Joined with a Prostitute

God can use that man or any other to the "mighty" extent he is willing to be used.

What red blooded male has not looked on a woman with an element of lust in his lifetime?

Jesus Christ nailed that to the wall.

If John 1:9 is true then anyone can be cleansed from any sin that they seek forgiveness for.

 

OOPS I missed a couple.
"Will God punish him?"
Heb. 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

"Can he still serve at a church?"
He can at a church that believes the scriptures.
However some church members and pastors have forgotten what God forgave them of.
2 Peter 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

 

Why have you singled out this particular sin?

 

Why do you ask?

HankD

 

Why do people answer a question with a question?
I suspect it is because they suspect a hidden agenda.

 

God used a man who murdered another, a man who had a husband killed and then slept with her. Peter cut off a man's ear, etc.

 

So what's your's (since, I noticed a question mark in your response).



HankD

 

Well, since he has become "one flesh" with the prostitute, he is now "married" to her, since the "one flesh" denotes marriage.

What happens if he abandons that "marriage", or else marries another? Is the new marriage adultery, leading to divorce?

That would disqualify him from serving in certain positions in some churches due to their view on divorce.

God can use him whatever his past. God has done so before in scripture, and can do it again. It may be more of a challenge if that use is to be a Pastor or Deacon, however.

Interesting question!

 

He could not serve as pastor or teacher...he would not be blameless...and a couple of other qualifications...but,he can be forgiven and could serve in other capacities.

 

The issue here is one of incompatibility between the "Christian" man who professes to be a member of the body of Christ joining his body with that of a harlot.

One of the responses indicated that God could still use this man in a mighty way, but that is perhaps a little oversimplified. After all, when Pharoah would not repent and obey the command of God, God used him in a mighty way also. Of course, repentance is at the crux of this question.

Certainly God forgives when the sinner repents, but that does not guarantee that the consequences of sinful actions will be erased, or even lessened.

 

Bob
You're not hiding something from us, are you? Just kidding!!!

Frankly, I have been divorced and remarried. I get more rejection from my anti-tithing views than my divorced status.

Jesus told the LEWD WOMAN in John four how many HUSBANDS she had divorced. Even though it was wrong, He still called them HUSBANDS. Chew on that!

What if a Baptist prostitute-visitor had really never been saved and now has been saved! Does he not start all over with a clean slate and qualifty to preach? Is he not a "new creation"? Ae not "all things in the past passed away"?

What do we do with Romans 11:29 -- "the gifts and calling of God are irrevokable"?? God cannot and God will not change his calling to salvation or to the ministry! Am I right? Then the disobedient had better brace for some severe discipline. I've been there, brother.

 

But when we get right down to it no one is "blameless" if we are going to define blameless as I think you are indicating above.

 

But when we get right down to it no one is "blameless" if we are going to define blameless as I think you are indicating above. </font>[/QUOTE]Bibleboy,

I think you have made an interesting point, which really hits the hart of the matter? what is blameless? Paul was talking about something that is possible, otherwise he would not have stated it. But he certainly did not mean "sinless" for "blameless" thats obvious.

Could "blameless" mean that no one can bring a charge against a person right now? That this person is not living in sin? I think thats exactly what it means.

If someone is living in a openly sinful way, and has some openly unrepentant sin in his life, in no way could he serve as Pastor or deacon.

I think it means if you are living with a women, then of course you could not be a Pastor or deacon, you are not blameless.

If you were in the midst of some financial scandle, then of course you are not blameless and should step down.

Now what about after you have repentented? What about when you have made things right and cleared your name? Then could you serve. Some people think not, they believe some sins scar us and bar us from ever serving.

I might agree with them if I could only find scripture to back up such an idea.

IFBReformer

 

So are you saying he could lead a nation but could not pastor? There are many in scripture who committed crimes that would have been given the death penalty in the US but God still chose them to lead his people. Isn't that leading the pastors?

 

1 Cor. 6:15. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!
16. Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."
17. But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
18. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
19. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
20. For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

If we are to interpret this passage as saying that “one who joins himself to a prostitute” has married her (or him), then he can not get married to anyone else unless the exception clause in Matt. 19:9 is genuine rather than an early scribal gloss. If the exception clause in Matt. 19:9 is genuine, and the prostitute has sex with another customer (or someone else), then the man in question can remarry. Personally, however, I do not interpret this passage as saying the “one who joins himself to a prostitute” has married her (or him), and thus he is free to marry.

If the man repents of his sin with the prostitute, and “sin no more,” then his sin is forgiven and he is cleansed of his sin.

Some years ago I worked in an executive capacity for one of the largest evangelical Christian ministries in the world. The president of the ministry preached to crowds around the world in excess of 1,000,000 persons and miracles took place in the crowds. The president of this ministry, however, lived a double life that was known to those few of us who worked for the ministry in executive capacities. This made me question the genuineness of the miracles, so I discretely made inquiries of some eye witnesses. One eye witness, the chief photographer of the ministry, was on sight when many miracles took place and he was personally responsible to verify that the miracles being photographed were genuine. Therefore I asked him if he was absolutely certain that the miracles were genuine. He told me that many of them were not, but that some of them were, and that he submitted for publication by the ministry only those photographs that depicted genuine miracles. I knew the man and I knew that he knew the secrets of the president of the ministry, so I asked him how it was, in his opinion, that such a man could be used by God in such a manner. His reply was that God uses whom He chooses to use, based not upon the character of the man, but based upon His own sovereign will. As time passed, I learned that others working for the ministry, and who knew what was going on, were of similar opinions. I accepted these opinions as being accurate, but being in the close presence of the president of that organization made me extremely uncomfortable and I could not but wonder why God would use someone like that, but it was not for me question God.

 

But when we get right down to it no one is "blameless" if we are going to define blameless as I think you are indicating above. </font>[/QUOTE]Bibleboy,

I think you have made an interesting point, which really hits the hart of the matter? what is blameless? Paul was talking about something that is possible, otherwise he would not have stated it. But he certainly did not mean "sinless" for "blameless" thats obvious.

Could "blameless" mean that no one can bring a charge against a person right now? That this person is not living in sin? I think thats exactly what it means.

If someone is living in a openly sinful way, and has some openly unrepentant sin in his life, in no way could he serve as Pastor or deacon.

I think it means if you are living with a women, then of course you could not be a Pastor or deacon, you are not blameless.

If you were in the midst of some financial scandle, then of course you are not blameless and should step down.

Now what about after you have repentented? What about when you have made things right and cleared your name? Then could you serve. Some people think not, they believe some sins scar us and bar us from ever serving.

I might agree with them if I could only find scripture to back up such an idea.

IFBReformer </font>[/QUOTE]I would say that blameless means that this is a person against whom no charge of wrong doing can stick. He may well have sinned in the past, but does he continue in that sin and is he nonrepentant?