Paul began in this passage to exhort the believers to 1) live a life of love, 2) live a life of holiness, 3) live a life of vigilance, and 4) live a life filled with the Spirit.
As God’s new society, a people who have put off the old self and put on the new self, what we are and what we believe should be seen and manifested in how we behave. Holiness is not a condition into which we drift; we are not passive spectators of a sanctification God works in us. In fact we have to purposefully and intentionally ‘put off’ us all conduct that is not compatible with our new life in Christ, and we are to ‘put on’ a lifestyle that is worthy of God’s call. In that light, Paul went on to exhort the believers to live a life which is worthy and appropriate to who we are in Christ, and to keep away from what is unfitting for God’s people who are already part of God’s new humanity in Christ Jesus.
Firstly, we are to live a life of love, patterned after the life and love of the Lord Jesus, a love displayed in sacrifice and giving. At the heart of Christian maturity is loving fellowship and communion with Jesus, manifested in a life of love for others, in the church, in the family, in relationships and in ministry. Is this what believers are known for? Is this what characterizes ministers and Christian ministry? We have studied various aspects of such a love in 1 Corinlthians 13 and we saw how this was highlighted to contrast the problems that arose in the church of Corinth (What is Ailing the Church of God, Quek Koh Choon). Without such a love, the church of Corinth had to deal with division, pride, immorality, self-centredness, deception, and false teachers. These false teachers distorted the accurate teaching of the cross, spiritual gifts and the ministry of the Spirit. Without love, our gifts amount to nothing and our hard work gain nothing from God’s perspective. The new society and humanity God is creating through Jesus is distinctly one of love, immersed in and sustained by God’s love.
Paul then focused on a life of holiness. There should be no unwholesome talk, sexual immorality of any kind, greed, impurity or deeds of darkness. Believers were once darkness but now we are light in the Lord; we can no longer live in darkness. Instead, we are to live as children of light, the fruit of which consists of goodness, righteousness and truth. We not only
need to live in the light but we are to expose the deeds of darkness, especially among God’s people. Here again, the call to speak the truth in love comes in. We should not be afraid to reveal the truth when God’s honour is compromised in the name of Christian service. As light of the world, and salt of the earth, believers are to ensure that light continues to shine, to dispel the darkness in society, and to persevere to preserve what is good in the eyes of God for the community and the church.
Recall the exhortation of Scriptures: “Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16; Leviticus 11:44). We are individually and corporately the temple of God. The temple must be holy for a holy God to dwell in. Let us not make the same mistake as the Israelites in profaning the temple of God. Do not be presumptuous like them and thought that God would never abandon His temple. Jerusalem was destroyed and God left His temple, causing His people to be exiled by the Babylonians. Likewise, we are corporately a ‘bride’ of Christ; the bride of Christ ought to be unblemished and pure, reserved for the bridegroom. Let us not indulge in spiritual adultery and deceive ourselves that it does not matter to God.
There is a common notion among believers today that ‘sins of the flesh’ (like adultery) are more serious than ‘sins of the spirit’ (like pride, jealousy, envy and self-centeredness). This is because the Christian view of man has been synthesized with the teaching of man from the philosophy of Plato which teaches that evil has its roots chiefly in the body. Our right understanding of the biblical teaching of man is significant. Man is inescapably related to God and made in the image of God, although this image has been marred and distorted by the Fall. The Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Both body and spirit are to be holy for God to dwell in. The unseen sins of the ‘spirit’ are equally serious in the eyes of God and should not be dismissed as trivial.
In the resurrection, we shall be totally like the glorified Christ, not only in our spirits but also in our bodies. What will it be like to be glorified? We shall only be able to speak about that future existence in figurative language, as the Bible does, particularly in the Book of Revelation. The perfection of the image of God in man will probably concern, first and foremost, our relation to God. Man will then be wholly directed toward God. We shall then worship, obey, and serve God faultlessly, without any imperfection. Praise and adoration of God will then be as natural and constant as breathing is now. It will also concern our relation to our neighbours. Man will then love and serve his fellow men perfectly; whatever hindrances to such loving now exist will then be gone. There will then be perfect fellowship in a perfect society. All the barriers that now separate people will be gone; there will then be only one Church, of which Christ will be the head. Christ will be the king over people from all nations. All dwellers on the new earth will be members of the family of God, bound to each other with intimate and unbreakable ties.
Yet in the midst of this oneness there will still be many differences. Glorified believers will not all be alike; they will retain their unique talents and gifts, purged of all imperfection – talents that will be used for the enrichment of all. The perfection of the image will also concern our relationship to nature. Man will rule over and care for nature in the way God intended him to do. Human beings will then be stewards, not exploiters, of the earth, exploring its resources and admiring its beauty in a way that will bring unending praise to God. We shall then reign perfectly over all creation, with and under Christ. The Bible clearly teaches that the future of the person who is in Christ is everlasting life in a glorified resurrection body – the perfected image. But the same Bible also teaches that the person who rejects Christ and continues to live in rebellion against God without repentance or faith will endure eternal perdition. We must therefore live with ourselves and with each other in the light of that future destiny.
Paul went on to emphasize the need for vigilance and wisdom in the way believers live. There should be no room for debauchery, frivolous living and the wasting of opportunity for doing the will of God, for we are living in evil days. Instead, believers should be filled with the Spirit, manifested in true worship of God in songs, hymns and thanksgivings. Notice that the filling with the Spirit invariably leads to worship, praise and thanksgivings, and it is contrasted with being drunk and losing self-control. One aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is indeed self-control and this should be reflected in orderliness in worship and service.
Self-control and discipline need to be exercised also in the use of time, in appropriating the means of grace given by God in the forms of Scriptural reading and study, the communion with God in prayer, corporate worship and participation in the sacraments with fellow believers.