Lesson 2860

(Lesson 2860)(10-28-19) 1 Corinthians 5:1-13
    “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 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. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”

   In today’s quote, Paul relates that members of the church are not to “eat” with a someone who has been labeled a “fornicator”. He also applied the same rule to the “covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner”
    It is my belief, that the term “fornicator”, as Paul applied it in today’s quote, describes one who has been found to be persuing heretical religious beliefs other than the strict gospel of Jesus Christ. I do not believe the term, as Paul applied it, only refers to those who have committed fornication according to the generally accepted sexual definition of the term. I came to that conclusion after finding that the same term is also applied by other biblical authors to describe those who adhere to heretical religions such as Catholicism, Mormonism, and many other distorted versions of Christianity.
    I suggest that everyone read the seventeenth chapter of Revelation wherein John tells of the “great whore” and exposes the fate of those who fornicate with her. I am convinced that when John referenced the “great whore”, he was referencing the Roman Catholic Church. If you read that chapter, I believe you will understand why I believe as I do concerning Paul’s usage of the term “fornicator” in today’s quote.~