1 Corinthians 5 part 5
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.
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. Last time we discovered two more problems
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.
Now the impression we get here is that this man is not repentant. Because Paul is talking about removal and turning him over to Satan. You don’t do that to a repentant individual.
But, when they are unrepentant, they are to be removed. What does removal mean? They are no longer welcome in any church gathering. And not only that…
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.2 Thessalonians 3:14 Legacy Standard Bible
14 And if anyone does not obey our word [a]in this letter, take special note of that person to not associate with him, so that he will be put to shame.
You are not even to sit down at a meal with them. Why? Because a meal together denotes a certain level of acceptance, and camaraderie. And you are restricting your relationship with this person to one thing; calling them to repentance.
A. The Process of Discipline
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
B. The criteria for discipline
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
C. It is a whole church action.
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Note that by the time the sin is unrepentant after multiple conversations with an individual and a small group, going to the church is the last resort. Now what’s the point? What are you trying to accomplish? Well, first you are trying to steer this person back in the right direction. But, if that is unsuccessful, your second purpose is to remove the influence of that person from the church. You say, “Won’t they be more likely to reform if they stay in the church?” Maybe, maybe not. But at this point, once the sin has been confronted, if they are unrepentant, the second purpose becomes dominant; to remove their influence.
The old saying goes, “One bad apple spoils the whole bunch.” I’m sure many of you have experienced that with apple or fruit. If you have a bag of apples, and one day you look in the bag and see that one of the apples is turning rotten, what do you do? You remove the apple from the bag. You don’t leave it in the bag and hope that the good apples will influence the rotten one to not be rotten. You remove it.
When a person has cancerous cells in their body, the doctor recommends removal of the cancerous part if possible.
Now, we said that we are to bar them from church functions, and we are not to fellowship with them personally except in calling them to repentance. I think the Amish have this right in that they are also allowed to be charitable to the individual; to express love, but not fellowship.
But then what?
D. It is turning them out of the protective fold, out into the world.
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
What does that mean? Let’s look at the book of Job chapter 2.
Again it was the day that the sons of God came to stand before Yahweh, and Satan also came among them to stand himself before Yahweh. 2 And Yahweh said to Satan, “Where do you come from?” Then Satan answered Yahweh and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” 3 And Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you set your heart upon My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, [a]fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity. So you incited Me against him to swallow him up in vain.” 4 Satan answered Yahweh and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life. 5 However, send forth Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh; he will curse You in Your face.” 6 So Yahweh said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your hand, only spare his life.”
Job was turned over to Satan. But there was a limit, set by God, to what Satan could do. At first, he could only take his possessions and family. Then God allowed him to take his health.
Now, in the case of church discipline, you are turning the person over to Satan. And Satan has a limit to what he can do. What is the limit? He can take everything, possessions, family, health, even physical life, but Satan cannot touch their eternal soul.
5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh,
Let me say this. “What a frightening prospect.” And that’s probably the second reason that most churches do not practice church discipline; They can’t bear the thought of the suffering that will come to this person undergoing discipline. The first reason they don’t is because it is difficult and painful to the people who are exacting the discipline.
This is no fun. You are asking God to remove His protective hand from this person’s life in order to bring them to a place of repentance.
E. The purpose is redemption
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
I mentioned a moment ago that there is more than one reason for church discipline; restoration is one. But the other is preservation. You are trying to prevent the rot of sin from spreading to other members.
Let’s leave the analogy of apples and get down to brass tacks. Let me ask you some questions.
If you leave a flagrant gossip in the church, do you think that others will learn to be gossips? If you leave someone involved in sexual immorality in the church, might they be an influence on others and their participating in sexual immorality? Will a liar left in the church be a bad influence on the congregation? Will a greedy person sway some young soul toward the love of money?
The answer to all of those is yes.
And that is what Paul is saying.
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Again, the reason for removing them is to prevent them from influencing the purity of the church. So, let’s break down what Paul says here.
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
The analogy he uses here is of leaven, or yeast. If you’ve ever made bread, you know that you put yeast into the dough to make it rise. But there is a magic amount of time that it needs to rise. If left too long, the yeast will take over the bread and it will become bitter tasting and collapse if baked. In other words, it ruins the bread.
Leaven typically symbolizes sin in the Bible. And it symbolizes how sin can work like leaven, and spread its influence to others around the sinner. Leviticus 2:11 Legacy Standard Bible
11 ‘No grain offering, which you bring near to Yahweh, shall be made with leaven, for you shall not offer [a]up in smoke any leaven or any honey as an offering by fire to Yahweh.
So, Paul is saying that if you allow this sin to remain among you, it will influence others to sin as well. And especially if it is an especially grievous sin like the incest that this man in Corinth was involved in.
I think the best analogy for how it influences can be found in our criminal justice system. I believe, and I believe Scripture supports this, that murderers should get capital punishment. And I mean any murder; not accidental death, or other circumstances, but when a person who knows right from wrong, commits a murder, they should be put to death. Now, I know there are other mitigating circumstances, but that’s not the point of this analogy.
But, in our society, it is rare for a murderer to be put to death. It is frightening what a person has to do to be put to death. We have Dennis Rader in prison here in Kansas. He was convicted of torturing and killing 10 people. There was probably more. But that doesn’t warrant his being put to death.
So how does that failure to properly punish influence society? Well, every other punishment for crime must receive a lighter sentence. For example, I believe that a serial rapist should receive the death penalty. But if we haven’t put Dennis Rader to death for what he did, how could we put a serial rapist to death? So, the serial rapist gets life in prison.
So then, some other crime, that would deserve life in prison, can’t be given life in prison because it’s not as bad as a serial rapist. It lessons every punishment from the worst offender down.
And the same is true in any organization. If you allow the worst offender to continue their offense, then those committed lesser offenses feel safe from punishment.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened.
For Christ, our Passover lamb, also was sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
What does this mean regarding Christ as the Passover Lamb and the feast?
Well, in that century women made bread every day. And bread required yeast. Today, if I am going to make bread, I go to the store and buy a package of yeast and put it in warm water, then the dough. But they didn’t have packaged yeast. So what did they do? They made their bread today, and after it had risen, and before they put it in the oven, they pinched off a small piece of dough, and keep it to mix in with tomorrow’s bread.
So, what’s the analogy. Leaven represents sin. So, at the feast of Passover, they were celebrating how God brought them out of Egypt. The Passover feast was the feast that celebrated how God had saved them from the final plague of death of the first-born. And their salvation came because of their obedience of faith, they killed a lamb, and put its blood on the doorposts and lintel. And in the same way, Christ is our Passover Lamb. We put our faith in the blood shed at Calvary, and we are saved from Spiritual death. Now how were they to celebrate the Passover, among other things they ate unleavened bread. And not only did they eat unleavened bread they were to get any leaven out of their houses.
Exodus 12: 14 ‘Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to Yahweh; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as [o]a perpetual statute. 15 Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall [p]remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that [q]person shall be cut off from Israel.
Here’s the symbol. Leaven symbolized sin. They were saved by the blood, they were leaving the slavery of Egypt. And they were to leave all the leaven of Egypt behind. No leaven of Egypt in their bread. They cleaned out any leaven from their houses. We’re not taking any leaven from this place with them.
So Paul is saying that the purpose of discipline is to remove the sinful influence. Just as Israel cleaned out every bit of leaven before they left Egypt so that the influence of Egypt’s sinfulness was not carried along with them, so we are to clean out all the sinful influence from among us.
As the baptismal statement goes. “Buried with Christ, raised to walk in the newness of life.
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, also was sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
They had the problem of fornication, reputation, arrogance, and failure to discipline. Finally, we have the problem of identity. They don’t know who they are. You are no longer the world, you are the bride of Christ.
III. The Problem of Identity
I've always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific.
Lily Tomlin in Jane Wagner, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
First, just a footnote here.
9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
Hold it, here he says that he “wrote to them in an epistle.” Isn’t this letter we are studying called 1st Corinthians? Doesn’t that mean that this is the 1st letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthian church? Not necessarily. This statement implies that there was a previous letter that we don’t have. That’s not a huge issue, it just clarifies what Paul is saying.
Now here’s the point Paul is making. Apparently, he had written the church in Corinth previously and told them not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Well, some of the letter’s recipients were confused. Because if they were to try and not associate at all with sexually immoral people, they might have to avoid everyone in Corinth. Remember that previously we learned what the reputation of Corinth was. Corinth had a reputation of being a sexually immoral people. The city had a reputation for drunkenness and debauchery. Remember that if you call a woman a Corinthian you were calling her a prostitute, and to call a man a Corinthian was to call him a drunk.
So, Paul saying that the Christians should not intermingle with the sexually immoral could mean interacting with no adult in town. And that’s what he says.
10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
If you tried that kind of separation, you would have to leave this world.
But what he meant was to separate from professing Christians who were sexually immoral.
11 But now I am writing to you not to associate [e]with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.
Now isn’t this interesting? It’s okay for you to hang around non-Christians who are drunks, but not with Christians who are drunks. It’s okay for you to eat with an adulterer who isn’t a believer. But if they are a professing Christian, don’t eat with them.
Why? Because that is not who Christians are. They are not “sexually immoral, greedy, idolaters, revilers, drunks, or swindlers.”
Why did Jesus save you? Two related reasons—to make you a new person and thus give glory to God.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Ephesians 4: 17 Therefore this I say, and testify in the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their mind, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. 19 And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality [k]for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn [l]Christ in this way— 21 if indeed you heard Him and were taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus— 22 [m]to lay aside, in reference to your former conduct, the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and to put on the new man, which [n]in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
2 Corinthians 9:8 8 And God is able to make every grace abound to you, so that in everything at every time having every sufficiency, you may have an abundance for every good deed;
Colossians 1:10 10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, [a]to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and [b]multiplying in the [c]full knowledge of God;
Titus 2:14 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of [f]our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works.
Hebrews 13: 20 Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep [d]through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, 21 equip you in every good thing to do His will, by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.1 Peter 2:12 12 by keeping your conduct excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing which they slander you as evildoers, they may [a]because of your good works, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of [b]visitation.
Matthew 5:16 16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
He saved you to make you new, by His Spirit. He saved you so you could do good and not evil. He saved you to be a witness to the world of that transforming power, and so ultimately your deeds will bring glory to God, and even the unredeemed will bear witness to God’s glory.
So, discipline calls for separation from Christians who are rebellious, because they are doing the opposite of bringing glory to God. They are bringing dishonor to God. And we are commanded not to separate from the sinners of the world because they couldn’t do good even if they wanted to. We are light and salt in the world to draw them to salvation.
And a rebellious believer, if he is not being salt and light is not serving his purpose. So, he has no Godly purpose in this world. And church discipline may be the one thing that brings him back.
The story is told that Andrew Jackson's boyhood friends just couldn't understand how he became a famous general and then the President of the United States. They knew of other men who had greater talent but who never succeeded. One of Jackson's friends said, "Why, Jim Brown, who lived right down the pike from Jackson, was not only smarter but he could throw Andy three times out of four in a wrestling match. But look where Andy is now." Another friend responded, "How did there happen to be a fourth time? Didn't they usually say three times and out?" "Sure, they were supposed to, but not Andy. He would never admit he was beat -- he would never stay 'throwed.' Jim Brown would get tired, and on the fourth try Andrew Jackson would throw him and be the winner." Picking up on that idea, someone has said, "The thing that counts is not how many times you are 'throwed,' but whether you are willing to stay 'throwed'." We may face setbacks, but we must take courage and go forward in faith. Then, through the Holy Spirit's power we can be the eventual victor over sin and the world. The battle is the Lord's, so there is no excuse for us to stay "throwed"!
Our Daily Bread.
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