| 1 Corinthians 5
Verses 1-5, "It is actually reported that
there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does
not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife.
And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with
grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did
this? Even though I am not physically present, I am with you
in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who
did this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled
in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit,
and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand over this
man to Satan, so that the sinful nature [Or margin: "that
his body" or "that his flesh"] may be destroyed and his spirit
saved on the day of the Lord."
The book of Corinthians is about communion, which is another
word for fellowship. Practical issues of communion or fellowship
with God and with each other--what to have communion with
and what not to have communion with. We should not have intimate
communion with the world corporately or individually. [the
great false church depicted in Revelation has intimate communion
with the world.] A healthy body rids itself of poison and
likewise the body of Christ needs to rid itself of poison.
If a Church or individual doesn't deal with spiritual poison,
it gets sick spiritually. In verses 1-2, there is a serious
issue of sin, spiritual poison, in this Church at Corinth.
It will destroy the body and you guys go along with it like
nothing is wrong, Paul says. Even the Gentiles of this sailortown
don't act like this. A morality issue is being brought up
here. Just what was God's standard for morality in the Old
Testament? Let's have a look.
Leviticus 18:1-24. "'I am the Lord your God. You must not
do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must
not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing
you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws
and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God.
Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will
live by them. I am the Lord.
No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations.
I am the Lord.
Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with
your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with
her.
Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife; that
would dishonor your father. [this obviously refers to a step-mother,
which is what applies to what was going on with that man in
I Corinthians 5.]
Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your
father's daughter or your mother's daughter, whether she was
born in the same home or elsewhere.
Do not have sexual relations with your son's daughter or your
daughter's daughter; that would dishonor you.
Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father's
wife, born to your father; she is your sister. [Half-sister.]
Do not have sexual relations with your father's sister; she
is your father's close relative.
Do not have sexual relations with your mother's sister, because
she is your mother's close relative.
Do not dishonor your father's brother by approaching his wife
to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.
Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She
is your son's wife; do not have relations with her.
Do not have sexual relations with your brother's wife; that
would dishonor your brother.
Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter.
Do not have sexual relations with either her son's daughter
or her daughter's daughter; they are her close relatives.
That is wickedness.
Do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual
relations with her while your wife is living.
Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during her
uncleanness of her monthly period.
Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and
defile yourself with her.
Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech
[or to be passed through the fire], for you must not profane
the name of your God. I am the Lord.
Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.
[i.e. Homosexuality.]
Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself
with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to
have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this
is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you
became defiled...'"
In Leviticus 20 God attached the death penalty to many of
these laws which were set in place to protect the nation of
Israel from moral decay. These laws made up what we would
recognize today as the Constitution of the theocratic nation
of Israel. Leviticus 20:10-21 is a direct cross-reference
to what is stated in Leviticus 18, but with the penalties
attached. These penalties were set in place to safeguard the
nation of Israel from internal moral decay, and to be carried
out by the judicial authorities set in power.
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