1 Corinthians 5.1-2 records, I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn’t be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. And you’re so above it all that it doesn’t even faze you! Shouldn’t this break your hearts? Shouldn’t it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn’t this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with? MSG

Why was this activity wrong? Where did the Lord Jesus condemn such actions? We have to turn to Paul’s Bible, what we call the Old Testament, to find this behavior of a man sleeping with his stepmother immoral. But we are under the New Covenant, why should this apply to us?

God Who makes and defines all of the covenants is the same yesterday, today and forever. The holiness and the righteousness of God has never changed no matter what age of men are in existence. The means by which God chooses to deal with man’s rebellion against Him is defined by covenant but the responsibility man has to obey God has remained unchanged.

Covenant can define a level of our obedience, for example, we who are under the New Covenant are no longer required to offer sacrifices as prescribed under the Old Covenant, but the moral law, the character of God, not a dot or letter shall pass away until the Word of God lives among us as One of us again forever as King. Even then, the Living Word will not negate the written Word, rather He shall make the Word more alive and real, tangible and present, than we ever hoped or imagined.

With so many allowances in the Church today, we must be careful not to ignore or disobey the Word of God. Always, God is to be honored, God is to be obeyed. God is holy and so must His people be holy.