First Corinthians 5:12 draws a contrast between those “who are outside” and those “who are inside.” What is Paul talking about? He is contrasting “people of this world” (5:10) with one who is “a brother” in the family of God (5:11). “Insiders” (if we may use that word accommodatively) are those who are “inside” Christ (wherein is salvation, 2 Tim. 2:10) and “inside” the family of God (who will inherit eternal life, 1 Pet. 1:3-4). “Outsiders” are, therefore, those who are “outside” of Christ (and do not have salvation, Rom. 8:1) and “outside” the family of God (who will not inherit eternal life, 2 Thess. 1:8-9).
So, if you are an “insider,” what does God expect of you? He does not expect you to “sit” and do nothing while “inside” His family. He does not expect you to hold the door closed and keep anyone else from coming “inside” His family. He does not expect you to merely “wish” that “outsiders” might find their way “inside” His family. He tells those who are “inside” to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature!” (Mark 16:15). While we must be “in the world” (John 17:11) to reach the world, at the same time we must not be “of the world (John 17:14-16).
Therefore, Christians must pray for and find an “open…door for the word,” that we may “speak” it and live it before those who are lost (Col. 4:3-4). That’s why Paul says, “Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time” (4:5). We MUST make the MOST of every opportunity that is afforded to us to bring as many “outsiders” as we can “inside” the family of God! In the Parable of the Great Supper, the master bid his servants, “Go out quickly…and bring in here…Go out…and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:21-23). Our Master is bidding us, as His servants, to do that very thing—“Go out…and bring in…that there may be more ‘inside’ My house!”
Eventually, in eternity, there will be an “outside” (Rev. 22:15) and an inside (22:14). On the day of judgment, the Lord will say to those who have not faithfully followed Him, “Depart…into everlasting fire” (Matt. 25:41), but He will say to those who have faithfully followed Him, “Come…inherit” (25:34). The first question is, “Which will you hear? Will you be outside or inside for all eternity?” The second question is, “Which will you have helped others to hear? Will people you have known (family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc.) be outside or inside for all eternity? Will you have done or said anything to influence their eternity?”
These are sobering thoughts and sobering questions. May God help us to truly be “insiders,” for true “insiders” want all “outsiders” to come inside—in the church and into heaven!