1 CORINTHIANS 6
Before resuming his teaching on sexual sins, Paul continues where yesterday’s chapter ended: ‘You are judging the wrong people in the wrong places’, he basically says! The Corinthian believers were both judging the ungodly and also taking one another to court to be judged by the ungodly. Paul points out that we are well capable of exercising in-house discipline on one another – as a body of believers – and that one day we will even take part in the judgment of angels and of the unsaved. By comparison, to resolve disputes between ourselves ought to be a trivial matter.
Furthermore, Paul goes on, it would be better to be wronged and cheated than to appear in a secular court, facing a fellow-Christian. What an embarrassment for the church of Christ! Just find someone – anyone – who will adjudicate and these disagreements, for Heaven’s sake!
Now, back to the core issue of sin – and with sexual sin in particular… In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 we read the definitive statement on the subject: “Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 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”.
You cannot be half-washed; you are either dirty or clean. And there is always a way of getting clean in Christ. Everything in the above list is regarded by God as sinful and every sin here is regarded by God as forgivable. Sexual immorality is particularly corrosive of one’s character. You sin against your own body (see 1 Corinthians 6:16-20) and that body already contains the Holy Spirit who has redeemed your body. Again, notice that it is sexual sin that is the problem, not sex itself. The rightful place for sex is between a man and a woman who have made a marriage covenant with each other. Outside that, it is sinful.
Think of your body as a temple, with God’s Spirit living inside it (which is what he does). Therefore, avoid associating that temple with anything which is sinful; in this way you honour God with your body.
2 CHRONICLES 1
What would you ask for if God offered to give you anything you wanted? It seems to me that Solomon already had a good measure of wisdom to ask for more wisdom! Or perhaps it reflects well on King David, his father, who modelled to his son what it was like to have a heart like God’s? Regardless of the reason, Solomon certainly asked for the right gift – and showed great humility with it – in asking for a discerning heart and wisdom. God, in return, so delighted with his servant, gave Solomon all the good things that he didn’t ask for too. It reminds me of the words of Jesus: “See first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these (other) things will be added to you also”. The one conditional thing was ‘long life’ – which Solomon who only lived to just over 60 did not receive, due to his failure in walking in obedience all his life.
The Big Picture 