1 Corinthians 5:1-8 February 19, 2023

A Call for Clarity

We live in a hyper-sexual world. Last week many watched the Super Bowl between the Chiefs and Eagles (GO CHIEFS!). Many watched to support their team. Many watched to see the halftime show - which fortunately experienced no wardrobe malfunctions - but the dance routines were highly sexual.

Of course almost all the advertising we see on social media, television, and magazines is sexual in nature. You won’t see people who look like me trying to sell sports cars - or deodorant or cologne or a clothing line!

Paul’s letter to believers in Corinth is a response to several issues. A first hand report indicated the fractious nature of the believers in that fellowship (1 Cor 1-3). The next issue is raised here in I Cor 5, and another issue will be surfaced in 1 Cor 6, and several other issues will be introduced in later sections.

1 Corinthians 5:1–5 HCSB

It is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles —a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are inflated with pride, instead of filled with grief so that he who has committed this act might be removed from your congregation. For though I am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already decided about the one who has done this thing as though I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus with my spirit and with the power of our Lord Jesus, turn that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.

A casual reading might lead one to focus on the sexual immorality as the primary issue. However, that is not Paul’s primary concern.

1 Corinthians 5:2 (HCSB)

And you are inflated with pride, instead of filled with grief ...

Paul underlines this concern by reminding his readers of two very important realities:

a). This sort of behavior - incest - is reprehensible to pagans (vs 1) and

b). A little leaven impacts the whole - a lesson from OT theology class! (vs 6-8).

Paul challenges the believers in Corinth to be God’s people by clearly reflecting God and His truth to a lost and dying world.

Pride or Mourning

No one is certain as to how Paul heard of the circumstances. He is deeply troubled by the circumstance - a man having on on-going sexual relationship with his father’s wife, that is - his step-mother, Paul is more concerned about how believers in Corinth are PROUD of their ‘tolerance’ of disgusting behavior - behavior which even Greeks and Romans knew to be wrong.

Paul insists that the appropriate first reaction is to mourn, not to celebrate. One scholar translates the Greek word we have as sorrowful or mourning as ‘complacent.’ (THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS: A Commentary on the Greek Text by Anthony C. Thiselton WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN CAMBRIDGE, U.K. THE PATERNOSTER PRESS CARLISLE n© 2000).

Indeed, how could a group of believers remains complacent about such a grievous sin? Maybe we don’t need to look all the way back to the first century…maybe we should look inside our own heart and our own community first!

Calling attention to a pattern of behavior that should have produced repentance and remorse is a way of calling them - and us - to review

just how do we think of sin?

Do we celebrate, condone, or express regret and repentance for sin?

Paul uses language that suggests that the appropriate response is to enter into

a formal state of mourning [which] would stamp the life and worship of the church objectively and publicly in a way which would thereby make it intolerable for the offender to remain, and would then in all probability have made his own choice to leave (or to change his lifestyle). He would know that he blighted the church’s life (see n. 23).

Anthony C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 388.

Some will pause and ask, but didn’t Jesus respond to the woman caught in adultery by asking those who were without sin to cast the first stone?

Who among the believers in Corinth would have qualified?

Who among us would qualify to call out the sin of another?

Lets probe a little deeper:

1 Corinthians 5:6–8 HCSB

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast permeates the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch. You are indeed unleavened, for Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old yeast or with the yeast of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

How Much Leaven/Yeast is Enough?

One writer explains:

The First Epistle to the Corinthians 1. The Problem of the Incestuous Relationship (5:1–8)

Leaven’ is not quite the same as yeast. In ancient times, instead of yeast, a piece of dough was held over from one week’s baking to the next. By then it was fermenting, and so could cause fermentation in the new lot of dough, causing it to rise in the heat. This was a useful practice, but not hygienic, since dirt and disease could be passed on from week to week.” In the light of this, once a year the Jews would break the chain and begin all over again with fresh, unleavened dough. Hence the influence of a small amount of material carried over from the past was eradicated, and a new beginning took place

When a person experiences the new birth, being born again, not only do they receive a new life (see Rom 6:1-4) they are also grafted into a new family of believers. In a sense, the old is gone and a new beginning has occured - within the individual and in terms of being incorporated into the family of all who are born again.

Allowing one man’s sinful behavior - and by allowing I mean just that - they were proud of their ‘tolerance’ creates just enough leaven to damage the entire body. Remember what Paul has already written:

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 HCSB

Don’t you yourselves know that you are God’s sanctuary and that the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s sanctuary, God will destroy him; for God’s sanctuary is holy, and that is what you are.

Responsible Discipline

Punishment and discipline are not the same thing.

Chip Ingram offers this helpful clarification:

Parenting Myth: Discipline requires parents to penalize their child as payback for an offense.

Parenting Reality: Discipline means applying appropriate consequences to encourage a child to make better choices in the future.

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/punishment-versus-discipline/

We could read vs 3-5 as Paul’s pronouncement of punishment: turn over the sinful person to death!

But that’s not what Paul intends.

“turn that one over to Satan...” (1 Corinthians 5:5, HCSB)

What exactly is Paul’s intent?

For Paul and those living in that early days after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension there was a distinct difference between the world which was under the authority of the adversary and the kingdom of God which is under the authority of God.

To turn one over the Satan is to expel the individual from the fellowship and protection of the church and him as though you would treat anyone who doesn’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Paul closes this section of his letter with clear instructions:

1 Corinthians 5:13 (HCSB) Put away the evil person from among yourselves.

Paul’s explanation of turning this one over to Satan is worth exploring.

1 Corinthians 5:5 (HCSB)

turn that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the Day of the Lord.

Does this mean literal death? Is Paul expecting the enemy to kill the one who has sinned?

Warren Wiersbe a noted preacher and teacher offers this helpful explanation:

The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Five: Be Wise about … Church Discipline (1 Corinthians 5–6))

When a Christian is in fellowship with the Lord and with the local church, he enjoys a special protection from Satan. But when he is out of fellowship with God and excommunicated from the local church, he is “fair game” for the enemy. God could permit Satan to attack the offender’s body so that the sinning believer would repent and return to the Lord.

Paul is not asking for punishment but discipline - for specific purpose of redemption and restoration.

By What Authority?

A legitimate question revolves around which of us has the right to ‘judge’ another.

Yes, Jesus challenges us to not judge one another:

Matthew 7:1 HCSB

“Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged.

1 Corinthians 4:5 HCSB

Therefore don’t judge anything prematurely, before the Lord comes, who will both bring to light what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the hearts. And then praise will come to each one from God.

But think again about the difference between punishment and discipline.

Believers in Corinth were boasting about their tolerance for sexual freedom.

What message does that communicate to families and individuals who are seeking to order every area of their livnes under God’s guidance and direction?

Are there some area where God’s Word no longer applies?

Are we as a fellowship of believers allowed to determine which behaviors are acceptable or not acceptable?

Let me offer some thoughts from an article written by JD Greear, who pastors a large fellowship in North Carolina that draws hundreds of college age adults.

He points out:

Every unbeliever who steps into our church assumes he already knows what we believe about homosexuality for at least three reasons. First, Christians across the globe have consistently believed in the sanctity of heterosexual marriage for 2,000 years... Second, evangelicals are known as Bible people, and even a casual reader of the Bible easily discerns the Bible’s disapproval of homosexuality. Third, the media reminds audiences of the above every chance they get in order to portray Christians as bigots.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/downplay-homosexual-sin-generation/

As Paul reminded those in Corinth - even the pagans knew that incest was wrong!

The real issue at stake - for the one living in blatant sin with his father’s mother AND THE CHURCH is not sexuality.

The real issue is PRIDE!

The authority by which Paul acts and speaks is derived from the cross - which is the perfect example of humility and power. There Jesus surrendered fully to His Father’s purpose - that we might know forgiveness of sin.

It was through the cross that Jesus experienced the power of God as God restored His life -

By taking action - in the name of Jesus (see vs 4) the gathered believers - with Paul’s presence in spirit but not in body - can proclaim the truth of the cross.

Paul wrote to believers in Galatia

Galatians 5:24–25 HCSB

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit.

What’s Next?

There are several important issues revealed by this challenging chapter:

a. are we truly different from the world around us?

Do our lifestyle choices reflect a deepening understanding of God’s holiness and our desperate need of a Savior?

b. are we being fully conformed into the image Jesus Christ?

If there is sin in our lives - no matter how carefully hidden it is - then we are hindering what God is trying to do is conforming us to the image of Christ.

Instead of pride Paul called for mourning - a sign of genuine repentance.

c. are we truly ‘new’ creations or just cleaned up variations on the old?

Christ came announcing the kingdom of God. It is a new age, requiring new life. Jesus insisted to Nicodemus, ‘you must be born again.’ There are no shortcuts.

This new life is destined for a new creation that though similar to the old will be free from sin. To tolerate sin now is to hinder God’s process of bringing about His kingdom and exercising His will on earth as it is done in heaven.

These are challenging words - challenging is to

a). be honest about our own sin

If we confess our sin, He forgives

b.) be honest with one another

In the article from JD Greear I referenced earlier he points out

Jesus’s unstoppable power came from being filled with both grace and truth. Jesus was the only fully truthful man and the only fully gracious man. Those concepts were not enemies in his nature—warring against each other for “balance”—they were fully in agreement. Were Jesus not fully truthful, he wouldn’t have been gracious; were he not fully gracious, he wouldn’t have been truthful. Ambiguity on this issue [on the issue of sin period!] isn’t kindness. Clarity is.

Before you leave today, let’s be clear...

If there is sin - confess - God longs to forgive