Apostle Paul writes to Timothy, and that Epistle and all Epistles are read by the entire world, hearing from Apostle Paul, who is the Apostle to the entire of Gentiles.
No need for you to be confused, I will show it easily and clearly.
Oh, I'm not confused, brother. I'm realizing that you are, however.
A man ( all men) have to purge themselves from dishonour, and being unsanctified, to be prepared for God. That is very simple and straight forward.
Was Timothy a man needing to be "prepared for God"? Was Timothy not yet a born-again man? No. Timothy was Paul's spiritual protege, actually in leadership over other believers in the Early Church. But it was to this man, to this born-again, spiritual leader in the Church, to whom Paul wrote:
2 Timothy 2:21-22 (NASB)
21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
Paul was not indicating that Timothy was not yet prepared as a vessel in whom God could reside, but that as Timothy fled from "youthful lusts" and followed righteousness, faith, charity and peace, he would be prepared to
be used by God, as a vessel (pitcher, pot, etc.) is used by the one who owns it. The idea in view is that of usefulness, not divine occupation.
Reading your own quote above, gets a very different answer to your assumptions.
May it never be ( God forbid) to take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot. ( prostitute)
If anyone did that, to join to a harlot, they are one body together. ( members together)
But, he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit.
So, that separates two different perspectives, those doing fornication as being one body with harlots, and they who have fled fornication as being one Spirit with the Lord. They who do fornication also sin against their own body, and if any man does fornication, the Lord shall destroy them is told only three verses earlier in 1 Corinthians 3, so it is a warning for all who consider they are free to do this in the Lords name.
None of what you've written here addresses any of the points I made about the passage. You just ignored my points and offered your own view. But simply offering an alternative view of the passage doesn't at all negate or refute the things I pointed out about it.
When Paul wrote, "May it never be!" he was using a rhetorical device, akin to someone exclaiming, "God forbid!" He was not indicating it was
impossible for a genuinely born-again believer to be engaging sexually with a prostitute, but only that
such a thing ought not to happen. That such a mixture of the holy with the profane was going on was clearly indicated, as I already pointed out in my last post, in Paul's words in
chapter 6. Nothing you've written shows this to be a faulty reading of Paul's words.
When Christ called the Apostles, ( Christ then a young man at age 30.) they were all young men. It is a common age for men to come to Christ, to begin to learn of Him, and to leave a life of unbelief, for now faith. See below for the verses showing this, of Saul before he was named Paul, of the young men receiving the Spirit, of God writing to the young men, because they are strong, the word of God abides in them, and they have overcome the wicked one.
This is all quite beside my point, which had very little to do with anything concerning age. Here are my remarks again, if you want to actually address them:
"What was it of which Timothy was to cleanse himself? Youthful lusts (Timothy was a young man). Paul's command to Timothy was to "flee youthful lusts" and chase after righteousness, faith, love, etc. As he did so, Timothy would become (because he was not already) a "vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master." Here, again, Paul puts a serious crimp in the idea that a born-again person (as Timothy was) is free of sin and cannot sin."
The answer to your question, is just a little higher in the chapter. Why ask questions, as if you need to invent an answer, when it is right there, plain and explained ?
The inheritance is incorruptible and undefiled, and that is what born again is described as, incorruptible, and by their souls purified obeying the truth through the Spirit, unfeigned love of the brothers.
I ask the question in order to provoke you to consider carefully what Peter actually wrote.
1 Peter 1:3-5 (NASB)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Peter is not explaining
what being born-again is, but only that the born-again believer has a spiritual inheritance
as a result of their salvation, by which they have been made "joint-heirs with Christ" (
Romans 8:17), that is enduring, and without blemish, and that awaits the child of God
in heaven. If this inheritance awaits the believer
in heaven, it cannot be the same as salvation which is
the necessary predicate to obtaining such an inheritance, which salvation is possessed by the born-again person
while they live on earth.
As Peter wrote, God the Father has caused the readers of Peter's letter to be born-again, their hope in their own resurrection from the dead secured by Christ's resurrection (
vs. 3).
As a result of this state-of-affairs, as a result of these people being born-again, they have an eternal, spiritual inheritance awaiting them in heaven when they die. (
vs. 4) It is evident, then, that spiritual regeneration (being born-again) and the resulting spiritual inheritance awaiting the born-again person in heaven are not the same thing. What do you mean, then, by writing,
"The inheritance is incorruptible and undefiled, and that is what born again is described as..." ?
None of them can be an evil doer, and this exhortation ( as you asked why??????) is so they wont be ashamed but to understand that they glorify God, as judgement had begun at the house of God, and the end of those who obey the gospel had come, as the righteous are scarcely saved, the sinner appears nowhere, so they who suffer, these trials ( which is why they are exhorted) suffer according to the will of God, committing the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto the faithful creator. ( you only need to read and what need you do you have left for disputing them that are written clearly and without a need for questioning, or turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
Jude 1:4.)
I used to teach High School English and had students who would turn in essays that were very much of a kind with what you've written here, going on and on, filling pages with words, in the hopes I would not recognize that they had not answered the question their essay was supposed to answer. I always gave these "fluff" essays the failing grade they deserved.
Actually what is told of the Galatians ( as everybody in forums knows only too well) is that they were foolish, beginning in the Spirit, then faltering , by trusting in the works of the law.
Perhaps you don't understand what legalism is, though you've described it here quite well...
Paul, in chapter 3, had to set out how faith works, it is by hearing of faith that we receive the Spirit, and of course then by hearing the law, there is no faith, and no Spirit. Thaat is then in vain for them as told.
I don't mean to be rude, but what does any of this have to do with the point I made about Paul's descriptions of the Galatian believers indicating what he truly believed about them?
So total failure from the Galatians and for whoever supports their example of success.
They desired to be under the law, and Paul is in doubt of therm, as they show they are in doubt of Christ.
Galatians 4:20 I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.
21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
And, as I pointed out, Paul actually thought these same Galatians were genuinely born-again brethren, tempted by Judaizers though they were.
Galatians 4:7 (NASB)
7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
Galatians 4:9 (NASB)
9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God...
Galatians 4:12 (NASB)
12 I beg of you, brethren, become as I am...
As Paul clearly indicated, he thought the believers in Galatia to be truly born-again folk, though they were falling under the legalistic influence of a Judaizer. What, then, of the idea that being born-again means one is without sin and cannot sin? Paul's letter to the Galatians does not bear out this view at all.
