Today’s readings… (1 Kings 20), ( Jeremiah 47), (1 Corinthians 6)   

Four times the above phrase is used by Paul in our chapter (6) of 1st Corinthians today.  Many believers there were spiritually blind to the follies of the behaviour that they had slipped back into.     It happened then, it happens today.   It appears to be worse among those who proclaim that once you are saved you are saved for always regardless of the nature of your future sins;  that attitude is specifically condemned in Hebrews 10 v.26-31.

Now it is true that God is merciful and forgiving and David is the supreme example of this, but it is folly to think he turns a ‘blind eye’ to sins, he did not with David. How could a righteous God overlook the serious specific moral failures that were happening in Corinth. 

We read, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived” [v.9];  yet such is human nature we can indulge in self-deception.    Now while we acknowledge the justice of his condemnation of “the sexually immoral … adulterers …  (and those) who practice homosexuality” we must not overlook that he also says “.. the thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” [v9-10].

Paul then says, “And such were some of you.  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” [v.11].  

Sexual misbehaviour is a special target of his concern and he makes the point, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” [v.13].  This takes us back to what we read in Chapter 3, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you” [v.16]  There is a sense in which we have the Holy Spirit!  But that sense is that his Spirit is with us and watches over us. 

Returning to Ch. 6, we now note v.15, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?  Shall I then make them members of a prostitute? Never!”  In v.18 we read “Flee from sexual immorality” – don’t just avoid it.    

Finally, and most significant of all look at the last 2 verses; “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”  Do you not KNOW?   It is not head knowledge is it!  It is heart knowledge!  Do you possess it?