Submitting Ourselves
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The One Anothers: Duties and privileges of church membership
Significant Statement: We will seek, by Divine aid, to live carefully in the world, to deny ungodliness and worldly passions, to bring holiness to completion in the fear of God, and to do all to the glory of God (Eph 5:15-17; Titus 2:11-12; 2 Cor 7:1; I Cor 10:31).
Several weeks ago:
16 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
We as a body of believers have to promise one another when we become members of ONE BODY that we will exercise spiritual discernment to make sure our lives are free from any kind of situation that is incompatible with our profession of faith in Christ.
Not only must we be mindful of our fellowship with Christ! That is first and primary. But we also must think of our fellowship with one another. If I live a life that contradicts my profession of faith in Christ that hurts the whole body!
Our close fellowship with Christ and with one another mandates the elimination of our fellowship with unrighteousness.
This week we are going to continue this thought of the duties of church membership by talking about church discipline!
Everyone’s favorite topic.
New member’s class topic- might be some review for some of you. But, I Cor 5 is a very important passage to church membership.
The Biblical Necessity of Church Membership
Some people will argue that in the early NT church there was
no such thing as church membership- especially like the membership we practice today. There was no membership list, people did not join the church membership like we do today. So, they view being a member of a local church as unimportant.
I would argue that a proper understanding of Scripture, not
only teaches church membership, but teaches the absolute necessity of church membership.
Church membership is necessary because of the responsibility of every believer to hold one another accountable and even to exercise discipline over one another.
Why should you voluntarily submit yourself to your church body for mutual accountability and discipline?
Several reasons
Church membership safeguards your personal testimony and the testimony of the church in the community (1)
Church membership safeguards your personal testimony and the testimony of the church in the community (1)
When you voluntarily submit yourself to your church body for mutual accountability and discipline that relationship provides a safeguard against ruining your personal testimony and the testimony of your church in the community.
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.
Historical situation: I Cor. 5 is instruction for church disciple when the church is dealing with public sin. There was a man in the church who was participating in fornication with his father’s wife (stepmother). This was a public sin, and it was so scandalous that even the Gentiles (unbelievers) knew about it and were shocked. This kind of thing was not done even amongst the unsaved!
So, Paul instructed the church to take specific action against this man. Now, why did Paul have to give the church specific instruction?
Because the church body was not doing its job!
The church should have long ago intervened in this scandalous situation!
What might have been in the life of this man if the church had been functioning properly?
What therefore, needs to be true of the relationships among church members? CLOSE CONNECTION IS VITAL! A relationship of transparency is essential! People need to know enough about you to be able to tell when something is off. Then the church body can safeguard you against making your life shipwreck!
Do people in your church know you well enough to help safeguard you against sin?
What are some ways you can begin developing these kinds of close relationship?
Discipleship- begin following another mature believer in the church!
Welcome each other into your homes.
Small group fellowship Sundays
Why should you voluntarily submit yourself to your church body for mutual accountability and discipline?
2. Church membership fosters an attitude of humility (2)
2. Church membership fosters an attitude of humility (2)
A relationship of mutual accountability and a submission to church discipline is the soil that grows humility.
2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
How was the church in Corinth arrogant?
12 What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
Despite all of that Paul says actually, you ought to morn! Why? Because they were not functioning the way a church body should. They were arrogantly allowing sin to go unchecked. So Paul says- YOU CHURCH OF CORINTH- you need to remove this man from among you. Notice, church discipline was the responsibility of the church body. Paul didn’t exercise his own authority as an apostle, because the rightful authority for church discipline comes from the church body itself.
Church membership is a deliberate choice on our parts to enter into a mutual relationship of accountability and discipline. We agree to do this for one another. It keeps us walking in humility with one another.
We all know just how much of a temptation living in sin really is!
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.
13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Don’t we all need that? Church membership is the decision to humble ourselves and ask others to help us, even to exhort or admonish us!
Illustration: Last year I had several members all come up to me at different times, unaware that other people were doing the same thing. And they exhorted me- Pastor don’t let our church growth go to your head! I need that. Pastor, I’m praying for you!
Do you need that kind of relationship? Do you have it? Are you a member? Have you asked the body to do that for you? Have you submitted to their care? Are you doing that for some else in the church?
Why should you voluntarily submit yourself to your church body for mutual accountability and discipline?
3. Church membership is a form of spiritual protection (3-5a)
3. Church membership is a form of spiritual protection (3-5a)
Spiritual warfare exists. Satan and his demons are real and present. Being a member of a church is a God intended form of spiritual protection.
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.
I don’t even need to come to Corinth in person. I have heard enough from where I am. I already know the biblical thing to do in this scandalous situation.
4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
So again, Paul instructs the church- “when you are assembled
in the name of the Lord”. Notice the significance Paul places on the authority of the local church when it assembles and passes judgment! This is so significant. When the church assembles and when they operate according to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is they are following the commandments laid down by Jesus Christ in His Word, when they do this, they operate with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the judgment of the assemble church is incredibly significant, it is very weighty!
5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
They were to remove this man from the church, and place him outside the church, and in placing him outside of the church they would be, in effect, delivering him unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh. In other words, when they removed this man from the church, he would be removed from the protection of being part of the church and would be open to physical chastisement brought about by the wiles of Satan himself.
Illustration: Job
10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
6 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”
Nothing mystical about the spiritual protection of the church!
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
If there is sin in your life and you are a child of God, God will bring discipline into your life.
The church is a community where we deliberately do what? Enter into mutual accountability. We foster relationships that consist of transparency. We exhort one another, encourage one another, admonish one another, teach one another, help one another grow, build up one another, and so and so on. Do you think that kind of community will help you sin less?
Church discipline removes the unrepentant individual from that spiritual protection.
Friends, are you taking advantage of this kind of God intended spiritual protection in your life?
Are you a church member? Have you voluntarily entered into this relationship? Why not?
If you are a member have you connected enough in the body to fell the community of accountability? Do you have transparent relationships in the church?
Why should you voluntarily submit yourself to your church body for mutual accountability and discipline?
4. Church membership provides great opportunities for repentance and reconciliation (5b)
4. Church membership provides great opportunities for repentance and reconciliation (5b)
If you are member and you sin. What is the responsibility of the body? What have you asked them to do for you, and what have you promised to do for them? Hold you accountable- even to exercise church discipline. What is one of the major purposes of church discipline?
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.
This was not a malicious act, in fact this was a redemptive act, the purpose of such a judgement was so that this man’s spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus-
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
6 For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough,
7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
Church membership is a powerful spiritual tool for repentance and reconciliation.
This is no small matter! If a believer has not taken this deliberate voluntary choice, then he or she is outside of the accountability and spiritual oversight of the church. You have to ask your church body to do this for you. This is the heart of becoming a member.
Why should you voluntarily submit yourself to your church body for mutual accountability and discipline?
5. Church membership halts the spread of sin (6-7)
5. Church membership halts the spread of sin (6-7)
Church membership that includes church discipline has a very important purpose. It halts the spread of sin in the church body.
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
Even a little leaven leavens the whole lump. The public sin of this man was polluting the whole church, especially in the eyes of the Gentiles.
Illustration: Sourdough loaf starter.
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.
Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump.
Paul is making an analogy to the OT. He is making an analogy to the Passover festival.
14 “This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast.
15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
In those days they could not go to the store and buy yeast packets to ferment their dough. They had to make dough starters. They would remove a piece of the dough and save it from day to day to be their raising agent.
Every year on during the Passover festival they had to remove the leaven out of their houses. And for seven days they had to eat unleavened bread.
One commentator suggested that perhaps this had additional health benefits for the people. After a year’s time the starter loaf may have become polluted due to lack of hygiene standards. Thus sickness and disease could be polluting their entire loves. By getting rid of the leaven for seven days they would be starting over with new clean starters and thus their bread would be purified.
Paul is using this thought to make an analogy.
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.
Just like removing the old leaven during the Passover festival would created a new lump or a new loaf- so too by removing sin from the church it would purify the body. And why should the church be so concerned about purifying the body from scandalous sins?
Paul says- because you really are unleavened! This is your identity in Christ! You really are holy, you really are spotless and undefiled! Why? Because Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Your identity in Jesus is that you have been justified! You have been made righteous. Reckon this to be true and become who you really are. Positionally you are holy, now practically work out that holiness. Become in truth what you are in position.
Christ is our passover lamb. Paul, again, is making a spiritual point from the OT Passover festival.
13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.
1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
Jesus’ ceremonial entry into Jerusalem occurs on the very day on which the Passover lambs were selected to be slaughtered the day before the evening of the festival. Thus the whole Johannine account of the trial points with unmistakable symbolism to the fact that Jesus is in truth the Lamb of God who will be sacrificed for Israel. He dies on the day and at the hour when Israel kills the lambs, and (in contrast to those crucified with him, but like the Passover lamb, according to the regulation of
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
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.
Why should you voluntarily submit yourself to your church body for mutual accountability and discipline?
6. Church membership promotes purity in our worship to the Lord (8)
6. Church membership promotes purity in our worship to the Lord (8)
Here is a verse that will require us to know our OT well in order to understand Paul’s point.
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.
What in the world is Paul talking about?
Again, Paul is making an analogy. He is pointing us back to the Passover festival. He is saying there are similarities to our worship as church. First, we must understand the point he is making from the OT before we can understand his application to the us as the church.
He begins by talking about celebrating the festival. Paul is referencing the Passover festival.
Now we have to understand the purpose of the Passover festival before we are ready to get v. 8.
What was the purpose of the Passover festival?
During this week long festival the people of Israel had to kill and eat the passover lamb. What kind of lamb did they have to kill?
5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats,
6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
Why did Israel have to follow these precise instructions? Why did they need a lamb without blemish? Why not a cow or a pigeon?
Also, during this week they had to eat unleavened bread.
15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
Why did they have to eat unleavened bread? Why was this so important?
What was the purpose of the festival?
17 And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever.
24 You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever.
25 And when you come to the land that the Lord will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service.
26 And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’
27 you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’ ” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.
33 The Egyptians were urgent with the people to send them out of the land in haste. For they said, “We shall all be dead.”
34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls being bound up in their cloaks on their shoulders.
39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
42 Because the Lord kept vigil that night to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the Lord for the generations to come.
3 Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.
4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out.
5 And when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month.
6 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the Lord.
7 Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory.
8 You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’
9 And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.
Now what would have happened to the purpose and meaning of the Passover festival if in the generations to come the people did not kill the passover lamb and the did not eat unleavened bread. What would that have done to the meaning of the festival? What would that have done to the worship of the Lord?
The people needed to celebrate the festival in a proper manner so that their worship of the Lord accomplished what they meant it to accomplish!
This is Paul’s point.
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.
He is making an analogy. As the church every time we assemble together we do so for worship just like the OT festivals were occasions for worship. When we come together for worship we need to do so in a proper way.
Just like it would have defiled and polluted Israel’s opportunity to worship the Lord if they had observed the festival with the bread made out of the old leaven- so too the church defiles and pollutes its worship if they worship God using old leaven.
Here Paul clarifies. He is not talking about bread! He is not talking about sourdough starter. He is talking about the leaven of malice and evil.
Malice- The opposite of virtue- some think this word related to the noun κάκκη, “dung.” the quality or state of wickedness, baseness, depravity, wickedness, vice.
Evil- a lack of moral or social values, wickedness, baseness, maliciousness,
sinfulness
If the church in Corinth allowed this sinful brother to worship with them, while he was in a sexually immoral relationship with he stepmother, that was akin to offering up to God leaven of malice and evil. Their worship would be polluted and defiled.
And I think Paul’s point is much broader in scope as well. If we come to church and put on a front and offer up to the Lord our worship while our lives are filled with willful unconfessed sin, then we are just as guilt of offering God polluted worship.
Significant Statement: We will seek, by Divine aid, to live carefully in the world, to deny ungodliness and worldly passions, to bring holiness to completion in the fear of God, and to do all to the glory of God (Eph 5:15-17; Titus 2:11-12; 2 Cor 7:1; I Cor 10:31).
That is why this one another is so important!
Instead, what kind of worship should we offer to God?
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.
Unleavened bread, unpolluted undefiled bread of sincerity and truth!
Sincerity- pure and unadulterated motives.
Truth!
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Church membership- voluntary submission to mutual accountability and discipline promotes purity in our worship to the Lord!
How important is that?
10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.
How is your worship? Is it pure? Is it offered in sincerity and truth?
Christian is their sin in your life? Is there sin that you know about and have not yet dealt with? Your church family is here to help you. Would you be willing to reach out to someone and ask for help?
Why should you voluntarily submit yourself to your church body for mutual accountability and discipline?
7. Church membership equips us to be lights in the world for the gospel (9-11)
7. Church membership equips us to be lights in the world for the gospel (9-11)
Paul makes an important distinction in vv. 9-10
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.
In v. 9 Paul articulates a particularly important distinction
to our discussion of church membership. In v. 9 Paul gives a simple command- do not associate with sexually immoral people. But he clarifies what he means in v. 10. He is not talking about the unsaved, that would be impossible. If we are to make disciples of all the world, we must put ourselves into the company of fornicators, of greedy people, of swindlers, and with idolaters. Because if we never associate with unsaved people like that, we would need to be taken out of the world. But we are to be in the world, just not of the world. This is an important distinction. This is who Paul is not talking about, he is not talking about the unsaved. Who is he talking about?
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.
Paul is talking about not keeping company with any person who
claims to be a believer and yet practices certain kinds of sins. Here Paul
lists sexual immorality, greed, fraud, idolatry, verbal abuse, and inebriation
as offenses that require some kind of response. Now these sins do not make up a comprehensive list. Rather, this list gives us guidelines for what kinds of sins necessitate this kind of church discipline. And I think we can break these sins into two categories: 1). These sins are incompatible with a profession of the gospel. 2). These sins constitute public scandals.
So if one claims he is saved (he is called a brother), and he is participating in such a scandalous sin (like fornication) that is incompatible with his profession of the gospel, and it is a public sin or a public scandal, then the church is to institute discipline.
How does church discipline protect your ability for gospel witness?
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
Why should you voluntarily submit yourself to your church body for mutual accountability and discipline?
8. Church membership is a deliberate choice that places you inside the accountability and spiritual oversight of the church (12-13)
8. Church membership is a deliberate choice that places you inside the accountability and spiritual oversight of the church (12-13)
Summary statement about church membership.
12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
Who do you and I have the responsibility to judge / exercise church discipline? Key question.
Not unbelievers (9-10)
Believers (11)
Not only is Paul talking about people who profess to be believers, who are living in public sin, but also professing believers who are not without, but within. It is not the responsibility of the church to discipline other believers who are without, they are only responsible to judge those that are within. Without and within what? It is the church. The authority of the local church to discipline other believers only extends to other believers within the church.
13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
God is responsible to judge those who are without the church.
The believers in the local church in Corinth were responsible to judge other
fellow believers within the church, and even to exercise church
discipline against them- therefore, Paul says, “purge the evil person from
among you.”
Right here in I Corinthians 5, I think we find Biblical evidence of the necessity of church membership. Clearly Paul believed that some people were inside the church at Corinth while others where outside of it. Those inside were accountable to the whole congregation for their conduct. The congregation possessed the authority to expel anyone whose error was sufficiently grievous. This authority was mediated through the assembled church, not through private individuals or subgroups of the congregation.
Implication #1- Clearly there was some mechanism
that existed to determine who was in the church and who was not. There had to be some mechanism to decide who should participate in a congregational decision and who should not. Some way had to exist to distinguish those who were bound by this relationship of accountability from those who were not. In other words, whether written or unwritten, formally or informally, some kind of list must have existed.
Implication #2- The truth is that the church at Corinth displayed a relationship of mutual accountability and discipline between individual believers and the entire congregation. This relationship is exactly what we would call church membership, and why I call church membership a Biblical necessity.
Implication #3- To become a member of a church, an individual deliberately submits to this relationship. Christians who take this step become accountable to the congregation as a whole. Since they are a part of the congregation, they also participate in holding one another accountable.
Joining a church membership is a deliberate and voluntary choice on the part of the individual. It never happens accidentally; it never happens simply by attending a church. The only way in which Christians become
members of a NT church is by agreeing to submit to that congregation’s
accountability and spiritual oversight.
Implication #4- If a believer has not taken that deliberate voluntary choice, then he or she is outside of the accountability and spiritual oversight of the church. The church body has no authority over that individual other than the personal exhortation of Scripture. But there is a severe void of accountability and spiritual oversight when one has not agreed, when one has not made a promise to a body of believers to hold each other accountable. In other words, each member accepts certain responsibilities
toward the congregation, while the congregation accepts responsibilities toward the members. Becoming a church member involves a solemn agreement, a promise that church members make to one another. And every believer needs this kind of relationship in their lives!
