Judgment and the World

"Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such WERE some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God... Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (I Cor. 6:1-11,15,20). Wow! What a chapter in the Bible! This chapter is really self explanatory but I'll go over it and touch on what is obviously stated for added effect sake. First and foremost this chapter is really about the fact that we cannot be saved in the end if we continue with sin in our lives. The apostle Paul makes it crystal clear that we cannot obtain salvation if we are fighting among ourselves, and do not repent of such behavior. That is exactly why he made the following statement after scolding the believers in Corinth for taking each other to court rather than allowing their matters to be judged by the congregation: "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?" He was saying that it was unrighteous to do what they were doing and that they could not be saved in such a state. It's that simple.

Next the apostle warns these believers to not be deceived. Be deceived about what? About expecting to be saved while yet remaining in sin, that's what! He makes it very clear that anyone, namely those who name the name of Christ, who commits fornication or adultery, or homosexuality, or who steal, or is greedy, or a drunkard, or who are verbally defensive; or who retain any other sinful way, cannot and will not inherit eternal life. That is quite clearly what is written. Then he makes the point that those to whom he was writing had been in many of these conditions PRIOR TO their conversion to Christ. But he goes on to plainly say that they had been redeemed from those conditions, and made holy by God's holy Spirit that they had received. So the warning is obvious, that being that these redeemed souls could not afford to backtrack from their redeemed state and go back to any kind of sin, because the result would be damnation for any who did so. Then Paul finishes the chapter by going back and hammering one of the sins that he had mentioned, which was fornication. Fornication is very simply any sexual relationship apart from being married. He typifies women who commit fornication as being harlots, and says that the men who join themselves to them physically become one with a harlot, and thereby defile the temple of their body which belongs to God. The apostle leaves no stone unturned here in showing the seriousness of the sin of fornication, and a whole lot of people today who think that fornication is just fine would do very well to go over these scriptures with godly fear and a repentant heart. He makes it very clear that we are counted with Jesus when we receive his Spirit, and being joined to him is counted to us as righteousness because he alone is righteous among men. Then he shows us that by the same token, when we commit fornication we are counted with a harlot, or as being a harlot in the case of a believing woman committing fornication. Being counted with a harlot, or being a harlot is not counted to us as righteousness, nor is there any hope of salvation in that condition. All of these people who believe the 'sinners saved by grace' doctrine, and the 'eternal security doctrine, must have skipped this chapter at the same time they skipped the rest of the Bible. The Bible I read and love tells us very plainly what the hope of the Gospel is, and what it takes for us to obtain it: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" (I Jn. 3:2,3). Case closed.