Contemplate these questions as you dwell in 1 Corinthians 6:1-11:

1. How does Paul address the issue of lawsuits among believers in the Corinthian church? What is his primary concern regarding the involvement of outsiders in these disputes? How does Paul emphasize the importance of righteousness within the body of believers?

2. In the passage, Paul provides a list of behaviors considered immoral. How does he emphasize the need for believers to distance themselves from such behaviors? What significance does Paul attach to the process of sanctification and justification in this context?

3. Paul emphasizes that believers are defined by their identity in Christ, rather than by their past sins. How does he illustrate this concept through the progression of being "washed," "sanctified," and "justified"? How can understanding this identity impact the way believers view and address their struggles with sin?

Transcript:

 Again, we land in another passage where our devotional approach here doesn't really help us out too much because there's just too much to dig into here. But I'm going to do my best to keep this within a limited time frame, but still give us something to ponder for our own lives. So, as we look at this, we're seeing Paul addressing something that's going on in the church there.

There are lawsuits between each other, but they're having people from outside the church officiate these lawsuits, for lack of a better way of putting it, or deciding these lawsuits. And so, Paul is saying, hey, do you not know that the saints will judge the world someday? Do you not know that, that we're to judge angels?

And, and the idea here is not that we're going to sit down in In court and overlook at all the things that the angels are doing the idea is that that as believers who reign with Christ those angels who have rebelled the demons that that we will sit over them And be in righteous standing before God, and they will not be.

Alright? So that's the basic idea. So why would you, as those who are going to be able to stand in that day righteous, why would you bring in someone who's unrighteous to oversee these issues that are going on? between brothers and sisters in the church.  As Paul says, do you not have someone wise enough among you to handle these disputes?

What, what's going on? And so, Paul brings out the immorality that we see in the world. That, that they will, that those who are immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God. And so therefore, we want to find those who are, who are righteous, who are seeking out righteousness to be the ones who oversee the issues in the church.

And so, Paul draws out the unrighteousness of those who are not, uh, in Christ. So look at what he says. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? They're not going to be the ones who judge angels. So, it says do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

That is straightforward. We can see here that these are things that are immoral. And we can, we can try to, you know, understand these things in different ways and make excuses for them. But the Bible is clear that these things are immoral. That these things are not things that the righteous do.  And so, what we have here is this list of things.

And it's troubling because there's some things on here that you and I might say. Hey, you know, yeah, you go get him Paul, but as with every list that Paul gives you get to some things up the greedy  revilers swindlers  Thieves, you know,  there's no one righteous No, not one is Paul reminds us in the book of Romans and he's quoting there from the book of Psalms There's always been this understanding that we are not perfectly righteous, right?

And so, we get we again we have some of the big things that we can say. Yeah, Paul go get him But then we also have the things in that we say, yeah,  yeah, I'm not perfectly righteous myself.  So, what do we do with that? Well, it's right here in verse 11. And you'll notice I've, if you're watching on video, I've highlighted it in a different color.

And such were some of you. Okay, the idea here is this is a past thing for you. If you are in Christ. You are seeking to move away from these things. You are forgiven because of what you have done. But Paul takes it even further than just the forgiveness. Notice what he says. But you were washed. Okay, so you were made clean.

But on top of that, you were sanctified. So, to be sanctified means to be made holy, to be made righteous. Then we have, you were justified. So, you were declared righteous.  Well, how did that happen? In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. Because we have been given the gift of faith, these things are a passing for us.

Now, we may still struggle with some of these sins, but we understand that they are sinful and we're desiring to move away from them. We're desiring to be righteous according to the standards of God.  And notice how important this progression is. You were washed. So, you were made clean. You were sanctified.

Made holy. You were justified. Declared righteous. That word justified has so much power. You are declared righteous. And again, not because of anything that we've done, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. You aren't doing this. He is doing it in you. And because of this, we can say, such were some of you.

Such was I.  That is the important thing here as we look at these moral codes that Paul spells out for us We have to understand that these are things that we can move away from this is not what identifies us We are not defined by our sin We are defined by the fact that we're washed sanctified justified Because of the Lord Jesus Christ and because the Spirit indwells us and has given us the gift of faith That is what defines it our Defines us.

Our sin does not define us.  And so that is our application from this passage for us today.  How do we view ourselves? Do we say, well, that's just a sin. I struggle with it. That's me.  Or are we saying no, no, that's who I was. Instead, I need to remember that I'm washed, sanctified, and justified. I need to move forward in faith.

I need to move away from those things that I struggle with.  Those are the things, that justification that we have, that washing that we have, that sanctification that we have. Those things are the things that define who we are. We are defined by Christ and the Spirit that dwells within us. And so may we seek to do that each and every day.

Not excusing the things that we struggle with, not excusing our sin, but instead moving forward, knowing who we are in Christ.