1 Corinthians 6
6
The error of litigation in the Church
1Now another matter — the Greeks are devoted to litigation, it is a passion with them, but what has that to do with you? Are you going to haunt the law-courts of Corinth and with cases which you bring against one another! 2This has little to do with the true judgment and justice which your faith exemplifies. 3That is capable of judging angels, and if you have it are you not even capable of settling these business disputes which arise amongst yourselves? 4-7Have you no one wise enough for that, but must you go to law with one another, and invoke the methods and assistance of a corrupt judicial system to get the better of your brother? Questions of everyday life then cannot be settled by the Church, but you must needs take them before those who know nothing of your faith, and whom the Church on that account esteems as of no account. Yet you bring your quarrels and disputes before them! And why do such disputes arise? 8Is it not because you still have in your midst the old spirit of over-reaching and dishonesty? I declare it is better to be wronged, to be cheated and robbed, and to take the injustice and say no more about it, for that would more resemble your calling than to do the opposite. 9Yes, for the old world of wickedness that God is judging, which is for ever excluded from His Kingdom, is still lurking in your midst. O do not be deceived by it, whatever cloak it may put on! Fornication, idolatry, adultery, sodomy, 10dishonesty, greed, drunkenness, cursing, theft — these are the things that hide the Kingdom of God, and they can never win it. 11Were you once involved in them, and were you purified, cleansed, justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God? Yes, you were, you had won clear of that spirit of perdition, but see that it does not entangle you again, know it for what it is.
Man not subordinate to physical nature
12True, I am free, I am independent, and can act as seems good to me, yet, though nothing is bad in itself, evil in its influence is dangerous. I am a free man, but I will not be mastered by any influences. 13Food and drink have nothing to do with my real being, they affect the belly, not me, you say, and I am in my true self independent of them. Yet that physical part of you is doomed to destruction along with the material things that feed it. Perhaps you would dare to apply the same view to the body. Never! The body is not for fornication. It is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. 14And as the Lord was raised from the dead by the power of God, so shall we be raised. 15For there is nothing legitimate or natural for you in an appetite which demands such vile institutions and uses for its satisfaction. Your bodies are no longer carnal, they are members of Christ. 16Shall I take that which is spiritual and convert it into the very opposite, change the limbs of Christ into the flesh of a harlot? “They twain shall be of one flesh,” says Moses (Gen 2:24), and so this awful substitution takes place, and in the place of Christ’s body we find that of a harlot. Such then is their practice, this besetting sin of Corinth. Flee from it. 17For the One Spirit makes us one with the Lord. 18That is the truth, of which the other is the lie. Just as in the truth man cannot separate himself from the Lord, for there is but one Spirit, so in the false, in the carnal action, man cannot separate himself from the sin to which he surrenders, he sins not against another only, nor does the wrong of his action merely affect that which is outside himself. He cannot excuse himself by saying “it has nothing to do with my true being, it is inherent in the body only, and I disclaim its connection with me, though as a physical being I am forced by the power of Nature to submit to it, even as I am forced by other appetites to eat and drink!” The reasoning is false. 19Your bodies are spiritual structures, the spirit that dwells in you is of God, and your bodies are correspondingly spiritual, as temples, rather than animal organisms; 20they owe allegiance not to the physical self, but to Him who redeemed them at a price. God Himself is to be glorified in your bodies.
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1 Corinthians 6: GWC
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Translated in 1916, published in 1937.
First Letter from Small Man to the Sacred Family in Village of Pleasure 6
6
KEEPING DISAGREEMENTS WITHIN THE SACRED FAMILY
1How can any of you, when you have something against another, be so bold as to take your dispute before those outside our sacred family? The outsiders who decide these matters have no understanding of our ways. Why not call a council within the sacred family to decide these things?
2-3Do you not know that Creator’s holy ones will decide for the whole world who has done right and who has done wrong, both for human beings and spirit-messengers? If you will take part in such a great matter as this, are you not able to call together a sacred family council to decide on small matters for your daily lives?
4If you have your own councils to decide on these matters, why would you let outsiders who have no standing in the eyes our sacred family decide these things? 5Have you no shame? Is there no one among you wise enough to restore harmony between sacred family members? 6Instead, one sacred family member takes another to be judged by those who know nothing of our spiritual ways. 7When this happens, you have already lost everything! Why not let yourselves be wronged or cheated? 8Instead, you wrong and cheat the members of your own sacred family.
WALKING THE WRONG PATH
9Do you not know that the ones who wrong and cheat each other will not share in the blessings of Creator’s good road? Do not let anyone mislead you. Anyone who walks an impure path of uncontrolled desires,#6:9 Ephesians 5:3-5 or anyone who prays to spirit-images, or any who are unfaithful in marriage, or weak men who let other men use them for sex, or any who abuse the sacred gift of sex with each other. 10Nor those filled with greed, or drunks, or big-mouth troublemakers, or those who behave like tricksters—none of these will share in the blessings of Creator’s good road.
11Some of you used to walk in these ways, but no more. You have been washed clean. You have been made holy. You have been given good standing in the eyes of the Great Spirit. All this was done through the name of our Honored Chief Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One, and by the Spirit of our Creator.
FREEDOM MEANS DOING GOOD
12 Someone has said, “I am free to do whatever I desire.” This may be true, but not all things one can do will lead to harmony with each other. So then, even if I am free to do whatever I desire, I will not let my desires tell me what to do.
13 It has been said, “Our stomachs want food, so why not give our stomachs what they want?” But we must remember that Creator will do away with both the need for food and for stomachs. We should use our bodies for the purpose they were created for, not for uncontrolled desires, but to bring honor to our Great Chief.
14Creator has raised up our Honored Chief from death to life. The same power that raised him will also raise up our bodies in the same way. Do you not know that this means that we are part of the body of the Chosen One? 15Should I take a part of the body of the Chosen One and join it to someone who trades the use of their body for possessions? May it never be so!
16Can you not see that a man who joins together with such a woman becomes one body with her? For it says in our Sacred Teachings, “The two will be joined together and become one body.”#6:16 Genesis 2:24 17But the one who is joined together with our Honored Chief is one spirit with him.#6:17 John 17:21
18Run away from these kinds of impure desires. No other broken human ways affect the body in this way. The ones who treat sex in this manner are going against Creator’s purpose for their own bodies. 19Or have you forgotten that the Holy Spirit lives in you as Creator’s gift to you, and that your body is not your own but is his sacred lodge? 20A great price was paid to make you his own, so use your body to bring honor to the Great Spirit and not dishonor.
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