Opening A Can of Worms

# 87 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 7:3,4 “Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." 4 So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only. (1 Sam 7:3,4) When Samuel speaks to “all the house of Israel,” he is speaking to the church. He says, “listen church, are you serious about returning to the Lord? Then you are going to have to do some house cleaning.” You can't have an outward show of Christianity and allow idolatry and it's fruits to co-exist in a congregation. We talked about some of the fruits of idolatry yesterday. Child sacrifice and sexual sin are always near the top of the list, but they certainly aren't the only earmarks of idolatry. Continual, stubborn, hard-hearted rebellion of all types against God (sin) must not be whitewashed with cheap grace. This was the problem that Paul had to deal with in the congregation at Corinth, where a man was engaged in open, blatant, sexual sin Listen to his instructions to the Corinthians: 1Co 5:6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. This is a can of worms that needs to be opened in virtually every church in America. Cans of worms aren't pretty. They're messy, but if they are left alone an even bigger mess ensues. Right now, I'd say we have a pretty big mess. God has given us clear instructions on how to deal with rebellion in His church. It begins with removing the logs from our own eyes, (dealing with our own sin) then personal contact with the erring brother using the principles of Mt 18:15-17. Never forget, the ultimate goal is always the restoration of the rebel.