“I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish — that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder. I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality and sensuality that they have practiced.” 2 Corinthians 12:20-21
Our sins are connected deep inside us, more than we intend or even see. We compartmentalize. We tell ourselves we can sin in one area and it will stay contained in that area. It’s easier to rationalize that way. We can keep a feeling of control.
But the reality of what we are and how we work is more subtle, more interrelated, more inevitable. When the Corinthian church was bouncing off the walls with quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder, and when Paul probed deeper, what he found down underneath the other mess was unrepentant sexual sin.