An Enemy Of The Last Days

In the first verse, Paul exposes an interesting question, he says: "Generally you hear ...".

Everything leads to believe that the immorality situation in the Corinthian church won the streets and became public. "You hear" is a somewhat vague expression. He does not bother to identify the author of the statement, as if he wanted to make it understood that the information is already known to society.

And here are some observations that sometimes go unnoticed or are simply misinterpreted in regard to our Christian life.

In the first place, although we live for and by God, we have a public image that must reflect that character of life. That is, our life must be consistent with what we preach and believe.

In Thessalonians 5:22 it is written: "Abstain from every kind of evil" (KJV). The Jerusalem Bible, as well as the AEC Version, uses the expression "All kinds of evil." That is, if in the first version, we can understand that this refers to not only what is wrong, but even what looks like it should be avoided, in the second version all that is perfectly encompassed.

The Greek word 'EIDOUS' translated by 'appearance' or 'species' and, sometimes 'form', has to do with the real image that is projected onto the world. Something that many times has been taken to extremes and, as such, produced distorted doctrinal effects as all excess is capable of producing.

That is to say, we must, yes, attack the real image that we leave what surrounds us to have of us. That ancient litany that God only wants the heart long ago was lost in the universe of inutilities. And what does this have to do with Paul's first phrase in I Corinthians 5: 1? Simple, conduct, behavior, the behavior of the church believers in Corinth, and space for comments, so, unlike Corinthians 1:11, where the apostle without hesitation identifies the claimants, here is summarized in saying "Se hears". The question crossed the walls and won the outside world.

Contrary to what one thinks, God cares, yes, with our appearance and with what we appear in all sectors of our life. If this were not so, we would not have biblical passages that speak of hair (I Corinthians 11: 14-15), clothing and jewelry (I Timothy 2: 9 and I Peter 3: 3-5), friends and businesses (I Corinthians 15). : 33). That is, issues that relate to appearance.

And what image was the church of Corinth?

The one of total immorality. The ACF version uses the term 'fornication', while the BJ calls the sin of 'lust'. The word in the original was 'PORNEIA', which, literally, points to illicit intimate relationships, then, any of the meanings maintains the correct idea. The carnality of the Corinthian church reached the point of leaving the fallen chin to the unbelievers.

Is not that what we have seen to this day?

The modern Christian church is so relativistic in the matter of sin, that it admits it in such a way that it even collides with the ungodly. In the case of the Corinthian church it was lust, but it could be without problems, financial corruption, already warned in the Scripture (II Peter 2: 3 and Timothy 6: 5-6), ecumenism, harshly criticized by the prophet Elijah (I Kings 18:21) and by Christ himself (John 4:22, the participation of the church with politics, the theological innovations devoid of the minimum foundation, such as the ordinance of women to the priesthood, the open liberation of the use of alcoholic beverages and, it is not necessary to admire, in the near future, the way in which the thing walks, until the use of marijuana, the pecuniary extortion of the flock, the liberalism feminism and much more.

The church can not be satisfied with that. That is, it can not take the form of what displeases God in order to please anyone, at the risk of seeing God work (Revelation 2: 18-24).
To further aggravate the situation, those who live in constant affront to God are the kind that do not allow themselves to be exhorted. They are the swollen, proud, full of pride.

It seems a contradiction, but there are people in the midst of the flock who deep down take pride in walking in sin. In such a way that they feel offended or simply deny truthfully when they find themselves in some fault, that when they do not opt ​​for the banal justification, of the type "who does not have sin, who throws the first stone".

They are wives who boast about dominating their husband. Ministers of the Gospel who take pride in getting as much money as possible from their sheep and thereby build the greatest wealth.

And, to make everything worse at once, it was not only those who sinned that were like that, but practically the whole church. What hampered the application of the discipline. That is to say, the church had become accustomed to sin, to which Paul explains clearly that something should be done, what procedures should be adopted so that the situation would be resolved, even if someone had to be invited to retire for this purpose. I Corinthians 5 : 3-7).

Source

In the following verses (9-11), the apostle makes it clear that the problem was connivance. Being connivente agrees and participate in someone's action. And that, obviously, is a sin (I Timothy 5:22). There was a climate of dangerous coexistence within the Corinthian church. The sins were accepted by all or at least by the vast majority of the members, as something normal, almost ordinary, in such a way that the image of the church, that is, of its members, was no longer good. And the fault was of the church itself.

Many times our friendship relations prevent us from seeing things as things are. And that, in church, can be dangerous. We must understand that before being friends of anyone, we must be friends of God. Before defending the interests of anyone, we must defend the interests of God. The Lord is our priority. Our friends, no.

In other cases, we use the sins of others to serve as a shield to ours. That is, we pretend not to see the transgression of our neighbor since he does not see ours. And one of the signs that we are walking on a dangerous road is when we get offended when we are caught in some fault. Admonishing is necessary, but not always welcome. Sometimes the people we call attention turn into our enemies. They ask questions like "Who do you think is to get my attention?" The true one would be "Who am I to not want to be noticed?".

Paul shows in I Corinthians 5:11 that they turn away from those who do not want to walk deliberately according to the Word of God is necessary. It must be done. If salvation belongs to God and came to the elect, free will to sin or not (remember the prodigal son?) Remains. Then, if in the place of repentance what we find is pride and pride, there is nothing else to do but keep a safe distance. Many ministers of the Gospel have - with all due respect - fear of preaching that. There is no better word to describe other than this: fear. See II John 10, for example. The most loving apostle advising or giving attention to someone. Because? Because someone insisted on facing God, facing his Word.

The final verse (13) is exhaustive: "Take the wicked from among you". The BJ says: "Keep the evil from among you." Even Jesus established limits for certain situations (Matthew 18: 15-17). That is, something needs, must be done. Or the whole congregation will be compromised. And there, so that the appearance of evil does not take account of the sheepfold, righteous justice (John 10:24) must be applied, although against the opinion of whoever it may be.

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