"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor idolators, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God! Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God!" (I Corinthians 6:9-11)
In last week's lesson, on I Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul continued to address some serious problems (sin!) that had been reported to him concerning "believers" in the church of Corinth, the church he had founded on the foundation of Jesus Christ. And he was apparently shocked to learn that--in addition to the quarrels and fighting and factions that were going on within the church, problems that he had earlier addressed, there was actually a case of immorality that was going on within the church--"an immorality of such a kind that didn't even exist among the Gentiles"! That of a man, a professing believer, having a sexual union with the woman married to the immoral man's father! His step mother! And what shocked, and apparently upset, Paul even more was not the existence of the sin itself but that the church leaders and other "brothers" were not dealing with it! And rather than confronting the "brother," and removing him from the church, as they should have done--unless he repented and changed his ways--they let it continue, even boasting about their "openness" and permissiveness in accepting it! And so Paul wrote (in verses 3-5) that "even though he was absent in body but present in spirit, in the name of our Lord Jesus (and by exercising his apostolic authority!) he had decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus"! (Indicating that this immoral man was, in fact, "a believer"--and needed to separate his life from the world!)
Paul also charged (in verse 6) that "their boasting was not good"! "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened"! (Thus, as we discussed last week, drawing on this Old Testament analogy to illustrate the importance of separating themselves--and the church of God--from the old life of sin!)
But Paul was not finished with his instructions on how the church needed to deal with sin in the church! And so, in verse 9, he reminded them that when he had earlier written that the Corinthian believers "were not to associate with immoral people," he wasn't referring to the "immoral people of the world" (i.e., "unbelievers"), but to "any so-called 'brother"(i.e., a "believer"!), if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolator, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler"! "What have I to do with judging outsiders?" Paul asked! "Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges! Remove the wicked man from among yourselves!" Wow! His instructions couldn't be more clear!
Constable noted, you'll recall, that the church's refusal to act against the offender in the church of Corinth, in I Corinthians 5, "provides the most striking example of the Corinthian's 'arrogance'--a sinful attitude that would lead to this and other serious sins in the church of the Corinthians, as we saw in our in our lesson on I Corinthians 6 last night, and as we'll see more of as we continue our study of I Corinthians!
And here it is!
"Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor (referring to another believer!), dare to go to law before the unrighteous (referring to unbelievers) and not before the saints?" "How dare you live like this?" Paul asks!
MacArthur writes that the lawsuits and litigations that were going on in the church of Corinth were apparently part of everyday life in cities of the Roman Empire, like Athens and Corinth, at the time the epistle to the Corinthians was written! Someone even wrote that, "in a manner of speaking, every Athenian and every Corinthians was a lawyer"! With all of them required, at a certain age, to serve as arbitrators, or as jurors, if not plaintiffs or defendants--and so involved regularly in the civil courts, and in legal proceedings of one sort or another! And so too, the Corinthians believers, having grown up in this environment, were used to arguing, disputing, and taking one another to court before they were saved, and some carried over those same selfish attitudes and habits into their new lives as Christians!
And so, it probably wasn't too surprising for Paul to find that with all the related problems going on in the church of Corinth--and especially in view of their boastings, and factions, and arrogance, and their condoning of immorality, all of which had already been exposed--the Corinthians, instead of dealing and settling their differences with their "brothers" among themselves, or within the church setting, were filing lawsuits and taking their fellow believers to civil court! "Hanging out their dirty laundry" for all to see, and dragging the reputation of the church into the public spotlight! (Constable writes, quoting Dr. Harry Ironside, that "believers are in effect saying to the world: 'we Christians are just as covetous and just as quarrelsome as you; we are just as much concerned about having our way and self-pleasing as you of the world are! We're no different! And we recognize and accept your judges as having authority over the church'! And it's degrading for the Christian thus to act! And it's dishonoring to the Lord!")
"Don't you know that the saints will judge the world?" Paul asks! "And if you are to judge the world, do you consider yourselves incapable of settling such infinitely smaller matters in this life?" (Phillips translation) "Is there not among you one wise man who will be able to decide among his brethren?"
Paul insisted, in verse 7, that "it's already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another! A defeat far more serious (and costly!) than any damage that might be paid! Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?" Better to lose financially than that to lose spiritually!
The Scriptures has much more to offer in support of Paul's position! Remember how Jesus said in Matthew 5:38-40: "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!' But I say to you, do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also! If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also! Whoever forces you to go a mile, go with him two! Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away him who wants to borrow from you!"
But there's so much more, and here are just a few:
In verses 9-11, the apostle Paul lists the characteristics of "the unrighteous (or unbelievers) who will not inherit the kingdom of God--as a reminder to the Corinthians of the characteristics which should never mark their new lives as "believers"--fornicators, idolators, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers! And he notes that "such were some of you; but you were washed (or regenerated, and given a new life in Christ!) , but you were sanctified (given the capacity for holiness!), but you were justified (given new standing!) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God!"
And so, "how then shall we live?" Paul seemed to be asking the Corinthians! And us!
You've been transformed! A transformed life should produce transformed living!
Constable leaves us with a good question too! "What will people who are observing me conclude about followers of Christ by the way I am conducting myself?"
Go with God this week, my fellow MOBsters!
Lowell
In last week's lesson, on I Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul continued to address some serious problems (sin!) that had been reported to him concerning "believers" in the church of Corinth, the church he had founded on the foundation of Jesus Christ. And he was apparently shocked to learn that--in addition to the quarrels and fighting and factions that were going on within the church, problems that he had earlier addressed, there was actually a case of immorality that was going on within the church--"an immorality of such a kind that didn't even exist among the Gentiles"! That of a man, a professing believer, having a sexual union with the woman married to the immoral man's father! His step mother! And what shocked, and apparently upset, Paul even more was not the existence of the sin itself but that the church leaders and other "brothers" were not dealing with it! And rather than confronting the "brother," and removing him from the church, as they should have done--unless he repented and changed his ways--they let it continue, even boasting about their "openness" and permissiveness in accepting it! And so Paul wrote (in verses 3-5) that "even though he was absent in body but present in spirit, in the name of our Lord Jesus (and by exercising his apostolic authority!) he had decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus"! (Indicating that this immoral man was, in fact, "a believer"--and needed to separate his life from the world!)
Paul also charged (in verse 6) that "their boasting was not good"! "Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened"! (Thus, as we discussed last week, drawing on this Old Testament analogy to illustrate the importance of separating themselves--and the church of God--from the old life of sin!)
But Paul was not finished with his instructions on how the church needed to deal with sin in the church! And so, in verse 9, he reminded them that when he had earlier written that the Corinthian believers "were not to associate with immoral people," he wasn't referring to the "immoral people of the world" (i.e., "unbelievers"), but to "any so-called 'brother"(i.e., a "believer"!), if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolator, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler"! "What have I to do with judging outsiders?" Paul asked! "Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges! Remove the wicked man from among yourselves!" Wow! His instructions couldn't be more clear!
Constable noted, you'll recall, that the church's refusal to act against the offender in the church of Corinth, in I Corinthians 5, "provides the most striking example of the Corinthian's 'arrogance'--a sinful attitude that would lead to this and other serious sins in the church of the Corinthians, as we saw in our in our lesson on I Corinthians 6 last night, and as we'll see more of as we continue our study of I Corinthians!
And here it is!
"Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor (referring to another believer!), dare to go to law before the unrighteous (referring to unbelievers) and not before the saints?" "How dare you live like this?" Paul asks!
MacArthur writes that the lawsuits and litigations that were going on in the church of Corinth were apparently part of everyday life in cities of the Roman Empire, like Athens and Corinth, at the time the epistle to the Corinthians was written! Someone even wrote that, "in a manner of speaking, every Athenian and every Corinthians was a lawyer"! With all of them required, at a certain age, to serve as arbitrators, or as jurors, if not plaintiffs or defendants--and so involved regularly in the civil courts, and in legal proceedings of one sort or another! And so too, the Corinthians believers, having grown up in this environment, were used to arguing, disputing, and taking one another to court before they were saved, and some carried over those same selfish attitudes and habits into their new lives as Christians!
And so, it probably wasn't too surprising for Paul to find that with all the related problems going on in the church of Corinth--and especially in view of their boastings, and factions, and arrogance, and their condoning of immorality, all of which had already been exposed--the Corinthians, instead of dealing and settling their differences with their "brothers" among themselves, or within the church setting, were filing lawsuits and taking their fellow believers to civil court! "Hanging out their dirty laundry" for all to see, and dragging the reputation of the church into the public spotlight! (Constable writes, quoting Dr. Harry Ironside, that "believers are in effect saying to the world: 'we Christians are just as covetous and just as quarrelsome as you; we are just as much concerned about having our way and self-pleasing as you of the world are! We're no different! And we recognize and accept your judges as having authority over the church'! And it's degrading for the Christian thus to act! And it's dishonoring to the Lord!")
"Don't you know that the saints will judge the world?" Paul asks! "And if you are to judge the world, do you consider yourselves incapable of settling such infinitely smaller matters in this life?" (Phillips translation) "Is there not among you one wise man who will be able to decide among his brethren?"
Paul insisted, in verse 7, that "it's already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another! A defeat far more serious (and costly!) than any damage that might be paid! Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?" Better to lose financially than that to lose spiritually!
The Scriptures has much more to offer in support of Paul's position! Remember how Jesus said in Matthew 5:38-40: "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!' But I say to you, do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also! If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also! Whoever forces you to go a mile, go with him two! Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away him who wants to borrow from you!"
But there's so much more, and here are just a few:
- II Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold new things have come!"
- Colossians 3 charges us to "put on the new self...and that as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, to put on a heart of compassion, kindness, gentleness, and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you!"
- Philippians 2:3-11 says, "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interest of others! Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men...(And it goes on!)
- Ephesians 4:31-32 says, "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you!"
In verses 9-11, the apostle Paul lists the characteristics of "the unrighteous (or unbelievers) who will not inherit the kingdom of God--as a reminder to the Corinthians of the characteristics which should never mark their new lives as "believers"--fornicators, idolators, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers! And he notes that "such were some of you; but you were washed (or regenerated, and given a new life in Christ!) , but you were sanctified (given the capacity for holiness!), but you were justified (given new standing!) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of God!"
And so, "how then shall we live?" Paul seemed to be asking the Corinthians! And us!
You've been transformed! A transformed life should produce transformed living!
Constable leaves us with a good question too! "What will people who are observing me conclude about followers of Christ by the way I am conducting myself?"
Go with God this week, my fellow MOBsters!
Lowell
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