Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

In the 16th century the English Reformers developed a criteria by which every one was to know what a true church actually was.

This criteria was called the Three Marks of a True Church.

The marks were as follows:

(1) The church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel;

(2) The church makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them;

(3) The church practices church discipline for correcting faults.

Now, the mark that is particularly important for us is the third mark.

THE PRACTICING OF CHURCH DISCIPLINE!!!

What’s really interesting is that we are living in a generation and a culture that for the most part has never even heard of it and it is one of the three marks of a true church!!!

In the pursuit to fill our seats in our church or to keep the right people in seats, we often avoid this mark of a true church, but to be a disciple is to be submitted to the process of discipline.

Sometimes that discipline is more formative and occurs through instruction, teaching, community but every once in a while when a member of the church loses the will to fight that discipline must become corrective.

This is what is happening in the Corinth church...

The Sin

1 Corinthians 5:1 (ESV)

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you...

In this chapter Paul turns his attention from his lengthy counsel about division to another very important matter that he has received word about and that has the potential of destroying the church: sexual sin

But Paul has a particular sexual sin in mind here...

a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.

A typical read of the scholars take on this story is that this is probably a stepson sleeping with his stepmom.

Many believe that Paul would have just stated clearly that this was the boys mom if that was the case.

Either way, Paul sees it is a TERRIBLE violation of God’s law.

It is sexual sin

It is a betrayal of trust

It is a desecration of not only marriage but of family.

It is present and ongoing.

And the church seems to be totally unconcerned about all of it.

This act, that this man is giving free license to engage in, is a clear violation of the Kingdom sexual ethics.

But Paul doesn’t even fix his attention on the Kingdom ethic.

He makes an even more interesting point

Even Pagans won’t tolerate this!!!

Caesar Augustus introduced Roman laws in the 18 and 16 B.C. that punished these kind of acts by banning to a remote island.

Paul is clear about his intent here.

There is no reason that the church should meet this level of unrepentant sin with a yawn and a wave while the rest of the world takes decisive action.

So what does Paul call for?

1 Corinthians 5:2b (ESV)

...Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

The question is why?

What does this accomplish?

It sends a message of love.

Church Discipline when done right sends a message of love even if that message is not necessarily received, but how does it do that?

Church Discipline displays love because it roots out arrogance.

Paul’s immediate response to the news that the Corinthian church has done nothing to address this sexual relationship between this man and his step-mother is found in verse 2.

AND YOU ARE ARROGANT!!!!

This arrogance can be looked at 1 of 2 ways, arrogance IN SPITE OF this situation or arrogance BECAUSE OF this situation.

Arrogance could be IN SPITE OF because as we’ve been discussing for several weeks, the Corinthian church was severely divided because of the prideful and arrogant attitudes flowing through the church at the time of Paul’s letter.

Attitudes so messed up that they were more worried about which person they were following rather than the God they were following.

So, by saying “AND YOU ARE ARROGANT IN VERSE 2” he could be saying that even in spite of this crazy sin running through your church untouched, you still have the gall to walk around with your chest poked out!

Paul may have their pride in spite of this situation in mind, but I believe his ultimately pointing to the pride they have because of this situation.

PRIDE DISGUISED AS FREEDOM - Their unwillingness to confront this brother in his sin is probably being used as mark of their maturity: “Look at how free we are in Christ.

Look at how merciful we are in Christ.

Look at how loving we are in Christ.”

THIS IS THE CHURCH who has a willful unrepentant sinner tearing through the church and does nothing but insults anyone who asks for accountability.

They respond with platitudes like “nobody’s perfect!

We’re not legalist!

Everybody makes mistakes!

Only God judges!”

All the while the leaven of bad morals is leavening the whole lump of the church, dividing it and destroying it.

Their tolerance of this ongoing violation of the marital covenant and a profaning of the family is a complete twisting of Christian mercy, freedom and love.

And yet the Corinthians don’t appear to be moved.

There is a kind of Christianized talk that presents itself as freedom but ultimately leads to bondage of sin rather than true freedom in Christ.

There is a kind of Christianized talk that presents itself as merciful but is absent of mercy because it robs those caught in sin of the opportunity to grow and mature.

There is a kind of Christianized talk that presents itself as loving but is absent of love because we all know that love requires that wrong be corrected.

If your best friend is a bully and a jerk the most unloving thing you can do for them is to continue to allow them to be a bully and a jerk without ever challenging them.

It is not quite clear WHY they’ve given him a pass.

Some scholars suspect, given the Corinthians tendency to put more attention on cultural status, power, popularity, and wealth, that he may have a strong standing in the community.

Oftentimes, we’re willing to disregard terrible sins when a person with standing in the community, or power, or wealth is the source of the sin.

One thing for sure…Paul is not impressed.

While the church celebrates their passiveness and leniency in letting a willfully sinful person continue to willfully sin.

Paul says that they should be mourning that such a thing has happened in their midst.

THEY SHOULD BE SAD!

Paul continues in verse 3 with a false humility basher “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.”

Contrary to what we have been telling everyone who wants to listen there is a type of judgment that is absolutely necessary in the body of Christ.

The judgment that must come forward in the church disciplining a wayward sinful member.

PREVIOUS WARNING - Another reason for his frustration is because it appears this is not Paul’s first attempt to address sexual sin with the Corinthians

It appears that in a previous letter that we do not have access to, Paul laid out how the church should handle cases of sexual immorality and not only do they appear to be NOT doing it, but they appear to be boasting and gloating in not doing it.

GLOATING INSTEAD OF GRIEF

One more reason why this appears to really upset Paul.

Because they’re gloating over sin instead of GRIEVING over sin.

This word here for grieving is a word often used for mourning that comes after someone dies.

It’s as if Paul is saying this ongoing sinful conduct should be felt not with a cavalier smirk but with the weight of a life in our church being taken.

Why do we so rarely feel that weight in the midst of unrepentant sin...

APPLICATION: ONE REASON IS BECAUSE OUR LIVES ARE SO ATTACHED TO A CULTURE THAT IS LITTERED WITH SIN AND WE ARE CONSTANTLY BEING SO BOMBARDED BY IMAGES, WORDS, AND THOUGHTS OF SIN DAILY THAT ARE SHAPING US AND DULLING US TO SIN’s IMPACTS and SERIOUSNESS.

When we are devoting 2-3 hours of our lives to grow in Jesus but devoting the other 110 waking hours of our week to the world, what other choice do we have?

The harm of sin will not be big to you until the beauty of Jesus is big to you and we grow deeper in our appreciation of the beauty of Jesus ONLY when we are spending time with Jesus.

Do you grieve over the unrepentant sins of your Christian brothers and sisters?

Do you grieve over your own sin that you still struggle with?

The absence of that grief probably reflects a need to be formed more in the image and likeness of Jesus; to spend time with Jesus in prayer and in Scripture, in service and in community with your church.

Discipline done well is a humble reflection of a people who are growing in Jesus and thus beginning to see unrepentant sin in the same lens as he does…in a way that grieves them and moves them to action.

Church Discipline is loving because it is commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 5:4–5 (ESV)

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.

When discipline is done right it is done in the presence of Jesus with the power of Jesus.

We know this to be true because Christ clearly commands the church to discipline its members locked in a pattern of unrepentant destructive sin

Jesus’ own words in Matthew 18

So, to not perform discipline is to undermine the authority of Jesus himself and to truly miss out on what it means to love Him!

We also know that when discipline is done right it is done in the presence of Jesus with the power of Jesus, because Jesus defines love with the call and command to obedience.

Our obedience to Him is love for God: John 14:23-24

Our obedience to Him is loved by God: John 15:10

So, the irony is that while many may choose not to execute Church discipline because of their “Love For God.”