I Corinthians 5

I Corinthians 5

Introduction -

Today we will deal with a very difficult chapter in the Bible.

-One of the advantages of teaching through a book of the Bible and not skipping around topically is that reading chapter after chapter of a book leads you into passages and teachings that you would otherwise completely miss. Sometimes uncomfortable passages or challenging passages like today.

If you looked for a year straight, you would be hard pressed to find a daily home devotional or topical teaching curriculum that would address our passage today.

If you only have your daily time with God in a devotion book - you would completely miss challenging passages like our passage today.

-This is a more mature teaching.

-This is not for the faint of heart. Read I Corinthians 5 (PICK UP YOU BIBLE)

Pray

Intro...

“Is it OK to remove someone from your church?”

and

“If it is OK to remove someone from your church, when it is Ok to do so?”

The tough answer - the one that many people don’t want to hear is,

There are situations where removing someone from your church is not only necessary, it is commanded. To not do so would be disobedient.

How in the world could that be true? Shouldn’t churches be a place where people are accepted, not asked to leave.

Let’s look at our passage today.

Here is the situation that Paul was in: (Paul’s Situation - Gross Public Incest)

There was a member of the Corinthian church that was having intimate relations with his step mother.

vs. 5:1, Tell us that he had his Father’s Wife.

Here lies the problem-

Old Testament (Lev. 18:8; Deut. 22:22) makes clear that physical intimacy with your Father’s wife is evil.

Not only is it wrong from God’s point of view, 2 places in Secular Roman Law - prohibited this.

Even un-believers knew that this was a sin.

In a shame/honor society of the time, this was something that would bring shame to the family, and church community.

-Paul tells us in verse 1 that the pagans of his day wouldn’t tolerate it.

This man was breaking God’s law and government law.

How do the Corinthians respond to this disturbing situation?

vs 1. They tolerate a sin that even pagans won’t stand for.

-Not only did Paul hear of it from a distance, but the church body knew that this was openly happening. It was not a secret.

vs. 2 They are prideful about what has happened.

-The Corinthians are proud of this openly incestuous relationship.

-We get a picture about where the Corinthians are Spiritually.

-They think they are doing well and have arrived at maturity,

-but we see that their arrogance has blinded them.

-They are not only baby Christians, but they are a spiritual danger to themselves.

This should give you and I a warning of how easy it is to fool yourself spiritually

- that you don’t need to grow anymore spiritually.

-Let’s be sure that we all are pressing into fresh places in the Lord.

The Corinthians lived in a culture that was highly sexualized. A culture that accepted that a husband could go to the temple of Aphrodite in Corinth and sleep with as many of the 1000 male and female prostitutes as he would like.

Even in this culture, this act of incest would be seen as a scandal.

The Corinthians not only respond with “Tolerance” of this.

vs 2 tells us they responded with pride.

In verses 2-3, The Apostle Paul pronounces judgment on this man.

Paul says, This has gone way too far. This is so serious there is only 1 thing left to do. VS. 2, You have to remove this man from the church.

vs. 5 goes so far as to say, “Deliver this man Satan”. We’ll deal with that later.

Transition - As we look at our text there are a lot of questions to ask. The first one that comes to mind is this.

Questions:

1Q, Is this a one time event, or is Paul giving us instructions on how we are to remove unrepentant people from a church family?

1A Answer: vs.9-11

Starting in verse 9, Paul gives a much broader teaching

Read verse 9-11

Anyone who calls himself a Christian and is in habitual sin & is unrepentant & not fighting against it , they are to be removed from the church family.

AND the church family is to not associate with this person (not even to eat with them).

You say,

Wait - that sounds really harsh. That can’t be right.

Is there somewhere else in the Bible that speaks to this?

I’m glad you asked. Turn in your Bible to Matthew 18:15-17

One of the rules of Bible interpretation is to use other passages of scripture to help you have insight into what you are reading.

Matthew 18:15-17 gives us some insight into our passage today.

Read Matthew 18:15-17

Here is the teaching.

Sin is so serious that

1) You have to confront your Christian brother privately when you see it.

2) After 2 confrontations, if they are not repentant you bring it before the church.

3) If they still won’t repent, you remove them from the church and those in the church are not to associate with them.

So, we see that this situation in I Corinthians 5 is not just a one time event, but part of the instruction for removing someone from your church that is in habitual unrepentant sin and is not fighting against it.

Turn back to I Corinthians 5:11.

I realize this sounds very harsh.

For some in this room, you are wiggling and looking for a way around these passages.

-This doesn’t sound like “the love of Jesus: that you learned about in 2nd grade Sunday school.

This doesn’t sound like leaving the 99 and going after the 1.

-But this is exactly what this is. This is part of how you go after the one who has strayed away from Christ. You talk to him about his spiritual condition. You plead with him to repent and come to Christ.

-If you are really struggling with what I am saying right now - that’s ok. No hard feelings.

-Here is my challenge to you.

Read these passages for yourself and discover where I am wrong. Maybe there is something I missed. Search the passages yourself. Make sure this is Biblical.

Illustration -

Friend of mine, in the CSRA in the ministry.

His wife came to me and 5 of his closest friends and said, “My husband has a serious issue with pornography.”

We confronted both individually and in a small group.

He said he repented and would stop.

His wife came again 2 months later, “this hasn’t stoped.”

Again, confronting, conversation … “I’ll do better.”

He was removed from volunteer ministry.

His wife came again 2 months later and said, “There is not change.”

At this point it was very clear that he was bowing up and not going to get pressured into any change.

Finally we met with him at his house, We told him, “I love you. You are so important us, the Bible says for us to not associate with you.”

However, we will be praying for you. If you want to talk about spiritual things we are always available.

So, we removed him from our spiritual community for 8 months.

It was hard! It was hard on his wife to watch him go through this.

vs. 5 says, “...Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of His flesh.”

This simply means this,

Stop trying to save the one who refuses help. Let this one see what sin will do to him. Then after the painful consequences of sin begin to really hurt - maybe he will turn to God.

Illustration Continued - What happened with this married man who had this discipline applied to his life?

Over time, through much prayer, the Lord worked on his heart and life. He saw that if he followed his sinful desires that it was goin to ruin his life, his marriage, & lose his kids.

-He saw how his sinful addiction was keeping him from God.

-He saw that The Father was beckoning Him to Himself, to a close relationship.

-A good earthly father may have to rain down hard discipline on his children, but after the discipline he invites them back into a close affectionate relationship.

-My friend … who was removed from fellowship… drew repented and drew close to the Lord.

-This man went to each person who was part of the process and thanked him.

-The last time I saw him he hugged me and thanked me for being willing to apply such a hard love to Him.

-He was delivered to Satan & when he repented (like verse 5 says) his spirit was saved.

-Today he is in ministry on staff at a church in the CSRA. With a growing family and a strong relationship with his wife.

2 Reasons for church removal

There are 2 reasons we are commanded to remove someone in habitual unrepentant sin:

1. An unrepentant person discourages other believers and brings the church’s attitude of living a holy life down.

Read 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 (Pick of up your Bible)

A little leaven effects the whole lump.

Example - What if I offered you brownies that were made with a little bit of poop? Just a half a teaspoon, not much.

-Would you taste them? The 350F oven surely killed the bacteria.

-No, You wouldn’t get near them. You’d throw them in the garbage. Not kitchen garbage, but outside garbage.

You would get that filth away from your house, family, and other food.

-Why would you do this?

-A little impurity effects everything and everyone.

Illustration - When you were growing up, there were other children at school that your parents didn’t like because they had a negative effect on you.

-Your parents may have done everything they could to keep you away from this bad influence.

Why? They loved you so much & they loved your future. They wanted to protect your heart and attitude.

-God loves his bride (The Church - true believers) so much he doesn’t want anything to spiritually damage her. God has us remove the unrepentant person, because they will damage His bride.

-The festival or feast verse 8 speaks of is the Lord’s Supper or Communion.

-We celebrate the Cross of Jesus with hearts that have been examined and where sin has been confess. Not where sin is embraced.

-In the Corinthians case a proud incestuous person was partaking in the Lord’s super and everyone was ok with it.

-A little leaven effects the whole lump.

The 2nd reason reason we confront and remove the unrepentant is that they ...

B) May have fooled themselves into thinking they are a believer.

Turn to John 3:4-10.

Listen in this passage to what John says about habitual sin..

John is not talking about a Christ follower who sins in general in his daily life, but is fighting against that and trying to get better.

John is talking about someone who continues to sin who doesn’t try to fight against sin. In fact sin defines part of who that person is.

Read, I John 3:4-10

The teaching is this. The mark of a true Christ follower is that they grow in holiness, not perfect - but growing. They are growing into holiness and away from sin.

The mark of an unbeliever is that sin in their life isn’t a big deal, especially repetitive or habitual sin.

This person who is confronted and refuses to repent from a habitual sin may be on the roles as a member. They may have been baptised at one point. However, they may have been fooled into thinking they are a Christ follower.

One of the most unloving things that we do as Christ followers is to allow someone else who claims Christ to live like the Devil and never ask them about it.

Many of us know friends and family who claim to be a Christian, but do not exhibit the fruit in their life that God is in them. That they have been transformed.

Many of these people are not Christ followers.

They are Christians in name only & when they die will be surprised when they bust Hell wide open.

This is why a confronted and unrepentant person is removed.

They are told, we love you, but we are not sure you are really a Christ follower based on your actions. You need to examine yourself.

Pause

Is it more loving for someone to stay in the church and think they are OK with God - or

to leave (mad), but to be seriously warned to check the condition of their soul?

Reason 3

Church removal protects the purity of Christ’s Bride.

Your acceptance policy is only as good as your dismissal policy.

Example - Let me pick on Thomas Jefferson Academy.

-Every now and then a private school accepts a young person & that young person turns out to be a bad character.

-If they keep him, they hurt the other children, teachers and the school.

-They have to let him go.

-It’s hard to expel a young person from school, but occasionally it’s necessary.

-Your acceptance policy is only as good as you dismissal policy.

-Your church membership doesn’t mean anything if you won’t dismiss someone who makes a mockery of your standards.

What does this tell us about God and His greatness?

-God hates the destructiveness of sin.

-He values the sinful individual so much that He won’t let them continue in sin that is destroying them.

-He loves His bride the church so much that He has set up a mechanism to protect her from impurity.

-God deeply values your spiritual purity.

-God deeply values what is holy.

-God has standards for what is holy.

-God loves his people so much that he shows us that sin has consequences.

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