Read: Ezra 10:1-44; 1 Corinthians 6:1-20; Psalm 31:9-18; Proverbs 21:3
We can all relate to Ezra’s reaction. He has spent his life praying and waiting for God to rebuild the temple and for Israel to be a nation once again only to find that not everyone has his zeal for the Lord. Many of his people have done the detestable and married other wives of the nations God told them to destroy. Leadership is like herding cats. It is easy to manage your own life but harder to manage others who don’t necessarily have the same convictions. The good news is that they wanted to make it right. Some of these marriages had resulted in children so the wives and the children had to be sent away.
That seems so harsh but that is the consequence of sin. The deeper we go and longer we allow ourselves to live in sin the greater the consequences of it and the more people that are affected.
They finished dealing with all of this by Roshashana - the first day of the new year. The last Roshashana will be the last day, and people will have to have dealt with their sin once and for all. Roshashana is the Feast of Trumpets and Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead on that day.
In Corinthians, Paul is rebuking them for taking church matters to the world. The world cannot judge spiritual matters correctly. Christians shouldn’t be taking other Christians to court, the church should be able to settle their own problems. One day we will judge angels, so God can give us the wisdom to judge one another correctly if we ask him for the answers.
Paul goes on to explain that we are free to do whatever we want to do, but it will not benefit us to sin. He uses the example of sexual sins. Sexual sins hurt your own body and the body of Christ. When we became a Christian, we gave up the right to our body and the right to sin. We are now the property of the Lord’s and he would not use our body to sin.
Lord, help us to remember that to do what is right and just is more acceptable to you than sacrifice.
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