Of those who trembled at God’s Word in the past, some believers in the Church of Corinth were undoubtedly among the most serious as the Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 7:9-11. Through him God tells true believers within the church that they have His attention and are walking the narrow path that leads to Him.

In this letter Paul is praising the truly repentant in the Corinthian church for their heartfelt repentance of past sins. He refers to the attitude they displayed during their self-evaluation and self-correction “godly sorrow”–the only kind of sorrow that would result in eternal life. He goes into detail when describing their reversal of character, saying: “what carefulness, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal …. In all things you have shown yourselves to be clear (free of sin) in this matter.” Truly, some in the Corinthian church trembled before the living God as they righted themselves relative to His Word. We all fail Him and are all repentant to some degree, but THE REPENTANT CORINTHIANS DISPLAYED THE TYPE OF TREMBLING GOD REQUIRES IN ORDER TO GAIN HIS FORGIVENESS. Only this level of self-emptying and self-loathing can bring a former sinner into true oneness with his/her Maker. No amount of religiosity (“filthy rags”-Isa. 64:6) will bring one into God’s presence. True believers in the Corinthian church had learned this Truth, believed it and obeyed it–the only spiritual formula that will produce eternal life. As we will see, not every repentant in the Corinthian church was as serious as those Paul was addressing. From his words we know that some were merely going through the motions. These were undoubtedly in the “I’m just a sinner saved by grace,” “Adam made a sinner out of me,” “I have to sin, that’s why Jesus died” crowd. It is these churchites (then and now) whom Paul addresses in 66:3.

In this passage Paul tells us how the Lord views filthy rags advocates in the church who claim to be His people but refuse to believe and obey (tremble before) His Word. Paul describes God’s attitude toward their religiosity (obedience to church doctrines, customs, etc.) in the following way: “He that kills an ox (God sees) as he who kills a man; he that sacrifices a lamb as he who sacrifices a dog; he that offers a sin offering as he that offers swine’s blood; he that burns incense as he who blesses an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own (man-directed) ways, and their souls delight in their abominations.” Note that these people were extremely religious and “delighted” in their version of Christianity. Though outwardly righteous, these people had a heart problem–they refused to stop doing what they were supposedly repenting of doing. For this reason He calls their religious practices “filthy rags” and “abominations.” Paul’s words hold true for those in modern Christendom whose religious abominations include such heathen traditions as the observance of the Sunday Sabbath, Christmas and Easter. See the Introduction to this website for a more complete list of pagan practices and beliefs the Counterfeit Church embraces while believing that she is pleasing God. To be continued. L.J.