"Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
Boasting is almost never good, but boasting about the acceptance of sin is absolutely horrible. The destructive nature of the sin that a church accepts and allows to go unchallenged will spread, destroying the whole church. What Christian would rejoice over that happening?
Because of what Christ has done, we stand before the Father without sin. We are without sin before the Father not because we are actually sinless but because we are positionally sinless in Christ. And because of what we are positionally, we need to avoid being something else practically. We should not be sinning when we have been cleansed from our sin.
Is this cause to cloister yourself away and be ever quiet, keeping yourself from sin by never enjoying anything around you? Quite to the contrary, our positional sinlessness before the Father, because of Christ, should motivate us to celebrate. And that celebration should be a sinless, joyful consideration and outflow of what Christ truly has done.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
1 Corinthians 5:3-5
"For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord."
These are strong, seemingly harsh words. How could a Christian ever "deliver [a] man to Satan"? That statement seems anti-Christian. So how could such a thing be done, especially in the spirit of Jesus who died to save us?
To answer that we need to understand what it means to "deliver [someone] to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." And we need to keep in mind why it would be done. It has already been established in the previous verses that this person in question is in gross, unrepentant sin. He is on a self-destructive path. According to Matthew 18, the church is to step in and try its hardest to turn the man from his sin. But if he refuses, you must release him from the church's fellowship. When someone refuses to repent, you need to allow him to experience the consequences of sin. It is better for someone to experience the bitter consequences of his sin and then repent than for you to shield him from the consequences and he go on sinning.
I believe that the phrase in question simply refers to turning a person over to the the natural consequences of his own sin. And it is done to see the person restored. Failure to discipline is not loving, but failure to love while you discipline is no good either.
These are strong, seemingly harsh words. How could a Christian ever "deliver [a] man to Satan"? That statement seems anti-Christian. So how could such a thing be done, especially in the spirit of Jesus who died to save us?
To answer that we need to understand what it means to "deliver [someone] to Satan for the destruction of the flesh." And we need to keep in mind why it would be done. It has already been established in the previous verses that this person in question is in gross, unrepentant sin. He is on a self-destructive path. According to Matthew 18, the church is to step in and try its hardest to turn the man from his sin. But if he refuses, you must release him from the church's fellowship. When someone refuses to repent, you need to allow him to experience the consequences of sin. It is better for someone to experience the bitter consequences of his sin and then repent than for you to shield him from the consequences and he go on sinning.
I believe that the phrase in question simply refers to turning a person over to the the natural consequences of his own sin. And it is done to see the person restored. Failure to discipline is not loving, but failure to love while you discipline is no good either.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
1 Corinthians 5:1-2
"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you."
If there is someone in the church engaging in immorality, it must be addressed. We need to love people and accept them for who they are, but if Christians in our church are sinning and refusing to repent, we do them no favors by ignoring the problem. We are foolish if we congratulate ourselves for our acceptance of sin. Sin in the church should make us sad.
We should try to help the sinner. But if he persists, the best way that we can help him may be to remove him from our fellowship. That may seem extreme, but the effects of sin are extreme. And we must do everything we can to help the unrepentant sinner understand this.
If there is someone in the church engaging in immorality, it must be addressed. We need to love people and accept them for who they are, but if Christians in our church are sinning and refusing to repent, we do them no favors by ignoring the problem. We are foolish if we congratulate ourselves for our acceptance of sin. Sin in the church should make us sad.
We should try to help the sinner. But if he persists, the best way that we can help him may be to remove him from our fellowship. That may seem extreme, but the effects of sin are extreme. And we must do everything we can to help the unrepentant sinner understand this.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
1 Corinthians 4:18-21
"Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?"
Some people are all talk. They make a big show and act very strong, but they are afraid and weak. They may appear to be one thing, but when further examined, they are revealed for what they really are--nothing. Some people, like those in Corinth, stir up strife and contention. They puff themselves up by attacking others. But they have no real authority, nor do they have any real backbone.
When Paul dealt with this problem, he stated that he had no interest in knowing all of their arrogant and worthless talk. Instead, he wanted to see them back up their claims. God is not impressed by talk, and we should be fooled by it either.
God uses words to communicate with us, and we use words to share what He has shown us. But there is a difference between people’s words and God’s words. The claims that a person makes are only as good as his ability to back them up. It’s not his word alone but the power behind his word that matters.
The truth of God is communicated in words, but they are not mere words. They are the words of the all-powerful One. He can back it up. That is why the Christian should be utterly committed to communicating the truth of God’s word.
Some people are all talk. They make a big show and act very strong, but they are afraid and weak. They may appear to be one thing, but when further examined, they are revealed for what they really are--nothing. Some people, like those in Corinth, stir up strife and contention. They puff themselves up by attacking others. But they have no real authority, nor do they have any real backbone.
When Paul dealt with this problem, he stated that he had no interest in knowing all of their arrogant and worthless talk. Instead, he wanted to see them back up their claims. God is not impressed by talk, and we should be fooled by it either.
God uses words to communicate with us, and we use words to share what He has shown us. But there is a difference between people’s words and God’s words. The claims that a person makes are only as good as his ability to back them up. It’s not his word alone but the power behind his word that matters.
The truth of God is communicated in words, but they are not mere words. They are the words of the all-powerful One. He can back it up. That is why the Christian should be utterly committed to communicating the truth of God’s word.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)