And Such Was I

One of the most powerful verses in the bible, to me at least, is delivered by Paul, to the Corinthians. If you have been truly converted then this verse will really pop to you and shows how good God is, how He reached from the Holiest of places to save me, to save you, to save us all from not only the torments of hell but also from the sinful lives that we once loved so much.

When I read this verse:
1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
All I can think about is “Praise you Lord for saving me, you didn’t have to, but You did and You are worthy of my praise to You, You are more worthy than I could ever say.” Now if you back up a little earlier in chapter 6 you will see what the “such were” were that Paul was addressing. You have a whole gamut of sins listed – fornicators, idolaters, homosexuals, thieves, alcoholics and extortionist. And such was I. Paul took the title of “Chief of Sinners”, but in my wretchedness I was pretty low myself until the Lord saw fit to save me from that sinful life. God is so good to have pulled me from the mire of my sin and wash me clean.

This verse is a wake up call and God used it to show me of how judgmental I can be, not of brothers and sisters, but of sinners. I would somehow expect the lost people at work to conform to what God was so gracious in showing me. They don’t. They won’t. That is until the Lord saves them as well. I realized that a sinner sins, they care nothing of the Spirit and what He is about. They care nothing for pleasing the Lord, but only themselves. And such was I. One of the worst things a true believer can do is tell a non believer that they shouldn’t do a particular sin. “Hey Jimbo, you shouldn’t be living with your girlfriend or cheating on your taxes.” That would be like telling a Christian “Hey Bubby, you need to be reading your Bible and praying every day.” They both come natural to either of them. The true Christian walks with God, the non-believer walks in the world. You can’t tell a dog he now needs to purr like a cat, but if God changed the dog into a cat, it would be natural for it to purr then.

Sorry for getting off subject. Now back to the blog already in progress. We were all a “such were” at one point in our life, if you can not see that then you may want to go over a book to 2 Corinthians 13:5 and do as Paul exhorts there to examine yourself to see if you are in the faith. Then read 1John and the Gospels, Acts, Romans and then the rest of the bible. If you never saw how filthy and wretched you were, how much you hated God and how you could do nothing but call out to Him, then you may have a huge problem. If you think you have your ticket, that you took care of things a long time ago, that all you have to do is ask to be forgiven of your sinful life and use Christ’s work on the cross as a get out of hell free card, then you are still on the “such were” category. You would actually be called a “so are”. If your heart does not break for sinning against God, then I beg you to seek God out with all that you are and all that you can so that He can save you too, that He will keep you from hell, that you will lead a God centered life, that all you will want to do is try to bring glory to the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is indeed worthy, more worthy than anything we could ever offer.

Praise the Lord for opening my eyes to my sinfulness. Thank You God for showing me that sinner’s sin and I can’t change them. Please Lord give me the grace to share Your Word with them in a loving, but true way to them. God please make me not compromise your Word for any reason but to reflect Your Light. Open my mouth to speak Your Word that many will come to repentance. Thank you Lord for all that you do. Amen