Being Zealous For God!

1 Corinthians 5 (NIV)

¹ It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.

² And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?
³ For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this.
⁴ So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,
⁵ hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,^[a][b] so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

As I was reading 1 Corinthians today, this whole chapter just jumped at me, and I knew that I had to share it with you. I believe this is one of the very important scriptures in the Bible where God explicitly describes what kind of behavior should not be tolerated in the church among Christians and the kind of actions have to be taken in order to attempt to save that person in the end.

-First, Paul mentions the appalling behavior that was condoned in the church: that sexual immorality of the kind that even among pagans was not allowed, yet that was permitted in the church. I can tell you that my husband is very well accepted in the church where he goes to and tolerated for all his evildoing, sexual immorality, and drunkenness rather than being "handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. " (verse 5).

This verse goes along with the scriptures that I quoted in the past articles where Paul says in Romans 1:24 (NIV):

²⁴ Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

Also God said in Psalm 81:11-12 (NIV)

¹¹ “But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. ¹² So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

When we voluntarily continue to sin after "getting saved", we become numb to the Holy Spirit`s conviction, and God gives us up to the desires of our hearts, so we can get enough of whatever sin that captures our lives. It is important to note that it is acceptable and even necessary to stand up to the truth and to reject sin from the church because that`s what Jesus did as an example when He casted out all merchants from the temple; He took a whip and started getting everyone out. God requires us to be zealous for His truth and stand up for it even if it means rejecting some people out of the church, so not to defile the whole "body" of Christ.

John 2:13-17 (NIV)

¹³ When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵ So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” ¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

Elijah was zealous for God when he went out and killed all the Baal priests in order to get nation`s attention for God`s truth (1 Kings 18:36-40). These examples are not necessarily something that we need to do in our days and age (like start killing false priests, getting a whip, etc.), but these examples should serve us as a check points for our hearts-- testing whether we would be willing to do whatever it takes to get across God`s truth even if it makes us unpopular, even if it means loosing some friends and support.

I am being called "crazy" by my own husband because I chose to live for God and to stand up to His truth even if it meant putting on a line my family, my life, my freedom because I knew that I want to be obedient to His word. I was tired of hypocrisy and mediocrity in my life; my tolerance of my sin and my husband`s sin only delayed the possibility of God`s deliverance. If I have given up my husband to his own heart`s lusts right after I found out about all his lies and saw he was unwilling to change (which was year and a half ago), maybe I wouldn`t have had to be where I am now, but because of my tolerance, I only extended the period and extent of my trials.

Paul goes further and says in this chapter 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (NIV):

⁶ Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Paul is making this clear picture of dough making and the way people used yeast to expand the volume of dough and the quality of dough to prepare bread. Not only did the yeast enhance the quantity of the bread, but the flavor was a lot better too. If any of you ever tried bread made with yeast, we all can relate as to how much more delicious it is in flavor compare to the unleavened plain bread, which is something that Israelites had to use during the Passover holiday; they were to put away all yeast a week prior to Passover and sweep their house clean of any leaven bread or yeast in order to have this remembrance of the Passover (their exodus out of the Egypt when God spared all firstborns among Israelites and killed them among Egyptians).

In this passage, Paul reminds us that our sinful actions (which is like yeast expanding our lustful desires) must be put away (this “old yeast”) because it will affect not only one`s heart but one`s actions also, which would in turn produce further destruction and consequence of sin including those closely surrounding that person. Sin perpetuates a deadly cycle: thought to action, action to consequence, consequence effecting one`s heart and life and affecting those around.

My husband defiled himself, and his sin produced a lot of destruction to his heart and life, but the consequence of his sin produced a complete destruction of our family defiling me, our daughter, our relatives, parents, serving as a poor testimony of God`s name among his unsaved family and friends. That`s why Paul challenges us to live our life without sin, without this “old leven” that produces malice and wickedness, reckless and irresponsible behaviors, but rather in brokenness of a true repented heart that produces “sincerity and truth”.

One of the most crucial parts here is the last portion of the chapter where Paul distinguishes between attempting to save the sinners and between those who continue to live in sin, yet claiming to be “Christians”.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (NIV)

⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister^[c] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. ¹² What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”^[d]

This is the part where a lot of churches refuse to take a stand and to make that blatant distinction between those who voluntarily continue to live in sin and between those who live in sin unaware of what needs to be done in order to get saved.

In other words, if I have unsaved friends or family members—it`s not that I must disassociate with them, but rather attempt to bring the truth of the Gospel to them and to show them through my actions and through my life the authenticity of Christ`s sacrifice; however, if I am saved, yet I choose to live in sin being aware of the consequences, than this is something that`s unacceptable to God, and something that as Christians we are challenged to stand up for and disassociate ourselves from those kinds of people.

The reason for that is because as human beings, we tend to fall under the influence of sin tempting ourselves to fall into the old sinful ways of living. I cannot tell you how many times I attempted to make a stand against my husband`s behavior and to stop sinning myself, yet I was only finding myself falling right back because the temptation was too great, and I wasn`t strong enough spiritually to resist my flesh.

Another important factor for disassociating ourselves with those “Christians” who continue to live in sin is we take a stand for God`s truth. If we don`t make that stand, we become partakers in whatever one`s sinful actions are. To illustrate that, we could look at the bank robbers: if we knew of someone who was going to rob the bank, and we didn`t make a good faith attempt to prevent that from happening, we became accomplices in the actions because we had a chance to prevent that from happening, yet we did nothing to stop that. In the real world, we would have been charged with crime as accomplices and could go to jail as a consequence.

Here, God is saying the same thing, if we are aware of “anyone who claims to be a brother or sister^[c] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler” and continue to tolerate that, we become their accomplices and grieve Holy Spirit.

God said in Hebrews 10:26-30 (NIV)

²⁶ If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, ²⁷ but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. ²⁸Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know him who said,“It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”^[d] and again,“The Lord will judge his people.”

Hebrews 6:4-6 (NIV)

⁴ It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, ⁵ who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age ⁶and who have fallen^[c] away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.

God requires us to be zealous for Him and for His truth. By tolerating “brother or sister” living a sinful life and associating with them, we “trample the Son of God underfoot” with them. I don`t ever want to do that again, and today`s chapter really spoke to my heart to encourage me to keep on the path where I am now- to continue to stand up for His truth even if it means legal separation until the right day, but I don`t ever want to look back and see myself as someone being called an accomplice of a condoned immoral and sinful behavior. God is a very jealous God, and He will not tolerate this kind of behavior, whether we like that or not.

The good thing about this passage, is there is that promise from God that if we leave those “Christians” brothers or sisters” alone- give them up to their own hearts` lust, they could be “saved on the day of the Lord”. That means that God never stops to wait for them and hope that they would make that impacting decision to yield to the Holy Spirit and to repent. Our Lord is merciful and loving, and by disassociating with those people, we are doing them a favor because it produces challenge for them to face their actions, their sins. Also, we are still commanded to pray for them, to intercede, so God could continue to do His work in their lives.

That`s why this chapter was such an encouragement for me- knowing that my interceding prayers for my husband actually work and will produce harvest one day if only I will stay obedient to the end. I encourage you today, if you know someone who claims to be “saved” yet lives a sinful carnal life, to take heed of this scripture and commit your life to stand for the truth, yet continue to pray for that person to turn to God fully. God will reward you for your faithfulness to His word and obedience to no end. He is doing that to me already, and I know that He will do the same for you.