March 27, 2009
Accepting
In I Cor 6:9-11 Paul gives us a laundry list of those who will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Those included often make excuses for their behavior, but the only one on the list that actively asks for and insists upon acceptance, is that of homosexuality. Really, can you imagine an adulterer, a thief or someone who is greedy asking you to accept their behavior because they were born that way? Paul points out that at one time many of us also belonged in the list of the doomed, “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” I understand that there are those who’d rather find themselves in hell than to accept salvation. What I don’t get is why they think I would, or should, accept and rejoice with them in their condemnation.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----At Galatians 5:19-21 Paul further says, “Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissention, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” I think I Corinthians 6:9-11 is the more commonly referenced laundry list because the immoral, adulterers, sexual perverts, thieves, the greedy, revilers, and robbers make a bar lower and easier for us to get over. Except for the greedy and revilers, the others listed in I Corinthians are less than common in the church. And as you pointed out, the sexual perverts are the lone one claiming innocence and demanding blessing. But of the list in Galatians, fornication is a bit of a problem, and there are enough Hustlers and Playboys to keep licentiousness alive and well. If sorcery is taken to be drug use, have you noticed the drugs on the market today? There is one to keep your legs from moving while you relax, one to help you hold your water longer, and a plethora of them to control your emotions (which the Word says we are to do by self-control.) Enmity is more than common, brewed mostly by church leaders. It has been an integral part of church history. Dido for strife. On a subtle level, jealousy abounds, thriving even less subtly amongst the unmarried kiddies who enjoying the fornication of our culture‘s promotion. Anger is a pet of nearly everyone. Even though it is kept on a leash, it can often be found dumping on the neighbor’s lawn with impunity. Selfishness is deep seeded in human nature and shows up through the smallest of things: control of the TV remote, bogarting chicken drumsticks, and the ever annoying perfume bath are just a few of its multitudinous manifestations. Dissention is common, although it is generally kept in private wraps. And party spirit! The contemporary church is the very definition of party spirit! But if that’s not enough, the ongoing health of denominationalism is the direct product of it. The charges that all executives are overpaid, all oil companies are in it only for the profit, and all corporations are greedy extend from the envious heart and spew freely from the pulpit, reverberating through the halls. There is plenty of what shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven done in the church.
-----Whether or not we do these things and any other unrighteous thing wittingly, any one of them we have done even once exempts us from the kingdom. So we are all shamefully guilty of exemption. The lack of sin cannot remove our exemption because there is no lack of sin, even in the church. Repentance should be the key to ridding misbehavior from the church, but these things wittingly thrive because Jesus’ seventy-seven times seven formula makes repentance somewhat intellectually and emotionally illusive. For if God expects us to be that forgiving, how much more does He expect Himself to be forgiving? And when that preview raises angst about our trampling His blood underfoot, the thought of Paul’s doing the very things he wants not to do calms those nerves. That is why the church is so full of people bathing in Christ’s blood with His blessing to do so freely and liberally. The bloodbath alone removes all exemptions, even that of homosexuality.
-----But you carefully make the point disqualifying sexual perversion, or any other dirt, from the cleansing ability of His blood. It is not the doing of these things, including homosexuality, nor even the repetitious doing of them that validates exemption from the kingdom. It is the proclamation of their acceptableness to God. For in the writings of men inspired by the Holy Spirit, God proclaims His rejection of all unrighteousness, sexual perversion included. To claim God accepts any one or more of them is to claim oneself true and Him false, placing oneself above Him to judge His inspiration, thus blaspheming the Holy Spirit. To avoid this deadly error, the Word of God must be accepted as the final word and admitted as the end of the argument. Whether or not we have the intestinal fortitude to fully obey the Bible, we must admit it all true to make the blood effective. That is the starting line of the race we run.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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