Ethical Issues in the Pauline Epistles (Part 2)

Introduction

This article is a continuation of Ethical Issues in the Pauline Epistles (Part 1) which address ethical issues such as the relationship between Jews and Gentile Christians; and The conduct of believers. Here, in part 2 of this same topic, the discussion continues taking into account additional vital ethical aspects such as: The abuse of Christian freedom; public worship; Home codes. The Universal ecclesia must have a clear understanding of these issues in order to be the true ecclesia of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ibid., pp. 521-2.

The abuse of Christian freedom

The Corinthians, in their letter to Paul, raised doubts about the advisability of eating the meat of an animal offered in a pagan sacrifice. According to David Lowery, the Corinthians’ questions apparently concerned: a) the acceptability of purchasing pagan sacrificial meat sold in the marketplace; (b) the acceptability of eating the meat as a guest at a friend’s house; c) the acceptability of attending one of these pagan sacrifices and enjoying the celebratory meal, which followed in the temple grounds. For the more mature Corinthian Christians, as Paul explained, ‘an idol is nothing at all and there is but one God, and as such eating food offered to idols was, in itself, inconsequential. However, not all Corinthians agreed that an idol was nothing. The weaker brothers who were brought to participate with the stronger brother have a corrupted conscience. So, Paul’s response was that although the stronger brothers can be justified by exercising their freedom, they did not observe a basic and underlying principle, that is, love. Even though their knowledge about idols gave them freedom to partake, however, out of love for their weaker brother, they should have refrained from eating. Therefore, Paul advises following the example of Christ. In this situation, it will imply giving up one’s freedom or right for the sake of the weaker brother.

public worship

With reference to public worship, three of the topics addressed by the apostle were the following: a) The status of women in worship (I Cor. 11:2-10); the status of Christians as the Lord’s Supper (11:17-34); and the state of spiritual gifts (chs. 12-14).

a) The Status of Women in the Worship

The problem of women in the Corinthian church was that of covering their heads. As David Lowery observed, ‘It seems like the Corinthian catchphrase, anything goes; it had also been applied to Church meetings, and the Corinthian women had expressed that principle by shedding their distinctive dress. More importantly, they appear to have rejected the concept of subservience within the Church (and perhaps in society) and with it any cultural symbols, eg head coverings, that might have been attached to it.’ From the quote above it can be seen that the problem is not simply about head coverings, but rather the insubordinate behavior of women in public worship. Lowery further noted that Paul first laid out the theological basis for his advice on this subject. Paul affirmed that for a woman to remove her covering was not an act of liberation but of degradation and dishonored her spiritual head, the man. Paul argues that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of a woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. Therefore, the woman had to cover her head to honor the man.

b) The state of Christians at the Lord’s Supper

Ibid., p. 529

Ibid., p. 530.

According to Lowery, when Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper with his disciples, the bread and the cup were part of one meal, with the bread probably broken at the beginning and the cup taken at the end. When Paul wrote, the Lord’s Supper was celebrated in two stages, cementing the sharing of the bread and the cup at the end of a communal meal. Worship with the bread and the cup came to be called Agape. However, in the Corinthian celebration, the agape meal had become an occasion marked not by love for fellow Christians, but by self-centered indulgence. Paul noted that an experience intended for the edification of the Church was actually having the opposite effect: ‘their gathering does more harm than good.’ The Lord’s Supper should be the memory of an eminently disinterested act, the death of Christ in favor of others. Instead, the Corinthians have turned this memorial into an experience of selfishness and have brought disunity to the body. Paul made the theological significance of the Lord’s Supper very clear to the Corinthians. They were to celebrate in memory of what Christ has done for them: his death, burial and resurrection, and also in the hope of his return.

c) The State of Spiritual Gifts

The Corinthian believers manifest in their worship service the many gifts of the spirit. But the way believers use their gifts causes problems and disorder in their services. Especially spectacular gifts, like tongues. They consider these gifts as a sign of gift of spirituality.

home codes

JD Douglas correctly observed that one of the distinctive features of Paul’s epistles is the recurrence of so-called house codes (Eph. 5:22ff, Col. 3:18ff, I Tim. 2:8ff, Titus 2:2ff), although as Douglas stated they are conservative in tone, but are clear indications that there were problems with the Churches mandating these codes. This particular relationship was selected because Paul had to address this issue in a concrete situation between Philemon, a slave master, and Onesimus, his runaway slave.

In his commentary on the Epistle to Philemon, Edwin C. Deibler wrote: ‘Onesimus, a slave of Philemon, had run away after having evidently robbed his master (Phil. 18). His journey somehow led him to Rome, where in God’s providence, he came into contact with Paul. Through this contact, Paul brought Onesimus to know Christ as Savior.’ Pablo decided to send Onesimus back to his master, but he was very worried about how Philemon would react. So, in his letter to Philemon, he challenged him on the basis of his relationship to Christ to receive Onesimus as his brother.

Conclusion

This article and its counterpart have discussed some of the ethical issues raised in the Pauline epistles: 1 Relationship between Jews and Gentile Christians. 2. The conduct of believers. 3. The abuse of Christian freedom. 4. Public worship. 5. House codes. The format used was as follows: First, the theological basis of Paul’s ethical teaching was examined. In this examination it was discovered that Paul was basing his teaching on the doctrine of Christ—his death, burial, and resurrection, and on his example of humility and love. The underlying principle of Paul’s ethical teaching is that the church or ecclesia of Christ is a new community of believers who can only positively influence the world and make disciples of all nations through their ongoing Christian witness.

JD Douglas, New Bible Dictionary (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1962), p. 354.

Edwin C. Deibler, Philemon: The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Illinois: Victor Books, 1983), p. 769.