SOUNDS GOOD – BUT

READING: 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1-9

Verse 3: “for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?”

In our culture much effort is directed toward attractiveness. Because of advertising and political correctness, people and things are made to appear as fanciful as possible. For example, I saw a box on a shelf in a store that contained a fan. However, instead of being labeled “fan”, the box advertised it as an “air movement system”. Sometimes people are inclined to do the same with sin. Words are frequently used which have the effect of making sin sound less offensive. Therefore, the word” affair” is substituted for “adultery”, and “sleeping together” rather than “fornicating”. This is not so in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians as quoted above, where he exposed envy, strife and divisions. Without hesitation or apology he identified those who were so involved, as carnal. He did not use a word that allowed their behavior to sound less serious. Our tendency to use more comfortable words when confronting sins, has the effect of working against righteousness. The purposes of righteousness are more fully served when we recognize and identify sin simply as what it is. When that is done the stage is set for confession, forgiveness and repentance to follow. That’s a thought – about God’s Word.

RESPONSE

1. Are you dressing up anything with what are “kind and gentile” words on the surface?

2. Why does it make a difference when sin is named for what it is?