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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday November 26, 2017
AVOIDING
LAWSUITS WITH CHRISTIANS
1
Corinthians 6:1-8
The only commandment that JESUS left
us as Christians is that we “love one another”, and that we treat each other
the way we ourselves wish to be treated by others. It was Roman Empire practice
that each ethnic group, who lived within their provinces, handle their own
civil disputes among themselves, based on their own traditional national laws.
For the Jews, that meant that they were free to handle their disputes based on
the laws of GOD (biblical principles), just as they are laid out in the
Scriptures.
Typically in Judaism a panel of three
judges were assigned to handle civil and property cases (“pragma echon” in the
Greek “lawsuits”), and here in this passage of 1 Corinthians 6, verses 1-8, the
Apostle Paul is suggesting that Christians use just such an approach to settle
their disputes instead of taking them before a secular court. He correctly
believed that it was better for Christians to settle their own disputes, based
on biblical principles, rather than on pagan law.
Paul says that the Scriptures tell us that
one day Christians will have to judge the world (v.2) and the angels of
darkness (diakrino judgment), so why don’t we as Christians get into the
practice of judging ourselves (anakrino judgment) and resolving our own
ordinary disputes here on earth, instead of depending on outside, secular
judges who don’t even respect GOD, or the Church (Vs.4-5).
If Christians are to show the world that
they really believe that Christianity produces the best men and women in
society, we truly need to start by showing that we are wise enough to handle
our own disputes, and govern ourselves according the laws of the GOD we say we
believe. For a Christian to sue another Christian, right in front of a secular
court judge, is a real defeat to the Christian community, and, to the Christian
cause (v.7). It is better even to just accept the injustice from each other,
than it is to call on secular courts to handle Christian issues, using man’s
laws, to judge GOD’s people, who should be trying to live under GOD’s laws.
AVOIDING
SEXUAL SIN
(Glorify
GOD with your body)
1
Corinthians 6:9-20
In
1 Corinthians 6, verses 9-20, the Apostle Paul shifts gears, and begins to
focus his attentions on another major problem that the Corinthians were having
a hard time getting a grip on, the
dangers of sexual intercourse outside of marriage (“immoral sexual behavior”).
Here he gives his exegesis on the “spiritual link” that is involved in the
“physical act” of sexual intercourse, that, most people, even today, are
totally ignorant about, not just the Corinthians of the first century.
Scripture says that those who indulge in
sexual sin through, adultery (Exodus 20:14), fornication (1 Corinthians 6:13b),
incest (Leviticus 18:6-17), prostitution (Leviticus 19:29), homosexuality
(Leviticus 18:22, & 20:13, Deuteronomy 22:5) and beastiality (Leviticus
18:23 & 20:15), will have no share in the kingdom of Heaven (1 Corinthians
6:9-10) unless, of course, they cease their immoral acts and lifestyle, and
earnestly repent so that they can be made right with GOD, through the blood of
CHRIST JESUS.
People often say that we are allowed to do
anything, but they overlook the fact that everything is not good for them, and
everything is not permissible by the laws of GOD. And even though we have “freedom
of choice” to do anything we want, GOD says, we must not become a slave to the
many offerings of this world. Satan wants each of us to “do what thou wilt”,
while GOD wants us to use our bodies in the best way, which is serving HIM and
living life the way HE knows that HE made us to live it.
Our bodies are not made for sexual
immorality, even though many choose to indulge their bodies into it. Our bodies
are really made for GOD, and GOD cares very much about what we do in our
bodies. That is why HE gives us instructions on how to get the very best out of
our bodies for the longest period of time, through obedience to HIS Word.
Every person who was ever born shares
“GOD’s divine nature” from birth (Romans 1:18-20), and as “human beings”, we
instinctively know “right” from “wrong” even if we never picked up a bible in
our life (Romans 2:14-15). However, as believers, we have to realize that our
bodies are actually “one with CHRIST”, and when we engage in sin, especially
sexual sin, we are spiritually bringing CHRIST into our mess with us, and in
addition, grieving the HOLY SPIRIT, because we are defying GOD’s way of life (1
Corinthians 6:15).
Whenever we commit our lives to CHRIST we
become one with HIM in spirit, inseparable. And since CHRIST is ONE in spirit
with GOD and the HOLY SPIRIT, that means that we should all be at one in our
thinking and actions with the GODHEAD. Therefore everything we do, we do it as
“figurative representatives” (“tselems”, “images” in the Hebrew) of the GODHEAD
in spirit, and in truth.
It has already been put in place by GOD,
that, through the act of sexual coition, or the exchange of bodily fluids
through sexual orgasm, a man and woman are “consummated” unto each other, and
also become one in body and spirit. And the process of “consummation”
automatically occurs, whether they are married, or not. That’s right! The act
of consummation still occurs, even if it is with a prostitute, or any other
person that you’re not married to (v.16).
It is GOD WHO defines what “consummation”
is, and we can’t change its definition, no matter how bad we may want to. Every
person that you engage in sexual intercourse with, you automatically become one
with them in body and spirit, and that makes a mockery of the sanctity of
marriage, and what GOD intended in the relationship between a man and a woman
(v.16).
When we marry, and consummate that
marriage, we become one with our spouse, one in body, and inseparable in
spirit. Therefore, we, our spouse, and the whole GODHEAD are one in spirit, and
we must respect it as such. If we as human beings, who are a part of the body
of CHRIST, engage in sexual immorality, we are lying in a very crowded bed, all
the while thinking it is only with the person, or persons you are engaging in
sex with at the time. However, in reality, you are dragging the spirits of all those
whom you have ever “become one with” (engaged in sexual intercourse with), to
bed with you. If this doesn’t give you a vivid description of what “grieving
the HOLY SPIRIT” is, then, I personally don’t know what will.
In the biblical Greek, the word used for
“truth” is “aletheia”, and it is “that which is in harmony with reality”.
Nowadays, for example, and, in days gone by, man has always tried to re-define
“homosexual sin”, for example, as not being a sin at all, as GOD says, but
rather, it is an act that is performed or expressed by a “a race of people”
that serves to distinguish them from other people in our society, likening it
to an “ethnic group”, or a “national origin”.
However, in reality, homosexual sin it is
still what GOD the CREATOR says it is, sin. In fact, the reason why
homosexuality is so detestable to the GOD of the Christian bible is because it
is “the personification of one’s defiance of GOD HIMSELF”. Instead of honoring
GOD with their bodies they actually deny GOD with every fiber of their being.
The homosexual lifestyle, be it an
effeminate male who submits himself to another man, as a woman would to a man
(malakos – v.9), or a male who prostitutes himself out to other males
(arsenokoitai – also v.9), is a twenty-four hour a day endeavor, or, “a
perpetual state of living in sin”, against the ideology of GOD, and therefore
the practitioner lives and breathes defiance of GOD, all day, every day,
non-stop. Twenty-four hours a day they tell GOD, through their behavior, that,
“GOD, I’m not what you made me. YOU made a mistake GOD, and put me in the wrong
body, therefore GOD, it your fault that I’m doing what I’m doing, and living
like I’m living, I take no responsibility for my own choices”.
Whenever man chooses to go his own way, he
automatically moves farther and farther away from GOD, and eventually GOD, in
his mind, is reduced to this “obscure figure” WHOM he used to know, and by
then, he only seeks to avoid. He doesn’t care anymore, and has grown to be impervious,
even to the concept of there even being any such thing as “GOD”.
Peter C. Craigie once wrote, “When people
cease to care, then religion, morally, social customs, and values, all cease to
function as mortar that holds together a society, and maintains ancient Faith”.
True
Christians are one in body with CHRIST, and CHRIST, is one in body with GOD
and the HOLY SPIRIT. Whenever we sin, or commit immoral sexual acts, we also
cause the whole GODHEAD, WHO is inseparable, to suffer grief because of our
offenses.
Our bodies are a temple to be used by GOD
to embody HIS HOLY SPIRIT, WHO will ultimately guide us into the righteousness
of CHRIST, if we allow HIM to. And so we now can
clearly see the “spiritual link in sexual intercourse” that will continue to
exist, whether we like it or not, because GOD says so. Our bodies are the
temple of the HOLY SPIRIT, and only the person who is joined to CHRIST, is the
person who receives HIM.
Furthermore, we can’t receive the HOLY
SPIRIT until GOD can look into our thoughts (hearts – “kardia” in the Greek)
and see HIMSELF. It is then, and only then, that GOD will send us to CHRIST
JESUS. And as the scriptures say, JESUS gives eternal life to all those whom
the FATHER sends to HIM (John 17:2b), and that, “no one can come to HIM unless
the FATHER sends them”. And that’s “GOD’s perspective of salvation”, not man’s.
I’ll conclude this lesson the same way the
Apostle Paul concluded this sixth chapter of his first letter to the
Corinthians, where he warns us in verses 18-20 to;
“Run
away from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one
does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Or don’t you know
that your body is the temple of the HOLY SPIRIT, WHO lives in you and was given
to you by GOD? You do not belong to yourself, for GOD bought you with a high
price. So you must honor GOD with your body” (NLT).
A
Sunday school lesson by,
Larry
D. Alexander
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