By: Mike Kelly, Retired Pastor
Bryan, Ohio
Can I be a little extreme today? Did you know that a thief can go to heaven? Of course you did…the thief on the cross. Did you know that a drunk can go to heaven, too?
What about an idolater… a lover of money or comfort? Or an obese person…a lover of food? What about a prostitute? Can a homosexual go to heaven? What about a gossip? What about a cheater? Or an adulterer? Or what about a liar?
Paul wrote in 1 Cor 6 that none of these kinds of people can go to heaven. “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (v6-10)
Obviously, it can’t mean everyone like this since the thief on the cross made it. There must be an exception clause. And, praise God, there is.
It’s actually the next verse, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
We know that being “washed in the blood,” as the old hymn says, doesn’t change what we are doing. Our behaviors don’t just magically disappear when we get saved (sanctified and justified).
If I were a liar before I got saved, I would most likely continue in that track for a season until God deals with me about it. Same if I had been a drunk or a greedy person or a homosexual, or an adulterer.
Coming into a relationship with Jesus does not automatically change our behavior. Truthfully, it might never change it. A lover of money may never overcome that insecurity. A gossip may never overcome the need to be important.
God’s grace is sufficient. His grace is what paid for our ticket to heaven. Going to heaven is not based on how well-behaved my children are, or on how well I can quote scripture, or how perfectly I can live my life.
It’s not based on how much I am persecuted or even martyred. The only ground that I can stand on when I meet the Father will be: Am I his child? Is Jesus my savior?
Look at what Paul has the audacity to say in v12, “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.”
He’s not denying that the Corinthians or you or me have the right to live as we please. What he goes on to say is that not everything will add to our relationship with Christ. We should be focused on growing that relationship, not being driven or mastered by our own wants and desires.
And growing that relationship will find us laying down our “rights” and desiring to live holy lives. God isn’t going to force us to change, but over time, he is going to show us what holiness looks like, and we are going to want to strive for that rather than the lifestyle we currently live.
I should also point out what Paul tells the same group of people in 1 Cor 5:9-13 “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters.
In that case, you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler.
Do not even eat with such people. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Yikes, throw the bum out!!! That seems pretty harsh and almost seems to contradict what he said in Chpt 6 about being sanctified and in 2 Cor about God’s grace being sufficient. So what am I missing?
First, look at a couple of earlier verses in this same paragraph. V5 “hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.”
And V8 “Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
Paul’s making 2 points: the man (who is still saved) can benefit by being thrown out when he experiences the consequences of his sin under Satan’s hand.
And, the congregation benefits by not having a boastful, non-repentant sinner in their midst. Every one of us is a sinner, so if we threw all the sinners out, there’d be nobody left, including the pastor.
The issue wasn’t the sin, but it was the boasting about it being good. When God reveals sin to us, our response should be first one of horror. How do I flee this terrible thing? That’s when repentance and seeking his forgiveness come into play.
We gain a willingness to turn from that sin. And, yes, it often takes a long time to completely turn away from a particular sin. Reaching the goal is not the issue; rather, striving for the goal is the issue.
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.