Some of us have had great weeks, some of us have had terrible weeks or hard weeks. And Lord, you know exactly where each one of us comes from today. And so we look to you to teach us and to instruct us by your Spirit. We look to you to provide for each one of us what we need. And we do trust and believe, God, that you will meet each one of us here. We believe, God, that we are not here in this place by accident. And so we look to you, God, uh, to form us and to shape us into the image of your Son Jesus. Help us to see him this morning. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Many of you know that when I was 14 years old, I started working at a grocery store. And about the time I was a junior in high school, I was starting to become very tired of that job. I was very dissatisfied, which looking back was more of a me problem than a the job problem. Uh, but that's a whole message for a different time. Uh I was beginning to feel dissatisfied, and so I started looking for a new job. And uh I was obviously thinking that there's something better out there for me, and so I uh ended up looking in a couple different places, ended up interviewing at a company that manufactures concrete beams and other concrete uh construction materials, and after the interview, they offered me the job if I wanted it, and for a couple different reasons I ended up not taking this particular job, but at that time it was hard for me to imagine a job that was out there that wasn't better than the one I had. In that season of my life, especially as it relates to my work, I lived with the belief that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Each one of us has the tendency, don't we, to think that what we do not possess right now is better than what we do possess. We have a tendency to think that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence and that a change in our circumstances would make our lives better and would solve all of our problems. And so we can all identify with this proverbial saying. When you feel dissatisfied in your place of employment, in your vocation, every new company that you investigate, every person you talk to who tells you about their job, everything feels better than the job you have right now. When you're not getting along with your parents, you think, if I could just move out on my own, everything would be better. Everything would be so different and so wonderful, or you might think, if you're having difficulties with your children, you might think, man, if my kids could just move out, things would be so much better. When you see your friends who have possessions or experiences that you don't have, you think to yourself, you know, if I had those material possessions, or if I had those experiences, or if I had those resources, things would be better for me. Uh this one is close to home for me. Uh, in the heart of Minnesota winters, when the high temperature is below zero, there's many of us that think, if I could just move somewhere warmer. And then, of course, we see the videos and the pictures of poisonous snakes and scorpions and alligators and hurricanes, and we realize maybe uh air that hurts your face and mosquitoes aren't as bad as we maybe think they are. We all know what it's like to think that the grass is greener on the other side. And with enough life experience, you begin to learn that the grass is not always greener on the other side. This is exactly the kind of thing that Paul is addressing as he writes to the church in the city of Corinth. So we've been in a series of messages where we are looking at this letter that we call 1 Corinthians. This was written by a traveling church planter whose name was Paul, and in this letter he's writing to address and to correct some problems that existed in this young church. So we're entering into a section here in chapter 7 where the main subject he's addressing is changes in status, changes in circumstance, changes in status. And so he's addressing changes in status as it relates to things like marriage and divorce and celibacy and betrothal and engagement and things like this. So in these verses that we're looking at today, he provides for us the principle that governs everything he says about changes in status. And so what we're gonna do today is we're going to look at this sort of principle that Paul lays out here, and then in the coming weeks, we're gonna go to those other passages that are around this one and see him applying it to these other specific situations. So the structure of this passage, how Paul has arranged this material, is actually really helpful in us seeing the main point of what he's saying. So I want to just take a moment here and sketch for you how Paul has arranged these verses. So if you if you were listening carefully, you would have noticed a repetition. Three times, Paul says, Don't try and change your status. Three times, at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, he says, Remain as you are. And then sandwiched in between those, he gives these two examples of ways that a person could change their status. One of those being circumcision, one of them being slavery. And so as we look at the way he's arranged this, it helps drive home the point of what he's getting at here when he says, Remain as you are. So the main point that I'll sort of lay out here for you today, the main sort of uh uh idea that I think Paul is trying to communicate to us is this changes in status gain us nothing before God. Changes in status, changes in our circumstances, these things gain us nothing before God. So let's uh spend a few moments looking at each of these different examples he gives of changes in status that don't make any difference before God. So the first one is circumcision. Uh listen to what he says in verse 18. He says, Was a man already circumcised when he was called, he should not become uncircumcised. Was a man uncircumcised when he was called, he should not become circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God's commands is what counts. So he's very clear that circumcision, uncircumcision, those things don't mean anything, which is actually a remarkable thing for someone like Paul to say. If you know anything about Paul's background, he was a Pharisee, which meant his life was steeped in the Jewish Torah and in the Jewish law. And if you go all the way back to the book of Genesis, you you read about uh the first place we see circumcis circumcision coming up, where God established a covenant relationship with a man named Abraham, and then he gave him a sign or a symbol that was associated with that covenant, and the sign of that covenant was circumcision. And so for Abraham, and then also for all of his descendants after him, the physical sign that you belonged to the covenant community of God's people was circumcision. So God himself commanded this to be done. And the Jewish people, ever since that time, practiced circumcision in this way, but here Paul says it is nothing. And the reason is that in Christ a deeper and truer circumcision has already taken place. Let me tell you what I mean by that. Uh listen to what Paul wrote elsewhere, as he wrote to the church in the city of Colossae in chapter 2, verse 11, he says this. He says, In him that is in Christ, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self, ruled by the flesh, was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised with him through your faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. And so in Colossians 2, Paul's talking about circumcision, and he does not say that circumcision is unimportant, which seems to be at odds with what he says in this passage. In Colossians 2, he says, no, circumcision is essential for salvation, but not the kind of circumcision that happens in your physical body. He says there is a kind of deeper circumcision of the heart that takes place through faith in Jesus, and that is what he is, that is what he's getting at here. He says, through Christ, your whole self that was ruled by the flesh, and that word flesh, he's talking about the sinful part of you that by nature lives in rebellion against God. He says, in Christ, that part of you was circumcised, it was cut off, it was cast aside. And because Jesus has already done this inner work of heart-level circumcision, we can take or leave the outward physical sign. That's what Paul is getting at here. Possessing this truer, deeper form of heart circumcision frees us from the tyranny of status swapping. So that's what he says as it relates to circumcision. You can take it or leave it, because we have the greater thing in Jesus. But then he goes on to talk about slavery. I won't take the time to go very deep into this today, but it is important for us, especially as modern readers, to recognize that slavery in the ancient world, uh, although it was everywhere, in every culture, in every people, all throughout the world, slavery in the ancient world was not exactly the same thing as slavery was in the history of our country. So, unlike in the history of our country, slavery in the ancient world, it was not race-based, it was not uh it was it was not for life. So there were some significant differences. Uh, but with that being said, there was uh one main similarity between slavery basically everywhere then and now, and the main similarity is that the slave was considered the property of the owner. And that's really uh what Paul's grasping onto as he gives this uh example, this illustration of slavery. So he points to slavery and he makes the same point as with circumcision. He says, Don't obsess over swapping statuses and moving from being a slave to being a free person. And like with circumcision, he points to a deeper transformation that has already taken place through Christ. So verse 22, listen to what he says. In verse 22, he says, For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord's free person. Similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price. So notice what he says here is he does not say, Even though you used to be a slave, you now belong to no one. He doesn't say that. He says, You belong to Christ. You are still slaves, but you are now slaves of a better master. You have now come under the gracious and life-giving ownership of God. So you are a free person, he says, but you're not free from all authority. He says, you are the Lord's free person, meaning you are free, and at the very same time, you belong, every part of you, you belong to him. And then in verse 23, he again points us to Jesus and says, You were bought at a price. Meaning Jesus gave his life for you. Jesus suffered and died for you, he gave his life to ransom you, to purchase you back from death and hell, and you now, through Christ, you belong to him. And so this is what he says to those who are already slaves, but then he doesn't just talk to the slaves, he talks to those who are free and says this to them. He says, Similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ's slave. So to the slaves, he says, You're still slaves, but to a better master. And to the free person, he says, Don't forget that you are slaves too. Every single person who has been called by Jesus, who is in relationship with him, is a slave. We belong to Jesus, we belong to God through Christ. And knowing this, it eliminates this obsession with status swapping that Paul sees taking place in the church in Corinth. It eliminates the the need to try and change your current status and your current circumstances in life because you belong to him. So since changes in status gain you nothing before God, Paul says you should remain as you are. Now, Paul is not saying that a person cannot or should not ever change their status. He's not saying it's wrong for you to change your status if the opportunity should arise. We know this because he says to slaves in verse 21, he says, Don't let it trouble you, although if you can gain your freedom, do so. So he encourages them to a change of status. He later, when he talks to those who are betrothed to be married, he says, okay, you don't sin if those of you who are single now but are betrothed to be married get married and change your status. You're not sinning by doing that. So he's not saying that it's wrong to change your status. He's not saying that, like a bad cell phone contract, you are locked in to the status that you have whenever you became a follower of Jesus. That's not his point. He's addressing the specific situation of a church that seems to be obsessed with changing status and seeking after something different and seeking after something better. And in the process, they're sinning against God and they're sinning against one another as they're doing it. So he's saying to them, changes in your status don't gain you anything before God. Don't think you can impress God. Don't think that God will be more pleased with you if you change your status. Changes in status gain us nothing before God. So that's the negative way of saying it, but we could also put this in the positive, and we can say it like this we can be faithful to God in any situation. That's the flip side of this. We can be faithful to God in any situation. Now, of course, the exception to this is sin. There's never a time when it is pleasing to God for us to live in sin. The kind of things that we've seen Paul address in the letter so far are things like sexual immorality, idolatry, you know, us giving our hearts and our affections to other things. It is never pleasing to God for us to live in sin, to live in sexual immorality or idolatry or gossip or greed or anything like that. So uh take sin off the table, and when you do that, there isn't a situation in which you can't please God. Again, sometimes it is appropriate for us to change our situation in life. There are times when it is good and it is right and it is God honoring for us to take hold of or to pursue a change in our status. There are times when that reflects a desire to love and to please God, and it's a good thing. So on the one hand, changing status can be a good thing, and on the other hand, the shadow side of that is that the desire to change status can reveal that we don't truly believe God can use us as we are. And so we have to run after something different. We have to run after some other status or some other set of circumstances. It can reveal, although it doesn't always reveal this, it can reveal we doubt his ability to work through us in circumstances that we don't think are ideal. So sometimes it's appropriate and good to change our status. But what Paul is getting at here with the Corinthians, and for us, is uh is very simply, it's not necessary. It could be good, sure. It could also be an evidence of lack of trust, of lack of belief. It could be good for you to change your status, but it's not necessary. We can be faithful to God in any situation, and knowing this frees us from the constant grasping at changing our status. It frees us from the constant grasping and believing that the grass is greener in the other spiritual pasture because it's not. Think for a moment with me about uh ways that this mindset creeps into our lives and into our ways of thinking. You might think to yourself, you know, I'm just a guy or a girl who works a standard marketplace job. I would be more valuable to God if I could be in some sort of vocational full-time ministry job instead of just working out in the secular workplace. Or you might think, you know, I I work 40 hours a week plus, and so I spend so much of my time and so much of my life at work. I'll be so much more valuable to God once I'm retired and I have more margin in my life. Or you may say to yourself, I'm just a stay at home mom, I'm a stay at home parent. I spent basically all of my time. Caring for children, keeping my house in order, doing things like laundry and cooking and cleaning and all the incredible amount of work it takes to running a household, I would be more valuable to God if so much of my focus wasn't inside the four walls of my house. Or you may think I'm just a student, whether that's grade school or high school or college. You may think to yourself, I spend most of my waking hours at school or doing school work or thinking about school. I'll become valuable to God once I get past this season of my life. You may think to yourself, I'm just a parent with small children. I spend most of my time keeping these small humans alive, and I barely sleep. I'll really become valuable to God once I get past this season. Once my kids are sleep trained, once my kids are older, once we get out of this phase, once my kids move out of the house, then I can really be useful to God. Or you may think, I'm just a retired person. And at one point I thought that the season of life would leave me with more time than I knew what to do with, but now, ironically, I think I might be more valuable to God if I could go in a time machine and go back 15 years to when my body worked better and I worked 40 hours a week. Just like the Corinthians, we too can fall into the trap of believing the lie that we would be more valuable to God if. We can fall into the trap of believing we'll be more valuable to God when. And have you ever noticed that there's always an if? The if is never in your current circumstances, and the when is never now. It's always at some other time in some other set of circumstances. And so we too can fall into the trap of being obsessed over changing our status. And we can think, I would be more useful to God if I made more money, if I had more time, if I had better health, if I had a larger following, if I was more influential, if I could grow in certain skills, if I had better connections, and the list goes on and on and on and on of the things that we say, man, if only I was this, then I would really be valuable to God. Then God could really use me. And like the Corinthians, we can live with an obsession over changing our status and changing our circumstances. And the message that I think Paul wants us to see here this morning is that God's work in and through you is not limited by your present life circumstances or by your status. God would not be more pleased with you if you were in a different season of life, if you had a different status, if you had more time, if you had more money, if you had any and all of the things, he would not be more pleased with you. What truly matters is not your current life status, but living in obedience to God in whatever situation he's placed you. That's what matters. Listen to what he says in verse 19. He says circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing, keeping God's commands, that's what counts. So no matter what status you possess, if you are united to Jesus through faith, and if you are living in obedience to God, your life is pleasing to him. What matters is not your status. What matters is not whether you can attain the circumstances or the status you think would make you more valuable to God. What matters is living in obedience to God, and you can do that in whatever situation you're in right now. The question we should ask ourselves is not, what status do I possess? The question we should ask ourselves is not, am I in what I believe to be the ideal set of circumstances in my life? The question is, what does faithfulness look like today? In your current circumstances. In your current status, what does faithfulness to God look like today? What does obedience to God look like today? Paul's argument for why we don't need to change our status hinges on this gospel reality. In Christ, we already possess everything we need to please God. In him, we possess everything we need to be pleasing to God. In fact, we have already been made pleasing to God through Jesus. Jesus went to the cross and he suffered and died. He lived the life that we should have lived and failed to live. He died the death that we should have died in our place. He went to the cross and died and then rose again so that through faith in him we could experience new life. And through faith in Jesus, our old self has been cut off, it has been removed, it has been done away with, it has been crucified with him, and as a result of that, we now possess through faith alone the righteousness of Jesus, which means that his status and his right standing before the Father now belongs to us. And what that means is that there is nothing else to gain through a change of our status. There's nothing else to gain through different or better circumstances as we see them. Through Jesus, we've been set free from our slavery to sin and death, and we now belong to God. We now belong to Him, which means there's nothing left for us to gain through a change in our status. This is the good news that Paul wants us to see today is that changes in our status, they gain us nothing before God. We can be faithful to God in any and every situation, and it is through Jesus that we have already been made pleasing to God. We come to the communion table each week and we are reminded of this glorious reality that in Christ we already possess every single thing we need to please God. If you're here today and you're a follower of Jesus, this is true for you. God would not be more pleased with you if you had different status, different circumstances. You can please God in whatever situation he has placed you today. If you're not yet a follower of Jesus, this can be true for you today as well. That your life can be made pleasing to God, that you can experience that inner transformation and renewal, that you can experience a transfer of ownership and you can belong to the gracious and life giving ownership of God. Why not make today the day that you come to know the one who gave his life for you? As we come to the communion table, I invite you to take a few moments of silence for confession and reflection, and then we will come receive Christ together.