Today Our Daily Bread 1 Cor 6

1 Corinthians 6: 1 - 20

1 When you have something against another Christian, why do you file a lawsuit and ask a secular court to decide the matter, instead of taking it to other Christians to decide who is right? 2 Don't you know that someday we Christians are going to judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can't you decide these little things among yourselves? 3 Don't you realize that we Christians will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disagreements here on earth. 4 If you have legal disputes about such matters, why do you go to outside judges who are not respected by the church? 5 I am saying this to shame you. Isn't there anyone in all the church who is wise enough to decide these arguments? 6 But instead, one Christian F30 sues another – right in front of unbelievers! 7 To have such lawsuits at all is a real defeat for you. Why not just accept the injustice and leave it at that? Why not let yourselves be cheated? 8 But instead, you yourselves are the ones who do wrong and cheat even your own Christian brothers and sisters. F31
9 Don't you know that those who do wrong will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don't fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, who are idol worshipers, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexuals, 10 thieves, greedy people, drunkards, abusers, and swindlers – none of these will have a share in the Kingdom of God. 11 There was a time when some of you were just like that, but now your sins have been washed away, F32 and you have been set apart for God. You have been made right with God because of what the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God have done for you.
12 You may say, "I am allowed to do anything." But I reply, "Not everything is good for you." And even though "I am allowed to do anything," I must not become a slave to anything. 13 You say, "Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food." This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them. But our bodies were not made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 14 And God will raise our bodies from the dead by his marvelous power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. 15 Don't you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which belongs to Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 16 And don't you know that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, "The two are united into one." F33 17 But the person who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 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. 19 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, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
~Lena's Journalin~

I am continually amazed in my own life just how many opportunities I personally have to DIS-agree about something with someone everyday, all of the time. In entering into the Unity of God’s Spirit and of the Oneness of Christ, I ought to and am now governing my own thoughts accordingly, asking the Holy Spirit to remind me of this very pull to daily disagree When I become more and more aware of these so called "opportunities" and recognize them as that which comes against the very nature and character of God’s Spirit which is alive inside of me, I can resist the "opportunities" given me by a world which has its sway against God.
Who cares who is right when we have the Spirit of Truth? If I cannot agree and be agreeable, continually making peace, than how can I really be sitting with Him in a seat of "judgement" where much more weighty matters occur than what I deal with daily? What is wrong? To be unmerciful, unforgiving, disloyal, unjust, haughty, etc… What is right? To do justly, love mercy and walk humbly before God, which will carry over to our relationships with men.
I just want to take a moment to describe the fleshly traits demonstrated in a spiritual light, we sometimes think if we are not committing the actual physical sin, we are ok, but God does not see as man sees-rarely. Sexual sin- what is sex? Intimacy, a demonstration of oneness in proper perspective to marriage, outside of covenant it is considered (by God) to be unholy or sinful. What and whom are we intimate with? One with? In covenant with? What fills our daily thoughts? What have we joined ourselves to?
Now about idol worship. Idolatry is worship. Worship is life lived for a reason beyond self, life given over to a person larger than we are, believing to become as it/He is with the purpose for change. The root actually denotes healing, meaning there is a source for change. What are we seeking after? What and how are we endeavoring to change? What is the source of the changes? Self discipline? Self will? Positive thinking? Or the River of God?
What about adultery? I’ve committed by the words of my mouth to ONE (Let’s see who catches THAT!), yet I look at or desire or go after others. I gave myself to ONE, but I give myself to others, with a whole band of excuses. Do you see this relating to our relationship with our husbandman, the Lord Jesus Christ?
Male Prostitutes? A prosititute sells, what was meant for covenant love, to anyone and everyone who wants to have some, with the false premise of supporting self, and trusting in self to supply. What of our faith-walk is based on our covenant love and the promises of that love? The truth of the Word of God. What do we so easily sell it for? TV time? Rest time? Me time? Worktime and more worktime? Whoesoever asks for my time? This specifies MALE as the gender. God made men to rule their homes and families with the Word of God as the guide on how to rule well. Not rule over as in dictatorship, but teaching and using it as a guide for their own lives demonstrated to their families, living proof, Living Words to the family and to the world. The men have been most tempted to sell this position to whatever else calls them. Get that one also? Whoever "calls " them?
Homosexuals. A specific sex enjoying the benefits of God-given covenant love outside of the ability to reproduce, outside of the call to agree with one who is NOT like me. Refusal to be a part of that which reproduces life, because of a desire to be only around one who is just as I am, just like me in nature-flesh nature- no conflict, no struggle, no change required of me by another unlike me.
Thieves- taking what does not belong to me, with natural force. Greed would take one to that place. Greed being a desire for what is not naturally mine.
Drunkards-ones who are continually "under the influence" of another substance than that which brings life. That which only satisfies for a mere moment and then fades away with its false promise for better. What influences about us are false and of a deceptive nature? There’s even a falsehood spread among the church, that Christianity is for our comfort and satisfaction. No, rather, God called us for and to Himself to accomplish His dreams in the earth. Melinda, we are His work-man-ship! :-)
Abusers, that speaks well for itself.
Swindlers. Ew boy, this one wreaks of manipulation. Forcing things to happen the way we believe they should happen. Ishmael’s. We can even do this with what we believe God is telling us to do. Did we go back to God and ask, "How should I accomplish that plan?", or rather, "How would You like for me to walk out that journey and meet that goal?"
Notice it states that we all at times have struggled through many of the things in this list, but as we are willing to let God mold and change us and to recognize any and all of these as sin, He is Faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us from our sin(1 Jn 1:9) and why would He so gladly pardon us when we’ve been "terribly rebellious" for a longtime? Every pardon shows forth the power of the cross, demonstrates the evidence of His love for us and sets us on a pathway for life and the passing on of sonship to others.
Allowed? Of course we are "Allowed", we are freewill beings, whom God will not override the will of. So, sure, we can do whatever we want, but what do we really want to do Our pastor used to be a drug addict and at times he would say, I smoke all of the pot I want. People would gasp, then he would state, His desire had changed and he has no more appetite for sin. His appetite is now for truth and righteousness. So yeah, we can watch any program on TV we want, and we can stay home from fellowship if we want, and we can pay more attention to other things and make more money to buy more of what we desire, or we can make a choice to fulfill and be right inside of the center of God’s will and plan. What an awesome price He paid for us to join ourselves to His plan! Wow!