Jesus is Lord !

“About the gifts of the Spirit, brothers, I want you to be quite certain.  You remember that, when you were pagans, you were irresistibly drawn to inarticulate hidden gods.  Because of that, I want to make it quite clear to you that no one who says ‘A curse on Jesus’ can be speaking in the Spirit of God, and nobody is able to say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit.”  (1 Corinthians 12: 1-3)

We see clearly from the above scripture a principle of discernment of spirits.  Where do you stand in relation to Jesus?  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven,” says Jesus in Matthew 7:21.  In other to identify the good spirit with point blank certainty, we combine 1Corinthians 12: 1-3 and Matthew 7:21.

You acknowledge Jesus as Lord with your mouth.  You do the will of the Father as taught by Jesus, the Lord.  Scripture cannot contradict itself.

God's Greatest Gifts

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”  (Romans 8: 32)

“If we have received God’s greatest gifts, we may well trust him for the rest. “  (Pulpit Commentary)

God gave us the Holy Spirit.  He gave us the Eucharist.  We can confidently trust Him to provide us all our daily needs.

Keep way from sexual immorality

“Keep away from sexual immorality.  All other sins that someone may commit are done outside the body; but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.  Do you not realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and whom you received from God?  You are not your own property, then; you have been bought at a price.  So use your body for the glory of God.”  (1 Corinthians 6: 18-20)

We are urged in the above scripture to keep away from sexual sins.  This warning is repeated in many places in the New Testament.  Considering the prevalence of sexual immorality in the society today and everywhere, it may come as a surprise to many that the word of God makes so much of what the word of man regards as next to nothing.  Why this apparent and total disconnect between the will of God and action of man in this one commandment?  The answer may well be found in 1 Corinthians 6: 18-20, the scripture under consideration.  The devil, the arch enemy of mankind who is also the father of lies scores his highest point in this one area of the Decalogue.  While the word of God urges man to reserve sex for marriage, the devil urges in the strongest terms immediate gratification.  The evil one then goes on to contradict every word of God with its lies, for example:  “You own your body.  Therefore you can use it the way you like.  There is nothing at all wrong with sexual pleasure.  See, everybody is doing it.  Get on with it.”

We know the importance of a biblical truth by the many times it is repeated in the Bible.  “Keep away from sexual immorality” is a truth that is repeated many times in the Bible.  The wages of every sin is death.  But sexual sin exacts its peculiar price.

Drunkards and Swindlers

“Do you not realize that people who do evil will never inherit the kingdom of God?  Make no mistake – the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, misers, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers, none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.  Some of you used to be of that kind:  but you have been washed clean, you have been sanctified, and you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and through the Spirit of our God.”  (1 Corinthians 6: 9-11)

The following class of people belongs to the people who do evil:  sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, self-indulgent, sodomites, misers, thieves, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers.  In Revelation 21:8, we see an almost similar list: 

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”  (Revelations 21:8)

For those who belong to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit washes them clean, sanctifies and justifies them.