02- 28- 11 MI DAILY DEVOTION (I Corinthians 6:19- 20)
WE NEED FAITH AS WE SEPARATE OURSELVES FROM SIN UNTO GOD
19- “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? 20- For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
“Here he takes occasion to warn them against many heinous evils, to which they had been formerly addicted. I. He puts it to them as a plain truth, of which they could not be ignorant, that such sinners should not inherit the kingdom of God. The meanest among them must know thus much, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God (v. 9), shall not be owned as true members of his church on earth, nor admitted as glorious members of the church in heaven. All unrighteousness is sin; and all reigning sin, nay, every actual sin committed deliberately, and not repented of, shuts out of the kingdom of heaven. He specifies several sorts of sins: against the first and second commandments, as idolaters; against the seventh, as adulterers, fornicators, effeminate, and Sodomites; against the eighth, as thieves and extortioners, that by force or fraud wrong their neighbours; against the ninth, as revilers; and against the tenth, as covetous and drunkards, as those who are in a fair way to break all the rest. Those who knew any thing of religion must know that heaven could never be intended for these. The scum of the earth are no ways fit to fill the heavenly mansions. Those who do the devil’s work can never receive God’s wages, at least no other than death, the just wages of sin, Rom. 6:23. II. Yet he warns them against deceiving themselves: Be not deceived. Those who cannot but know the fore-mentioned truth are but too apt not to attend to it. Men are very much inclined to flatter themselves that God is such a one as themselves, and that they may live in sin and yet die in Christ, may lead the life of the devil’s children and yet go to heaven with the children of God. But this is all a gross cheat. Note, it is very much the concern of mankind that they do not cheat themselves in the matters of their souls. We cannot hope to sow to the flesh and yet reap everlasting life. III. He puts them in mind what a change the gospel and grace of God had made in them: Such were some of you (v. 11), such notorious sinners as he had been reckoning up. The Greek word is tauta — such things were some of you, very monsters rather than men… None are cleansed from the guilt of sin, and reconciled to God through Christ, but those who are also sanctified by his Spirit. All who are made righteous in the sight of God are made holy by the grace of God.” (The Bible Collection, Henry Complete with Matthew Henry)
It is only by the grace of God and by strengthening our faith in Him that we will be able to stand against the wiles and the temptation of the devil. The Apostle Paul did not tell the believers to be separatists and not to fellowship with the unbelievers and the practicing sinners, but Paul was telling them to separate from their wickedness. What he meant is we need to turn our back from their sinful acts and we must not be the partakers of their sins. We can be with them but not be one of them and be among them. (Romans 12:1- 2) 1- “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2-And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
