Know the difference

I hope everyone has had a great Sunday and grew a little closer to God and your fellow Christians today. We will be talking about an issue that has been a problem in not just congregations across the United States and the world but on an individual basis as well.

The issue is that too many churches and individuals either don’t know evil and right from wrong or they purposely living in the evil of it and don’t care. When they are shown evil in their life in the form of their friends, family and fellow Church member, they stay quiet and don’t tell them of their wrong. Some people have never been shown the difference between good and evil and so if they aren’t told about it then they will continue to live in it and continue to suffer for it.

This issue was happening in the church of Corinth.

“

It is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles —a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are inflated with pride, instead of filled with grief so that he who has committed this act might be removed from your congregation. For though I am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already decided about the one who has done this thing as though I were present.” 1 Corinthians 5:1-3

Hcsb Bible

Now in this case, it is of a son having sex with his stepmother or even his biological mom and it’s not just a one time thing. The passage points out that he is currently living with her in this way and not using any past tense. This means that he and the mother are living in sin. This wasn’t an issue of an accident but rather the conscious decisions of two adults ( I assume are adults).

This isn’t a couple of people outside of the church but rather current members of this current congregation in Corinth.

Paul says that he’s already judged the evil that is present in their hearts because of their actions. He tells the church to kick them out and tell them to repent for if they don’t, they will suffer and punished severely later by someone else or by Gods hand or by their own mistakes. Paul didn’t need to talk face to face with the son and mother and know their unique situation, whatever it may be.

They could have said that the husband was treating the son and mother terribly and therefore the son was protecting her by taking the mother from him physically and intimately. They could have tried to justify it in any way but the fact of the matter is that it’s still evil and Paul confronts it here. We need to confront evil in our own lives and those of the people we hold dear.

In a church family, especially ones that are small like the churches in the beginning after Jesus rose again, everyone is close and should be like family. That means that this son and possibly the mother were close or knew the church members fairly well and Paul calls them to confront the sin of their fellow church member. That means we also need to confront the sin our lives and those closest to us.

The problem is that we as a nation have drifted away from what the Bible says and so therefore don’t know what evil is anymore. It’s a sad state of events. It’s got to the point where people I’ve known laugh at the cliche topic of son and stepmother in porn since it’s rampant in that industry even though it’s evil was seen as horrifying to think of even in gentile(Roman culture) at the time of this letter. If you know anything about Roman culture at the time, that’s saying something.

It’s also got to the point where an entire political party is backing the murder of the unborn. They also promote the destruction of what marriage truly is in that they want homosexuals to get married to each and if you don’t want to celebrate their union with them then some of them will try to sue you and take everything you have. It’s just plain evil to do this. But the fact of the matter is that there are those in some churches that promote and endorse this evil that God and the Bible condemn.

Of course there are multiple other evils that people indulge in like transgenderism which in reality is heart wrenching to see when someone doesn’t know who they truly are. The only reasons why I focus on these is because at the current time of our culture, these are the sins that are being pushed upon us. In the coming decades, I wouldn’t be surprised if we are having to warn the world against other sins.

So as Matthew 5:16 says, let the light that God gives you shine so others can see and glorify God in heaven. How do we do this though?

Depending on the situation is the blunt answer. For example in this passage, he calls on the church to kick that member out so that he knows that God and their Church doesn’t condone his behavior and hopefully he repents comes back to the Lord. Other times, the best course of action is to confront the person privately and ask if they know their doing wrong and to help them come back to the Lord.

If they repent and come back to the Lord then you have won your brother or sister back which is great. Sometimes they won’t come back and at that point, you have to be ready to part ways depending on how great the sin is so that you are spared from their bad influence and so that you set the safe boundaries for yourself and them.

In any case though, we need to know the difference between good and evil and confront it. We can’t let it grow unless you want it to take over your lives. For Satan is a like lion looking for whom he may devour.

So at the end of the day, read and learn what Gods standards for our lives are and confront the evil in each other our lives with discernment.

I hope you have a great day and if you have any questions or disagreements just comment below or message me.