>> Jen: Good morning, friends and faith listeners. My name is Jen. I am the host of the Bible explained podcast. You guys won't believe what I just did. I don't know if some of you have been with me, uh, long enough to remember when the podcast was called the P 40 Ministries podcast. I changed the name of the podcast back in 2022. It used to be P 40 ministries, and when I did the intro just now, like, before the little music thing started, I said, hey, everybody, my name is Jen.
I am the host of the P 40 ministries podcast. It's just been, like, ingrained into my brain. I don't know if I'll ever get past calling it the P 40 ministries podcast. I thought I was good for a while there, but then suddenly it just came back. So I don't know. It's kind of like when the new year starts and you just can't stop writing the year previous because it's been ingrained in your brain. That's what just happened to me just now. Let's go ahead and talk about one.
Corinthians 6111. This is one of my favorite portions of the new Testament letters. I absolutely love today's scriptural passage, so let's read this. I'll be reading out the web version, but I encourage all of you guys to go and grab the version of the Bible that you prefer this morning. But I'll be reading out the web as I always do. Grab your cup of coffee or your cup of tea this morning, and let's jump right in.
Dare any of you having a matter against his neighbor go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? Don't you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Don't you know that we will judge the angels? How much more things that pertain to this life? If then you have to judge things pertaining to this life, do you set them to judge who are of no account in the assembly? I say this to move you to shame.
Isn't there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers? But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers. Therefore, it is already altogether a defect in you that you have lawsuits with one another? Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your brothers. Or don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom? Don't be
deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists will inherit God's kingdom. Some of you were such, but you were washed. You were sanctified, but you were justified. In the name of the Lord Jesus and in the spirit of our goddess. First, I want to talk about the first portion here, verses one through eight, which talks about going to court against your
christian neighbor. Dare any of you having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? People throughout history have claimed that what Paul is saying here is that christians can never sue another Christian under any circumstances. But that's not what Paul is saying here. In fact, Paul was very big on obeying roman law. Romans 13 is all about how christians ought to obey their
governors and their political leaders. And pay their taxes and be upstanding citizens. Romans 13 talks all about that. So Paul was not against government in any capacity. He was not against the courts. In fact, Paul himself used the courts on, uh, several occasions. If you look in the book of acts, specifically acts, chapter 22, Paul appeals to the roman government and asks to have his case heard in court. So Paul was not
against courts. In fact, according to his own words and his actions, he was in favor of them. But when it came to petty matters between two christians in a church, Paul was ashamed of the fact that these christians were suing each other and were fighting over things that were pretty small comparatively. He says, you're having a matter against your own neighbor, and yet you go to law. You sue them before the unrighteous instead of bringing this matter
before the saints. Now, the word saint here can also be translated as God's people. So according to Paul, we are all saints, every one of us, because we are God's people. So that is what the term saint means, or can be translated as. But the point that Paul is making here is that these christians are fighting, and they're fighting before people who are not believers. And to those unbelievers, this looks really bad. It looks really bad when the church
can't even get along with themselves. You know, these christians, they tell me what should think, and they tell me what I should do, but yet they can't even get along with their own people. So this looks really bad. And this is what Paul is saying. He says, for little matters, why don't you just go to the church instead of having the unrighteous judge you. Wouldn't it be better, first and foremost, to have a righteous person judge you, somebody who is a christian
believer? Wouldn't it be better to have that person judge you than somebody who's not a believer? Firstly, and secondly, you are being a bad example as to what the church should be when you go to unbelievers and you act in this sort of way. And then Paul makes his argument a little further here in verse two, he says, don't you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge
the smallest matters? So there you go. Paul is very clearly talking here about small matters, and apparently the corinthian church was, like, suing each other, overdose, the smallest little things, and having so much division and just infighting. You can see that this was already a problem several chapters ago when Paul was correcting the corinthian church. They were fighting and causing all this division over what pastor's personality they liked better.
Well, you know what? I like Paul better as a preacher. And other people would be like, well, I like Peter or apollos better as a, uh, preacher. And then they'd fight about that. And Paul's like, this is very stupid, because all three of us are just preaching the same gospel. So it doesn't matter which person's personality you like better. We're all preaching the same thing, so just focus on what
we're preaching. So the. The corinthian church was already quite divided, and apparently they were so divided that they were just suing each other and going to court over very little things. And Paul wants to show them how shameful this is. He says, look, the saints or God's children are going to judge the world. In fact, they're not even going to judge the world. They're also going to judge the angels, is what Paul
says here. And if they judge the angels, can't they figure out how to judge small little things here in this life? Can't they figure out how to do that? So instead of going to the courts to sue your brother or sister in Christ, why don't you just go to the church and sit down with this person that you have a problem with and figure this out with a wise person in your church that can mediate this conversation? And that's what he says in verse five. I say this to move you to
shame. Isn't there even one wise man among you who would be able to decide between his brothers? So Paul's like, certainly in a church of your size, there must be a wise person who is able to figure this stuff out for you and who is able to help you come to a good conclusion instead of taking every single matter to an unsaved judge who doesn't really understand anything about Christianity to begin with. Now, another interesting thing about all of this, though, is don't forget the time period
that Paul is writing to. Back in Paul's day, the roman government obviously had control over pretty much everything. But then the jewish people also had a separate form of government where jewish men and women could actually go to their jewish, uh, leaders and have problems figured out for them. And the jewish leaders had their own, like, law system where they would have judge a case. And Paul's like, you know, the jewish people have this. Why can't
the church have something similar? In fact, the church should have something similar. They should have a, uh, mediator, they should have lawyers to figure out these small cases that shouldn't involve the roman government and that shouldn't involve unbelievers. We need to keep everything within the church as unified as possible so that when the world looks at us, they see a unified and strong church, not a church that is infighting and crumbling away from the
inside. Verse six. But brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers. Therefore, it is already altogether a defect in you that you have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? No, but you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that against your own brothers, it would be better for you to just ignore these small matters than to take them before unbelievers. He's like, isn't the christian faith all about turning the other
cheek? Isn't the christian faith all about forgiveness and showing kindness to people the same way that God bless forgave us and showed us kindness and mercy and grace when we didn't deserve it? If we are acting like we're supposed to be acting, being a Christ follower, which is what christian means, shouldn't we also be emulating those same attributes of forgiveness and kindness and grace and mercy toward our fellow
christians? He says it would be better for you to just take the insult and be wronged, or even be defrauded, actually lose money and not take that brother or sister to court. Then it would be to take them to court and get your money back, whatever you lost, because this person insulted you or stole your money in some way or whatever other matter you're dealing with
with this person. Paul encourages the church to just forgive the way Jesus calls people to forgive instead of, uh, trying to ruin their brothers and sisters in court in front of unsaved individuals who are looking to the example of the church, he says, don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom? Don't be
deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists will inherit God's kingdom. So why does Paul go straight into that? From talking about taking people to court, he's saying, look, you guys know that the unrighteous are not going to inherit God's kingdom. So why are you still acting like the, uh,
unrighteous? Why are you allowing people in your church that are sinning sexually in incestuous ways? Why are you allowing that? Why are you allowing all these divisions? Why are you slandering your brothers? Why are you stealing from people? Why are you acting in the way that you know God bless doesn't tolerate? Why are you acting in that way? And continuing on in verse eleven, he says, many of you were such, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus in the spirit of our God bless. He says, you have been made right with God bless, so why are you going back to these things that you once were? You shouldn't be going back to these things. The church should be different. It should be set apart. It should be holy. The basic law of any church, of any temple of God bless is absolute holiness. Which, by the way, I just wrote a blog post about that. You should go check it out over on p fortyministries.com dot
the Corinthian. Christians were acting as if they were still unsaved individuals. And Paul's like, enough of this. Enough of this. You've got to act different because you were once unsaved individuals. You did once participate in prostitution or in idolatry or in stealing or in homosexuality. You did that once, and now you don't do those things anymore because you are set
apart. You are different. Now, of course, you can actually take these verses nine through eleven and have a whole discussion on just the meaning of these verses. I think a lot of people specifically go to this chapter because Paul mentions homosexuality here. And that's of course, a big hot button
issue in christian circles. In fact, I can think of actually three churches now in my area that encourage homosexual behavior within the church, even though it is laid out very clearly as a sin in scripture. Now, of course, I don't know if you've heard of the whole 1946 controversy. There's a whole film made about it, actually, where in 1946 they claim that the Bible is actually changed and the word homosexuality was added in.
Whereas before 1946, there was no concept of homosexuality being a sin in the Bible. And it wasn't until 1946 that a very anti gay preacher added that word into the Bible and it became canon, basically. So nowadays, everybody believes that homosexuality is a sin because the Bible was changed in 1946 to add the word homosexuality when it was never in the Bible to begin with. That is the whole claim of everybody that believes that the Bible was changed in 1946 to add homosexuality in it.
But that's actually untrue. But what's really interesting about that argument that the Bible has changed in 1946, is that, first and foremost, we have copies of the Bible from before 1946 that get to the heart of what Paul was trying to say. And apparently the word that Paul used in first Corinthians six that people translate as homosexual was arsenicotai. Paul invented that word, taking two words, the word arson, which meant male, and then koiti, which means lying.
So arsenicoiti literally means men who lie with other men. And so a lot of people have said, well, you know, since Paul invented that word, it could mean anything. It could mean something totally different. Or maybe Paul, uh, was just talking about something else. But no, Paul was definitely talking about men who lie with other men in a sexual way. At the time of Paul, the Old Testament had already been translated into Greek. And Leviticus 18:22 actually uses both the word arson and
coity. Remember, male and lying. It was clearly condemning homosexual behavior. And Paul took two words from Leviticus 18:22, arson and koiti, and put them together to form the word arsenicoitai, which means male who lies with male. So the word homosexual didn't exist in the english language, really, until the early 19 hundreds. And so that is why in 1946, the Bible translators started using the word homosexual instead of man who lies with other man.
Because homosexual just means a man who lies with another man. Homosexual. Homo means the same. Sexual means sex, man and man. That is how you break down the word homosexual. It means the exact same thing as man who lies with other men. So, yes, in a sense, the Bible was changed in 1946 to add the word homosexual. However, the word homosexual just means the same thing as what Paul says in first Corinthians six. So, of course, there are pushes to try to get first corinthians six,
like, banned out of the Bible. I don't know if you've heard of the Queen James Version of the Bible, but the Queen James Version is just a copy and pasted King James Version. But when it comes to verses that are found, like in first Corinthians six and other places around the Bible that talk specifically about homosexuality being a sin, it has changed in the Queen James Bible to be something more loving and something more affirming of homosexual behavior.
So, of course, there is a push to remove this verse and other verses like this out of the Bible. But what's really sad about that is this particular verse from first Corinthians six is something that brought me a lot of comfort when I was struggling with my homosexual tendencies and thoughts and feelings. When I would read this, I felt a lot of comfort because what does Paul say here? He says, don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom?
Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists will inherit God's kingdom. Some of you were such, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the spirit of our God bless. And that is the part that is
so encouraging. You know, some people look at homosexuality or a lot of the other sins actually listed here as an unforgivable sin. You know, that God bless just won't forgive. It is just too dirty for God bless to forgive something like that. But what does Paul say here? He says, no, some of you were those things, but you're not anymore. You're not because you were washed and you were sanctified and you were forgiven
by the blood of Jesus. So I love this passage of scripture, and this was one that I would go to when I was struggling because I felt a lot of guilt. You know, sexual sin specifically has a lot of shame and guilt involved in it, and you'd feel that guilt. But when I read this portion, it was like that guilt just was removed off of me, like a burden was lifted off of me, because it's like, oh, yeah, I'm not those things anymore. Thank
God I'm not those things anymore. I have been sanctified, and I don't have to feel that deep guilt over my previous sins any longer. And that's not just for people who struggle with homosexuality. I mean, look at this. There are so many things that Paul lists here sexually immoral that could be literally anything. Idolaters that could be nowadays, the worship of self, the worship of money, that could be anything that we put above God. Adulterers, that's very
common in today's society. Male prostitutes or prostitution, I'd say in general, homosexuality, thieves, covetous drunkards, slanderers, extortionists, all of these things. People can have struggled with these sins and maybe are still struggling, but because God bless loves you, he has chosen to forgive you of these sins, and so they don't have the same burden on you that they
once had. And so that is why I am, um, very against people trying to change this particular portion of the Bible, because I love one, corinthians six. I love it. It just shows God's amazing forgiveness and how we don't have to feel the burden of that guilt of things that we once struggled with in the past any longer. So don't change it. Instead, just be excited that this is in the Bible and that God bless is so forgiving and so loving of everybody.
Favorite listeners, I hope you loved today's episode. I certainly did. I think that first, uh, 1 Corinthians six is one of my favorite portions of scripture, actually, in the New Testament. I absolutely love this particular chapter, one of my favorites, and I hope you loved it as well. And if you did, please share it on your social media platforms and tell people that the Bible explained podcast
exists. And also go over to Apple podcasts or wherever you can rate and review a podcast and give the podcast five stars and also a nice little review. Sometimes I like to read those reviews on the podcast as well. Baby. Listeners, make sure to go over to YouTube because I've got another YouTube video coming out pretty soon here where I do part three of my brother in law and sister's story of how they escaped
the IFB church. So that's coming up very soon. I know I've been telling you guys about that for a long time, but I'm figuring things out with my new computer, and so I'm finally getting ready to start editing some videos in bulk here. So I've got some exciting things planned for YouTube. So make sure if you haven't subscribed yet, to go over and subscribe so you don't miss anything. Faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of
your day. I'll see you guys tomorrow. 06:00 a.m. or whenever you choose to wake up and listen. Happy listening and God bless.