Immorality in the Church

1 Corinthians 5:1-5

Paul is writing this letter to the church in Corinth and he has been confronting those in the church who were trying to take the church in a new direction different than the direction in which God had originally established the church through Paul’s ministry. The church in Corinth had been established around the centrality of the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But that message was not very popular in a sophisticated and affluent cosmopolitan city like Corinth. Therefore there were influential members of the church who wanted to give the church a new and more appealing image in the community. They wanted to pattern the ministry of the church after the philosophies and methods of the influential and prosperous elements of society so that the church would be more appealing to the unsaved and so that more people would embrace the church. As it was, many of the unsaved saw the message Paul was preaching as foolish and therefore they did not take the church seriously.

But Paul has insisted in this letter that the church must stick to the message of Christ crucified as the central theme for it is the power and the wisdom of God (1:24). Even though the crucified life seems like foolishness to the unsaved world it is in reality the expression of the wisdom of God which is greater than man’s wisdom (1:21ff). And if the church is built using the methods of the world’s so called wisdom it is like building with wood, hay and straw which will not endure the inevitable fires of tribulation and of God’s testing but will be destroyed. However the church that stands firmly upon the wisdom of God, though it seems foolish to the world will stand firm and endure the fires of tribulation and testing as if we were made of gold, silver and precious stones. We must remember that God is not looking to us to produce results; it is God who is responsible for the results. God is looking to us to be faithful (4:2), to simply trust Him in every situation and to trust Him for everything.

Now in chapters five and six Paul begins to expose major failures in the church at Corinth which prove that their new direction of worldly wise ministry is failing and robbing the church of its power over sin.

Vs. 1-2

Back in 1 Corinthians 4:20 the Bible says, “For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” Then two verses later, as if to demonstrate the lack of power among those who sought to depend upon the worldly principles of eloquence, celebrity status and political influence to build the kingdom of God, Paul says, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles . . .” Sure they may be prestigious but they were defeated in their personal lives.

How often do we see churches and families with all of the status symbols of wealth, power and charismatic appeal but morally and spiritually bankrupt and powerless? I believe the power that characterizes the kingdom of God is primarily the power of God to triumph over sin and Satan; the power to live godly in the world, the power of the gospel and of the resurrected life of Christ in us to lead us as believers into victorious Christian living. The fact that there is such immorality tolerated in the church is evidence that they are not walking after the Spirit but after the flesh.

Galatians 5:16-21 NLT “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your [flesh] craves . . . 19 When you follow the desires of your [flesh], the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

Some people mistake tolerance of sin as a demonstration of grace, but that is a serious misconception. To live by grace is not to turn a blind eye to sin but rather it is to let the Holy Spirit guide and control your life. And God does not turn a blind eye to sin. Look at what the Bible says in Titus about the impact of the grace of God upon our lives: Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.”

You know, it is very likely that this individual who was involved in the sexual immorality was either very wealthy, or very prominent and influential in society, or a very gifted and eloquent academic or perhaps all three. Therefore the reason the church is so willing to turn a blind eye to this man’s sin is likely because he has something to contribute to the church that, according to natural human wisdom, is very valuable and beneficial to enhancing their status in the eyes of the world. I have sometimes seen churches where very wealthy business men can get away with all kinds of sinful behavior because they singlehandedly cover a major portion of the church’s financial budget. Or I have seen churches turn a blind eye to the immoral lifestyles of celebrities in their congregation just because they do not want to risk losing such a high profile person who lends status and credibility to their church. In light of all that Paul has been addressing in the first four chapters leading up to this incident I believe it is very likely that the immoral brother in chapter five is very valuable to the image or to the budget of the church and therefore the compromise. Because according to the wisdom of the world it would be foolish to lose such a powerful individual from your congregation.

There are two appalling sins that Paul identifies as evidence that the church in Corinth is lacking the power that characterizes God’s kingdom: The fact that there is sexual immorality among them and the fact that the church tolerates it. In fact what is remarkable about this fifth chapter is that the heavy guns of Paul’s criticism are aimed at the church congregation more than at the man involved in the sexual affair. (Fee, p. 192)

It is one thing for an individual to be involved in sin but it seems to be a greater failure for the church to turn a blind eye to the sin and think that they can carry on as a spiritual body. Perhaps the sin would not even be taking place at all if the church as a whole would not condone it by their silence. Verse 6 addresses the danger of this failure of the whole group saying, “Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough?” (NLT) A church cannot turn a blind eye to sin in the body without it having a detrimental effect on the entire body.

We are to open our arms wide to welcome and embrace sinners, we are to be merciful, compassionate and long suffering toward those who sin. But we are always to address and deal with the sin, never to ignore it or sweep it under the carpet, never just leave it alone and hope it will go away. Jesus received the woman caught in adultery and He received the adulterous woman at the well but He always dealt with the sin and never ignored it. Sin in the church must be dealt with or it will spread and weaken the whole church rendering it powerless.

In the Greek culture of that day, and particularly in Corinth, sexual immorality was rampant and in most cases was socially acceptable. So it was easy to tolerate a little immorality in the church. Corinth was a very prosperous city but it was also one of the most immoral cities in the Roman Empire. Corinth was built at the base of a very prominent mountain. On the top of this mountain was the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of erotic love which was staffed by 1,000 female slaves (prostitutes) dedicated to the sensual worship of Aphrodite. (Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, p.235) At one point in its history this city had such a bad reputation that the Greeks coined a new word, “to Corinthianize”, which meant to flaunt sexual immorality without shame or reservation. (Ibid)

When Paul says that there is such sexual immorality taking place among the church “as is not even named among the Gentiles – that a man has his father’s wife!” he does not mean that it never occurs among the pagans in Corinth but that this particular form of incest was socially unacceptable and condemned even by Roman law. (Morris, p. 83) “That a man has his father’s wife!” means that the man had taken his step mother as his own wife or common law partner. This was more than a one night stand or a brief affair but they were living together. (Fee, p. 200)

Paul does not go on to prescribe any action against the woman so obviously she is not a believer. According to verse 12 and 13 the church has no place judging the unbeliever but is responsible to judge the believer. “For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges.”

Now we may have a hard time understanding how a man could have done such a thing. But for Paul the greater problem is the fact that the church, (particularly certain ones who were supposedly leading the church in a “wiser” way of doing ministry) was puffed up with spiritual pride and boasting of their superior ministry. Meanwhile this sin is going on unchecked in one of their members. The point is that for all their talk they lack the power of the kingdom of God, power to live victoriously over sin. Rather than boasting about their spirituality they should have been mourning the sin of their brother and their failure as a congregation.

Besides mourning this evidence of weakness and failure there is something else that the church should have done if they were truly healthy and demonstrating the power of the kingdom of God: He who continued without repentance to live in this sin should have been taken away from among the believers. The NIV translates verse two saying, “Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?” This drastic kind of church discipline is extremely rare to see in our culture of tolerance. There are many believers who would criticize this kind of action as being harsh and unloving; but such criticism comes from those who do not comprehend the holiness of our God and the deep revulsion to sin that a glimpse of His holiness produces. Look at what happened to the prophet Isaiah when he had a vision of the majestic holiness of the Lord:

Isaiah 6:1-5 “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, [shielding themselves from the blazing glory of the Lord’s holiness] and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

Now look at Isaiah’s response when he realized just how holy was his God: 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Paul’s instruction that the man should be put out of the church fellowship is simply underscoring the holy nature of the church as the temple of God.

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Vs. 3-4

Though what Paul is saying in these verses is very clear it is difficult for us to understand what he means by what he is saying. This is not helped by the fact that some translations of verse 3, including the NKJV and the NIV, have translated it in such a way as to imply that because he is not physically present Paul is not really there; “(As though I were present).” The NIV says, “I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present.” But that misses the whole point. The point that Paul is making in this verse is the opposite, he is saying that even though he is not “physically present,” he is very much effectively there in spirit. (Thiselton, p.82)

Paul’s understanding of and experience of the spiritual realm is far greater than most of our own today. How can he be physically absent from their church meeting but be literally and effectively there in S/spirit? Paul knew and experienced something that most of us today know little about. Notice verse 4, “When you are gathered together, along with my spirit, along with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul makes a connection between the presence of his spirit (small “s”) and the power of our Lord Jesus which implies the Holy Spirit (capital “S”). Look also at 1 Corinthians 6:17 “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit [small “s”] with Him.” And also notice what he says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Some translations omit the last part of verse 20, but it reinforces the idea from verse five that there is a function of the spirit which is independent of the body.

This is also brought out in 1 Corinthians 14:13-15,

“Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.”

And again in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4,

“I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”

The implication of this last passage is that one can have experiences in the spirit realm that are just as real as those in the physical realm. So much so that it may be impossible for you to know if it was a physical experience or spiritual. What did Paul mean by his comments in 1 Corinthians chapter five about being present in spirit? I don’t know for sure but we can be sure that he meant more than just being there in his thoughts and prayers.

We will continue this study next week.