How Shall We Then Live?

Paul's gospel-shaped pastoral response.

If you have ever read Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians, you know it is not a calm, polite letter.

It is messy and, at times, almost embarrassing to read.

The Corinthians were not the model church; it was quite the opposite. The congregations were marked by division, scandal, puffed up with pride, and confused about nearly every aspect of Christian living.

They were split into factions, rallying around “celebrity preachers” and their teachings.

They tolerated gross immorality in their midst, as a matter of fact, sins so shocking that Paul says even the pagans would blush.

They dragged one another before pagan courts in public lawsuits, turning their disputes into a spectacle.

They abused Christian freedom in eating food offered to idols, wounding the consciences of weaker brothers.

They turned the Lord’s Supper into a selfish feast, where the wealthy humiliated the poor.

They flaunted spiritual gifts, competing for status rather than building up the body.

And to top it off, some even denied the resurrection of the dead, cutting the very heart out of the gospel itself.

In our day, we would have marked them off as being a lost cause and featured them in our discernment ministry podcasts.

Yet Paul never disowns them. He begins his letter by calling them “the church of God which is at Corinth, sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1:2). And it will be that juxtaposition, that they are holy in Christ, yet full of unholiness in practice, that sets the stage for everything he writes.

This is crucial, because too often 1 Corinthians is read as if it were little more than a list of demands. Preachers and teachers frequently reduce it to a manual on how to fix a messy church: “Don’t (fill in the blank),” and while what they say is most likely true, if that is all we see, we have missed Paul’s heart. The letter is not simply about correcting bad behavior.

Instead, at its heart, 1 Corinthians is a gospel-shaped pastoral response.

The problem was not that the Corinthians had just forgotten what to do; rather, they had forgotten who they were. So, Paul is not content to put moral Band-Aids on bad behavior. He is after transformation, rooting every imperative in the deep soil of what God has already accomplished in Christ.

He follows a distinctly pastoral pattern that weaves the whole together:

1. State the problem.
   Paul does not downplay sin or excuse it, but calls out divisions, lawsuits, immorality, idolatry, disorder in worship, and denial of the resurrection. Each of these could have been ignored or tolerated in the name of “unity” or “Christian freedom,” but Paul refuses to pretend the mess isn’t there. He brings sin into the light.

2. Issue the imperative.
   Having exposed the problem, Paul commands a response. “Stop boasting in men,” “Expel the immoral brother,” “Flee fornication,” and so on. He does not coddle the church but gives clear commands that confront their behavior head-on.

3. Ground it in the indicative.
   And here is the genius of Paul’s pastoral method. He never leaves the command hanging in midair, as though Christian obedience were sheer willpower. Instead, he roots every imperative in a gospel indicative, something God has already accomplished for them in Christ.

This is the rhythm of the letter: problem → imperative → indicative.

Paul is not a moralist demanding better behavior for its own sake; he is a pastor reminding Christians to live out who they already are in Christ.

The Danger of Reading Corinthians as Demands Alone

Here is where many readers, preachers, and teachers go wrong. They treat 1 Corinthians as if it were nothing more than a book of demands, a manual for church discipline, a checklist of what needs fixing, or a stick to beat Christians into obedience.

For Paul, imperatives are never free-floating moral commands. They are always tethered to the gospel indicative; the reality of Christ crucified and risen, the reality of what God has already done in and for His people.

To read Corinthians as demands without the gospel is to flatten it into mere moralism. It reduces the letter to “try harder,” which is the very opposite of Paul’s pastoral intent.

The difference is enormous.

The legalist will say: Fix your behavior so that God will accept you.

Paul says: God has already accepted you in Christ, now let your behavior match the reality of who you are.

This is why I’ve titled this series How Shall We Then Live, which is not meant to suggest a manual of demands, a list of “dos and don’ts.” Rather, it is meant to be a pastoral reorientation to the one reality that defines them, and that is the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For the Corinthians, their failure was not primarily ignorance of rules. Paul never accuses them of lacking information. Their failure was forgetfulness of the gospel, which is what makes 1 Corinthians so urgent and so relevant for us.

Believers today still separate the “spiritual” gospel from the “practical” issues of money, sex, conflict, and community, but Paul refuses to let them split life into compartments. He insists: the gospel is not only the power that saves you from judgment, it is also the power that reshapes the way you live now.

My prayer is that, as we trace Paul’s argument, we will learn with the Corinthians that Christian living is never moralism, but always gospel-shaped, responsive obedience, that is empowered by the Spirit.

And so, the answer to the question How shall we then live? is not: “Try harder. Do better. Prove yourself.”

The answer is always: Live as who you already are, in Christ.