March 23 Judges 9-12 & 1 Cor. 5
Bargaining with the Lord is probably not a wise way to seek the Lord’s help. It did not work out for Jephthah. Did God want to have him take the life of his daughter? No, not any more than we would want you to do something like that to a family member. The point being don’t bargain with God. Do what is right. Seek the way of the Lord. Can you say, “Shibboleth” if not you are in trouble? I looked it up on google so I can. The Lord will catch up with you if you try to run from him in your deception. Far better is to confess your sins and know his forgiveness.
Paul brings a zealousness to his faith in Christ, that is beyond Christ himself. Begins are a fragile reality. What we can take from Paul is much like how the Old Testament would guide us. Have nothing to do with those who are not of Christ. Expel them from your midst lest they dilute the Gospel. Keep yourself pure before the Lord so as not to be tempted. Paul wrote the letter to the Corinthians before the Gospels were written down. So the Gospels balance out Paul’s writings. Jesus very likely would have sought out the immoral person and challenged him to know forgiveness and to avoid this sin. Notice 1 Cor. 5:9-11, “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people, not at all referring to the immoral of this world or the greedy and robbers or idolaters; for you would then have to leave the world. But I now write to you not to associate with anyone named a brother, if he is immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a robber, not even to eat with such a person.” This letter you are reading is Paul First Letter to the Corinthians so what letter is 1 Cor. 5:9 referring to when it says, “I wrote you in my letter.” First Corinthians is really Second Corinthians. Will not really, but Paul obviously wrote a letter that the early Church did not preserve as Scripture. Even if that letter was to show up now, it would not be included as Scripture no matter how good it might be. The Bible is the Bible, no adding no subtracting.
