1 Coríntios 6

1 Coríntios 6:18

William MacDonald commenting on the preceding passage in first Corinthians explaining that Paul… does not mean to imply that Christians can practice such sins and be lost (cp eternal security in Jn 10:27, 28, 29), but rather he is saying that people who practice (present tense = habitually, as their lifestyle) such sins are not Christians. (MacDonald, W & Farstad, A. Believer's Bible Commentary: Thomas Nelson) Comment: God is not saying anyone who has ever committed any of these sins is doomed and destined for eternal separation from Him, but He is saying that the one who practices these acts as their lifestyle should not be surprised at where they "wake up" after they've taken their last breath on this earth! Cp 1John 3:7, 8, 9, 10, where every the present tense is used repeatedly - e.g., "practices sin" means to continually, without ever experiencing any "change of direction". "Cannot sin" does not say a believer never sins but that he or she does not habitually practice sin as their lifestyle. If we are truly new creatures in Christ, we won't experience perfection in this life, but we certainly should (and must) experience a change of "direction" in our lives! Otherwise we need to seriously study 2Cor 13:5, God's words of mercy, not judgment, so that we don't have to experience His wrath! God's desire is 2Pe 3:9-note) Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators (see Born to Reproduce), put it this way "You are going to be what you are now becoming." What are you "becoming" dear reader? Writing to another predominantly Gentile church immersed in a culture of blatant pagan idolatry and gross immorality (these two sins are closely linked in Scripture - see Idolatry and Immorality - the relationship and the antidote) Paul writes… For this is the will of God, your sanctification (hagiasmos [word study] - that you should be consecrated - separated and set apart for pure and holy living); that is, that you abstain (present tense = literally continually or as the habit of your life hold oneself away) from sexual immorality (1Th 4:3-note) (Stewart rightly writes that "Holy has the same root as wholly, it means complete. A man is not complete in spiritual stature if all his mind, heart, soul, and strength are not given to God.") The will of God, nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. As Billy Graham has observed… Satan fails to speak of the remorse, the futility, the loneliness, and the spiritual devastation which go hand in hand with immorality. Thus Paul warned the Ephesian saints to not let immorality (porneia) or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints (Ep 5:3-note). Jesus explained porneia declaring that the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications (porneia), thefts, false witness, slanders. (Mt 15:18, 19) Jesus' point is that the basis of all sin is the inner thought, not the outward act. Porneia begins in the heart. When a person is defiled on the inside, what he does on the outside is also defiled. And so beloved, Watch (In Lxx this verb is in the present imperative = calling for continual watchfulness, cp Ge 4:6, 7 - picture sin like a hunger lion crouching at the door of your heart!) over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23-noe) John records that in the last years just prior to our Lord's return indescribable sexual perversions will be running rampant. He writes that those who dwell upon the earth did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts. (Rev 9:21-note) Porneia is an all-encompassing sensual or sexual immorality, a perfect description of modern day America. Let's be honest. Most men (even Christian men!) have problems with this area that they would not even dare tell anyone! When you realize that you are complete in Christ and can now say "no" to this sin, from that point on you are responsible what kind of mess you get yourself into. And remember the best way, the Biblical way, of saying "No" to sin is by first saying "Yes" to Jesus! "Victory" in the spiritual life is not so much me overcoming the problem but it is me being overcome by Christ so that now Christ in me enables me to overcome the strong temptation to sin. You don't have to live the way you once did when you were dead in your trespasses and sin. Your body is now dead to sin (the power of sin) and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Immorality is evidence of turning your back on God as Romans 1 teaches (Ro 1:25-note, Ro 1:27-note, Ro 1:28-note). God will judge illicit sexual sin (Heb 13:4-note) whether in a believer or an unbeliever, Peter adding that judgment begins at the household of God (1Pe 4:17-note) because believers are even more accountable in view of the fact that they have the power (Ro 6:11-note, Ro 8:13-note, Gal 5:24-note) to flee youthful lusts (2Ti 2:22-note) and to abstain from fleshly lusts (1Pe 2:11-note). When believers sin, it is against a "flood of light"! As Paul explained to believers who thought that now that they were "covered" by grace and could sin with impunity since grace abounded where sin increased (Ro 5:20-note), he countered their deceptive, defective rationalization with the strongest of Greek negative exclamations… May it never be! How shall we who died (dead men are positionally uninfluenced and unaffected pleasures of this life-Col 1:27-note, Col 2:10-note, Col 3:4-note) to (the) Sin (for new creatures in Christ [2Co 5:17] the power of sin inherited from Adam is broken along with the previous powerlessness to say "no" to it's reign and demands to be gratified) still live in it?" (Ro 6:2-note) When we believed in Christ, we need to remember that Jesus became not only our Saviour but also our Master, the Owner of our bodies and He has the right to command us (through Paul)… Therefore (based on the Supremacy of Christ in Colossians 1-2, and in the immediate context, the truth that He is our life = Col 3:4- note) consider (aorist imperative = Do this now! Make a decisive choice! Don't delay!) the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Colossians 3:5-note) Note the order of sins in this "vice list" in Colossians 3:5 (note) - immorality is #1… flesh (even in believers) has not changed much since Paul wrote to the believers in Colossae. Immorality heads the list of the deeds of the flesh (Gal 5:19) and is not proper behavior for the saints (Ep 5:3-note). The Jerusalem Council recognized the ever present, seductive danger of immorality and thus ordered Gentile believers to avoid immorality and idolatry (Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25 - see Idolatry and Immorality - the relationship and the antidote). Vine comments on Colossians 3:5 noting that Paul puts at the beginning of the list the sins which set at defiance the primal laws of God which govern the continuation of the human race and are essential to its well-being, physical and moral… The first in this list is a specific sin; from this there is a transition to the moral general. (Vine, W. Collected Writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson) William