No Excuse

Imagine this: The 'First Baptist Church of Corinth' calls you to be their pastor. They tell you, "Come be our pastor, but we want to let you know that we've got a few problems. First of all, we've got four different groups/factions here--four different cliques all fighting each other within the church. We've got a man who has taken up with his step-mama and they are living together. We've got lawsuits pending within the church. We've got people living immoral lives. We've got some saying you can't get married. We've got another group getting drunk at the Lord's Supper. We've got another group speaking in tongues and flaunting their gifts. We've got another group who doesn't believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. Other than that, we've got a pretty good church...will you come and be our pastor?" Yea, you betcha. They couldn't pay me enough to go and pastor a church like that. Yet, all of these are the problems and sins that were taking place at the church of Corinth. And these will be the problems Paul tackles in this letter to them.
The city of Corinth had over a half a million people and was located on a narrow isthums. It had two ports and thus was a major sea port in that day. We all know about sailor, sea port towns. They had a XXX section of town. The city was morally corrupt. In fact, the phrase "Corinthianize" was coined there. It meant to live lewdly, to behave like a Corinthian, to live like a prostitute.
Now pay close attention to what Paul said in the opening of his letter. "To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus." 1:2. Geographically these Christians were AT Corinth, but spiritually they are IN Christ. Paul is removing any possible excuses for the sin in their church (which he will proceed to address in this letter). They couldn't excuse their sin because of the wicked geographical location of their church. And neither can you or me. You can't say, "Well, I let a four letter word slip today because of all these rough necks I work with." No! You may work in an awful place, but dear Christian you are IN Christ Jesus. And mark it: "sanctified in Christ Jesus", that is, set apart. You are in the world but not of the world and you can not use the world as an excuse for your sins, because regardless of where you are geographically, spiritually you are in Christ. Therefore, be a light in this dark world and shine for Jesus!
Trivia Question to think on:
Corinth is the most sinful, carnal church in all of the Bible. Why do churches today name themselves "The First Baptist Church of Corinth"?