A very important teaching by Rav Sha’ul on sinning

A very important teaching by Rav Sha’ul on sinning:

1 Corinthians 6:1. Dare any of you, when he has a controversy with his brother, litigate before the sinful, and not before the sanctified? 2. Or don’t you know that the sanctified will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unfit to decide trivial causes? 3. Don’t you know that we will judge Messengers? How much more things that are of the world? 4. If then you have a legal issue concerning this world, do you seat on a bench (of judgment) those who are immoral in the assembly?[1]  5. For shame to you I say (it). So, there is not even one wise man among you, who is competent to do equity between a brother and his brother: 6. But a brother litigates with his brother and also before them (judges) that are not believers! 7. Therefore now you condemn yourselves in that you have litigation one with another. (Would you) rather not suffer the wrong or prefer not to be defrauded? 8. But you yourselves commit wrong, and you defraud even your Brothers.

9. Or don’t you know, that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of Elohim?[2] Make no mistake! Neither sexual sinners, nor idol-worshippers, nor adulterers, nor the corrupt, nor men who lay down with other men, 10. Nor the oppressors, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of Elohim. 11. And these things have been in some of you: but you are washed, and are sanctified, and made righteous, in the name of our Master Y’shua the Mashiyach, and by the Spirit of our Elohim. 12. Everything is in my power: but everything is not profitable to me. Everything is in my power; but none (of them) will have dominion over me. 13. Food is for the belly; and the belly is for food; but Elohim will bring them both to nothing. But the body is not for illicit sex, but for our Master (Y’shua); and our Master (Y’shua) for the body. 14. And Elohim has raised up our Master; and he will raise us up, by his power. 15. Don’t you know that your bodies are the members of the Mashiyach? Will one take a member of the Mashiyach, and make it the member of a harlot? May it never be!

16. Or don’t you know, that whoever joins himself to a harlot, is one body (with her)? For it is said, the two will be one body. 17. But he that joins himself to our Master (Y’shua), is with him one spirit. 18. Flee from sexual sin. For every (other) sin which a man commits, is external to his body; but he that commits sexual sin, sins against his own body.[1] 19. Or don’t you know, that your body is the temple of the Ruach haKodesh who abides in you, whom you have received from Elohim? And you are not your own. 20. For you are bought with a price. Therefore you glorify Elohim with your body, and with your spirit, which are Elohim’s.  (AENT)

FOOTNOTES:

[1]  Rav Shaul’s training with Rabbi Gamaliel, the grandson of Hillel (Acts 22:1), comes through here with what is known as kol v’khomer (light and heavy) teaching style. If something small or trivial is true, it must also be true on a much more important scale. This argumentation is usually spotted, as it is here, with the phrase “how much more.” The point here is that if you would not let immoral men in your assembly judge for you in a secular case, how much more unqualified would these same reprobates be when judging spiritual matters in the assembly?

[2]  Compare this to Matthew 5:17-20, where we are told that breaking the least commandment of Torah and teaching others to do the same makes a person “least in the kingdom” but they still get in.  Y’shua implies that those with more serious sins won’t make it in: “Depart from me, workers of iniquity, I never knew you”; but here, Rav Shaul gives a more specific list of what will keep them out.

[3]   Actually the sexual sin goes deeper than the body, as the note on Romans 1:26 shows.  But the other point is also that a sexual sinner brings sin upon himself rather than his partner, and vice versa, unless rape or abuse is involved.

The Footnote on Romans 1:26 says:  The Image of Elohim is both male and female (B’resheet/Gen. 1:27). To deny the distinctions of male/female gender is to spurn the One who created male and female according to His own Image.