Galatians 3:26-29 (New Living Translation)
26 For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
When I see, hear, encounter the ‘ism’ struggle, I am reminded that this struggle is not new. The Apostle Paul spoke out on this 2000 years ago and we are still struggling with these strongholds.
- Nationalism, the great immigration struggle
- Racism, who can lead, politically, athletically, corporately, even religiously
- Sexism, the glass ceiling
I praise God that Paul didn’t hesitate to tell us that in Christ, we are all one. There is no difference.
1 Corinthians 6:1-6 (New Living Translation)
1 When one of you has a dispute with another believer, how dare you file a lawsuit and ask a secular court to decide the matter instead of taking it to other believers! 2 Don’t you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can’t you decide even these little things among yourselves? 3 Don’t you realize that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life. 4 If you have legal disputes about such matters, why 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 issues? 6 But instead, one believer sues another—right in front of unbelievers!
It would seem in today’s society, we have completely abandon the idea of settling legal issues among believers in the church. We have surrendered this practice to the secular courts.
Secular law may have the influence of scripture. A decision within the church would be based on the foundation of God’s Word. It would be advisable to turn back to this practice of making scripture based judgments because the day is coming when this role of judge will belong to believers in the heavens and in the earth. In that day, we will need to be wise about these matters.
1st Corinthians 5
The issue is not non-believers. Paul is addressing the problem of the tolerance of immorality of those who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
As he often is, Paul is very direct. The issue cannot be ignored. The person must be confronted. The sin cannot be tolerated in the church or the whole church is at risk. This is where we get the phrase, “A little yeast spoils the whole loaf.”
This another place in the scriptures where we find a list. Paul groups together sexual sin, greediness, idolatry, abusiveness, drunkenness and cheating. Paul is saying sin is sin. No big sin. No little sin. Any sin has the capability of spoiling the effectiveness of the individual and/or the church.
