Saturday, November 13, 2021

Brendan Byrne on 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, 9:24-27 and 10:1-11

  

The three verbs expressing the radical change are all in the aorist tense and refer to the initiation of life as believers: the rite of baptism (απελουσασθε) and its effects of incorporation into the holy people of God (ηγιασθητε), and justification (εδικαιωθητε). The location of justification in the past (as in Rom. 5:1, 9), the beginning of life as believers, does not detract from its essential forensic reference to the last judgment. The eschatological references to “inheriting (or “not inheriting”) the kingdom of God” (vv. 9-10) ensure that initial justification is in view of a final verdict that will confirm or not confirm, as the case may be, their righteous status.

 

In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul appeals to his own practice as an apostle to illustrate an appropriate forgoing of his rights as an apostle for the sake of the more effective service of the gospel (vv. 3-15). In conclusion (vv. 24-27), he likens himself to an athlete willing to submit to rigorous training in order to win the prize. Whereas athletes struggle in this way to win a “corruptible” prize, “we” (believers) are in a contest for one that is “incorruptible” (αφθαρτον [v. 25]). Hence Paul’s concern (v. 27) lest, having preached to others, he may himself be found “disqualified” (αδοκιμος)—that is, wanting at the last judgment, and so liable to loss of salvation. Once again, the prospect of judgment determines present life and practice.

 

The same thought continues as Paul turns from the illustration to resume more directly the topic being addressed across 1 Corinthians 8-10 as a whole: the danger of allowing one’s freedom to lead to any connection with idolatry. The extended warning, taken from a midrash on the fate of the exodus generation (10:1-11), presupposes that believers live continually with the prospect of an accountability soon to come: “These things were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come” (10:11). (Brendan Byrne, Paul and the Economy of Salvation: Reading from the Perspective of the Last Judgment [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2021], 57-58)