Paul's Wisdom in Dealing with Sinning Believers.
In the the Church at Corinth there were people committing sin by doing things that were not in tune with the Spirit of God. Yet Paul’s way of bringing the sinning Christians out of sin was not by bombarding them with condemnation by the misuse of scripture, but to remind them of who they were in Christ.
Paul being a leader did not want people that were a part of the Church of Jesus Christ to fall captive to sin, and he was not one to sweep the problem under the rug and pat the sinning people on the back and tell them the grace gospel allows them to do such, as believed by many out there today. But he also knew that making them focus on their themselves, their weakness and their sin would only make them weaker, more sin conscious and susceptible to sinning more.
Paul’s way of dealing with the issue was to point them back to who they are in Christ; that through the perfect finished work of the cross they had all been made new creations in Christ. He reminded them of the righteousness that was theirs because of Christ. He knew the reason people were sinning was because they were self-focused, having their eyes off Jesus the gift-giver and having being focused on the gifts instead.
He knew the way for people to die to sin and walk in the Spirit was to refocus their priorities back on Christ and understand they were new creations and temples of the Holy Spirit.
Paul knew that when we keep our focus on the greatness of Christ and live by His grace alone it enables us to walk in the truth of our identity in Christ and instep with His Spirit, that gives us the power to not succumb to sin.
Paul being a leader did not want people that were a part of the Church of Jesus Christ to fall captive to sin, and he was not one to sweep the problem under the rug and pat the sinning people on the back and tell them the grace gospel allows them to do such, as believed by many out there today. But he also knew that making them focus on their themselves, their weakness and their sin would only make them weaker, more sin conscious and susceptible to sinning more.
Paul’s way of dealing with the issue was to point them back to who they are in Christ; that through the perfect finished work of the cross they had all been made new creations in Christ. He reminded them of the righteousness that was theirs because of Christ. He knew the reason people were sinning was because they were self-focused, having their eyes off Jesus the gift-giver and having being focused on the gifts instead.
He knew the way for people to die to sin and walk in the Spirit was to refocus their priorities back on Christ and understand they were new creations and temples of the Holy Spirit.
Paul knew that when we keep our focus on the greatness of Christ and live by His grace alone it enables us to walk in the truth of our identity in Christ and instep with His Spirit, that gives us the power to not succumb to sin.
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