Washed

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

WASHED

1 Cor 6:9-11

9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

NIV

That is quite a list of offenses those people used to be. Why would Paul be bringing that up if they used to be that, and are now washed, sanctified and justified? Could they be returning to some of their own habits? Have we returned to any of our old habits? Surely some of those behaviors on the list were never even a part of our life to begin with yet in some sense in our modern world we could translate many of them into the lifestyle of this world. We may not worship anything in the world as an idol, but have we built any shrines to anything in this world? Certainly we do not steal, yet have we every robbed God? We surely cannot be greedy for we give so much of what we have to others, but do we give out of our abundance which really does not distract from our greed for more? We could find some things to connect with in this list, but the point is that we should be very aware that we were all sinners, and may still, in fact do still have sins within us. Slander, is just anything word of gossip and who of us can say we have never done that. We have become so good at gossip; we can even try to disguise it as a prayer request for a friend. Whatever our failures, whatever our sin, we need to see that we have been washed; we are washed in the blood of Jesus. God sanctified us; he set us apart for a His sacred use. God justified us, declared us innocent, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit. Just think about that, God did it all, He washed us, set us apart for his use declared us innocent. If that does not raise our spirits what will? It does not matter how vile we once were, nor does it matter if we are not perfect now, although we surely should not willingly continue in such behavior just so God’s grace may abound even more, but the fact is even in our imperfection, He has declared us innocent because of the blood of Jesus Christ. With all God has done on our behave; we really should try to live in a manner which is pleasing to Him making every effort to forsake anything which would cause us to hamper our relationship with Him. He will never forsake us, but do we at times forsake Him for our own benefit? Yet we are washed.