The Kingdom of God

Let’s pick up this week at Galatians 5:24 where it says, “And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” In other words, Christians shouldn’t be doing these things. Paul further elaborated on this in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 when he said, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

Let’s take a closer look at that verse. First it says that the unrighteous will not go to Heaven. The unrighteous are those who are not “right” with God. Some of the things that they do that expose their “unrighteous” standing with God include fornication. Fornication is sexual relations between two people who are not married. That’s quite a common thing in our day, but nonetheless sinful. Also they are idolaters. That means that they worship other gods which is in direct contradiction to the first of the Ten Commandments which says that we are to not have any god’s before the One True God. Also they are adulterers in that they do not honor their wedding vows. By the way, there are only three Biblical reasons for divorce: death, abandonment and adultery. Notice that money, the in-laws and someone cuter are not among them. Divorce is usually the result of selfishness.

Notice also that the “effeminate” and “abusers of themselves with mankind” will not go to Heaven either. The word “effeminate” means “to become womanly or have the qualities of the female sex or to be soft to the touch or delicate to an unmanly degree.” Yes, it is dealing with the sin of homosexuality. No, God does not approve of the lifestyle regardless of what Hollywood, our new President and those who voted for him says.

Notice also that “thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” either. Now, this does not mean that those who have
struggled with, or even failed in these areas will not go to Heaven. Instead, it speaks of those who flagrantly and blatantly continue in them. Some would suggest that those who do these things have “lost their salvation.” Might I suggest that they were never truly born again in the first place?