Pastor Jim and his wife, Colleen, are the senior pastors of King’s Cathedral in Maui, Hawaii — the largest church in Hawaii. Jim’s ministry has extended to the nations, touching not only Hawaii, but Alaska and California, as well as the nations of Japan, Tahiti, Philippines, Chile and Spain.

Dr. Marocco has written several books and has his doctorate from Fuller Seminary. His most recent book, Defiled, is a timely message which he recently shared with our students. I was moved by his message, and I know you will be as well.

 

The enemy of your soul wants to rob you of all your joy, power and effectiveness. He would love to bring you to hell with him, if he could. In I Corinthians 5:6-13, Paul addresses the topic of defilement. This passage says:

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner — not even to eat with such a person.

For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

We receive insight from this text about the tactics of the enemy. The above passage says the church in Corinth had an immorality problem. There was a man in the church who was having an affair with his father’s wife. Everybody in the church knew about it; they congratulated themselves on their tolerance. In response to this, Paul said to take the man and turn him over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh.

DESTRUCTION OF THE FLESH
The idea of turning one over to Satan is for the destruction of their flesh, so their soul may be saved. This was the situation in Corinth. It sounds pretty radical, but Paul was not only concerned about the man who had committed this evil — he was concerned about the rest of the church as well. He says, “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (v. 6)

He is talking about something we are all familiar with. When you take yeast and put it with dough, the dough rises. This is a picture of evil. In essence, Paul said, “If you do not expel this man from the congregation, the same sin he is doing will spread like yeast spreads in dough and affect everyone.”

He is talking about a principle he knew very well as a Jewish rabbi. It comes right out of the Old Testament; it is the principle of defilement.
God is holy, and He loved a group of people called the Israelites. He wanted to dwell with them, but there was a problem: they were unholy. How does a holy God dwell with an unholy people? Throughout the Old Testament, God was constantly instructing His people to be holy. He gave them a holy consciousness so He could dwell with them.

You see the separation of the holy and the unholy throughout the Old Testament. When you read Leviticus 10:10, you notice the priesthood’s purpose was to distinguish between the holy and the common, the clean and unclean. The job of the priest was to give the people of Israel a holy consciousness and to determine what was clean and unclean. The whole picture of the Old Testament is clean and unclean, that which is defiled and that which is not.

There were two forms of defilement in the Old Testament: temporary and permanent. Temporary defilement was caused by things like touching the dead, childbirth and discharges. Permanent defilement was caused by things like eating certain foods, diseases and conditions which rendered a person unclean. In order for a person who was unclean to become clean, they had to go through a ceremony. The nature of the ceremony depended on the state of uncleanness.

We notice the Old Testament is a picture book of the reality of the New Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus defines defilement differently. Consider Matthew 15:11-19, when He says, “Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” He goes on to say, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.”

To Jesus, the whole Old Testament foreshadowed the spiritual reality of defilement in the New. Defilement in the New Testament is a spiritual state which deals with a person’s heart. One can become defiled, not on a physical basis, but on a spiritual basis. This is repeated throughout the New Testament. The writer of Hebrews even suggested that a Christian can be a spreader of defilement if he is not careful — much like a person can be a carrier of a disease and not even know it.

In Hebrews 12:15, the writer says, “[L]ooking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled …” There are Christians today who spread defilement and do not even realize it. The issues of their hearts spring forth bitter things, defiling themselves and others.

Take a look at how Paul writes this. In I Corinthians 5:9 he says,
I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner — not even to eat with such a person.

Paul is explaining how defilement spreads through relationships. The most vulnerable relationships we have are the relationships of family. When you become a Christian, you enter the family of God. In that family, you must live appropriately because people trust you, and if you are not living right, they may become defiled by copying what you do.

Paul goes on to talk about this nature of relationship in other texts as well. In I Corinthians 15:33 he says, “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’” Who you spend time with is who you will become. If you spend time with people of faith, you will become a man or a woman of faith. If you spend time with doubters, you will become a doubter.

In Titus 3:10, Paul says to have nothing to do with a divisive person after he has been warned twice. Paul understood something about defilement: it spreads through relationships.

DEFILEMENT THROUGH ATTITUDE
You may wonder how a person becomes defiled through relationships. There are many ways, but I will focus on four of them. The first is through attitude. Attitude is a way of seeing. When you are influenced by somebody, you see things in the same manner as they do. An attitude can develop in your life without you being aware of it. This very thing happened in my life years ago.

I went to college in Southern California, and I was very on fire for God. I went to a Christian school, but I also went to a secular college at the same time and played football there. When I played football on Friday night, I would go witnessing in a coffee house run by Teen Challenge at Huntington Beach on Saturday night.

One summer, Teen Challenge left, and the coffee house was taken over by a group called Teens For Christ. It was basically one family of radical witnesses. They would stand next to the lines for the movies with a placard which said “Repent or burn,” and they would preach to the people in line. They would take hours everyday and memorize Scripture. You could ask where something was found in the Bible, and they could tell you the verse. It was amazing. They were always preaching about doing the will of God. I was attracted to the group and spent a lot of time with them. I would witness with them and travel with them.

Then, I began to see something happen. I did not really notice it until one summer, when my mom and I were driving through Dallas. I saw a guy walking into a church, and I turned to my mom as we were driving by and said, “Mom, look at that hypocrite.”

Now, I did not even know the guy, nor did I know the church; but the group I was a part of believed they were the only spiritual people in the world, and everybody else was a hypocrite. I had unknowingly ingested that spirit. I am sure my mom prayed for me often in the following months, and her prayers did some good.

The group, interestingly enough, had an animosity toward higher education. They believed any formal education was of the devil, and the only real education was education from the Bible or education done at home. So, every time I went to witness, they grilled me because I was in college, playing football. They got upset every time I was with them because they believed what I was doing was wrong. I was told I needed to drop out of college and join their group.

After that summer, I really made it an issue of prayer. I began to pray, “Lord, should I leave college and join this group?”The Holy Spirit spoke James 3:13-18 to me, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

When God gave me this verse, the group I witnessed with was in Southern California invading churches. They would sit near the front of a church, and in the middle of the service, they would stand up and begin to tell the congregation that the pastor was a hypocrite and everybody was going to hell. They would continue this until they were thrown out of the church, at which point they would picket outside the church.

When God gave me this verse, the Holy Spirit spoke to me very clearly, “Does that group reflect My wisdom? Do they reflect the wisdom which comes from above?”

I said, “No.”

Then He said, “Whose wisdom do they have?”

I said, “Well if it is not from You, it must be earthly, unspiritual and of the devil.”

But I was confused. I said, “Lord, they are so radical; they are so on fire. They memorize scripture and witness to everybody. They are doing Your will.”

He said, “They are not of Me. I want you to separate yourself from them.”

I left the group, but I still did not understand the verse which says, “For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.” I did not think it was possible anything like that could happen to the group.

This was the end of 1970. At that point, they left California because they believed it was going to fall into the ocean, and they went to Arizona. From Arizona, they moved to Texas, and changed their name from Teens For Christ to The Children of God. They became the vilest cult of the 20th century. They began practicing child molestation and prostitution; every vile thing happened in that group. I would have been a leader in the group if God had not spoken to me clearly about the difference between wisdom from above and the wisdom from the devil. I was being shaped by the people I surrounded myself with, and whether you realize it or not, you are being shaped as well.

DEFILEMENT THROUGH TRANSFERENCE
The second way defilement comes through relationships is via transference and counter-transference. This occurs when a male counselor is counseling a female, and she comes with needs and begins to share them. The male counselor is empathetic, and the woman begins to transfer the love she has for her husband to the male counselor. That is called transference. Even more dangerous is counter-transference. This happens when the counselor gets caught up in her world, and transfers the love he has for his wife to the counselee.

Defilement is a very serious issue. You must be aware of the ways in which relationships can cause defilement to creep into your life. Be on guard and protect the thing most important in your life – your soul.

The conclusion of Dr. James Marocco’s article, Defilement, will be featured in April’s issue. For more information on the Marocco’s ministry, please visit www.kingscathedral.com.