Walk the Talk

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

WALK THE TALK

1 Cor 5:9-13

9 I have written 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 you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."  

NIV

Oh, what a sad state of affairs this early church in Corinth must have been. For Paul to indicate there were members or attenders of this church who professed Christ but lived immorally and were greedy swindlers and idolaters. It is interesting the meaning of the three Greek words. The word translated as sexually immoral is specifically referring to male prostitutes, of which there were many in this morally bankrupt city. The oldest temple was that of Aphrodite which by the time Paul was there had fallen into ruins according to historians. However, the successors of its one thousand cult prostitutes still practiced their trade in the city below where the temple stood. Then there were those who coveted what others had, and those who were aggressively eager to take what others had, and of course, those who worshipped idols, or idolized things. The world was full of these types of people, and it seems nothing has changed since those days. Our world today is no different, in fact, there may be even more sin abounding. Maybe even newer methods have been developed in the sexual immorality area, along with finding more concepts to fulfill the pervasiveness of greed, along with fleecing others of their resources. As far as idols, we could say there are more than we can count. That is the world and we need not be bothered with judging it, as God will do that all in due time. But the problem is not in the world but in the church. Paul was not concerned about judging the corrupted world, but that its influence had invaded the church, or at least to the point that there were some who said they were believers, but that was in word only, as they continued to live under the influence of the world. Do we have that in the church today? That would be horrible if it were true. Have we ever expelled anyone because of their wicked behavior? Maybe we just do not have anyone who fits into that category. Hopefully, we all have changed from our old and depraved ways and have rejected all such attitudes and behaviors. Certainly, we would not think such immorality exists in the church, but what about swindlers, or those who are greedy? Certainly, there are those among us, in the church that fleece the flock, so to speak, that take and take from others so to live the abundant life. Do we expel them? It seems we simply tolerate them. Yet, at the same time, we need to be careful not to be influenced by the ways of the world ourselves. There are so many ways in which the world can be deceptive and invade the church, in general, conducts itself and we need to be aware and beware not to allow it to affect the way we think or behave. If we say we are Christian, then we need to live as Christians. Words sound good, but actions speak volumes. As it has been said, a picture is worth a thousand words, so it is with the picture of our life versus the words of our mouth. Thus we have to make sure we walk the talk.