The (Frustrating, Time-Consuming, Inconvenient, Freeing and Transforming) Way of Love
Saints Sinners Soldiers
June 30, 2019
Rev. Tim Inman
Tim uses 1 Corinthians 10 to call Christians to be compelled by Christ’s love—seeking others’ good over personal rights, practicing gospel-minded humility instead of shame, and keeping eyes fixed on Christ amid difficult choices about conscience and culture.
Summary
Tim returns to his hometown and describes church planting in a largely nonreligious community, then draws on 1 Corinthians 10 and the first-century debate over meat sacrificed to idols to illustrate how Christian liberty must be balanced with love for neighbor. Paul’s instruction to eat what is sold in the marketplace without raising questions of conscience becomes a model for living in a culture that sometimes forces hard choices: the Christian life is not merely sin management but being swept into the life of God by the beauty of Christ. Living the way of love is often frustrating, inconvenient, and relationally demanding—it requires knowing others, practicing gospel mindfulness, and avoiding turning grace into shame. The sermon closes with a practical exhortation to look to Christ far more than to ourselves, cultivate godly sorrow that leads to repentance, and make decisions motivated by love for others.
Key Points
- Context: Tim returned to Dunn, NC, to help plant church in a community where many are nonreligious.
- Biblical focus: 1 Corinthians 10 and the Corinthian dispute over meat sacrificed to idols informs how Christians should handle conscience and cultural complications.
- Principle: "All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful"—liberty must be ordered by love for the neighbor.
- Application: Paul urges believers to eat what is sold in the market without raising questions of conscience because food doesn’t belong to idols but to the Lord.
- Contemporary parallel: Cultural or governmental pressures (the DHS/Internet hypothetical) force Christians to consider when to make radical choices for faith and conscience.
- Heartwork: The Christian life is about being drawn into God’s life by Christ’s beauty, not only managing sin.
- Practice: Loving others often requires the frustrating, time-consuming, inconvenient work of knowing people and putting their good above our rights.
- Warning: The message of grace can be distorted into a message of shame; gospel mindfulness guards against that.
- Discipline: For every look at ourselves take many looks at Christ—let his beauty lead to worship, godly sorrow, and repentance.
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