1 Corinthians 6

[NateR]

Originally Posted by rearnakedchoke

that was sort of my next question ... the verse states prostitution, but there are many other different types of sexual immorality out there .....

1 Corinthians 5 explains that those who claim to be Christians, but live immoral lives, should be kicked out of the church and shunned by their fellow Christians.

In Romans 1:28, Paul refers to sexual immoral people as having a debased mind. In other words, their mind ceases to function properly. You can't evangelize or even reason with someone who has a malfunctioning brain. This is why even GOD gives them up (Romans 1:26, 28) when people have demoralized themselves past a certain point.

Originally Posted by NateR

We're seeing the extremes of immorality being played out right before our eyes with the militant Gay Rights movement. And it's only going to get worse as long as we, as Christians, allow ourselves to continue to be ridiculed and intimidated into silence.

what exactly do you think your going to do to stop it?

It's a rock rolling down a hill at this point.

Center your focus on being a witness to them instead of pushing them further away with anger.

The best way to reach them is concentrate on God and not the laws of the country.

[Mark]

Originally Posted by NateR

1 Corinthians 5 explains that those who claim to be Christians, but live immoral lives, should be kicked out of the church and shunned by their fellow Christians.

In Romans 1:28, Paul refers to sexual immoral people as having a debased mind. In other words, their mind ceases to function properly. You can't evangelize or even reason with someone who has a malfunctioning brain. This is why even GOD gives them up (Romans 1:26, 28) when people have demoralized themselves past a certain point.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

What is the due penalty?

[Mark]

Originally Posted by Rev

Not sure if We can say that they are worse, but Paul is definitely warning against the added penalties of sexual sins. that along with the great points provided already seems to push opinions in that direction. Sexual sins always seem to multiply, don't they?

Mark, what do you think about this?

I tend to think that there are greater sins (John 19:11). Yes, sin is sin but the penalties are different at the day of judgement. I dont see how people can think that God is going to judge sins the same if they are rolling through a stop sign and cheating on my wife for 5 years. This is just my opinion.

Sin are never ranked and scripture never implies such a thing in the original languages either. The only sin the is mention that is different is the unforgivable sin and that is a debate in and of itself,

We got to remember his audience here. The church in Corinth was dealing with a lot of Greek temples that had many temple prostitute and regular sex acts as part of the worship, So Paul's urgency is based on his reader not anything more. This is why it is better to practice hermeneutics and rightly divide the Word of truth so as not to jump into any conclusions. If we are
not careful we can read into scripture many modern ideals that have nothing to do with it.

Originally Posted by Mark

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

What is the due penalty?

Eternal separation from God.

Originally Posted by Mark

I tend to think that there are greater sins (John 19:11). Yes, sin is sin but the penalties are different at the day of judgement. I dont see how people can think that God is going to judge sins the same if they are rolling through a stop sign and cheating on my wife for 5 years. This is just my opinion.

Mark this is not referring to a level of sin but a direction of guilt. Jesus is expressing that the person or people who turned him over are to blame for this monkey trial. It make s a lot more sense in Greek

[NateR]

Originally Posted by Chris F

Sin are never ranked and scripture never implies such a thing in the original languages either. The only sin the is mention that is different is the unforgivable sin and that is a debate in and of itself,

We got to remember his audience here. The church in Corinth was dealing with a lot of Greek temples that had many temple prostitute and regular sex acts as part of the worship, So Paul's urgency is based on his reader not anything more. This is why it is better to practice hermeneutics and rightly divide the Word of truth so as not to jump into any conclusions. If we are
not careful we can read into scripture many modern ideals that have nothing to do with it.

Different sins are given different penalties in the Old Testament. Some sins require the death penalty (disobeying parents, working on the Sabbath, taking GOD's name in vain, homosexuality, witchcraft, etc.), while other sins simply require a sacrifice and maybe monetary compensation for the victims of the crime.

Of course, all sins are equal from GOD's perspective - a man who looks at pornography is just as bad as a man who cheats on his wife; a man who swipes a ball-point pen from work is just as bad as a man who steals cars for a living, etc. However, we all know that different sins have different consequences here on earth. Some of those earthly consequences are more severe than others and they don't just affect the perpetrator and the victim, they affect the entire culture.

So, in the sense of consequences in this lifetime, yes, there are degrees of sin. Immorality is one of those sins that not only destroys the mind, it also destroys the family and it destroys the culture.

[NateR]

Originally Posted by Crisco

what exactly do you think your going to do to stop it?

It's a rock rolling down a hill at this point.

Center your focus on being a witness to them instead of pushing them further away with anger.

The best way to reach them is concentrate on God and not the laws of the country.

Who said anything about anger?

The idea that proclaiming the truth about homosexuality makes me angry or hateful is just the brainwashing of this fallen world.

I was listening to a sermon from John McArthur tonight and he made a great point that successful evangelism needed to be 75% sin and judgement and 25% mercy and forgiveness. Telling people that GOD loves them and wants to be their friend does no good unless they first understand how sinful and hopeless they are without GOD.

If you dealing with unrepentant homosexuals who refuse to accept that their lifestyle is wrong, then all the sermons in world on GOD's love and forgiveness aren't going to do any good. If ANY immoral person refuses to accept that what they are doing is wrong, then it is impossible for that person to be saved.

Originally Posted by NateR

Different sins are given different penalties in the Old Testament. Some sins require the death penalty (disobeying parents, working on the Sabbath, taking GOD's name in vain, homosexuality, witchcraft, etc.), while other sins simply require a sacrifice and maybe monetary compensation for the victims of the crime.

Of course, all sins are equal from GOD's perspective - a man who looks at pornography is just as bad as a man who cheats on his wife; a man who swipes a ball-point pen from work is just as bad as a man who steals cars for a living, etc. However, we all know that different sins have different consequences here on earth. Some of those earthly consequences are more severe than others and they don't just affect the perpetrator and the victim, they affect the entire culture.

So, in the sense of consequences in this lifetime, yes, there are degrees of sin. Immorality is one of those sins that not only destroys the mind, it also destroys the family and it destroys the culture.

In the NT all sin gets a death penalty and has the same result. This is what i mean by levels of sin. A thief will suffer the same fate as a serial killers or a sexual deviant. The OT was the Foundation because it gave us the law. Paul said I would not know what sin is except for the law. So I would not begin to claim that one set of sins are worse than another. man has invented this idea so they can make their own personal sin seem less pugnacious in the eyes of God. fact is all sin is an abomination.