TO SIN, OR NOT TO SIN
1 Corinthians 6:9-20 (KJV)
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
In this section of 1 Corinthians, Paul deals with the sinfulness of the Corinthian believers.
Not only were they Contentiousand Carnal, they were Carelessabout sin.
I think I see where Paul says our sin affects all three members of the Godhead. Perhaps the best reasons not to sin have to do with our relationship as Christians to God!
1 Corinthians 6:9-14 (KJV)
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.
And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by His own power.
That may be a reminder that we will stand before God someday.
A. Paul starts out in verses 9 and 10 by listing several sins.
He was not the mamby-pampby type preacher who didn't want to offend anybody with the truth.
He got down and dirty and named sins specifically.
Verse 9 lists all sexual sins
Even idolatry is considered a sexual sin in two ways;
First, many types of false worships involve immorality as a part of their worship. There in Corinth was a temple to the goddess Diana that employed 1000 prostitutes as a part of their "ministry"
Secondly, God says that when a person worships a false god they have "gone a whoring after them" God views it as an immoral thing to worship anything other than Himself.
Fornicationis sex before marriage
Adulteryis sex outside of marriage. Both are sin.
Effeminateis when a man acts like a woman
Abusers of themselves with mankindis a reference to homosexuality.
Verse 10 has other types of sins
Most of them you already know, revileris someone who is verbally abusive. An extortioneris someone who is a plunderer. More than just stealing, he steals and destroys everything he doesn't steal.
B. Apparently, the membership of this church was made up of people guilty of all these sins
1 Corinthians 6:11 (KJV)
And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
But now they are
· Washed. Made clean
· Sanctified, Set apart to God and
· Justified, declared innocent
How could anyone who had received all this from God, willingly continue in sin?
C. The central theme of this passage is verse 12,
wherePaul says, All things are lawful, but all things are not expedient.
Many churches today emphasize the fact that we are saved by grace, and therefore can do most anything they please.
The Church at Corinth had taken the liberal view of so many today.
They figured that there could be no harm in doing things that were "iffy."
While we can never lose our salvation, just because we can do a thing does not mean we should do a thing.
It is branded legalism today to have standards, to say that Christians ought to live godly and holy lives.
That is not really true.
It is simply teaching that it is not expedient, right, or goodfor Christians to do things that are not God honoring.
Paul also saidthat while all things were lawful, he would not be brought under the power of any.
We have got to remember that sin has a power over the sinner. Most sins carry their own chains. Once you have gotten used to doing them... it can be humanly impossible to quit them.
The "meats for the belly" thing has to do with our natural desires. Just because we have a natural desire does not mean it is right for us to fulfill it all the time.
We have to remember that those desires, though God given, have been corrupted by sin. We need to control them rather than allowing them to control us.
Secondly we should,
1 Corinthians 6:15-18 (KJV)
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
He begins by saying that we must remember our bodies are members of Christ.
What we do with our bodies, as Christians is a reflection upon Christ.
In this section Paul deals specifically with sexual sins and he reminds us that when a person commits that type of sin, he sins against our own body.
This is really true of every kind of sin. While the sin may have pleasure in it for a season there is always a price to pay later.
Many times, that price tag is in the form of a physical problem.
We hear a lot about AIDS these days. A disease that is most prominent among the homosexuals.
But in our country other sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis, gonorrhea and genital herpes are still out of control too.
And lastly
*III. CONSIDER GOD THE HOLY GHOST
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (KJV)
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
In these two verses Paul changes the picture from our physical bodies, to THE BODY, which is the church.
“Your” is a plural term pointing to the individuals, but body here is a singular term. He could not be referring to the physical bodies of each individual.
The local church is the Temple of the Holy Ghost.
We have that church from God... it is His gift to us.
And we need to behave as Christians in a way that glorifies God in that church.
Christians who go about willfully and wantonly sinning
· Hurt their own testimony
· Bring reproach on the name of Christ and
· Trample on the testimony of their church.
Yes, it is true that a Christian can commit sin and still be saved....
But a real Christian could not continue in the practice of sin.
Not when he considers his relationship to:
· God the Father
· God the Son and
· God the Holy Ghost
No comments:
Post a Comment