No Inheritance in The Kingdom of God – Part III

This is now the third article in a series on sins of which the apostle Paul, speaking by means of the Holy Spirit, says will deny one an inheritance in the kingdom of God if practiced.  Of course, one can quit the practice of a sin and repent of it but to continue on in any of these sins without repentance is to be condemned.

In Part I of the series the sins of adultery and fornication were dealt with.  In Part II the sins of homosexuality, sodomy, uncleanness, and lewdness were covered.  In this installment I will be dealing with idolatry, covetousness, thievery, extortion, sorcery, hatred, and drunkenness.

The text used for this series can be found below, the underlining being my own.

1 Cor. 6:9-10	Gal. 5:19-21	Eph. 5:5-7
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1Cor.  6:9-10 NKJV)	“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal. 5:19-21 NKJV)	“For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them.” (Eph. 5:5-7 NKJV)

Most people have an understanding of pagan idolatry so little needs to be said of that.  There is still a lot of that kind of idolatry in the world but not in the modern day western world.  One finds it, however, not just in some remote tribal regions in say Africa or Southeast Asia but also in more advanced nations like India (Hinduism) and China and Japan (Buddhism – let the reader decide).  Most people from the West generally recognize pagan idolatry when they see it.  Few westerners are likely to be attracted to that type of idolatry.

Our danger in the West is of the more insidious types of idolatry.  For example, Paul says in Col. 3:5 that covetousness is idolatry.  An idol does not have to have a physical, material form and set on a shelf or be placed in a temple.  An idol is anything we worship ahead of God or in place of God.  It can come in the form of a hobby or sport, it can be money, it can be a job, it is anything you put before God, in place of God, as number one in your life. 

Covetousness, which Paul says is idolatry, is also on the list of sins that will keep one from an inheritance in the kingdom of God.  What is covetousness?  Well, Paul says in Acts 20:33, “I have coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel.” (NKJV)  Thus, to lust after another person’s possessions, desiring them for yourself is to covet.  In 1 Tim. 6:10 Paul speaks of some whose love of money led them to stray from the faith in their greediness for it.  Greediness is a synonym for covetousness.

We are not to lust after evil things (1 Cor. 10:6).  Paul speaks of those who “being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” (Eph. 4:19 NKJV)  Remember greediness is just another word for covetousness.  One can thus covet the immoral.

Covetousness is a desire for more and more.  "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses." (Luke 12:15  NKJV)  I think we get the general idea of things or ways in which a person can covet and become covetous.

Somewhat related to covetousness is the sin of being a thief.  This would seem to be a sin so commonly understood that little would need to be said of it.  However, one must bear in mind there are things one can steal other than another person’s money or possessions.  I could steal your good name; I could steal your spouse if I was able to do so.  Yes, these sins would involve other sins as well as theft but, nevertheless, it would still be theft.

Then one could also steal by cheating on an exam or in a competition.  One can be a thief in many different scenarios.  If you are a thief, unrepentant, there is no inheritance in God’s kingdom for you.  We need to be perfectly honest in all of our dealings, no cheating, and no stealing.

Extortioners are another class of people who will not inherit God’s kingdom.  An extortioner is also one who covets but since one might covet only in his/her heart without taking action an extortioner acts on the sin in his heart.  David Lipscomb, in his commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:10, gives the easiest to understand definition of an extortioner.  He says, “An extortioner is one who by power or threats takes what is not his own or more than is right.  The man who takes advantage of another’s poverty, or his necessities, to obtain exorbitant gain, is an extortioner.”  Thus one might charge an exorbitant interest rate to one to whom you loan money who is in no position to seek the loan elsewhere.  The idea seems to be that the extortioner is in a position to exert his power over the other due to the other’s inferior position and lack of options.

John the Baptist, speaking to the tax collectors who had come to him asking him what they should do, told them “collect no more than what is appointed for you.” (Luke 3:13 NKJV)  He was saying do not extort the people from whom you are collecting taxes.  They were in a position where they could easily have extorted the people and gotten by with it had they a mind to do so, they had that power.  We are to be fair and honest in all of our dealings with others.  We are entitled to a profit in our business dealings but not an excessive one to the hurt of the other person who has no choice but deal with us.

We move now from sins related to greed to sorcery.  The Greek behind this word is translated by the word “witchcraft” in the New International Version and some other lesser well known translations.  It has the idea of the occult behind it.  Philip Schaff in his commentary says sorcery is “a secret tampering with the powers of evil” usually in association with idolatry.  Zerr in his commentary says, “It means any attempt to accomplish a result by means of pretended supernatural power or knowledge, such as fortune telling, palm reading, astrology, etc.”  It involved spells, incantations, enchantments, and magic.  David Lipscomb said of sorcery, “The use of magical enchantment, divination by supposed assistance of evil spirits, witchcraft.”

Perhaps the most well known biblical account of such activity was with King Saul at En Dor when he consulted the medium there (see 1 Sam. 28).  Sorcery was common in the world of the Old and New Testaments.  Paul encountered this activity more than once in his travels (see Acts 19:19 as an example, also Acts 8:9-11, 13:6).  One wants to stay as far away from fortune telling, consulting the dead, etc., as is possible.  “And when they say to you ‘Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,’ should not a people seek their God?  Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isa. 8:19 NKJV)

We get an idea of God’s attitude toward all things occult from Deut. 18:10-12, “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.  For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord.”  The distinctions made here in the Old Testament among various aspects of the occult I do not find in the New Testament but I think they would all be covered under the word sorcery.

Hatred will also keep one from an inheritance in the kingdom of God.  We generally associate hatred as being an inward trait or feeling one has toward another individual or group.  That is certainly condemned, however, seldom if ever can one have a loathing in his/her heart for another without some manifestation of it in their behavior toward that individual.  Perhaps when around that individual you just make it obvious that you are cool toward them, want nothing to do with them, or perhaps you speak ill of them to others.  However it is done there are usually outward evidences of your animosity.

In worst case scenarios hatred can lead to malice where the hater seeks to do harm or injury to his object of hatred.  It can lead to violence and death.  Even when it does not go that far the apostle John says, “He who does not love his brother abides in death.  Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” (I John 3:14-15 NKJV)  Earlier John says hatred blinds one.  “But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness … because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” (1 John 2:11 NKJV)  We have all seen people or read about them so blinded by hatred that they cannot reason rationally.  Think Hitler if no other.

One might ask the question, is all there is either love or hate?  The only other thing I can think of is indifference but what is indifference?  It is not love.  Since it is not love it is not willing to help.  So where does that leave indifference?  One thinks of the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-36.  The priest and the Levite walked away from the injured man in need of assistance.  One can certainly say they had no love in their hearts for the man.  “He who does not love his brother abides in death.” (1 John 3:14 NKJV) 

The sin of drunkenness will also keep one out of any inheritance in the kingdom of God.  As is the case with all the sins listed by Paul in our texts we are talking about drunkenness that is unrepented of and that is ongoing.  Jesus said all sins will be forgiven the sons of men except for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. (Mark 3:28-29 NKJV)  Drunkenness is not the unforgivable sin if repented of. 

We live in a society that seems to view drinking as a rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood and what would a party of adults be if we could not serve and drink alcoholic beverages?  It is as if our society idolizes alcohol and as if drinking makes a man a man and a woman a woman.  No one dare speak of the lost lives and ruined lives from drinking whether one wants to talk about those maimed or killed in car wrecks, those who commit crime while under the influence who would not have done so had they been sober, or those who become alcoholics and lose control over their lives and wreck havoc in their families.

When one becomes addicted to alcohol, or any drug, it is a tough climb out of addiction but it can be done.  Many have done it.  That is not to say it is easy.  I have often thought of this much like the difficulty one has who marries say in their late twenties or early thirties.  We are to live sexually pure lives and in many ways our standard under the law of Christ is even tougher than it was under the Law of Moses for it reaches even into the heart.  It is tough to live up to that standard as a single person through the many years of one’s youth who does not marry until late.  When you learn the correct definition of what God calls fornication, learn how extensive the meaning of that word is (translated “sexual immorality” in modern translations) you will understand what I am saying.  My point is nearly everyone fights strong prolonged temptation; if it is not this it is that or something else.  It is a difficult battle but it must be fought until victory is won. 

We ought always to fight temptation to win but, and if, we lose on occasion we should not despair and give up but get back up and start the fight all over again until finally with God’s help we win.  God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9) and so he will help the determined individual who will turn from his or her sin.  If God was out to get us he would zap us the first time we sinned.

To the person not addicted to a drug or alcohol that just enjoys getting high or drunk – are you out of your mind?  Having eyes to see can you not see?  Have you learned nothing from observation?  Do you not care about others and your example before them and what they might be led into because of you?   

I, obviously, have not yet finished this series of articles on sins that will keep us from an inheritance in the kingdom of God but we have gotten close enough I think one more article will do it and enough has been written for this time.   

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Link to Part I

Link to Part II

Link to Part IV

The Failure of Faith—Lessons Learned from Solomon—Part II

The loss of faith begins with being drawn away by one's desires.  We know Solomon was led into sin by the influence of his wives but they were women he had no right to.  "But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites--from the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of Israel, 'You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.' Solomon clung to these in love." (1 Kings 11:1-2 NKJV) 

Solomon's first sin was not idolatry.  It was marrying foreign wives of the nationalities mentioned.  His desire for these women led him into sin.  "Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved of his God; and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless pagan women caused even him to sin.  Should we then hear of your doing all this great evil, transgressing against our God by marrying pagan women?" (Neh. 13:26-27 NKJV)

I would like to list here some things we can learn from Solomon about how to maintain our own faith and guard against losing that faith.

(1) Beware of the company you keep for it will influence you despite yourself.  The New Testament teaches this principle.  "Do not be deceived:  "Evil company corrupts good habits" (1 Cor. 15:33 NKJV) or as the NIV phrases it, “Bad company corrupts good character.”  Even Solomon, speaking by the Holy Spirit, confessed this earlier in his life when he said, "The righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray." (Prov. 12:26 NKJV)  I might add the closer a person becomes to you the greater their influence will be.  We can develop a love or fondness for people who can turn us from God.

The loss of faith is a gradual process.  It takes time to lose one's faith, it doesn't happen overnight, and it often takes outside help which the Bible clearly teaches that Solomon got from his pagan wives.

Here is the problem, the wicked do not at first appear to be wicked.  The women Solomon married did not appear to him to be wicked, not at all.  I would say the chances were great that they treated him with all respect, honor, and kindness, and chances are many of them truly loved him.  Most certainly Solomon did not go out looking for wicked women to marry.  They were most likely the class of their cultures.  There was only one problem with them—they were wicked by God's standards, they were idolaters.

We have the same problem today.  The world is full of good people, good to us, we consider them good, but with God they are wicked.  They may be the most outstanding people you would ever meet but outstanding by the measures used by one human being to measure other human beings.  They may be very likable, have great personalities, are friendly, kind, considerate, thoughtful, helpful, compassionate, honest, hard working, the kind that would not mistreat a mouse, and some of them may even be religious folks and yet in God's eyes, by his standard, they are wicked.  All it takes to fit into that category is to reject God's word.   

These are the kinds of people that destroy, even if unknowingly, those who could otherwise have been saved had they not fallen under their influence.  These are people who themselves either do not have faith or if they do have faith it is not a faith based on the truth of God's word.  Their faith is in what they believe, not in what God’s word says. 

We become close friends with people like this, grow fond of them, and get to thinking so highly of them that we get to the point where we cannot allow ourselves to see anything but good in them whether they have any religion about them or not.  We get to seeing them as so good that a just God could not possibly condemn them.  If they are lost we want to be lost too.  Man thus becomes the standard of what a man ought to be, forget what the Bible says for we consider them to be too good to be lost.  Unfortunately, often such people are family members.

The most dangerous people in the world are not those that appear wicked to us.  We run from them.  They are no danger to us.  Those of the kind I have described above are the ones who take us down for they often appear to us as ministers of righteousness of a sort, the righteousness this world has to offer, the self-made righteousness of man. 

Again, some of these may even be quite religious people but they hold to false doctrine with the thinking often being that the Bible just cannot be interpreted for our generation the way the word of God was for the first generation of Christians.  It is a liberal Christianity they hold to that will not allow the Bible to mean what it says.  They lead well-meaning people astray by what appears to most men to be righteous lives.

 (2) A second lesson we can learn from Solomon’s experience is to obey God whether you want to or not, whether you can see the reasoning behind his commands or not, whether you think his commands are wise or not.  We are not told Solomon's reasoning process that led him to disobey God and marry these pagan women but disobedience always leads to trouble with God.  One problem with sin is that it is likely to lead to even more sin.  It is likely to compound and even multiply once it gets started in one’s life.  Sin repeated time and again eventually leads to the hardening of one's heart.  We get to the point that our desire for the sin outweighs our desire to do what is right which is to say we cannot repent because we do not want to repent and that is a sad state to get in.

Faith does not grow by being disobedient.  Sin will lead one to flee from God as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden when they tried to hide from God.  We know God does not approve of sin thus when we commit sin we prefer not to be in God's presence (say worship services, prayer, Bible reading, etc.), we begin the process of withdrawal, unfaithfulness, and of losing our faith.  Faith in such circumstances torments us rather than comforts us.  We feel better without it.  We become more comfortable away from God rather than with him.

We may attempt to justify our sin, our unfaithfulness.  Solomon found new religions that would allow for what he was doing although I cannot say that was his motivation for turning to them but only that it had that effect.  Certainly, his new religions did not condemn him for marrying the pagan wives or worshiping multiple gods.

With men today it is often that way.  It is not hard to find a body of religious people who will not only not condemn your sins but justify them and make the claim that no sin is involved at all.  Just change your religious affiliation.  You can always find someone more liberal than you who will accept more departure from God's word than you without calling it sin.  They will not condemn your sin and in fact will declare it to be no sin at all.  Churches today, for example, are full of people involved in adulterous marriages.  I know of one that has a lesbian couple and a transsexual man who I am told came to services around Veterans Day with his old army jacket on while wearing high heels and a skirt.

There is no indication from the Bible that Solomon ceased his idolatry even after God spoke to him the last time.  We can get to the point, evidently, that even God talking directly to us would no longer turn us away from our evil passion.  But I ask the question, what if Solomon had just obeyed God and never started down the path of marrying pagan women?  Would it have made a difference in his faith in his old age? 

There is a lot to be said for just obeying whether you want to or not.  Obey and in time you will find you are obeying not because you have to but because you want to.  It has become your life, who you are. 

(3) A third lesson one can learn from Solomon is to beware of religions that are based on appeals to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life for they will lead you from the faith of God's word.  Solomon may have been drawn to one or more of these idolatrous religions because some of them enticed by the nature of their worship.  In at least some of them sexual activities were involved as a part of their worship.  It was an appeal to the lust of man’s flesh.  I do not accuse Solomon of being guilty for I cannot know.  I can only know there was an appeal to the lust of the flesh in many pagan religions of that era. 

A lot of religious bodies today appeal to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life in one way or another and it has its appeal to the fleshly man, not the spiritual man, and is certainly capable of drawing people away from biblical faith into false doctrine and away from God.  Something drew Solomon into idolatry and we know with certainty that it was not logical argument or miracles or signs or wonders.  The appeal was, without doubt, an appeal to the flesh, to the lusts of man.

In our own time, there are some religious bodies calling themselves Christian whose drawing card is an appeal to wealth.  God wants you to be materially wealthy is the claim.  Clearly, the appeal is to the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.  It is all about the contribution.  The more you give the more wealth God will give you in return and in the meantime the finer home the evangelist can live in and the more expensive the car he can drive.  

Big costly buildings, robes, rituals, choirs, drama performances, musical entertainment, trips to amusement parks, ball teams, golf outings, and other such outings, etc. are not found in the pages of your New Testament in the first-century church but they have an appeal to modern man.  Some groups have built worship facilities that include gymnasiums for basketball, snack bars, rooms for pool and/or badminton, choir and band rooms, etc.  Were these things built to appeal to the spirit or the flesh?  One can be drawn away from the things of the spirit by the things that appeal to the flesh.  Can you imagine the apostle Paul soliciting funds from the brethren to build and provide for such things?  Was his interest in athletics, entertainment, and food and drink?

(4) A final thing I would list for our consideration as a lesson we can learn from Solomon's unfaithfulness and loss of faith is that one must beware of our human tendency to desire peace rather than war.  I speak here of arguments and debates and all the unpleasantness that goes with that.  Solomon should have been at war against these idols.  As it was he had peace but not a peace pleasing to God.

I am far from certain that Solomon ever gave up his original religion fully.  There is some indication he did not based on 1 Kings 11:6, "Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David." (NKJV)  I emphasize the word "fully" in that passage which makes it sound as though he did follow the Lord but only up to a point.  It could be he simply added these idolatrous gods to the Lord God he worshipped becoming a polytheist.

If that is the case is that not also what the denominational world today has done as well?  They have said one religion (denomination) is as good as another, it makes no difference.  And, yet, they each consider the other to be teaching some error they do not hold to in their own denomination.  But does error really matter at all if you can be saved practicing the error?  To ask is to answer.  Of course, error does not matter in the denominational world if you can be saved in any denomination despite the error they hold to in that denomination.

So, did Solomon get to where we are in America today where one religion is as good as another?  But you say wait a minute.  All denominations believe in the same God and the same Savior.  Solomon was worshiping multiple gods.  That argument sounds good until you examine it.  What is wrong with it?  Just this much—is the God of denomination A the same God as the God of denomination B if he is teaching one thing in one place and another in another place?  It sounds like two different Gods.

Solomon did not wage war with the other religions or other gods.  He sought peace with them all.  In doing so God was not pleased.  We ought to learn from that.  God is never pleased with a departure from his word, never.  Our job is to seek out the truth and hold to it.  If the rest of the world wants to believe and practice error so be it but we do not have to run after those gods.

A slow continual drip of water will eventually erode rock.  A steady diet of withdrawal from the things that make up the Christian life will eventually erode and destroy faith.  We may not do like Solomon and change religions or as his case may have been just add other religions to his Jewish religion.  We may simply cease to have any religion at all. 

Some think faith can be turned back on at will.  It didn't work with Solomon so why should we think it would work with us and bear in mind God even spoke to Solomon concerning his unfaithfulness, whether directly or through a prophet, but it did not cause him to repent and turn back to God.  We can get to the point where we just cease to care.  When we reach that point it is all over.  We are done.  We need to nurture faith and keep it.  Let us learn from Solomon and move toward God and not away from him.  Let us learn from his mistakes.

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