Listen here, whippersnapper. I was around before colour TVs were!
What does that have to do with anything?
So, are you saying that if someone was saved from these dead works, as mentioned above here, like drunkenness and partying, and they go back to it...they were never saved in the first place?
Or did they just think they were saved but really weren't?
I am not saying it is a definite that they were not actually saved though they may have thought themselves to be, but it is a possibility; for certainly not all who think themselves saved are.
But those who are saved and submit to the flesh do not lose their salvation.
What Paul meant was that we who are in Christ are not what we do; that is not our identity. We are who we are in Him: redeemed, justified, cleansed, etc.
So, Paul says the unrighteous won't inherit the kingdom of God... and he lists a bunch of unrighteous behaviors. Then he goes on to say that some of us used to do those things, but we've been washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. OK...we all get that.
But, my question...is what happens if one is washed from these sins.. and let's just say that many years go by...then the person goes back to one or more of these things.
Does practicing these things make a person unjustified now? If practicing these things doesn't make one unjustified...why would he say this as if it's a warning to not do these things?
He certainly used this language before. Remember when he taught us not to have sex with prostitutes? He was making it clear that it's not a salvation issue...but a holiness/sanctification/respect for God deal.
1 Corinthians 6:15
It's more a warning due to the complications these behaviors could cause us.
Here's a better illustration.
There's a pastor who believes and preaches the gospel for many years.
He leads many to Christ, preaches thousands of right on gospel messages every Sunday for years and years. He visits the sick, and the imprisoned, he gives to the poor and supports the work of missions.
His wife gets fat. Really fat.
He runs off with the church secretary....divorces his wife, ditches his children and spends the rest of his life drinking himself to death in regret.
Is he saved, or lost?
Depends on whether he was saved in the first place; If so, he remains so; if not, he remains not.
I will say, when you see someone do these things it is difficult to believe they were initially saved, and it is best to deal with them as if they are not because if you approach as if they are then you run the risk they are not and you may not actually point them in the right direction to being saved.
