Good morning. It’s a new week: Monday, March 20, 2023. The Christians in the new church of Corinth had become highly carnal and worldly; a man was sexually involved with his stepmother! However, Paul did not give this immorality a pass. They had blended the secular with the spiritual, so he came rushing in to correct the leakage. Read on …
Today's Reading:
Joshua 7,8; Psalms 69; 1 Corinthians 5
Scripture
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you… and you are proud! … Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 5:1,5)
Observation
This group of Christians had allowed the practices of the world into the Church. It was at the point of being normalized when Paul caught wind of it. They even became proud that they had made room for this behavior.
Maybe those days weren’t unlike churches today that drape rainbow banners near their entrance or celebrate their newly elected lesbian pastor. And should anyone raise an eyebrow, they are seen as unloving and are asked to leave … as if love were only “love” if it endorsed their immorality. Paul begged to differ. He spoke in no uncertain terms: “And you are proud! Shouldn’t you have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?” (v2)
Application
Today's Church needs more courage to stem the enemy's tide. We are afraid to take issue because we are terrified of being disliked. Isaiah reminds us not to fear standing for the justice of God's holy commands. "For when the earth experiences Your judgments, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness" -Is. 26:9
I was so grateful for the many in our church family who attended a board meeting this week of a local school that allowed an immoral curriculum to be taught, one that introduced our children to pornographic ways of thinking. The Apostle Paul would have been there if he had been alive today too! As Isaiah taught, the teacher must be put out: so the others "will learn righteousness!"
The ideals and values that brought us God's many blessings are tottering and require immediate attention, for we have abandoned the values that undergirded our society and gave it sustainability.
Prayer
Father, we pray for leaders who offer the greatest possibility for aligning our nation’s governing principles back to Your standards. And as we pray for these, may we do our part to be salt and light in the land where You have placed us.