If you grasp for that comfort to which you are not entitled, you will forfeit the kingdom that you might have inherited.
God has granted a precious and unimaginably rich kingdom to those who come to him through Jesus Christ. But the way to him is narrow, and everything extraneous is too wide to fit through it. We must shed everything unrelated to the kingdom in order to enter the kingdom.
If we opt for the broad way to accommodate our earthly stuff, or try to squeeze through the narrow gate with a backpack full of earthly stuff, we won’t make it into the kingdom. Try to pull your hand, full of cookies, back out of a Mason jar. Or clutch a book and try to pull your arm through your shirt sleeve. You get the picture.
After all, it is Jesus who tells us to pluck out our eye, and cut off our hand, if such is necessary to enter the kingdom.
In 1 Corinthians 6:1-11, Paul tells the Corinthians that they cannot “grasp” for that to which they are not entitled, whether it be material belongings, or their rights in court, or the various comforts that sin claims to provide, and also grasp the kingdom God so graciously grants. Litigating our grievances with one another, whether published to the world through civil courts, or whispered to a friend in the church hallway, is grasping for reputation, possessions, “rights,” or superiority. It is completely opposed to kingdom life. Paul lists other sins that reveal an attempt to grasp at things other than the kingdom:
- Sexual immorality: grasping for physical or emotional gratification that does not belong to you.
- Idolatry: grasping for control, self-esteem, and delight that are not yours.
- Adultery: grasping for people and relationships and “romance” and “feeling” that are not yours.
- Homosexuality: grasping for autonomy, “equality,” and glory that are not yours.
- Thievery: grasping for possessions, “justice,” and thrills that are not yours.
- Greed: grasping for security and comfort for yourself, or control over others, that are not yours.
- Drunkenness: grasping for escape, diversion, and pleasure that are not yours.
- Reviling (“scornful slander”): grasping for superiority and revenge that are not yours.
- Swindling: grasping for the upper hand, or sloth, that are not yours.
If we grasp any of these things, we forfeit the kingdom. In fact, if we continue grasping these things despite the promise of the riches of inheritance for those who are in Christ Jesus, it indicates that we have never entered the kingdom, in the first place.
When those who claim Christ grasp for any of these comforts (for all sin is in some way an attempt to be more comfortable), it creates disunity and division in the church. This is why Paul spent Chapter 5 talking about how to make an unrepentant sinner uncomfortable (“for the destruction of his flesh”) in order for him to find comfort in the right things (“spirit saved in the day of the Lord”).
We might not always be aware that a brother or sister is struggling with the sins in this list. Many might be entertained in the secrecy of a person’s thoughts and desires, and may only be discovered with careful and deliberate attempts to draw out the person’s heart. But one of them is especially obvious, insidious, and divisive: reviling. Reviling is scornful slander: speaking negatively about people or ideas with an attitude of scorn, or ridicule, or condemnation. Reviling is a sure and swift way to divide brothers and sisters from one another, and to create division in a congregation. We should each be especially careful not to revile those things we do not understand, or those things with which we don’t agree, and be diligent to reject it when others do.
Our call as disciples is to help one another loosen our grip on things of the world in order to receive the fullness of the kingdom of Jesus, and of life in it. Don’t grasp for things that are not yours, and when you see a brother or sister grasping for such things through their sinful behavior, don’t let them continue, either.
“Such were some of you.” Don’t permit others to continue living as though they still ARE.