The Christian in the World

Christian Ethics for Paul is really a simple matter. If one is in Christ, that person becomes a new creation. The old person passes away, and a new one is born. This love from Christ leads to behavior changes (Romans 12: 2 and 2 Corinthians 15:18). Moral life is not the result of reason controlling passions or moral striving to obey religious rules, but the result of God’s transformation.

To love and to be loved is the essence of Christianity. Nothing is forbidden. By loving one’s neighbor, that person fulfills all the teachings of the law (Romans 13:10). This is a beautiful vision. The question we will examine in the concluding blog on Paul is whether this experience of love actually produces the changes that Paul suggests.

Paul’s vision of the Church is equally beautiful. The Church is the place where God’s love invades the world. It radiates love outward into the world. It is a community within the world and not separate from it. Paul encourages his followers to separate themselves from the values of the world, but not to withdraw from the world (1 Corinthians 5: 9-13).

Unfortunately, there were splits within some of the churches that Paul established (1 Corinthians 1: 10-16). He reminds his members in Corinth that the primary gift of the Holy Spirit is love. Members of the Christian community are urged to use that love to build up others within the community. Life in the Christian community is one of mutual service for the common good. (1 Corinthians 14: 26-27).

Finally, Paul teaches that the Church is one body unified in Christ. As a body, the Church has several parts. Members each have special gifts which they are to use for building up the community and not for their own aggrandizement. The individual member, like a body part, has no life on his own. An arm only has meaning if it is attached to a body. As a result, Church members should always use their gifts to work for the good of the whole community (Romans 2: 3-13 and 1 Corinthians 12: 21-30).