City Life Starter

The WORD:

1 Corinthians 5:9-11a

“I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner……”

By Heather Mattingly

ETYMOLOGY

What do these words mean? There are so many of them and they seem so….antiquated. And harsh. What exactly does Jesus mean when He says “sexually immoral” people? Because, as Pastor Chris taught on Sunday, we live in a sexually saturated culture; the sex industry makes more than the NFL, NBA, and MLB entertainment industries combined. What does “sexually immoral” really mean? And what on earth is a reviler?

Today, we’re going to undertake our own word study in the original language of this letter – Greek – to see for ourselves what Jesus is saying through the hand of His servant Paul in these verses in this almost 2,000-year-old letter to the church at the ancient port city of Corinth.

“sexually immoral” (verses 9, 10, 11) is the same Greek word used all three times: “pornos,” which is a noun and means, “a man (or woman) who prostitutes his body to another’s lust for hire…a man (or woman) who indulges in unlawful sexual intercourse, a fornicator.” These are strong and clear words. What’s most interesting is that the root of this word is the Greek words “pornemi”and “piprasko,” which are verbs that mean “to sell…of price, one sold into slavery…sold under sin, entirely under the control of the love of sinning.” This makes a lot of sense and exposes sex outside of God’s originally designed boundary for what it is – a good and God-designed beautiful act of love that Satan has perverted into his own tool: smooth-feeling satin around iron-clad shackles to bind you to himself. Every time you have sex outside of God’s original design (between a man and woman, within a committed marriage relationship – Gen. 2:24), you are selling yourself to a master. A master who hates you and whose only intention is “….to steal, to kill, and to destroy” you (John 10:10). To steal your identity, to kill you physically, and to see you burn in hell for all eternity. He will stop at nothing to accomplish this.

“covetous”(verses 10,11) is the Greek word “pleonektes” which is a noun and means “one eager to have more, especially what belongs to others…greedy of gain.” The root of this word is the word “pleion” which is an adjective and means “greater in quantity, more, very many…” Goodness, this sounds familiar. That’s because this message is everywhere! Turn on your phone or TV and watch the messages flying across your screen shouting that you need more of this and that…More, more, more! More means better! The truth is: more does not mean better. It’s just more.  To be clear, this word “pleonektes” does not condemn wanting more, (going after your dreams, a promotion, making more money to pay off your debts or provide more, etc, is a good thing!) but this word does condemn wanting what others have, which means you are discontent with what you currently have. We are each given an assigned portion; in Psalm 16 David writes, “Oh Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot. (Ps. 16:5). David understood that God apportioned him his allotted food, drink, and his land. Everything he had was given to him; everything you have is given to you. Do you want more than what you’ve got? Check this desire with Holy Spirit and He will tell you; is this desire His? Or is this desire out of your own flesh?

“extortioners” (verse 10) is the Greek word “harpax” which is an adjective and means “rapacious, ravenous, a robber.” Again, the most interesting part here is the root word which is “harpazo” which is a verb and means “to seize, to carry off by force, to claim for oneself eagerly, to snatch away.” Put one toy in a room with ten 3-year-olds, and what will happen is a perfect visual description of this word! This is the carrying out, or the action, of covetousness. Covetousness is a desire, and if not checked, will result in extortion – actively reaching out for what is not given and you taking it for yourself. And you and others will be hurt. The only way to stop this is to check this desire while it’s still in our hearts – which is proof that we all desperately need the Holy Spirit inside our hearts and changing us from the inside out at all times! Because who doesn’t want more? We all struggle daily with the lie that more ______ will satisfy. Holy Spirit, please help us.

“idolators” (verses 10, 11) is the Greek word “eidololatres” which is a noun and means “a worshipper of false gods, an idolater…used of anyone, even a Christian, participant in any way in the worship of the heathen, especially one who attends their sacrificial feasts.” Well, who cares? Does this really apply in our modern day and age where we’re not primitive folk and don’t fall down and worship physical statues? That’s just silly, we’re smarter than that.…. But wait, let’s look at the root of this word: this word comes from a combination of the Greek words “eidolon” which is a noun and means “an image, a likeness, whatever represents the form of an object, either real or imaginary….used of spectres, phantoms of the mind….a false god” and the word “latreuo” which is a verb and means “to serve for hire.” Let me put it to you another way: do you have an idea in your mind of where you should be in life right now? Or maybe a dream of where you want to go in life and how you want your life to look like in the future? Maybe even what your ministry should look like? Or, maybe an idea of what you should physically look like, what your marriage or singleness should look like, how much money you should be making, what your family should look like, etc? All of these are potential idols. Basically, as Pastor Randy says often, desiring any of these things too much – more than Jesus – makes your idea into your idol. We really aren’t different from the ancient stone-worshiping idolaters of the ancient world. They worshiped an idea they could see with their eyes; we are prone to worship an idea we see with our minds.

“reviler” (verse 11) is the Greek word “loidoros” which is a noun and means, “a railer, a reviler, derived from ‘mischief,’….abusive, a blackguard.” A railer is someone who “bitterly complains against or denounces”…and a reviler is someone who “assails with contemptuous or abusive language” (dictionary.com). Let me visually paint this picture for you: imagine that same room full of ten 3-year-olds and one toy, and one child gets the toy. How are the other 9 children acting? Screaming, whining, wailing, crying…that’s what “loidoros” means. As adults, this looks like gossiping, slandering, back-talking, bickering, angry words, etc.

“drunkard” (verse 11). This word is pretty self-explanatory! This is the Greek word “methysos” which is a noun and means “drunken, intoxicated.” The root word is “methe” (pronounced “meth,” which is where we get the word for the drug) and means “intoxication or drunkenness.” The dictionary defines intoxicated as “to affect temporarily with diminished physical and mental control by means of the substance, especially to excite or stupefy….to make enthusiastic, relate strongly, as by intoxicants; exhilarate…to poison.” Yikes. What is going on behind the intoxication and/or drunkenness (or any type of numbing substance? Not only alcohol but food, drugs, sex, laziness, relationships…anything can be used as an intoxicant to numb the pain of life). This word drunkard is an extension of reviler. Discontent with not getting what was wanted results in angry words being spoken (reviler), which results in angry actions being taken (drunkard). To use the 10 children in a room analogy again: 1 child got the toy, 9 children are “reviling,” and one (if not more) of the 9 children hit another child to express displeasure at not getting what was wanted. This is what intoxication or drunkenness, or “methe,” really means: moving past reviling and verbal discontent into lashing out in some physical way, shape or form which can and does turn into an addiction, hurting oneself and others.

APPLICATION

What a list. And these words that we now see and understand in their original state, are painful. Who can stand innocent against them? And Paul writes to “not to keep company with anyone named a brother…” who is any of these things. God’s standard is so high, none of us should be in the family of God! But God our Father, in His grace and mercy, made a way through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to bring us back into His family. As Pastor Chris says often: God loved us as we were in the state we were in (which for most of us, was running away from Him). But He also loves us too much to let us stay as we were in the state we were in. God tells us to “be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 20:26; 1 Pet 1:16). How can we do this?

The Good News is that Jesus made a way for us! Through Jesus Christ, God our Father sent us His own Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to be our Helper and Counselor living inside of us (John 14:16) to empower us to not only desire to live the life He wants us to live, but to actually live the life He wants us to live. 1 John 3:9 tells us that “…whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”

This is the proof that we are our Father’s! If/when you are caught up in sin, especially habitual sin, that gut feeling of guilt on the inside of you that makes you squirm in the middle of the sin you’re trying to do, that’s God Himself in the form of His Holy Spirit living inside of you, talking to you, and trying to help you make the right decision. Trying to help you live for Him, and be FREE. I want to encourage anyone reading this that there IS freedom from whatever it is you are struggling with. Repent (that means to turn back to Him!), and keep praying, seeking, asking, and knocking (Matt 7:7), and talking to other men and/or women following hard after Jesus. God wants you free even more than you do. But He can’t make your choices for you. He has given you all the tools you need (His Holy Spirit) to live the way you want to live and be the man/woman that He and you want to be. Will you use the tools He has given you today?

PRAYER:

“Father God, thank you for saving me. Thank you for giving Your only Son for me, a sinner. I repent of turning from You and being distracted by the temporal things of this world that appear so shiny. Help me to turn from my way and to walk by faith and not by sight to You. Help me to fix my eyes on You, and empower me to be all that You made me become. I don’t know how to do this in and of myself. Father, I repent of turning to ____________ to feel better or to escape when life hurts instead of to You. I am willing; I want to be free from this. Please show me the way to freedom, Holy Spirit. At any cost. Amen.”