5: Ditching Disobedience (1 Cor 5)

Last week we talked about being...

Disciplined by the Father.

A good father - a father who really loves his children, cannot and will not sit back and allow his children to live in disobedience.

[BIG TRUTH] A good father confronts what is false and corrects with the truth.

And that’s exactly what Paul has been doing so far in this writing. Paul is expecting the Church of Corinth to respond to his discipline rather than reject it.

We finished with these words of warning from the pen of Paul.

1 Corinthians 4:18–21 (NIV)

Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you. But I will come to you very soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. What do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of discipline, or shall I come in love and with a gentle spirit?

Which would YOU choose? I’ll take love with a side of gentle spirit, please.

And now Paul has to address a couple of MASSIVE issues in this church - SEXUAL IMPURITY…AND…SPIRITUAL PRIDE.

But sins like these are NOT acceptable for those whom Paul had earlier called “God’s temple” (1 Cor 3:16-17). So, it’s time to talk about...

DITCHING DISOBEDIENCE

And today we will see what Paul makes it crystal clear - that

[BIG TRUTH] Christians can’t LIVE for the sin that Jesus DIED to pay for (anymore).

So…here we go!

PRAY

1 Corinthians 5:1 (NIV)

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.

Sexual immorality comes from the Greek term porneia that is used to describe a wide range of prohibited sexual activities. A man involved in the life of the Corinthian Church, is sleeping with his father’s wife (likely referring to a step-mother). Men often married woman younger than themselves so it is likely that this grown son was closer to the age of his father’s wife.

The Old Testament teaches that marrying your father’s wife is a wicked sin that should not be allowed among God’s people (Lev 18:8; Dt 22:30; 27:20).

Roman law (established by Augustus between 18 and 16 BC) also banned such relationships. [Derek R. Brown and E. Tod Twist, 1 Corinthians, ed. John D. Barry and Douglas Mangum, Lexham Research Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013), 1 Co 5:1–2.]

So while Jews and most pagans in the Roman Empire wouldn’t engage in this kind of sexual immorality, the church IS allowing this to occur without any correction.

Instead of being appalled at this sin, the Corinthian church applauded this sin.

1 Corinthians 5:2 (NIV)

And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?

Evidently, these people were ‘loving’ this guy rather than judging him guilty. WHY? We simply don’t know. Maybe he was a wealthy member of the church, with much influence in Corinth.

It’s much easier to give a pass to such a man than hold him to the high standard the less prestigious and less wealthy are to live by.

But instead of being burdened by this man’s sin, the church was proud. Paul quickly surmises what the Church should have done - put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this. They were to kick this guy out of the church membership & gatherings!

That sounds…JUDGMENTAL…does it not? Yep! And here we see how our pagan culture has so impacted the contemporary church, so that we THINK we should never judge. I can’t tell you how many Christians sound just like non-Christians when it comes to this, thinking that JUDGING is somehow a sin.

We often rather put up with the sin rather than confront it, because we don’t want to be ‘judgmental’.

Let’s continue with Paul’s thought.

1 Corinthians 5:3–5 (NIV)

For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

That doesn’t sound like a very ‘Christian’ thing to do…does it?

Well, actually, Paul is doing exactly what Jesus Christ had commanded. So YES, it is the Christian thing to do. Jesus taught His disciples to confront, correct, & comfort the one who turns from sin…but - if need be…kick out the ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ who refuses to repent of sin.

Matthew 18:15–17 (NIV)

If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Everyone in that culture would have understood what that meant - to treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector meant to see them as ungodly people who cheated their own people, rather than treating that person like a brother or sister in your faith family.

Someone might counter, “Jesus loved pagans and tax collectors”. That’s true, but that’s NOT Jesus’ point. The context is clearly about disfellowshipping the disobedient person. According to WHO? Jesus!

The goal of discipline, according to Jesus, is to

1. Call the brother or sister back to right relationship with God and God’s people.

2. Make sure God’s people don’t put up with disobedience in their own lives.

Matthew 18:18-20 (NIV)

Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.

This passage is super popular at church gatherings, but it is rarely used in its proper context.

To bind and loose has nothing to do with demons, but discipline.

This isn’t about praying against the devil or demons. Instead...

To bind is to proclaim that the person is still slave to their sin.

To loose is to proclaim that the person has been set free from their sin.

To agree about anything they ask for isn’t a blank check for every prayer to be answered the way they want.

In context, as the believers agree about expelling one who disobeys and embracing the one who obeys, the decision is recognized in heaven.

Finally, there’s the often quoted where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.

Of course the Presence of Jesus is among those who follow Him and meet together.

But this context is all about communicating the reality that it is Jesus who judges through His people.

I know that none of us would be excited as we look forward to this last meeting where we confront this ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ who is sin. We might even pause and ask, “Who are WE to judge him/her? After all, we have sinned too!” But that’s when the words of Jesus should stampede our thoughts of inadequacy because…Jesus is WITH us and Jesus commands us to do this.

And if Jesus commands it and we don’t do it, then we are being disobedient.

And it’s time for DITCHING DISOBEDIENCE because...Christians can’t LIVE for the sin that Jesus DIED to pay for (anymore).

Now let’s look back at the letter from Paul and see how words echo what Jesus has commanded.

1 Corinthians 5:4–5 (NIV)

So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

Do you see it? Jesus is WITH them, working through them, to expel this disobedient man.

The language that follows is very weighty, and should cause all of us pause - hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. What’s THAT mean?

To hand this man over to Satan means that he is no longer under the protection of the Church of Jesus. Paul uses this same language about 2 men he “handed over to Satan” (1 Tim 1:20) for continuously blaspheming God. The goal is this discipline is the destruction of the flesh - not referring to his physical body, but to his “sinful nature” (NLT).

The Pillar Commentary notes: “When Paul contrasts flesh and spirit...flesh refers almost without exception to the corrupt, fallen, and rebellious condition of the human being.”

Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 208.

See the many times Paul contrasts flesh to spirit - Rm 8:13, Gal 5:24, Col 3:5.

And here’s the hope - that this discipline will lead him to repentance in the future so while his sinful nature will be destroyed, his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

Craig Blomberg notes: “The whole point in disfellowshipping is to so shock the persons involved by the severity of the church’s disapproval that they are stimulated to change their behavior, after less radical action has left them unaffected.” [Craig Blomberg, 1 Corinthians, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 108.]

SPOILER ALERT: according to Paul’s next letter to Corinth, it seems that this IS the later result of this discipline - it this man returns and repents and is welcomed back (read 2 Cor 2:1-11)! He has responded to discipline and repented of his fleshy sinful desires.

But at the time, the church didn’t know what would result from kicking this man out. Many likely thought something similar to what many in our culture would think, “That's Unloving, Intolerant, & Judgmental!”

And Paul confronts them with the fact that what some might call “love and tolerance” is actually unloving to them and disobedient to God. While they are boasting about how loving and tolerant they are, but Paul says...

1 Corinthians 5:6–8 (NIV)

Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

A little yeast from a portion of a previous week’s batch of dough would be allowed to ferment and then added to the next batch, which would make the bread rise. Roy E. Ciampa and Brian S. Rosner, The First Letter to the Corinthians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 213.

But during Passover, families would make sure to get rid of the old yeast (aka leaven) in their homes and from the Temple. The Jews would eat unleavened bread all week, as God commanded their ancient ancestors who had been enslaved in Egypt.

The yeast was imagery for sin, casuing people to be puffed up and makes them proud.

Further, when ongoing sin is not removed from the Church, it influences the rest of the Church. This man’s sin, was influencing the whole Church like a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough.

The Church was to remove this man so that rather than be puffed up with malice and wickedness, they were to be like a new unleavened batch, full of sincerity and truth.

After all, that’s why Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed - to make them…to make US clean by paying for our sin!

BIG TRUTH: We can’t LIVE for the sin that Jesus DIED to pay for.

This isn’t the first time Paul has told them this, as in a previous letter that we don’t have a copy of, he wrote this.

1 Corinthians 5:9–11 (NIV)

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.

Here we see the difference in how we treat people of this world contrasted with how we treat ‘Christians’ who refuse to follow Christ.

Paul isn’t telling Christians to disassociate from non-Christians altogether. Otherwise, how could we share the good news of Jesus with them?

Paul isn’t telling mature believers to push away the believer who struggles with sin, but repents & seeks the help of other believers.

But Paul draws a very clear line in the sand in how we treat those who DO claim to follow Jesus, anyone who claims to be a brother or sister who continues to live in sin and refuses to repent.

He commands Christians to not associate with them, not even to eat with such people. We are not to act as if the way they are living doesn’t affect us, because it does. The early church met together consistently, often in homes and having meals together, including the Lord’s Supper/Communion. All of this communicated that they were on the same team, following the same King.

But Believers are NOT to communicate acceptance for one who claims Christ yet who is living in rebellion.

This discipline should be a wake up call to disobedient Christians - a challenge to change. To help them see that...

We can’t LIVE for the sin that Jesus DIED to pay for.

To many of us, banishing someone from our church gatherings seems very harsh & even unkind. But we must remember that...

as Stephen Um writes: “It’s discipline, it’s not supposed to be pleasant. We do ourselves a disservice if we defang the teeth of this passage too quickly.” [Stephen T. Um, 1 Corinthians: The Word of the Cross, ed. R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 95.]

Why is it that so many claim Christ but walk in disobedience to Him? Maybe it’s because, Christians like you and me, have hidden behind the language of ‘love’ and being ‘non-judgmental’, while we side-step the commands of our King!

Daughter Wants Dad, Living in Sexual Sin, To Baptize Her

Years ago I had a conversation with a man I had baptized previously. His daughter wanted to be baptized and we sat to talk about it. She asked if her Dad could baptize her. I asked her to give us a few minutes to talk in private. I asked if he was living with his girlfriend. He was. I explained that he was living in sexual sin and needed to turn from it. He could not baptize his daughter as a picture of being forgiven for sin while he was wallowing in it. He didn’t understand, saying that he understood we were supposed to love sinners. So I opened the next chapter of 1 Corinthians - chapter 6 - and read some to him. I tried to help him see that THERE IS A DIFFERENCE between how we treat a lost person and a brother/sister who refuses to turn from sin.

I communicated my love for him, and desire to help him. Then I bowed my knee and grabbed his hand and prayed for him. He promised to consider what we talked about. Sadly, the more he thought on it, the more he didn’t like it. That became obvious over a couple of phone conversations. With the exception of one more face to face conversation with another brother in the room, he never showed his face here again. He removed himself.

And then he began to talk about Fellowship like this: “You’re welcome at Fellowship, as long as you’re perfect.”

He missed the whole point. He came in as a sick person seeking treatment. We were patient with him and in not too long of time, He recognized the sickness of his sin and responded to the goodness of the gospel. He was baptized and spent time with our church, and was just before officially joining us in covenant membership when all this happened.

But then he went back to his old lifestyle and refused to respond to the correction of the Scriptures. So, he left. And if he were to RETURN, willing to TURN from his sin, we WOULD receive him back.

Some might counter, saying: “But Jackie, the church should be like a hospital for the sick. I agree. However, no hospital worth its salt allows hospital employees who refuse to receive treatment for their own illness, to return and spread their sickness to others in the hospital. Until they are treated, they won’t be welcome back to work at the hospital.

We conclude 1 Corinthians 5 with these questions and command:

1 Corinthians 5:12–13 (NIV)

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

What is the answer to the questions?

Is it our job to judge those outside the church? NOPE. We can leave that up to God. We can’t hold non-Christians accountable for not acting like Christ.

Is it our job to judge those inside the church? YEP. We ARE to hold Christians accountable for not acting like Christ. We should do this WITH mercy and WITHOUT hypocrisy. Our goal is to win the brother/sister back.

But, I think many of us - including me - have crossed the wires on this and gotten it backward.

We are quick to judge non-Christians for not acting like Christ, when they are acting lost, because they ARE lost. Because of this, we can even isolate ourselves from non-Christians and thereby have NO IMPACT because we have NO RELATIONSHIP.

On the other hand, we spend time with the person who claims Jesus without ever addressing the fact that they aren’t following Jesus.

May God give us wisdom on how to help believers turn from sin to grow in unity & purity, while we go out to be salt and light to our Christ-less culture that needs Him so desperately.

Paul concludes this section quoting from multiple passages in Deuteronomy (Deut. 13:5; 17:7; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21, 24; 24:7) that command banishment and sometimes, capital punishment in the Old Testament. Here’s the phase: “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Sometimes bringing discipline doesn’t work out like we want it to. Sometimes it takes a long time.

But we aren’t responsible for the response. We are responsible for our obedience to our King.

And sometimes…many years later, we DO see the discipline of the result in genuine repentance and reconciliation.

Story of Bump Faircloth

Close to 25 years ago a prominent, influential, wealthy “Christian” man in North Florida, a man involved in his local church, was having an affair and everyone in town knew about it. His wife followed Jesus and went to the same church. The man had stopped attending church.

The pastor approached him and confronted him with his sin. He refused to repent. The pastor brought several deacons and confronted him again - no change.

Finally, that church did something they had not done in many years - they brought the man and his sin before the church, although he did not show up. The Church disfellowshipped him. He was no longer a member there and the people were to be kind to him, pray for him, but no longer treat him like a brother in good standing.

A few years ago, the man start showing up to the church again. I know this, because our former pastor Steve was interim at the church at that time. It was obvious that this man had turned from his sin and started following Jesus again. Although long divorced from his wife and estranged from her family, they had forgiven him.

He approached Pastor Steve about reconciling with the church official. Steve encouraged the man to approach his former mother and father-in-law and family to seek their forgiveness. This was the day they had prayed for and longed for. And they communicated their forgiveness and love. On the day that this former adulterer, a man who had been disfellowshipped over 25 years ago, came forward to be restored, a grandson of his mother and father-in-law also came forward to share that he had trusted Jesus and wanted to be baptized.

People from the same family, people that once used to be estranged, stood side by side that day as that church shook hands and hugged necks…for over an hour!

And that man, continues to follow Jesus to this day!

Oh may we be KNOWN for loving and obeying Jesus and pointing others to the One who can REALLY FORGIVE US for anything. Oh, may we be KNOWN for Ditching Disobedience and recognizing that...

We can’t LIVE for the sin that Jesus DIED to pay for.

Maybe you ARE caught in sin, and if you want help, we want to help you.

This IS a hospital for people who people who want to get well! Whether you are currently a Christian or not, we have folks who spend time with you, listen to you, and keep your concerns in confidence.

…Please call us,

STAFF

or

DEACONS/wives

discussionquestions Take some time to discuss these questions with your family, friends, or group.

What challenged or encouraged you most from today’s teaching? Explain your answer.

Read 1 Cor 5:12-13. Based on this text, what would you tell the person who says, “Christians should never judge anyone.” Explain your answer. Have you ever had your wires crossed - judging non-Christians for not acting like Christ while giving a pass to Christians who aren’t acting like Christ? Explain your answer.

Read Matthew 18:15-20. According to Jesus, what steps should you take in attempting to restore a brother or sister who is living in sin?

Read 1 Cor 1:1-5. After reading the words of Paul and the promise from Jesus, what is the significance of “the power of the Lord Jesus is present” (1 Cor 1:4) and “where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them” (Mat 18:20) when it comes to bringing discipline on other Christians? What is the desired result of “handing this man over to Satan”?

Read 2 Cor 2:1-11 to see the result of the discipline to this man. Share what intrigues you about this passage.

Read 1 Cor 1:5:6-8. What’s the danger of allowing sin to stay among the Church (i.e. the people of God) rather than ditching disobedience?

Read 1 Cor 5:9-11. What’s the difference in how we treat a Christian who is struggling with sin and wants help contrasted with the Christian who refuses to turn from sin? Why are American churches so unwilling to discipline disobedient believers?

Read Matthew 7:1-6 and discuss what it means to judge rightly, according to Jesus. How would you want another Christian to confront you if you were living in sin, and how should that impact how you approach others who are living in sin?

Share prayer needs and pray for one another. Continue to pray for our Supreme Court decision on Roe v Wade. Pray for Christians in Ukraine and Russia to carry the message of Jesus with them wherever they go.