Fornication In The Church

1 Corinthians 5

Verse 1......It had been reported to Paul and it seems it was common knowledge of everyone around that a father’s son had married hist father’s wife.....

Fornication among you..........

Porneia is the Greek word for fornication which is the root word for our word pornography.

This simply means “sexual immorality”

Sexual immorality can just simply be defined as this: “sexual sin of a general kind, that includes many different behaviors.”

Any form of sexual activity which is outside of the marriage covenant in which God created.

Man & Woman that have united their lives together as a family.

Paul uses a very general word for “incest” “porneia”, which seems to point that all the sexual sins are an abomination to God.

It was punishable by law in the OT.....Leviticus 18:7–8 “The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.”

Leviticus 18:29 “For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.”

One thing that Paul noted about this specific sin, is that incest was illegal in even the Gentiles/Romans law.

Not only was against the law but it was uncommon among a pagan people.

And here we find Christ’s redeemed people participating in something that even the unbelievers won’t do.

“His father’s wife”....This seems to point to that the father was remarried from the son’s mother.

By death or divorce???

The idea is the son having sexual relations with his former step-mom.

Now, in those days and I would assume that is still the case in the eyes of God, that would be like marrying and having sex with your own mother.

Incest! And that is just what that was and is.

Verse 2....Now, remember how Paul talked about the Corinth church being “puffed up” (arrogant) in the last chapter......he brings it back in here.

Are you so arrogant......Are you so prideful and fleshly as to excuse even this extreme wickedness????

You have not mourned over this in the Body of Christ......

Mourned to the point of removing the one that had done this!

Evidently, this son was parading this around and not ashamed of it, at all. In his eyes not considered a sin!

Similar to David, after he took Bathsheba and had Uriah killed, then went on about his way like nothing ever happened......maybe in his mind but there was no fruit/evidence of mourning.......God knew that David had moved on from it and brought Nathan the prophet to him with the purpose of exposing him, why? To get David to repent!

This hadn’t mourned the church enough to cast this man out of the church. Seems harsh doesn’t it?

Verse 3......Even though Paul was there with them in the flesh, he was in spirit.....

Paul was with in heart and mind......Those who were present and might have been expected to take action had done nothing. He who was absent, and might have pleaded distance as an excuse for inaction, was taking strong measures.

His just judgement would be just as if he was present.........it was with finality the he judged!

Verse 4.......I find this verse fascinating in the midst of this struggle in the church, Paul reveals a truth in the midst of him giving them direction in what to do.

Basically what Paul says here is that....... “When you meet again......In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ”

Paul invokes the meeting and why we have the meeting!!!! It is in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ!

That is meeting in consistency with His Holy Person and Purpose/Will!

Paul placed authority where it should be in the body......which is Christ’s!

Just so you know, why you will be assembled together and what His Character and Purpose is.

Never to lose sight of Who is in authority! God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son has revealed the Godhead to us bodily.........He is deity and authority because He does what the Father says!

What he is about to tell them to do is strong response do this fornication but remember Who we serve and Who has authority.

Paul tells them that he himself is with them in the power of the Lord Jesus.

Unrepentant sin in the church carries the weight of the Lord’s authority.

The power has the meaning of authority.....Or maybe enacting punishment to them will not seem so minimal if the True Authority, which has all power in Heaven and Earth, is with them. I would even say when the Truth of God is with you.

Verse 5.....Now, with the power/authority of God through Christ, what to do with this unrepentant fellow in the church.

Deliver him to satan.....that has a sting to it.........

Paul tells Timothy that he has done this....1 Timothy 1:20 “Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.”

The idea of this is excommunication, which is expelling him from the church unto the region of satan......the idea is if that person wants to live according to satan turn them over to satan in hopes that it will destroy that fleshly lust.....There is disagreement on this because of the instructions given to Paul about taking the Lord’s cup unworthily....

1 Corinthians 11:30 “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”

For the destruction of the flesh......

Alan Redpath said of this: “‘is to be given over to Satan until that principle of yieldedness to the flesh is ended.”

Now some see this that sickness and even death will come upon them.......

Paul sees the punishment as remedial: though the flesh be destroyed it is so that his spirit may be saved. That this means saved in the fullest sense is made clear by the addition, on the day of the Lord. At the final day of judgment he expects to see the disciplined offender among the Lord’s people.

At any rate or however we see this, I read this quote it might help: “The unrepentant person may suffer greatly under God’s judgement, but will not be an evil influence in the church; and he will more likely be saved under that judgement than if tolerated and accepted in the church.”

Whatever “cast him to satan” brings we need not miss the heart of this.........

Not to influence the church

Not to allowing him to feel OK in living in direct sin unto God.

Psalm 51:3–4 “For I acknowledge my transgressions: And my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, And done this evil in thy sight: That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, And be clear when thou judgest.”

Verse 6...........Paul tells this church that their boasting was not good, because it had blinded them to sin that was blatant in their church.

You all know about the leaven, how it makes the dough rise.....to make unleavened bread ALL the leaven/yeast must be out of whatever you are mixing it with.....if not the whole lump will rise.

They made unleavened bread for the passover.....Exodus 13:3 “And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten.”

Exodus 13:7 “Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.”

Leaven represents influence in most evil cases.......Jesus used it in a good way in Matthew 13:33 “Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”

In most cases it is used as corruption/influence to evil.

Paul just states that when outward unrepentant sin is tolerated it will corrupt the church.

Verse 7........Make sure there is no sinful influence in the body of Christ.......no leaven/willing unrepentant sin.

Purge or clean out the old leaven..........Sin is dirty and defiling, and like yeast it will work until it permeates the whole. The only remedy is to clean out the evil entirely.

Ephesians 4:22 “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;”

Colossians 3:5 “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;................:”

A new lump created in Christ Jesus......unleavened/clean by Jesus Christ.........

Just as unleavened bread symbolized being free from Egypt by the Passover, so the church is to be unleavened, since it has been separated from the dominion of sin and death by the Perfect Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. The church is therefore, to remove everything sinful in order to be separate from this old life, including the influence of sinful church members.

Verse 8........Exodus 12:15–17 “Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.”

In contrast to the OT Passover feast celebration, which is annually, believers constantly celebrate the “feast” of the New Passover----Jesus Christ........(The Lord’s Day) but also everyday......1 Corinthians 3:16 “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”

The Jews still celebrate this annual feast with unleavened bread, we celebrate our Passover, Christ with unleavened lives continually!

I heard something real interesting in preparing for this Bible study........

A great missionary, David Brainerd, who spent his life - and a brief life indeed it was, I think he died before the age of 30- ministering to American Indians, wrote in his journal these words, quote: “I never got away from Jesus and Him crucified, and I found that when my people were gripped by this great evangelical doctrine of Christ and Him crucified, I had no need to give them instructions about morality. I found that one followed as the sure and inevitable fruit of the other.”

He also said this in another place: “I find my Indians begin to put on the garments of holiness, and their common life begins to be sanctified, even in small matters, when they are possessed by the doctrine of Christ and Him crucified,” end quote.

What Brainerd was saying was this: that when a Christian realizes who Christ is and what Christ has done for him so graciously, as we have been singing about, it tends to have a dramatic effect on his life, not only in salvation, but in holiness.

When I celebrate the cross and the death of Christ in behalf of sin, I can’t go out and sin and really, truly be focusing on Christ. If I’m glad He died for me, if I’m concentrating on His paying for my sin, I will not go out overtly and commit sins for which He Himself has died.

And so a preoccupation with Christ and the cross is its own deterrent to sin.

Now, that is the reason, precisely, that the Apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 2:2, expressing his perspective when he approached the Corinthians. He says there this: “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

That was his emphasis, and, apparently, as long as he was there emphasizing that, they didn’t have any problem. As Brainerd said, when his Indians focused on that, morality took care of itself.

But what happened was Paul left and the focus apparently changed, and now he has to write back to them regarding the sins of immorality. They had lost the concentration on Christ, and they had begun to focus on human teachers. They were glorifying their own human teachers. They were glorifying themselves.

Verse 9-10........Paul had wrote a previous letter (that was not found), in that letter he had instructed them to disassociate themselves with folk that were living in immorality.

Evidently, the church had misinterpreted his advice in that letter and had stopped having contact with the outside world, while continuing to tolerate the sin of those in the church, which is/was even more dangerous to the fellowship of the church.

We are to be in the world, as witnesses of Jesus Christ not participating in worldly behavior.

Verse 11-13......Paul’s intention in that letter was for them to disassociate with a brother.....

A brother in Christ, in the church that is in a consistent lifestyle/pattern of sin.

Eating a meal with them we should not........This is a sign to the outside world and the church, that there is an approval of immorality.

A brother that is a...

Fornicate/immoral....we have already established what this is.....

Covetous......A greedy person, one who would abandon the desire for the good of one another for their own good.

Idolater......The NT also understands idolatry as putting anything in the place that God alone should occupy as the proper focus of obedience and worship

Colossians 3:5 “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:”

Railer.......Verbal abuser......Psalm 101:5 “Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: Him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.”

Drunkard......habitual drunkeness......never in self-control...

Matthew 24:49–51 “And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Extortioner.......Someone that abuses others......vicious....

Ezekiel 22:12 “In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God.”

2 Thessalonians 3:6 “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.”

To be a judge of outsiders, is futile, because God will judge them......You can’t go around trying to change people that have no desire for a God that calls for morality.........You live that life and deny your flesh and the world then sees your living unto God.

God will judge them.....He dictates the situation.......

Among believers, however, we must call out what opposes God’s morality, and call out the person when they are living in that morality!

We can certainly out in the world define what sin is.......what holiness is......but as far as judging them........which judging would be cast a sentence on......we have no power to do that, but within the body of Christ, we are called to cast a judgement on them.....cast them to satan and let God deal with them.........

Paul quotes Deuteronomy 17:7 “The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.”

One of the commentators I read after on this chapter said this at the end of his commentary: “The application of all this to the modern scene is not easy. Our different circumstances must be taken into account. But Paul’s main point, that the church must not tolerate the presence of evil in its midst, is clearly permanently relevant.

I also heard discussions on how far do we go into looking into people’s lives......I believe we need to be careful how far we do go........if someone is living the kind of immorality that is spoken of here and other cases, it will be lived in without regret or mourning and they will be proud and we will see it in their lives in the meetings and so on......at that point we must, for his good, do what is stated here.

These are people who have influence on the church, i believe that is what is different than today.......an occasional church goer, no......let the Word of God and the witnesses of Christ take care of that, but if I Rusty started down an immoral road, happily, then taking action would be necessary.

Be careful when you start out on that hill.....Tell about John MacArthur and the lady whose husband beat her.