Corinthians

1 Corinthians 3:17: Is this about a believer losing salvation if they commit suicide?

Don Gerrity Corinthians, General OSAS Questions, Q&A: Christian Living, Q&A: Eternal Security (OSAS)
1 Corinthians 3:17: Is this about a believer losing salvation if they commit suicide?

“If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” ( 1 Cor. 3:17 KJV)

I have heard this one line verse so misused out of context. Some even to say, from pulpits, it is about loss of salvation if committing suicide. Leaving families in fear that their saved loved ones, who got saved, and ended up in hell. Horribly wrong!

Context matters right?

Paul just finished explaining what will happen at the Bema Judgment of believers after the Rapture. Works from living carnally will be burnt up. They will not gain eternal rewards. How we live after salvation matters; Or we lose salvation ? NO.

The Bema Seat Judgment by Christ for born again believers will happen after our bodily resurrection. It will occur in heaven; the New Heavenly Jerusalem. The place Jesus is preparing for us from John 14. Only the Bride of Christ can enter. So these are all in heaven, already in their eternal Holy state and in glorified bodies as Christ now has, after having been harpazo raptured.

“If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: BUT HE HIMSELF SHALL BE SAVED yet so as by fire.” ( 1 Cor. 3:17 KJV)

Apostle Paul is telling these babes in Christ, who are carnal in their living (saved eternally by belief on Christ but living worldly outwardly), that they need to start living in the Spirit that God made them (same as Paul told the Galatian believers in Gal. 5:16).

Why are they living carnally?

Paul wrote the context from verse 1…

“And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”

They should have progressed into the Spiritual truths but are saved people still acting as born again babes in the faith. Living as worldly unsaved people, even though they are saved people.

Paul is teaching to them to understand that they should live morally right, even under persecution. How we live outwardly as believers is directly related to how much we are walking in the Spirit, which is already perfected (Hebrews 10:14, Colossians 2, 2 Cor. 5:17-21 etc). Do not get saved, born again in the Spirit, and live carnally. Renew our mind by the truth; God’s Word (Romans 12, John 17:17). As we do, we are less deceived and start living right because we know the truth more and more. We live right as we believe right in the mind. This is the way to true repentance after salvation (change your mind), growing in the knowledge of the truth as born again believers. Growing in good works that are not worldly but are because of walking by the Spirit God has made us at our core being. Works starting inwardly and Spiritual moving outward to good works in love for others. Paul explained it this way in Ephesians,

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 KJV)

Suicide Is Not God’s Plan For You

It is the devil and his fallen angels putting pressure on a person, pressures hard to bare, and whispering in their ears to end there own life. Look at what happened to Job when the devil pressed his life from all directions. He lost everything. His wealth and even all 7 of his kids. All gone in a flash. Did God do this? Did Job blame God or did he act righteously?

“And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” (Job 1:22 KJV)

Job did not blame God for this. Satan got angered because Job kept his trust in God, and to make matters worse Job got these horrible painful boils all over his body. Who was it that caused this?

“So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.” (Job 2:7 KJV)

Things were so bad for Job in his life that even his own wife told Job,

“Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.” (Job 2:9 KJV)

Look how Satan was doing everything possible to get Job to curse God. The point I am making is to realize WHO is causing strife, pain and problems to bring a person to the point where they consider taking their own life. Job was in great grief, in a very dark place in life indeed. His friends came and they “…sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.” (Job 2:13 KJV)

Reading on into Job 3, we see just how deep his despair was. He cursed the day he was born. If we get to a place of great despair and a very dark time in our life, consider how Job responded. He grieved like anyone would! It was so much to bare!

“What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?” (Job 6:11 KJV)

In the end Job, though struggled with all this, trusted God instead of taking his wife’s advice.

“But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.” (Job 2:10 KJV)

Job’s attitude even living through these very horrible life events was , if God brought me to it, he will see me through it. No matter what happens in life, we must keep God’s perfect character in view. It helped Job sustain through the crisis’ of his life, even when his own friends were telling him that God must be cursing Job for wrongdoing. This was not the case.

“I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all.” (Job 16:2 KJV)

He could not even get any comfort from his friends on what was happening in his life. What God allowed to happen for His purposes. God was not the one doing this to Job, it was satan. That said, God allowed it for His own purposes. Later God restored more back to Job than he had before the dark times hit his life.

LATER ON…

That is the words we need to keep in mind when dark times hit. God will be with us through all of life’s dark times. The devil wants to destroy us who trust in God. Suicide is not the way in such dark times. It robs the person of what God may have planned for allowing the dark time to happen. It robs family and friends to be left dealing with overwhelming grief.

Some just live in darkness quietly, telling no one. (if this is you, talk to someone. Even if it is a suicide hot line counsellor. Seek help!) And they are so overwhelmed by their experience in life that they give up and commit suicide. Some who are terminally ill are in so much pain without hope of survival that they decide to end their own life. Dark times are not the same for everyone.

And then some fellow believers tell those left living to deal with grief over their loved ones suicide, that such who commit the act are going to hell, and even as believers have lost their salvation. Not only is that a horrible thing to say, it is also not Biblically sound. A person who believed on Christ for righteousness and His death and rising again are eternally saved from the very moment they believed (Eph .1:13-14). Any sin committed after that moment of salvation was already paid for on the cross (Colossians 2). A believer who commits suicide may lose eternal rewards, but they are still heaven bound (1 Corinthians 3:15).

That is not to condone the sin of suicide, but it is Scriptural sound. Any sin after salvation will not mean loss of salvation. Any sin. All a believer’s sins were already judged and paid in full by Christ on that cross 2000 years ago as they died WITH CHRIST and ROSE AGAIN with Christ (Colossians 2).

Any person left living after a close friend or relative has committed suicide can take some comfort in this, if the person was a born again believer on Christ for salvation.

 

 

1 Corinthians 5:5 : Loss of Salvation in the Spirit?

Don Gerrity Corinthians
The Blessed Hope

“To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Corinthians 5:5 KJV)

Many are taking this one verse and making it seems that the Eternal Security of the Believer cannot be true because look what Paul said about this guy in the church at Corinth. The only way to believe that is to completely ignore the context shown in this passage.

This verse comes from the context of Apostle Paul telling the Corinthians to expel a man for having sex with his father’s wife.  WHOA! Not good right? Apparently the believers were not really saying anything against this act of sinful living, nor to him about doing such evil. They were accepting what he was doing and going about their business. This guy’s behaviour was so against Christian values and was likely not even saved, but attending the church. Just like today, we have many unsaved people in church groups.

The true believers in Christ for righteousness in the church at Corinth were not doing any good nor helping this man come to true salvation. They were accepting this bad behaviour in their group which will hurt the witness for Christ to others. By just ignoring his behaviour they may have been impeding the guys walk in salvation as well.

Paul is saying that leaving an unbeliever who is doing such despicable sin, in the group, will affect the whole group negatively for their witness to the unsaved world, and it is not helping this guy come to salvation either.

Paul’s point is to be firm with such an unbeliever among them and to boot him out of the church group. Let Satan have his way with him while he is doing such horrendous sin, because he is refusing the truth of the gospel to be saved. Do not keep him in the group, thinking it is okay because no one is confronting him. By booting him out, he may find that with no support, he will see the evil of his ways and come to ask God for forgiveness and mercy and to be saved. This concept also applies to born again believers who fall to great sin, to be restored back to right fellowship. For a person not saved but attending church, the Ten Commandments does the same thing to the unsaved; it shows how sinful they are. The Ten Commandments were given for the unsaved to come to salvation. The law REVEALS SIN but cannot fix it. (Romans 3:20). The STRENGTH OF SIN is THE LAW (1 Corinthians 15:56). The law is good, perfect and holy but CANNOT help you be good, perfect or holy. (Romans 7:7-12). Paul taught Timothy that ,

“…the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,…” (1 Timothy 1:8-9 KJV)

Who is THE RIGHTEOUS? It is every person who has been born again by belief on Christ. And if you continue reading, later in 2 Cor. 2, you will see that doing this had worked and the guy came to know the truth about what he was doing and  was accepted back in the church at Corinth.

Keep in mind that context matters greatly and Apostle Paul never contradicts in his own writings. He preached the eternal security of the believer very strongly.  (See Ephesians 1:13-14, Ephesians 2:8-9. 2 Cor. 5:17-21, Colossians 2, Romans 5,6 ,7,8)

Paul is not talking about this guy losing his new born again Spirit. He was not yet born again but hanging around in the church. Judas comes to mind too. He was with Jesus n His ministry, but he never fully believed Jesus was the Christ and betrayed Him and was never saved, though he had so much regret for the betrayal that he killed himself. Even if a person was born again and started committing such an act, the church could also do the same to such a person who refuses to repent over the act, and expel him from the church, hoping it would bring him to the end of his wrong belief in doing such an act, in hopes to restore the person.

1 Corinthians 9:27: ‘castaway’. Is this about loss of Salvation?

Don Gerrity Corinthians, Q&A: Christian Living
1 Corinthians 9:27: ‘castaway’. Is this about loss of Salvation?

“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (1 Cor. 9:27 KJV)

Paul mentions THE BODY, NOT THE SPIRIT in this verse. He is not writing about Salvation.

The Greek word translated ‘castaway’ is ‘adokimos’ and means ‘not standing the test, not approved’.

The only test for salvation by Jesus’ own words is belief (John 3:16, 6:28-29, 6:37-40) and the only way to be disqualified is to refuse to believe on Christ (John 3:18) .

In 1 Cor. 9, Paul compared a believer’s life to an athlete’s attempts to achieve victory in a race. Both involve bringing one’s body into subjection. This is not a precondition for salvation, but a way to achieve victory over the flesh (wrong beliefs in the mind) after we have been saved.

So, this verse is not about salvation, but about living right outwardly. It in no way teaches against the eternal security of a believer. In his other writings Paul explains how to live right outwardly. We need to renew our Mind by God’s Word (Romans 12) and walk in the Spirit to avoid the lusts of the flesh (Gal. 5:16).

2 Corinthians 7:10: ‘not to be repented of’

Don Gerrity Corinthians

“For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” ( 2 corinthians 7:8-10 KJV)

In verse 8, it should be noted that the English translated word ‘Repent’ in this verse is a different word from the Greek ‘metanoeo’ which is usually found, which is defined as ‘a change of mind’. Instead, this word is actually ‘metamelomai’, which means REGRET.

Then in verse 9 the word REPENT is the Greek word ‘metanoeo’ and it does mean a ‘change of mind’. We also see that sorrow and repentance are not the same. Now here is what causes confusion over the meaning in verse 10. This verse uses 2 different Greek words for the English translated word repentance, yet only translates them with the same English word.

The first word in Greek for REPENT it was penned is ‘metanoia’, meaning a ‘change of mind’. The second word for REPENT in the Greek it was written is ‘ametamelētos’, meaning ‘irrevocable.’ This is defined as ‘not able to be changed.’

Verse 10 can equally be read as,

“10 For godly sorrow worketh a CHANGE OF MIND to salvation NOT TO BE ABLE TO BE CHANGED OF: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

Now we can see the true meaning of verse 10. Many teach verse 10 is about going to Heaven by salvation, but that is not the context. It is Paul dealing with the saints at Corinth, a very bad example of a church; yet, they are addressed by Paul as already saved believers. They were greatly grieved by Paul’s letter and seeing how sinful they were acting and they had great regret over it. Paul acknowledged their feelings of regret and turned it into a positive.  By writing he was glad because it led them to more right living. Their salvation was not in jeopardy because salvation is not of a person’s works, deeds nor behaviour, as Paul taught the Ephesians in chapter 2 verses 8-9, but living Godly leaves us with no regrets.

They were grieved and had such regret over how they were living in sin and that was a healthy thing helping them to turn to living in a more Godly manner. This is a Godly sorrow, not a worldly sorrow. It is sorrow toward what you have done against God’s will for your life. It helps us all to change for the better and act in more love towards other. It also helps our witness be stronger to a lost world, needing Salvation through Christ.

As a believers in Christ, we do need to ‘change our minds’ (repent), not just unsaved people. We many times need to change how we think by the Word of God which leads to right living as God intends for us as his eternally saved children. As believers we need to renew our mind (Romans 12). Right believing in the mind leads to right outward living in love for others.

As Jesus prayed for us in John 17:

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17 KJV)

1 Corinthians 6: 9-10: ‘shall not inherit the kingdom of God’

Don Gerrity Corinthians, Q&A: Difficult Passages
1 Corinthians 6: 9-10: ‘shall not inherit the kingdom of God’

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. ” (1 Cor. 6:9-10 KJV)

I see this two verses of Scripture misused so often to discredit the Doctrine Of Eternal Salvation. Reading this by itself without proper context it certainly does seem like Apostle Paul is refuting the believers eternal security. However, this in no way discredits OSAS!   I find it very convenient that those using this Scripture to discredit OSAS do not include the very next verse! And it is such an important verse to the meaning of this!

Verse 9-10 Is All About Those Not Born Again

Apostle Paul is contrasting a unsaved person to a saved person and nothing else. Verse 9-10 is talking about an unbeliever in Christ. They have not accepted the only atonement for their sins and so their sin debt remains and God will have to judge them for their sins. And the wages of sin is eternal death. Without belief on Christ for forgiveness of sins a person is headed for God’s judgement at the White Throne Judgement of the unredeemed and headed for a place called hell. God created hell for ‘the devil and his angels’ (Matthew 25:41) who cannot be redeemed. Yet without accepting Gods gift of Salvation through Christ, they too have sided with the devil and his angels and will also be judged for their sins committed in life. God does NOT want you to go to hell! So much so He sent His only Son (God in the Flesh) to take the punishment that we deserve so we could be forgiven and meet His attribute of Holiness and Justice. That is the Gospel of our Salvation.

Verse 11 Is The Good News For Born Again Believers!

Verse 11 reads, “And such WERE some of you: but YE ARE WASHED, but YE ARE SANCTIFIED, but YE ARE JUSTIFIED in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor. 6:11 KJV)

Through belief on Christ alone in faith and the only atonement for sins through Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who is God in the flesh, who lived a sinless life and bore the punishment for the sins of the whole world on the cross a person becomes 100% FORGIVEN and justified in Christ. Such a person has become a believer by accepting the FREE GIFT of Eternal life through what Christ has accomplished on the cross.

Here Apostle Paul tell us that once a person believes on Christ alone for their Salvation without works required (Ephesians 2:8-9), the person is WASHED. Our sin debt has been eradicating forever! A believers has also been SANCTIFIED (set apart and deemed Holy) and JUSTIFIED (deemed innocent with sins already paid for by Christ on the cross.

Paul also tells us,

“For by GRACE are ye saved THOROUGH FAITH; and that NOT of yourselves: it is the GIFT of God: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should BOAST.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV)

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” (Galatians 2:16 KJV)

Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. (Romans 4:4-5 KJV)

Paul is not flip flopping in his teachings on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is just stating the same thing. Salvation is not by our works nor deeds but through belief on Christ alone for our Salvation and forgiveness of sins.  The Corinthians church was a very bad example of a group of believers and they were doing  things very shocking and sinful. Paul is rebuking them, yes. Yet Paul also addresses them as BRETHREN, a term for saved believers and is encouraging them to walk by the newly spirit we have received at our moment of Salvation and not by the flesh because the newly created Spirit is the new us.

Paul says to the Corinthians the same as t the Galatians  that we should “…Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16 KJV)