Sermon series on 1 Corinthians: Discipline in Church, How to Biblically Drive out the Wicked Person from You (Part 5)
1 Corinthians 5
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. 3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
In this passage, there is a case where a man slept with his father’s wife. It can be assumed that the guy is supposedly a Christian since Paul had called out this man, and said to remove him from their group. This is how Paul told the Corinthian church to deal with sexual immorality. If a case of sexual immorality occurred in ANF, what would be the biblical thing to do?
Before we answer, there are actually more sins that Paul lists out in his letter. He also calls out greediness as another act that needs to be cleansed out. He also mentions idolaters – those that make anything more important than God. Paul goes on to also mention revilers – someone that talks badly about someone or gives false testimony. As well as drunkards, and swindlers.
This chapter asks a serious question. If there is anyone that does these actions, what should we do with them? And the answer is straightforward – verse 2 says to have them be “removed from among you.” This is because the church needs to be holy, as God is holy. We should not be associated with anyone that is a brother or sister in Christ that is okay with doing these sins.
But what is the process we need to take to get to this conclusion?
First, we need to ask what kind of person would be qualified to make this decision.
The list of sins is clear, and we should reflect to see if we do any of these. Each sin can cover a multitude of actions, and it is most likely that everyone does at least one of these in some way. When we think about it like this, then who has the right to judge? If we totally purge these sins, then who could stay in church? Is anyone completely innocent?
Then what kind of person are we supposed to make this judgment on?
We can’t judge nonbelievers, as this passage is about judging believers
We can’t judge those working on repentance, those trying to change
We can judge people who are repeatedly doing these things, and with a proud attitude – these are the people that need to be judged and disciplined
Then, how can we make this judgment? How do we get to this conclusion?
The bible uses the word “judge” in two different ways. One way is to condemn (which is declaring that someone has no hope to change/giving a final sentence). Another way is to correct (to teach change). The bible forbids people to condemn, but encourages correction. And in order to correct, we need to carefully see what needs to be changed.
In Matthew 7, Jesus tells us that before we can take a speck out of another person’s eye, we need to take the log out of our own eyes first. This means that we need to self evaluate before we can make a judgment on another person. So ask yourself if there’s anything you need to repent of first.
In Matthew 18, Jesus gives us a process of confronting another person of their wrongdoing. He says to tell that person on your own. If they don’t listen, then bring others along with you. If they still don’t repent after this, bring them to the church. If they still don’t repent, then the church can make the decision to tell them to leave.
But what is the purpose of this lengthy process? The purpose is to give them chances of repentance and restoration – our goal is to not have them eternally separated from God. Any discipline that occurs is to be out of love, because in the same way God does this for us.
This leads to a certain dilemma: the church needs to be loving, forgiving, and accepting as God was for us. But at the same time, the church must be holy as God is.
Even though we need to be holy, we have many sinners in church. We need to be holy because this allows us to do God’s mission of reaching the lost. If we were to live the same as them, how can we present God to them?
We need to be holy and loving at the same time. God was also holy and loving – but this is why Jesus decided to take our place.
It is important not to neglect confession. To be sad for our sins, and to be compassionate. To take responsibility for our sins. If we neglect compassion and responsibility, then any judgment we make would look like punishment. This is why compassion and judgment must go together.
The conclusion is simple. We are not to tolerate Christians that are proud of their sin.
However, we need to take a lot of considerations before we pronounce judgment.
Discussion Questions:
How has this message spoken to you?
How do you respond to God when you sin?
