Your Daily Bread – Sins That Destroy the Purity of the Church

In 2 Corinthians 12, verse 21, he’s afraid he’s going to find those sins that destroy the purity of the church. He says, I’m afraid I’m going to come again, and what I’m going to find, look at the end of verse 21, I’m going to find impurity, immorality, sensuality, which they have practiced. These are the sins that destroy the purity of the church. Now, these sins were really very dominant features of social life in Corinth. In fact, they were a way of life in Corinth, just like they are today in our society.

Immorality was rampant. The first word is the word impurity, akatharsia. You’ve heard of the word akatharsis. Akatharsis is a word for cleansing. When somebody says you had a cathartic experience or you went through a katharsis, that means you had a cleansing. A is the alpha-privativ, which negates a word. Akatharsia means unclean, and the word unclean or impure was a general word used for sexually wicked living. When you couldn’t specify anything, it was just general sexual uncleanness. The second word is immorality. That’s the Greek word porneia, from which we get the word pornography, and it basically is easily defined.

It’s the word fornication, and I know that is a word that needs definition, and the word fornication has as its most clear synonym, prostitution. Prostitution. Any act outside of marriage, any sexual act outside of marriage, is fornication and or prostitution. You prostitute yourself when you engage in a sexual act outside marriage. So that is the word prostitution. And then there’s the word sensuality, aselgia, which is a word that basically is used to describe unrestrained sexual sin that is blatant and publicly indecent. This is flagrant, publicly indecent, blatant sin without restraint in the sexual realm.

And Paul says, I’m afraid I’m going to come to the church and find this. I’m going to find sins that destroy the unity of the church, and then I’m going to find sins that destroy the purity of the church. This is what I’m afraid of. To go to bed with a prostitute in the Greek language is the verb Corinthianise. Prostitutes were so common in the city of Corinth, there were streetwalker prostitutes in the secular society of Corinth, and there were religious prostitutes in all the temples because when you engaged a temple prostitute, you somehow they believed you communed with the deity through that act.

It was an act of worship. Prostitution, fornication, impurity, sensuality dominated that society. That sin died very hard. And now, remember, Paul addressed that kind of activity in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6 in his first letter, in no uncertain terms. He talked about a man who was having an affair with his father’s wife, and wanted to talk about how that kind of leaven leavens the whole lump, and what a disastrous effect it has on the church. And then he went into chapter 6 and talked about the terrible idea that a believer would join himself to a prostitute, and therefore join Christ, with whom he is one to that prostitute.

And then he goes into chapter 7 and talks about marriage, and how marriage is to be sacred, and how people are to conduct themselves and avoid fornication. So 5, 6 and 7 of 1 Corinthians address the same issues, and Paul is concerned that as these people have fallen victim to the false teachers, and as they have drifted, they’re going to fall back into these same old patterns of sin. Now, verse 21 tells us a little bit about what may have been the character of the situation. He says, I’m concerned about many of those who have sinned in the past.

Now, who have sinned in the past is a verb. One verb, proamartano, hamartano, is the verb to send. Pro means to send before. It means to send previously. It’s in the perfect tense, which means they started it in the past, and they’re still doing it. I, he says, I’m concerned about those who sinned in the past. Implied and it continued on, and they have not repented. Unrepented, continued sexual sin. It began in the past, continued persistently into the present, and perhaps still going on, even as he wrote, and would still be going on when he arrived.

He says at the end of verse 21, it’s something which they have practiced. In other words, it’s become a pattern. It’s how they live. It’s an ongoing pattern of sin without repentance that began in the past and continues. That’s very important to understand. That’s what concerns the past. You don’t expect there to be sinlessness in the congregation. You don’t expect people never to sin. What you do expect and what you cry out for and preach for is that if they do sin, they what? They repent. That’s the issue. If they sin, Galatians 6, if our brothers overtaken in a fault, you go to him, you restore him in love, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

The church ought to be the safest place in the world to sin, because if you sin, you’re immediately confronted in love and gentleness and brought back to righteousness and blessing. That’s why it’s so dangerous to sin repeatedly and get put out of the church, because now you have no one caring for your spiritual condition. You’re not under those gracious influences. The church is the safest place to sin, because you’re immediately called to repentance under the preaching of the word of God. Under the influences of the Spirit of God, both in your own life and in the lives of those around you.

God doesn’t expect perfection. He does expect and desire repentance. But Paul is concerned about people who’ve got a pattern of sin, a practice of sin, and they just don’t repent. They just keep it up without repentance. That’s what breaks his heart. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the sins that destroy the purity of the church. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way.