Problems Plaguing a Local Church,
Part 10
In last Sunday’s message, TOUGH LOVE TO HEAL GOD’S CHURCH (1 Cor. 5:1-8) the Holy Spirit left the problem of party factions to deal with a second serious issue in the local church. There was ongoing “sexual immorality among” them that everyone knew about (1 Cor. 5:1). This compromised the church’s ability to witness powerfully in the culture they were in and even threatened to ruin the church itself (1 Cor. 3:17; 4:20-21, etc.).
The specific “sexual immorality” at hand was a brother from the church was living with “his father’s wife” (1 Cor. 5:1b). This was prohibited by Old Testament Mosaic Law (Lev. 18:8; Deut. 22:22, etc.); Roman law; and was something “… even pagans [unsaved people did] not tolerate” (1 Cor. 5:1 NIV). While it is true, because of spiritual warfare, people who do not know Jesus personally look for reasons to disbelieve the Gospel (2 Cor. 4:4), we as God’s children should do our best to live beyond reproach “that WHEN they defame [us] as evildoers…” the message of “Christ crucified” will be most effective in their ears (1 Cor. 1:23-25; Rom. 1:16; 1 Pet. 3:15-17, caps my emphasis).
The verb “has” in 1 Cor. 5:1 is in the present tense, and it is used in sexual or marital contexts as a euphemism for a continuing relationship in contrast to a so-called ‘one night stand.’ The man and his step-mother were, in the words of our culture, “living together.” Church discipline is to be brought upon a Christian who is “living together” with someone who is not his wife or her husband because this ongoing, unconfessed, persistent “sexual immorality” (porneía in the Greek) is contrary to the explicit Word of God for His children (Rom. 12:1-2; Matt. 18:15-18; 1 John 1:9, etc.). Notice also that the person addressed here in this passage is only the one “named a brother” within the church walls (1 Cor. 5:1, 11). His step-mother is not mentioned because she is not a member of the church and not a Christian. The church is ONLY to discipline Christians, NOT unbelievers (1 Cor. 5:9-13). We will hopefully look at this truth in the Bible more next week…
Sadly, the “carnal” attitude of much of the church in Corinth was worse than the sin itself (1 Cor. 5:2). They took pride (i.e. were “puffed up” 1 Cor. 5:2) as they declared their broad-minded tolerance of the brother committing sin in their midst saying things like:
“Look at how loving we are!”
“Look at how open-minded and understanding we are!”
A twisted view of God’s grace, sourced in their pride, caused them not do what the Bible said (Rom. 6:1-2, 15-19; Titus 2:11-14, James 1:22, etc.). All forms of teaching that go against the Bible is in opposition to what the Lord wants us to do (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Instead of gloating over their perceived freedom, the church leadership and body as a whole should have “mourned” over sin because it offends God and hurts others too (1 Cor. 3:18; 4:2; Ps. 51:4, etc.). This word for mourning here refers to wailing over the dead- the deepest and most painful kind of personal sorrow possible (Gen. 3:15; John 3:16; 11:33; Heb. 2:8, etc.). We also today as Christians should never have a cavalier view of sin, saying things like, “it’s not that bad.” We should hate sin because abhorring sin reflects the true love of God in our lives and hearts (Rom. 12:9, etc.). This means taking up our cross to follow Jesus as His disciple in spite of what our feelings might dictate as the Holy Spirit leads us (Luke 9:23; Eph. 5:18; Gal. 5:16-18; 1 Cor. 2:9-16; 4:1-2, etc.).
Practically, for the Corinthians, this meant they were called to exercise church discipline (1 Cor. 5:3) by removing the unrepentant brother “from among” them at their very next meeting (1 Cor. 5:2, 4). This was so the offending brother could be delivered “to Satan for the destruction of the flesh” (1 Cor. 5:5a). Leaving the church places a child of God in peril as does deliberately walking in sin (1 John 5:19; 1 Pet. 5:8, etc.). And “destruction” here refers to the possible physical ruining of his body (i.e. “the flesh”) if he does not turn back to God (1 Cor. 5:5; 10:10; 11:30; 1 John 5:16, etc.). While severe and ONLY TO BE ENACTED AT THE END OF A SERIES OF DISCIPLINE (Matt. 18:15-18), this correction is also temporal and done in an effort to get the child of God to turn around before “the judgment seat of Christ” (1 Cor. 3:15; 2 Cor. 5:9-10; 2 Tim. 3:16-17, etc.). This “TOUGH LOVE” is both for the well-being of the church to help God’s people live in Christ’s “power” now (1 Cor. 5:4) and even for the offending brother as the truly unloving thing to do is leave him in his sin not doing what God’s Word says (1 Cor. 2:9-16; 3:15, 17-18, etc.). It is important to note, God in His grace still affirms the truth here that this man- “he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns” (1 Cor. 5:5b NLT). As the Lord’s child, saved by grace through faith, he remains heaven-bound because “no one is able to snatch [him] out of [the] Father’s hand” (John 10:29; Rom. 8:31-39; Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30, etc.).
Paul continues, “a little leaven [representing sin here] leavens the whole lump [that is the entire church]” (1 Cor. 5:6). Because sin, like cancer, can destroy a whole body, God commands again the local church here to “purge out” the sinning brother so the rest of the church can remain pure and live in God’s kingdom power today (1 Cor. 4:20-21; 5:4-5, 7; Matt. 18:9, 15-18; 2 Thes. 3:14, etc.). Since Christians “truly are” holy because “Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7b; Rom. 6:11, etc.), God wants us to live in that reality (Rom. 12:1-2, etc.). The verb “was” in verse 7 is a past tense one-time event. That is, Jesus was sacrificed at Calvary for the sin of the entire world “once for all” as the precious Lamb of God (Heb. 9:12; Acts 16:30-31, etc.). And we are “Therefore… [to] keep the feast, not… with the leaven [sin] of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Cor. 5:8). The “feast” here in verse 8 refers to the Feast of Unleavened Bread after the Passover was sacrificed, and the verb to “keep” here is present-tense, ongoing. In the same way Jewish people would sweep out their homes of all leaven (picturing sin) after the Passover, we as Christians are called to throw out all sin continuously from our lives today- taking the next step of faith He has called us to (1 Cor. 5:7; 2 Cor. 5:7, etc.). For the church of Corinth, their next step of faith was to exercise tough love/ church discipline in accordance to God’s Word, but for you it may be different. What is God asking you to do today to follow Him? What is the next step of faith He is calling you to? (Eph. 5:18). He will help you do it as you trust Him (1 John 4:4).