Reading for Today:

• Job 39:1 Chapter 39 1 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? `Or' canst thou mark when the hinds do calve? –40:24
• Psalms 101:1-4 Chapter 101 1 I will sing of lovingkindness and justice: Unto thee, O Jehovah, will I sing praises. 2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way: Oh when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. 3 I will set no base thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; It shall not cleave unto me. 4 A perverse heart shall depart from me: I will know no evil thing.
• Proverbs 23:29-30 29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? 30 They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek out mixed wine.
• 1 Corinthians 6:1-20 Chapter 6 1 Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbor, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? 2 Or know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world is judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more, things that pertain to this life? 4 If then ye have to judge things pertaining to this life, do ye set them to judge who are of no account in the church? 5 I say `this' to move you to shame. What, cannot there be `found' among you one wise man who shall be able to decide between his brethren, 6 but brother goeth to law with brother, and that before unbelievers? 7 Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you, that ye have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be defrauded? 8 Nay, but ye yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that `your' brethren. 9 Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. 12 All things are lawful for me; but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any. 13 Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall bring to nought both it and them. But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body: 14 and God both raised the Lord, and will raise up as through his power. 15 Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? shall I then take away the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? God forbid. 16 Or know ye not that he that is joined to a harlot is one body? for, The twain, saith he, shall become one flesh. 17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19 Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; 20 for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body.

Notes:

Job 40:15 15 Behold now, behemoth, which I made as well as thee; He eateth grass as an ox. –24 behemoth. While this is a generic term used commonly in the Old Testament for large cattle or land animals, the description in this passage suggests an extraordinary creature. The hippopotamus has been suggested by the details in the passage (vv. 19–24). However, the short tail of a hippo is hardly consistent with v. 17, where tail could be translated “trunk.” It could refer to an elephant, who could be considered “first” or chief of God’s creatures whom only He can control (v. 19). Some believe God is describing His most impressive creation of land animals, the dinosaur species, which fit all the characteristics.

Psalm 101:2 perfect way. As the king goes, so go his followers (v. 6). when will You come to me? This is not an eschatological expectation, but rather a personal expression of David’s need for God’s immanent involvement in his earthly kingship. my house. The king first starts with his own personal life (v. 7) and then looks beyond to his kingdom (vv. 5, 8).

Proverbs 23:30 30 They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek out mixed wine. mixed wine. Lingering long at the wine is indicative of constant drinking so as to induce drunkenness (1 Tim. 3:3; Titus 1:7 7 For the bishop must be blameless, as God's steward; not self-willed, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; ). Searching for more to drink indicates the same pursuit.

1 Corinthians 6:2 2 Or know ye not that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world is judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? judge the world. Because Christians will assist Christ to judge the world in the millennial kingdom (Rev. 2:26, 27; 3:21; Dan. 7:22), they are more than qualified with the truth, the Spirit, the gifts, and the resources they presently have in Him to settle small matters that come up among themselves in this present life.

1 Corinthians 6:15 15 Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? shall I then take away the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? God forbid. members. The believer’s body is not only for the Lord here and now (v. 14) but is of the Lord, a part of His body, the church (Eph.1:22, 23). The Christian’s body is a spiritual temple in which the Spirit of Christ lives (12:3; John 7:38 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water. , 39; 20:22; Acts 1:8 8 But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. ; Rom. 8:9; 2 Cor. 6:16); therefore, when a believer commits a sexual sin, it involves Christ with a harlot. All sexual sin is harlotry. Certainly not! These words translate the strongest Greek negative—“may it never be so.”

DAY 24: Who does Paul list among those who will not inherit God’s kingdom?

First Corinthians 6:9,10 provides a list of people who will “not inherit the kingdom.” The kingdom is the spiritual sphere of salvation where God rules as king over all who belong to Him by faith. All believers are in that spiritual kingdom, yet are waiting to enter into the full inheritance of it in the age to come. While believers can and do commit these sins, they do not characterize them as an unbroken life pattern. When they do, it demonstrates that the person is not in God’s kingdom. True believers who do sin, repent of that sin and seek to gain the victory over it (Rom. 7:14–25).

“Fornicators.” All who indulge in sexual immorality, but particularly unmarried persons. “Idolaters.” Those who worship any false god or follow any false religious system. “Adulterers.” Married persons who indulge in sexual acts outside their marriage. “Homosexuals…sodomites.” These terms refer to those who exchange and corrupt normal male-female sexual roles and relations. Transvestism, sex changes, and other gender perversions are included (Gen. 1:27; Deut. 22:5). Sodomites are so-called because the sin of male-male sex dominated the city of Sodom (Gen. 18:20; 19:4, 5). This sinful perversion is condemned always, in any form, by Scripture (Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom.1:26, 27; 1 Tim. 1:10).

“Thieves…covetous.” Both are guilty of the same basic sin of greed. Those who are covetous desire what belongs to others; thieves actually take it. “Revilers.” People who try to destroy others with words. “Extortioners.” Swindlers and embezzlers who steal indirectly, taking unfair advantage of others for their own financial gain.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that “such were some of you” (v. 11). Though not all Christians have been guilty of all those particular sins, every Christian is equally an ex-sinner, since Christ came to save sinners (Matt. 9:13; Rom. 5:20).

From The MacArthur Daily Bible Copyright © 2003. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson Bibles, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc, Nashville, TN 37214, www.thomasnelson.com.

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