ats and the sheep will be separated (John 5:25-29). Few people actually believe this. They don't now, nor did they then. So, Paul warned believers about being deceived, which means that believers can be deceived about what they believe. Not all believers believe correctly. Salvation does not make people instant winners of the orthodoxy contest. Of course, we are not saved by what we believe. Rather, we believe because we have been saved, which also means that our ultimate salvation does not come into doubt when our beliefs are wrong. So, Paul does not mean that believers can lose their faith if they believe wrongly. Though wrong belief has many unfortunate and unpleasant consequences, from which believers are not spared. And at the same time, the Lord values right or correct belief.
Similarly, there are many fortunate and pleasant consequences of right belief, many of which are also enjoyed by unbelievers. When God's church believes and teaches the Gospel correctly, benefits accrue to both the saved and the lost. Conversely, when God's church believes and teaches the Gospel incorrectly, liabilities accrue to both the saved and the lost. God wants people to believe and understand His gospel message correctly. It is important to Him because He uses the correct proclamation of the gospel as a means of salvation. "But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?" (Romans 10:14).
We could think of the process of salvation as logging into the data base of the Holy Spirit. It is as if the Lord has installed a special password in the hearts of the elect. Proper preaching of the Gospel contains a automated login script that activates that password. But if that automated login script contains junk code, it interferes with the correct execution of the script. Orthodox preaching contains elements of that script that trigger the pre-installed login password of believers. So, to get the gospel wrong interferes with the hearing of the Gospel by the elect. It doesn't keep anyone from salvation, it just gums up the process. (This analogy is useful to a point, but it limps when we try to put too much weight on it. God's people will hear the gospel even if we communicate it incorrectly. They will hear it from someone else.)
Paul was trying to ungum the process that was in effect in Corinth as a result of those who had been teaching the foolishness of the world in the guise of the wisdom of God. "Do not be deceived" (1 Corinthians 6:6), he said, because he believed that they were actively in the process of being deceived. Deceived about what? About, among other things, who would inherit the kingdom of God. He had previously identified the fact that one of their leaders had been involved in gross immorality, shameful even by pagan standards. It wasn't that this person had committed a sin so vile that it could not be forgiven. Not at all! God can forgive any sin, save one (Matthew 12:31-32).
It was not the sin that was the problem. Paul knew that all Christians are sinners. "And such were some of you." he said. "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" (1 Corinthians 6:11). The problem was not that some of the members of the Corinthian church were living in sin. Who isn't? The problem was that some of the members of the Corinthian church had not repented of their sin. They were in process of justifying it to themselves and to the church, trying to make it okay in the eyes of God by suggesting that God forgives everyone of everything, that in the light of the amazing grace of Jesus Christ repentance and turning from sin doesn't matter.
The rationalizations go like this: "Salvation is all of grace, it's all God's work and none of mine," which is true enough, of course. But the rationalizations go further: "Since God saved me from time immemorial, before I was born, and my salvation does not depend on anything I do or can do, then God doesn't care what I do. It doesn't make any difference to my salvation. So, I can do whatever I want." Wrong! God does care what we do. He cares about what believers do and he cares about what unbelievers do. If he didn't care, he wouldn't impose His law on everyone or bring judgment on anyone. But he does! God's law applies to all of humanity. And God will bring everyone into judgment before the bench of Jesus Christ.
The point is that apart from Jesus Christ there is no correct (objective, rational or perfect) morality, which means that only Christians can teach morality correctly (objectively, rationally, perfectly) by teaching biblical morality correctly. However, this does not mean that Christians are perfect. Perfection is like calculus, one approaches a definitive answer, and makes some valid assumptions and conclusions about it. And what is more, morality effects everyone. It's not that Christian morality only effects Christians or that pagan morality only effects pagans. Rather, we are all interdependent, saved and lost. So, the wrong morality brings God's curses upon everyone, just as the right morality brings God's blessings upon everyone. That doesn't mean that everyone will be saved, and it certainly does not mean that anyone is saved by moral behavior. It just means that life will be better for everyone when God's love, peace, justice and mercy -- defined and implemented according to Scripture -- provide the best possible social morals for the greatest number of people.
Author of many Christian books, Phillip A. Ross has been a pastor for over 25 years. He founded http://www.Pilgrim-Platform.org in 1998, which documents the church's fall from historic Christianity. Demonstrating the Apostle Paul's opposition to worldly Christianity, he published an exposition First Corinthians in 2008. Ross recounts how Paul turned the world upside down in his book, Arsy Varsy -- Reclaiming the Gospel in First Corinthians.
