Are You a “So-called” Christian?

I was watching a man on Youtube the other day telling his very interesting life story. He interjected that he had a new girlfriend, that she was a Christian, and that it was important to him that they shared the same faith. It shocked me because he had openly spoken about being sexually active in another context.

This is now commonplace–people who claim to be Christians and yet participate in sexual activity outside of marriage without blinking an eye—as if God has no problem with it at all. This thinking is everywhere in our culture–from Presidential candidates to church pews on Sunday. Just in case you did not know, God condemns it clearly and strongly.

The Apostle Paul called people who live like this “so-called Christians.”

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person(1 Corinthians 5:9-11).

The gist of the words translated “named a brother” is “a so-called brother.”

He gave the church at Corinth specific instructions to NOT acknowledge them as true believers. He was not saying they were not believers, but that they should not call themselves believers and should not be acknowledged as such if they choose to live in this way.

Paul lists six sins that were a particular problem in Corinth. They are all public sins that are damaging to the testimony of Christ.

Fornicators

Fornication is sexual sin of any kind. In this particular case, it is publicly known sexual sin. There is a place to receive the repentant and help those who acknowledge their sin and are seeking help. But those who continue in it as if they are justified in doing so should be rejected from the fellowship of the church.

Covetous

The idea of this word is more than wrongly desiring something that God does not want for you. It is a greedy person, a profiteer, one who steals or receives dishonest gain. It’s the “business is business” amoral pragmatism that often characterizes the economic culture around us. A believer cannot separate his Christian morals from his personal business.

Extortioners

The idea here is those who are “plunderers” who like a natural predator pick of the weak and sickly of their prey. They take advantage of the moment to defraud those who are weak. They abuse opportunity, position, or power for personal reasons.  When I think of plunderers, I think of pirates or looters, but there could be many more applications.

Railers

Railers are abusers. They are abusive in their personality, words, and actions–abusive to family members, co-workers, employees, and others. The church has an obligation to confront and remove abusers.

Drunkards

It is not hard to grasp this. This is an addict, a drunk, a user–one who puts himself under the power of a controlling substance. This would apply to alcohol as well as other addictive substances.

Idolators

In this particular case, it is those who want to adopt Christianity while keeping their old religious practices. The result is syncretism where Christianity is mixed with paganism producing a false Christianity that is more destructive than the paganism it mimics.

If you excuse yourself in these areas or believe it is acceptable for you to live like this, please stop calling yourself a Christian. You are just deceiving yourself into thinking you are alright before God. He has commanded your obedient Christian friends to disown you as a believer and to abandon Christian fellowship with you. That is how serious this is to God

Repent. Call it sin. If you need help, seek it. Quit lying to yourself.