Lessons #175 and 176
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Settlement of disputes among believers (1 Cor 6:1-11)
... 9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
We have considered a first reason believers should not wrong each other which is that those who will not inherit God’s kingdom, that is, those who will not experience His rule with its associated blessing of eternal life are characterized by the ten specified sins in verses 9 and 10 we considered in our previous study. This brings us to the second reason that is the focus our study today.
A second reason believers should not wrong each other is that they are the beneficiaries of God’s work that qualified them as those who will inherit the kingdom of God. This work of God is described with three words “washed,” “sanctified,” and “justified” in verse 11. We will consider what these three actions of God are at the appropriate time. Meanwhile, let us consider the apostle’s declaration that enabled us to assert in our last study that the sins mentioned in verses 9 and 10 are those that characterize unbelievers.
The apostle conveyed that some of the Corinthians as unbelievers were characterized by some of the sinful conducts, he described in the previous two verses, as in the first clause of 1 Corinthians 6:11 And that is what some of you were. Literally, the Greek reads And these things some (of) you were. The apostle did not say that all of them were these things in the sense that all of them practiced the sins listed in verses 9 and 10. This does not mean that the apostle did not recognize the truth of the sinfulness of all humans, but he wanted to convey at least two things. He wanted to indicate that the congregation in Corinth in addition to regular Gentiles, there were Jews among them as well as Proselytes. We say this because all Gentiles were certainly involved in idolatry that is one of the sins the apostle mentioned. Therefore, the apostle could not have said that some of the Corinthians were involved in some of these sins he mentioned unless he recognized that there were those among them that did not participate in idolatry. These would be the Jews and the converts to Judaism. That aside, another fact the apostle intended to convey in this clause is the truth that although all humans are sinful but not every human being practice certain sins. For example, there are unbelievers who would not be involved in adultery or homosexuality. Hence, it is appropriate that the apostle would indicate that some of the Corinthians were characterized by some of the sins he listed in passage we are considering.
We considered at least two things the apostle intended to convey in the clause of 1 Corinthians 6:11 And that is what some of you were but the clause serves to remind the Corinthians to be humble even as they dealt with the incestuous believer that they were instructed to expel from their midst. It is important we do not become arrogant when we deal with those who are caught in sins even of the type listed in our passage. One way we keep from being arrogant in dealing with a believer caught in any of the sins listed in our passage is to remember that we were once guilty of some of these sins in the past. The point is that we should remind ourselves of who we were as unbelievers, to keep us from being arrogant in dealing with fellow believers who have fallen into any of the sins mentioned or unbelievers whose lives are characterized by these sins. The Holy Spirit intends that we should not forget who we were prior to salvation. It is this reminder that the Holy Spirit gave through the pen of Apostle Paul when he wrote to the Ephesians, as we may gather from Ephesians 2:1–3:
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
Anyway, it is important we remain mindful of our state or condition when we were unbelievers to keep us from being arrogant in dealing with unbelievers who are living the way we used to live. Instead, we should be filled with compassion towards them as we try to present the truth of the gospel to them. We are saying that we should not look down or be resentful of unbelievers because of their sins by remembering we used to be like them.
Be that as it may, we should, of course, not be so wrapped up with who we used to be that we forget who we are at present. It is to remind the Corinthians that despite the fact they were not to be arrogant towards unbelievers or look down on the offending believer in their midst that they are now in a different status than they were as unbelievers. It is to remind them of this change in status that the apostle used the word but to begin the next clause of 1 Corinthians 6:11. The word “but” is translated from a Greek particle (alla) that in our passage is used as a marker of emphatic contrast. In other words, the apostle did not merely contrast the status of the Corinthians when they became believers in Christ to what they were as unbelievers, but he did it in an emphatic manner. There is more. The emphatic contrast has the implication that because of the status of believers, they should pay attention to the exhortation not to live as unbelievers characterized by the sins the apostle listed in verses 9 and 10 of the passage of 1 Corinthians 6, we considered. Another implication of what the apostle wanted to convey in an emphatic manner is that believers are in the status they are, not because of what they did but because of God’s grace. How is that you may ask since the word “grace” does not appear in verse 11? True the word “grace” does not appear, but we derive the concept of grace from the fact that the three actions that distinguished the Corinthians, and so all believers, from unbelievers are not due to believers’ conduct but are actions of God that He graciously carried out to benefit the unbeliever to cause such a person to have a change of status in relationship to Him. If God acted not because of who we are then it must be because of His grace. Consequently, that the apostle used predominantly the passive voice in the Greek to describe the three actions of God is tantamount to a recognition of God’s grace towards us. These actions of God are given in specific orders of washed, sanctified, and justified that lead to a change of status of an unbeliever with God that we are about to consider. There is a sense we can say that God’s gracious act is aimed at placing a fallen mankind in the right relationship or standing with Him. Thus, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul presented these actions of God that result in a change of status of an unbeliever with God. Of course, those in view in our passage are the Corinthians since they were the first recipients of the epistle that is for the universal church.
A first gracious act of God that changed the status of the Corinthians, and so of all believers, from being unbelievers to being believers is forgiveness of sins. It is this action of God that is given in the next sentence of 1 Corinthians 6:11 you were washed. The Greek form used is subject to two translations so that another possible translation is “you washed (yourself)” implying something one does for self or participates in doing for someone’s benefit. While this second translation is possible it is probably that the apostle meant for us to understand the sentence as reflected in the NIV and our English versions. This aside, on a surface reading it does not appear that this sentence you were washed is concerned with forgiveness of sins as we stated so we should demonstrate that it is. We begin by considering the Greek word translated “washed” in the NIV.
The word “washed” in the NIV of 1 Corinthians 6:11 is translated from a Greek word (apolouō) that means wash off dirt from a person or a thing and so means “to wash oneself clean.” Figuratively, it means to cleanse any one from the moral pollution of vice or sin, hence it may mean “to make pure.” In the middle voice, it is suggested that it means “to renounce the sins in their guilt and punishment.” The word appears only twice in the NT. In its other usage beside our passage, it is used with cleansing from sin connected with baptism in Acts 22:16:
And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’
Our Greek word is used in this passage in the middle voice in the Greek that may give the impression that a person is responsible for the act of washing away of one’s sins as implied in the translation we gave previously, that is, “you washed (yourself)” but that is not the intended meaning since one cannot act to wash away sins no more than a person could baptize himself. No! The sense is that God is the One that washes away sins. It is for this reason that the UBS handbook suggests that to remove any misunderstanding of what is meant in this passage of Acts the verbal phrase wash your sins away may be translated “cause God to wash away your sins.” Generally, in the NT (and especially in the book of Acts), there is a close connection between baptism and the forgiveness of sins but that does not imply that baptism is the means by which one’s sins are forgiven. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 6:11, although the Greek word means “to be washed” the sense of the word is “to be forgiven” that is conceived as having one’s sins washed away. You may still not be convinced that washing here in our passage is concerned with forgiveness of sin so let us explore the matter of washing a little further.
Washing with water as a physical act is employed for cleansing of the body or part of the body from dirt. Thus, Abraham offered his heavenly guests water for cleansing of their feet, as recorded in Genesis 18:4:
Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree.
Washing was used ritually for cleansing objects as it was used by the priests before offering sacrifice to the Lord in the Tent of Meeting, as stated in Exodus 30:17–21:
17 Then the LORD said to Moses, 18 “Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it. 19 Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it. 20 Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made to the LORD by fire, 21 they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come.”
It was under this sense of ritual cleansing in preparation for God’s service that Aaron or the high priest was to be washed using water before officiating on the day of Atonement, as required in Leviticus 16:24:
He shall bathe himself with water in a holy place and put on his regular garments. Then he shall come out and sacrifice the burnt offering for himself and the burnt offering for the people, to make atonement for himself and for the people.
Washing was used symbolically for purification from ritual defilement as it is used for cleansing from defilement due to touching carcasses, as stated in Leviticus 11:24–25:
24 “‘You will make yourselves unclean by these; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean till evening. 25 Whoever picks up one of their carcasses must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean till evening.
Symbolically washing was used to declare one’s innocence, as we may gather from the instruction of how to deal with the matter of murder that the murderer could not be determined as described in Deuteronomy 21:6–7:
6 Then all the elders of the town nearest the body shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall declare: “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it done.
The same sense of washing of hands to signify innocence is stated in Psalm 26:6:
I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, O LORD.
It is this concept of washing hands to declare one’s innocence that Pilate displayed prior to the crucifixion of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 27:24:
When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”
It is in a symbolic manner that washing is used for cleansing from sin in Isaiah 4:4:
The LORD will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.
Although it is not clearly stated how the Lord would wash away the sin of the women of Zion, but it should be understood as a reference to forgiveness of sin. We contend that washing or cleansing from sin has the sense of forgiveness of sin. This we can deduce from David’s confession of his sins and requesting God’s forgiveness in Psalm 51:1–2:
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
David’s request for forgiveness of his sins is given using three verbs in the Hebrew translated here as blot out, wash, and cleanse. Blotting out of sin refers to forgiveness of sins. Thus, there should be no doubt that the word “wash” is used for forgiveness of sin. Hence, we maintain the God’s first action on the Corinthians, and so all believers, that changed their status from being unbelievers to being believers with right standing with God is given in the sentence of 1 Corinthians 6:11 you were washed. Based on our explanation, the sentence you were washed means that the Corinthians, and so all believers, have been forgiven of their sins.
What then is forgiveness of sins? It is God’s gracious act of pardoning anyone sins that includes cancellation of the penalty or punishment due to sin. In effect, forgiveness entails freeing a person from guilt and its consequences. This understanding of forgiveness is uniquely found in the Bible and nowhere else. In fact, many religions of the world have no room for forgiveness of sins in the manner we have described it. Hinduism teaches that all must pay the inescapable consequences of karma in the wheel of reincarnations. Islam has a concept of forgiveness of sins, but it seems to teach that forgiveness of sins implies that bad deeds will be changed into good deeds, as we can infer from what is stated in Sura 25:70 of the Quran: “If the sinner repents and believes and does good; for him God changes their evil deeds to good ones; for God is forgiving and merciful.” In contrast to this understanding, the biblical forgiveness of sins means that God releases the sinner from judgment and frees that individual from the divine penalty of the person’s sin. Consequently, to say that your sins have been forgiven is to say that God has freed you from just, due penalty for your sins. In forgiveness of sins as explained in the Scripture, there is a restoration of relationship of the forgiven with God.
There are two major factors that contribute perhaps to misunderstanding of forgiveness of sins as we have explained it. A first reason is failure to understand the nature of God. It is impossible to fully appreciate forgiveness of sins without recognizing that although God is loving, forgiving, and compassionate that He is also just, meaning that He will punish every wrong done against Him. This understanding of the nature of God is evident in Exodus 34:5–7:
5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”
Clearly, this passage indicates that God is compassionate, full of love, but it also indicates that He is just because it indicates that He does not leave the guilty unpunished. So, to think that God will ignore past sins because someone has now done something good is to deny the God of the Bible who indicates that He punishes the guilty. A second reason for misconception of forgiveness is related to the first in that there must be a basis for forgiveness of sins by God or humans. Because God is just then there is no way He can forgive sins without a basis. It is true that God forgave Israel’s sins after they rebelled against Him, as Moses indicated in Numbers 14:17–19:
17 “Now may the Lord’s strength be displayed, just as you have declared: 18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.’ 19 In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.”
But His forgiveness to Israel although involved His love is certainly based on a kind of sacrifice that was not immediately obvious to Israel. In the course of His dealing with Israel, the Lord made clear to them that the basis of His temporary forgiveness of their sins would be their sacrifices so that He gave them instructions of how to obtain His forgiveness. A typical instruction is given in Leviticus 4:27–31:
27 “‘If a member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, he is guilty. 28 When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering for the sin he committed a female goat without defect. 29 He is to lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and slaughter it at the place of the burnt offering. 30 Then the priest is to take some of the blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. 31 He shall remove all the fat, just as the fat is removed from the fellowship offering, and the priest shall burn it on the altar as an aroma pleasing to the LORD. In this way the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven.
The forgiveness of sins of Israel was temporary and pointed to the permanent forgiveness of sins that would be brought about by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Anyway, there can be no equivocation to the point that there must be a basis for God to forgive sins because we have the clear statement of the Holy Spirit through the author of Hebrews that even in the OT times, forgiveness of sins involved death of sacrificial animals, implying that without death of some sort there can be no forgiveness of sins, as he wrote in Hebrews 9:22:
In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
This assertion of the author of Hebrews in its context indicates that there could be no permanent forgiveness of sins without the death of Christ. It is certainly for this reason that Jesus when He instituted the ritual of the Lord’s Supper asserted that His death on the cross is the means of providing forgiveness of sins, as recorded in Matthew 26:27–28:
27 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
The implication of what the Lord Jesus stated here is that it is impossible to receive forgiveness of sins outside of faith in Him. No wonder the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul makes the same assertion in a different manner in Ephesians 1:7–8:
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
Apostle Paul in the passage of Ephesians 1:7-8 implies that forgiveness of sins is only found in Christ. Consequently, Christianity provides the only meaningful answer to forgiveness of sins in that it teaches that God’s forgiveness of sins involved not merely wiping out the sins but also cancelling the punishment associated with sins because Jesus Christ died on the cross to set us free from penalty due to sin.
Forgiveness of sins to the one who has believed in Christ has several implications in terms of doctrinal assurance. That we have been forgiven of our sins because we have believed in Christ implies that we will never face God’s eternal judgment because He has set us free from the punishment of our sins. It is this truth that is implied in Romans 8:1:
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
Another implication of forgiveness of our sins is that it is a finished work of God in Christ. It is not something in the future but what is true now. It is for this reason that the Holy Spirit through Apostle John gives that assurance to those he wrote in 1 John 2:12:
I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
The clause because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name indicates that believers’ forgiveness is a present reality based on an act that took place in the past. In effect, at the point a person believes in Christ that person receives forgiveness of sins and that forgiveness continues without stopping, so to speak. This assertion may cause problem for some, but it should not. For when we are saved, we are forgiven of our sins that if they were not forgiven would lead to eternal damnation. It is because of the permanent effect of this initial forgiveness of sins that Jesus continues to intercede for us even when we are not aware of our sins or when we have not confessed them. His continual intercession for us is stated in Hebrews 7:25:
Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
The point is that once we received the initial forgiveness of sins that forgiveness is permanent in that the sin problem that will keep us from being with God forever has been solved by the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But after salvation, when we sin, that sin affects our fellowship with God in time, that is, in this life, so it becomes necessary for us to confess any sin to ensure that our fellowship with God on this planet is not fractured.
We have given two implications of receiving forgiveness from the standpoint of doctrinal assurance but there is also the implication of responsibility that should go along with understanding the truth that our sins have been forgiven. Our understanding of the implications of our forgiveness of sins puts us under obligation, which is that we should practice forgiveness of sins towards others. In effect, the basis of forgiving others is God’s forgiveness we received in Christ. It is this obligation that is expressed in the command in Colossians 3:13:
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
It is important that forgiveness involves removing of punishment or guilt due to a person’s wrong so when we forgive each other we should ensure that anything that brings about uneasy feelings toward the one we have forgiven is removed. Furthermore, forgiveness implies restoration to fellowship so when we forgive there should be restoration to fellowship with one that we forgave. It is essential that we forgive others since the forgiveness of our sins that affect our fellowship with God on this planet is linked with our ability to forgive others as the Lord Jesus stated in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:15:
But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
The point is that we should be able to forgive others. This requires that we operate under the control of the Holy Spirit. For it was certainly because Stephen was under the control of the Holy Spirit that he was able to pray that the Lord should forgive those who were stoning him to death, as we read in Acts 7:60:
Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Of course, you should also remember that the second point we are considering regarding the reason a believer should not wrong another is that we have been forgiven our sins or in the words of the passage of 1 Corinthians 6:11 we are studying you were washed. In any event, a first gracious act of God that changed the status of the Corinthians, and so of all believers, from unbelievers to believers is forgiveness of sins. This leads to the second action of God in our passage of study.
A second gracious act of God that changed the status of the Corinthians and so of all believers from being unbelievers to being believers is God has dedicated them to Himself. It is this action of God that is conveyed in the next sentence of 1 Corinthians 6:11 you were sanctified. This is the second time and the last time in this epistle that the Corinthians are described collectively with the word “sanctified;” the third usage of the word “sanctified” is to describe an individual unbeliever, that is, husband or wife in 1 Corinthians 7:14:
For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
That aside, the first usage was in the introduction of the epistle where the apostle described the Corinthians as those sanctified in 1 Corinthians 1:2:
To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
When we examined this verse, we indicated that the phrase to those sanctified in Christ Jesus the apostle used to describe the Corinthians as part of the universal church of God, meant they are those who have been purified so that they are acceptable to God to be a part of His eternal family. We supported this interpretation by citing our present passage of 1 Corinthians 6:11. But in this second usage of the word “sanctified” in 1 Corinthians 6:11, we stated that the sentence you were sanctified means that God has dedicated the Corinthians and so all believers to Himself. So, someone may say, are you not conflicting yourself? No, I am not since both descriptions are true and not conflicting. You see, the meaning of a word is usually determined by the context so that it is wrong to assume that a given word has the same meaning in all contexts that it is used. Nonetheless, to understand my answer, let us consider the Greek word used.
The word “sanctified” is translated from a Greek word (hagiazō) that, no doubt, means literally “to make holy” or “to sanctify.” Both meanings could be misleading in that many people when they use such meanings would be thinking mostly in terms of moral purity achieved by a person, which is not often the case, especially, with the Corinthians. In effect, we are saying that “to sanctify” while it may mean to make someone free of sin does not always mean that. To demonstrate this statement, consider the fact that it is our Greek word that is used in the priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 17:19:
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
It is difficult to understand what it means that Jesus sanctified Himself if one takes the meaning “to make holy” since it could not possibly mean that He made Himself holier or free of sin because as God man He is without sin. This example with Jesus Christ supports the assertion that the word “sanctify” does not always mean to make free from sin. Thus, we should examine the range of meaning of the Greek word to determine which is suitable to our context where it is used to describe the Corinthians and so all believers in Christ as those who have been sanctified.
In any case, the Greek word may mean “to consecrate.” On the one hand, “to consecrate” may mean to include a person in the inner circle of what is holy, in both cultic and moral associations of the word and so has the additional meaning “to make holy, dedicate, to sanctify.” It is in sense of being dedicated or set apart that our word is used in relation to Jesus Christ in John 10:36:
what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?
The expression “set apart” may also be translated “dedicated” or even “consecrated.” By the way, it is in the sense of being dedicated or set apart that our word is used in the priestly prayer of Jesus Christ in the passage we cited previously in John 17:19 in that the Lord Jesus Christ meant He dedicated Himself to the Father as His own to carry out His mission as He wanted the Father to dedicate the disciples to Himself as belonging to Him. It is in this sense of being included in the circle of what is holy that the word is used to describe an unbelieving spouse that is married to a believer who at the time of the marriage was also an unbeliever in a passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Corinthians 7:14:
For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
An unbelieving spouse is sanctified in the sense that such an individual is made a part of the Christian community in a physical sense of being associated with those who are believers in Christ so that the person is exposed to truth of the gospel in a way that no other unbeliever is. The unbelieving spouse is separated from the world of unbelievers by being associated with a community of believers. Such an association of the unbelieving spouse with the believing community implies that the individual has the potential of being saved by hearing of the gospel message on a consistent basis. It is this truth that is implied in the question of Apostle Paul recorded in 1 Corinthians 7:16:
How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
Hence, we note that “to consecrate” may mean to include a person in that which is holy, in this case, the Christian community. On the other hand, “to consecrate” may mean to set something aside or to make it clean for ritual purposes or simply to make it acceptable with respect to God and so the word is used for consecrating of food through prayer in 1 Timothy 4:5:
because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
Another meaning of the Greek word under consideration is “to reverence”, that is, to treat as holy, as the word is used in the pattern prayer the Lord Jesus gave to His disciples in His Sermon on the Mount, as recorded in Matthew 6:9:
“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
The word “hallowed” is an archaic English word used to translate the Greek word we are considering that in this passage in Matthew means “to honor as holy, to treat as holy, to reverence.” Hence, the NJB translates the expression hallowed be your name as “may your name be held holy” while the TEV translated it as “May your holy name be honored.” Still another meaning of the Greek word is “to purify” in the sense of to eliminate that which is incompatible with holiness. It is this meaning that is implied in 1 Thessalonians 5:23:
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is true that most of our English versions used the word “sanctify” in this passage but the standard Greek English lexicon of BDAG indicates that the meaning “purify” may apply. This is probably the reason the translators of the NCV rendered the expression sanctify you as “make you pure.”
We have considered several meanings of the Greek word translated “sanctified” in our passage of 1 Corinthians 6:11, so which meaning is intended? It is the meaning of “to become dedicated to God” that is used. The context demands this meaning. You see, the first action of God as it pertains to the Corinthians, and so all believers, involves purification from sins since we have already indicated that the sentence you were washed implies that of forgiveness of sins. When God forgives sins, that conveys the sense of purification from the effects of sins and so because God had forgiven the Corinthians, and so all believers, He had purified them. Thus, if the word “washed” implies forgiveness of sins and so purification from sin as well, then the word “sanctified” could not have been used in the sense of “to purify” which is one of the meanings of the Greek word we considered. This being the case, the meaning of the word that best fits the context is that of “to dedicate to God.” This meaning makes sense in the context because of the first action of God that we stated involves forgiveness of sins and so purification of the Corinthians and so all believers. It is after a person’s sins are forgiven, implying the person is purified is the person qualified to be dedicated to God. Nothing that is unclean or not purified could be dedicated to God, as evident in the instruction given to Israel. The Lord’s instruction to Israel requires they give Him the firstborn of both persons and animals but if the animal is unclean, it must be redeemed, as instructed in Numbers 18:15:
The first offspring of every womb, both man and animal, that is offered to the LORD is yours. But you must redeem every firstborn son and every firstborn male of unclean animals.
The implication of this is that God will not accept anything unclean being dedicated to Him. Furthermore, those who have not been consecrated were not fit to officiate in the Tabernacle in the OT. Consequently, special consecration process took place with respect to priests to make them fit to serv God, as indicated in Exodus 29, but we consider only Exodus 29:1–5:
1“This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect. 2 And from fine wheat flour, without yeast, make bread, and cakes mixed with oil, and wafers spread with oil. 3 Put them in a basket and present them in it—along with the bull and the two rams. 4 Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. 5 Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him by its skillfully woven waistband.
If God cannot accept anyone who is unclean, so to say, to serve Him as a priest then it is inconceivable that the church that consists of human beings could be dedicated to Him without the members of the church being cleansed or purified. Since the first action of God in the passage that we are considering, that is, 1 Corinthians 6:11 involved purification from sin then it makes sense the second action of God is that of consecrating the Corinthians, and so all believer, to Himself for His purpose. In any event, a second gracious act of God that changed the status of the Corinthians, and so of all believers, from being unbelievers to being believers is God dedicated them to Himself.
Recall that although we are dealing with the second action of God that changed the status of the Corinthians, and so that of all believers, we are still concerned with the second reason believers should not wrong each other. So, we should not wrong each other because God has dedicated us to Himself. That God dedicated us to Himself means He has included us in His family, so to say. We are part of God’s family as we may gather from what the Holy Spirit conveyed through the human author of Hebrews about Jesus Christ and us in Hebrews 2:11:
Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
This passage indicates that we and our Savior, Lord Jesus, are in the same family of God. This being the case, it is unbecoming for those who are in the family of God to wrong each other. Of course, there is more to the truth that we have been sanctified, that is, that we have been dedicated to God, but our time is up and so come back next week when we continue with the implications of God having dedicated us to Himself.
10/25/19