WATCH YOUR ASSOCIATIONS

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.

1 Corinthians 5:9-11

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I remember when I entered my teenage years, that period of life when we are naïve and extremely impressionable. My parents gave me great, sound advice back then as I started to develop relationships with other kids my age. They cautioned me to be careful about who I associated myself with.

The point was that there were some youth who intentionally looked for ways to do wrong. Back then, kids would look for ways to drink alcohol underage, use illegal drugs, and even commit crimes. These were obviously behaviors that my parents were trying to keep me away from, behaviors far from what they were teaching me.

Thankfully, I can say that I listened to their advice and have still treasured it throughout my life as it has continued to come in handy and has saved me from mixing in with the wrong crowd.

Well, it wasn’t until I grew older and dedicated myself to the Bible and its teachings that I realized my parents were giving me guidance that was God-inspired and spiritually grounded. For as we look at today’s passage and finish up our study of the fifth chapter of 1 Corinthians, we see the Apostle Paul providing the same sound advice to the Corinthian Christians, warning them to be careful about their associations.

You’ll recall that Paul was rebuking the Corinth church earlier in this chapter about embracing blatantly sinful behavior from within their ranks. Specifically, there was a member of the church who had willingly slept with his father’s wife, obvious adulterous behavior that God had commanded against. Paul scolded the Corinthian Christians for not taking action against the sinful behavior for by doing nothing, they were complicit in the sin itself. In other words, by not saying anything the church in Corinth was just as guilty as the adulterous transgressor. They were guilty before God by way of association.

This leads us to today’s verses as Paul continues to reinforce this matter. Look again at his words here:

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.  1 Corinthians 5:9-11

Here the scriptures are clear and we need to remember that “all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  In other words, Paul’s words to the church in Corinth are equally applicable to the church today and we need to heed his direction. The church needs to be sensitive to sin within and address it when it’s known. Otherwise, it becomes the yeast that infiltrates, spreads, and infects the church and its members from the inside out.

In the Corinthian church, those Paul warned about associating with brothers and sisters who proclaim Christ and yet still choose to be sexually immoral, greedy, slanderous, drunkards, or swindlers. These people still exist today and we could probably add other sinful behaviors to the list but the point is that the church is responsible when it comes to holding their Christian members accountable. If a person who professes to be a Christ believer knows they are sinning and doesn’t make any effort to stop sinning, then they are refusing to live the life Jesus called them to live and in these instances, the church needs to act. Righteous condemnation and rejection is totally in order and supported by the scriptures. Sometimes it is needed to get the attention of the strayed Christian, a jolt to their spiritual system to lead them to repentance and the path back to living a Christ-like life.  

If the church doesn’t do anything, then they can suffer the consequences of their actions because the Lord is not going to bless any body of believers who choose to embrace sin as being acceptable, especially since it was that sin that led Him to offer up His one and only Son to offer a way to salvation to anyone who would realize their sin depravity and hopelessness without the atonement provided through Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world.

Friends, this is a serious matter and one the church had better see that way. The very health and sustainability of the church is dependent on driving out sin, not accepting and supporting it.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com