Re:Verse reading–1 Corinthians 5 (day three)
And you are proud!
When Paul said that this kind of incest-y behavior didn’t occur among the pagans, he meant it didn’t occur as a practice accepted by the establishment. Neither did murder, but people still got bumped off. Paul’s point is that even pagan society addressed the ethical implications of human desire. This is good and right. If by contrast the emerging ethics of Christianity would begin to resemble undisciplined minors whose parents have left the house for the weekend, few would take it seriously for long. “The rules were always holding me back” is not a vision for the gloriousness of the human person. The Incarnation shows us God’s regard for human beings—and for bodily behavior in particular. If we’re going to live with our bodies any way we please, the tomb might as well have remained occupied.
