1 Corinthians 5 part 3
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even [a]named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2 And you are [b]puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord [c]Jesus.
6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore [d]purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed [e]for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.Immorality Must Be Judged
9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to [f]keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”
We began our study of 1 Corinthians 5 a couple of weeks ago. This chapter tells us about the second major problem that the church in Corinth was having; sexual immorality in the church. And I told you as we started studying the chapter that the problem wasn’t just that a man was having an intimate relationship with his father’s wife, but that other problems came along with it. They also had a problem because their tolerance of this relationship was tarnishing their relationship in the community. Even the world they lived in considered this relationship immoral.
And today we are going to uncover two more problems that are offshoots of fornication in the church; their arrogant attitude toward it, and their failure to discipline the offending member.
First, they were arrogant about it. They didn’t see the problem. They were so caught up in their own pride that they were blind to this flagrant sin. It kind of reminds me of a quote I heard about G. Gordon Liddy, one of the conspirators in the Watergate scandal. This was clear back in 1977, and G. Gordon Liddy had been tried and sent to jail for the break in of the Democrat headquarters in the Watergate hotel.
And yet, even though he was tried and convicted of burglary, he still couldn’t see his own fault. After he got out of jail, this is what he said, "I have found within myself all I need and all I ever shall need. I am a man of great faith, but my faith is in George Gordon Liddy. I have never failed me."
The Christian Century, Sept. 28, 1977, p. 836.
Now he has since become a Christian and sings a different tune. But at the time he saw nothing wrong in what he had done. That was the issue with the Corinthian church, they not only had a man involved in flagrant sin in their congregation, they not only had a reputation problem in the community, they were also so prideful that they couldn’t sin the problem.
I. The Problem of Arrogance
2 And ye are puffed up,
It is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated[a] among the Gentiles—a man is living with his father’s wife. 2 And you are inflated with pride, and have not rather mourned,
They had a third sin problem; pride. They should have been mourning about the sin among them, but instead they were proud. Now, that begs the question; what were they proud about? What were they proud of? What was there to be proud of?
There are generally two ways that commentators have interpreted this pride. First, that the pride they have was not pride in the sinful man. It was just the general pride that was characterizing certain ones in that church.
1 Corinthians 4:6 Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the saying: “Nothing beyond what is written.” The purpose is that none of you will be inflated with pride in favor of one person over another.
1 Corinthians 4:18 Now some are inflated with pride, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will know not the talk but the power of those who are inflated with pride.
1 Corinthians 8:1 About food offered to idols: We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up.
So that what Paul was saying was that they were so caught up in their inflated view of themselves, and of their wisdom, and gifts, that they failed to notice or deal with a huge sore on the side of their faces; incest in the church.
And the text kind of lends itself to that interpretation. Literally it says, “a man is living with his father’s wife. 2 And you are inflated with pride,” In other words, Paul can’t believe that they are proud, with this great sin in their midst.
Now some other interpreters, not as many, but some propose that the pride they have here comes from their teaching that they are no longer under the law. They are not bound to the Old Testament law.
Paul deals with such a group in his letter to the church in Rome, who seemed to have been saying that after you come to faith in Christ, you can sin all you want. And that since your sin caused grace to be dispensed in you, sinning more would mean more grace dispensed.
Romans 6: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
But regardless of which interpretation we take, it is clear that their heart was in the wrong place in regard to this man.
Maybe the biggest reason that they didn’t want to deal with the man was because it required humility from all parties involved. Jesus said,Matthew 7:2-4 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
And it seems that everyone in this church was more concerned with elevating themselves, rather than humbling themselves.
It’s hard to confront sin. Because doing so often reminds us of our own imperfections.
It is also possible that the reason they didn’t confront the sin had to do with their factions. The man may have been a member of one of the divided parties. And those who were a part of his faction in the church were protecting their own.
II. The Problem of Failure to Discipline
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 And [a]you have become puffed up and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
So, they had a fornication problem, a reputation problem, a pride problem, and now they have a discipline problem.
They didn’t address it. They didn’t confront the sin. They did not ake the necessary steps. What are the necessary steps? He mentions two; mourn over the sin, and remove the sin from among you. Discipline in the church involves three things; a proper attitude, a proper process, and a proper purpose.
1. Discipline indicates a proper attitude toward sin : mourning
Dealing with sin in the church should always start with mourning over that sin. You might say, “I didn’t commit the sin, why should I mourn?” Because this is your brother or sister in Christ. And you should want the best for them. To often our attitude can be arrogant condescendence. We can look down our noses at the person and almost gloat over the fact that they have sinned. “Bring them down a few notches.” “They acted so pious, look at them now.”
Or our attitude can be vengeful anger. “How dare they get involved in sin.” “Don’t they know how this sin could wreck our church?”
But the proper attitude is mourning. The word mourning here can be interpreted “fallen into distress.” “Instead of being arrogant, you should have fallen into distress over this sin.” It’s sometimes translated “wailing.” You should have fallen down with mourning, weeping and wailing when you heard this. Why? Let me give you an Old Testament example here.Numbers 14:4-6 Legacy Standard Bible
3 So they said to one another, “Let us appoint a leader and return to Egypt.” 5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in the presence of all the assembly of the congregation of the sons of Israel.6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes;
Why did Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb mourn? Because they knew the heart of God.
11 Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have done in their midst?12 I will strike them with [e]pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they.”
They knew that this sin would bring the punishment of God down on the congregation. They also knew that punishment doesn’t just affect those who commit sin. It affects all those around them as well. Think about it. Because the children of Israel sinned concerning entering the promised land, not only did those who directly sinned die in the wilderness, but everyone, including Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. 1 Corinthians 12:26 Legacy Standard Bible
26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is [a]honored, all the members rejoice with it.
So, the appropriate response to hearing that a brother or sister has fallen into sin is mourning. But what do you do then?
2. Discipline involves a proper process
Jesus laid that out for us.
Matthew 18: 15 “Now if your brother sins[h], go and [i]show him his fault, between you and him alone; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every [j]fact may be confirmed. 17 And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the tax collector. 18 Truly I say to you, whatever you [k]bind on earth [l]shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you [m]loose on earth [n]shall have been loosed in heaven.
You follow this discipline procedure. Go to the person alone. Some have asked; can I take someone with me. I don’t think that going to them alone has to be a hard and fast rule. I think the point of it is that you don’t go broadcasting someone’s sin around the church before you go to them. If you are the only person who knows that they have sinned, yes, go alone. Don’t go telling others first. Keep it a private matter as long as it can be a private matter.
Now, let me add something here. In recent years the church has fallen under severe criticism because of sin in the church. And the sin was kept hush hush. There are sins that you keep between just yourself and the person, if they repent. But some sins require others to be involved. Some sins have to be reported to the appropriate authorities. If someone is embezzling money, those financially involved have to be informed, because restitution needs to occur. If a crime has been committed, authorities have to be alerted. If a child is a victim, it has to be reported.
And, if this is a leader in the church, depending on the sin, there may be a need for public confession.
So, I don’t want you to think that “keeping knowledge of the sin between two people” is a hard and fast rule.
Then, if the person doesn’t repent, you take two or three others, then finally it goes before the church.
Now, what kinds of sins are we talking about here? Well, I don’t really want to set a limit on it. If, for example, you had a person in your Sunday School class who cussed like a sailor. And you talked to them about it and they told you, “I’ll talk how I want to talk,” I think that would qualify as an instance for church discipline. Cussing may be a “small” sin, but it is offensive, and an unrepentant attitude accompanies it.
But, if you want a list of sins that should be disciplined, consider all the things that Paul addressed in his letters to the churches. Consider this, everyone of Paul’s letters to churches were going to be read in front of the entire congregation. And in those letters, he often confronted sin. That means that he considered that sin, spelled out in his letter, as worthy of public confrontation. So, if you want a guide for what sins we should hold each other accountable for, start there. But Paul occasionally gave us some lists of the sins of the world that are also a good guide for what should be noted and confronted in the church. Here are two of them.
Romans 1: 8 And just as they did not see fit [p]to acknowledge God, God gave them over to an unfit mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, [q]haters of God, violent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the righteous requirement of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
Galatians 5: 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, [i]factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now does this mean that we ought to give every member of our church a clipboard with these lists, and have them walk around making note of anyone who sins? “Oh, you were just boastful, check, name, date, better repent, or I’ll be back with Myrtle to continue the discipline process.” No, that’s not the point.
The is to build a church where big problems/sins are dealt with, and even small sins can be openly discussed. We all become sharper. There’s an Old Testament passage that gives a good analogy for us.
Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.
Mourning is the proper attitude. Going to them is the proper process. And the proper purpose…
3. Discipline’s design is to remove a spreading disease: taken away from among you
2 And [a]you have become puffed up and [b]have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
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