The Spirit of Christ Sets Us Apart from Sexual Immorality

1 Corinthians 5

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

• Sexual immorality is not of the Spirit of Christ.
• We are set apart from sexual immorality by the Spirit of Christ.
• The Spirit of Christ stops the growth of internal immorality.
• Do not engage in cordial fellowship with those who corrupt the Holy Spirit.

Sexual immorality is not of the Spirit of Christ. “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife!” 1 Corinthians 5:1 Sexual immorality begins with feelings we have inwardly, but our body is supposed to be the home of the Holy Spirit. The Corinthians were so full of unchecked sexual desires that they were worse than those living without Jesus Christ. They were even having sex with their own parent’s spouses.

“And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5:2 As followers of Jesus Christ, we can’t be so focused on esteem and dignity that we no longer acknowledge sin. The Holy Spirit is grieved at sin, and we should be too. A sexually immoral person is not living in the Spirit of Christ and should not be considered a part of the body of Christ.

We are set apart from sexual immorality by the Spirit of Christ. “For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed.” 1 Corinthians 5:3 We don’t need to meet a person to judge whether we like them enough to ignore their sexual immorality. It is in the Spirit that we know immorality is in conflict with the body being the building of the Holy Spirit.

“In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Corinthians 5:4 There is a common Spirit among the followers of Jesus Christ, and those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit are not part of that fellowship. Today, it’s a scattered fellowship, but each of us live in the Spirit of Christ wherever we are. “…deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” 1 Corinthians 5:5 As followers of Christ, we set ourselves apart from those who are sexually immoral. The world is so filled with casual sex and every type of sexual immorality that it has been given over to Satan. Today, there is an overabundance of the destruction of flesh, and the only hope is that a few will come to Jesus Christ.

The Spirit of Christ stops the growth of internal immorality. “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” 1 Corinthians 5:6 Appealing to someone’s self-esteem, hoping that they will stop the immorality if they feel good enough about themselves doesn’t work. Glorying is not good because esteem does not replace the need for the remission of sin through Jesus Christ. In fact, praising the immoral person is like leaven that causes the problem to become worse.

Today, there are a lot of churchy and humanitarian sounding words that speaks of being uplifting, loving, and supportive of every type of sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is skyrocketing. As followers of Jesus Christ, we simply set ourselves apart from those worldly ways. Unfortunately, the glorifying leaven of sexual immorality has risen in the churches, and they refuse to come apart from the “democratic” society of the global culture.

“Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7 For us to be the building of the Holy Spirit, the old leaven of carnality is purged, and it becomes unleavened. In other words, when immoral thoughts and feelings enter us, we do not allow them to rise up to make us part of the immoral ways of the world.

Today, the thing that has power over thoughts, feelings, and emotions is able to enflame sexual feelings to get us to sin against God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It wants to enable the image of the beast to live and speak through us as it conforms us to the anti-Christian global culture. It grooms people to the mark of the beast by what they say and do.

Jesus Christ made atonement for our sin and has given us the Holy Spirit. Whatever we feel or think, our sin is forgiven, but we don’t live in sin and are not conformed to the ways of the carnal world. “Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 1 Corinthians 5:8 Let’s not give rise to immoral thoughts and feelings, nor to give rise to feelings of malice and wickedness towards others. Let’s serve God in the truth of Jesus Christ and sincerity in our devotion to Him.

Do not engage in cordial fellowship with those who corrupt the Holy Spirit. “I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.” 1 Corinthians 5:9 That is very many people whom we are not to keep company with, the whole world is filled with immoral people.

“Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.” 1 Corinthians 5:10 We would have to move to Venus to escape everyone who lives immorally, or who tries to extort certain behaviors or things from us. They are the cashiers in stores, physicians in doctor’s offices, politicians who govern the nation, school principals, schoolteachers, coworkers, employers, etc. There is no way to avoid them.

“But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.” 1 Corinthians 5:11 Instead of quit going grocery shopping, or quit paying rent, etc. we are to be set apart from them relating to fellowship, and to quit fellowshipping with false Christians.

Anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ but live according to the global culture of the beast, and embrace the thing that decides what they feel, think, and do, don’t make them a part of your family. Fellowship in the Spirit of Christ is not with those who are sexually immoral, or covets money and possessions, or is a substance abuser, or extorts things from others.

“For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?” 1 Corinthians 5:12 Those on the outside are those who deny God, discard the need for the remission of sin through Jesus Christ, and trample on the Holy Spirit. It’s impossible to explain to them that they are destroying the building of the Holy Spirit. They have made themselves the building of the thing forming what they think feel, do, and speak as it enables the image of the beast to live and speak through them. We simply set ourselves apart from them.

Those on the inside of our cordial fellowship are those we need to judge. For example, we judge who we open our front door to and those we don’t. As followers of Jesus Christ, that judgment comes according to a person’s fellowship with the Holy Spirit. “But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” 1 Corinthians 5:13 God judges those on the outside of the body Christ and that judgment includes eternal torment in the lake of fire. Therefore, do not make them part of your fellowship.

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“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:1