Monday, April 16, 2018

FROM SINNER TO SAINTS

1Corinthians 6:19
You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body

SOME 40 MILES FROM ROME, strategically located between the Aegean and the Mediterranean, lay the beautiful city of Corinth. Unlike Athens, where there were family connections and traditions, Corinth was a new city with fast money and loose morals. In Paul's day to call somebody a Corinthian was derogatory or debasing--a perjorative term that could make someone fighting mad.
   Paul's words to the Corinthians were at times straight forward, even blunt. He left no room for wondering what God expect of his own. For example, consider what he said: "Do you know that the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither securely in moral nor idolatry nor adulterer nor made prostitutes nor homosexuality offenders nor thrives nor greedy nor drunkards nor slanders nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God." Yet he doesn't stop there He adds, "And that is what some of you were, but you washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God" (Corinthians 6:9-11).
   Do you see the beauty of what Paul is saying? He no longer views them as being immoral, prostitutes, thieves, drunkards, or swindlers, but as saints---ones who have been redeemed, He calls them "saints" —-ordinary people who have been redeemed and have entered to fellowship with God's own Son, Jesus Christ.
   Paul further wrote, "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong! and that is what it takes today to live as the redeemed in a world of moral failures and licentiousness.  It's the life that you live that speaks to the world about relationship in christ Jesus. 

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