1 Corinthians 5

Dealing With a Case of Incest

 1 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. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning...   (Or grieved over this condition that was existing.)

Leviticus 18:8

 ⁸ “‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonor your father.

Deutoronomy 22:30  ³⁰ A man is not to marry his father’s wife; he must not dishonor his father’s bed.

As bad as the sin itself was, Paul was more concerned that the Corinthian Christians seemed to take the sin lightly, and they were unconcerned (have not rather mourned) about this behavior.

 ...and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?

Clearly, this was Paul’s solution to the problem – to take this notoriously unrepentant man away from the protection of the fellowship of God’s people. Yet, the Corinthian Christians were not doing this. Why not? How could this kind of thing be allowed?

Remember that Corinth was a city notorious for sexual immorality, and the pagan religions did not value sexual purity. It wasn’t hard for a Corinthian to think you could be religious, yet still act any way you pleased when it came to sex. Greek culture could matter-of-factly say: “Mistresses we keep for the sake of pleasure, concubines for the daily care of the body, but wives to bear us legitimate children.”

 ³ 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. ⁴ So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, ⁵ 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.

I TIMOTHY 1:20  ²⁰ Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

How could they deliver such a one to Satan? By putting him outside the church, into the world, which is the devil’s “domain.” The punishment is a removal of spiritual protection and social comfort, not an infliction of evil.

Jesus said that if your brother sinned against you, that you should go to your brother and deal with him. And if he receives you then you have gained a brother. But if he will not receive you, then you should take some witnesses with you and you should go to him in order that the sin might be dealt with. But if he will not receive then the witnesses, let him be as an outcast, let him be as a heathen or a publican unto you.

The first thought always of the brother in sin within the church is restoration, going first seeking to restore, seeking to bring about a rectifying of the bad situation.

The fact that so many can leave many churches without a second thought shows how weak those churches really are. Shouldn’t they be places a person under discipline, put outside the fellowship, would miss?

But doesn’t also say something about a Christian if they can willingly neglect the assembling together of the saints – and prefer their isolation?

The goal of the discipline is clear: the salvation, not the destruction, of his spirit. Though this man’s conduct was clearly sinful, and needed severe correction, Paul does not write him off as forever lost – the effective use of church discipline may yet see him to salvation.

Galatians 6

 ¹ Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

 ⁶ Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are.

Matthew 16:6, 12  ⁶ “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”   ¹² Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Leaven is used in the scripture always in an evil sense. Because the leavening process is actually a putrefying process, the air that gets into it by the rotting process. And a little starter into the new batch of dough will work its way through the whole batch of dough. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump.

And it is such a classic picture of sin, how that just allowing, tolerating, a little area of evil, it can permeate the whole life of the body. It can affect the whole body.

… For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. ⁸ 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.

Exodus 12:14-15  ¹⁴ “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD—a lasting ordinance. ¹⁵ For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 

As we meet together, let us meet together in sincerity, let us meet together in truth, let us worship together in sincerity and truth. Let us love one another in sincerity and truth. Within the body of Christ, we should not have the malice; we should not have the strife, the wickedness, but there should be a purity of heart before the Lord when we gather together to worship Him.

2 CORINTHIANS??!!

Now Paul refers to an epistle that he wrote to the Corinthians which we do not possess. So we call this I Corinthians, but it really is II Corinthians or maybe even more. We do not know how many letters Paul wrote to them. But he does refer to a letter that he had already written to them.

 ⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—

Ephesians 5:11  ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister^[c] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.

2 Thesalonians 3:6, 14  Warning Against Idleness

 ⁶ In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching^[a] you received from us.

In the culture of that day (and in many cultures today), eating with someone is an expression of friendship and partnership. In some cultures, if a man eats at your table, you are bound to regard him as a friend and a partner. Paul is warning the Corinthian Christians they cannot continue in Christian fellowship with a notorious sinner who calls himself a Christian.

 ¹² What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³ God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Church Discipline

Taken from Life Application Bible, NIV Translation

Steps  (Matthew 18:15-17)

1.      Go to the brother or sister, show the fault to him or her in private.

2.      If he/she does not listen, go with one or two witnesses.

3.      If he/she refuses to listen, take the matter before the church.

After these steps have been carried out, the next steps are:

1.      Remove the one in error from the fellowship  (1 Corinthians 5:2-13)

2.      The church gives united disapproval, but forgiveness and comfort are in order if he/she chooses to repent  (2 Corinthians 2:5-8)

3.      Do not associate with the disobedient person; and, if you must, speak to him/her as one who needs a warning  (2 Thessalonians 3:14, 15)

4.      After two warnings, reject the person from the fellowship  (Titus 3:10)

TABLE QUESTIONS

1.       HAVE YOU BEEN INVOLVED IN A CHURCH THAT HAD TO DISCIPLINE A MEMBER?  WAS THE PERSON RESTORED?  DID THE CHURCH FOLLOW SOMETHING CLOSE TO THE ABOVE  METHOD?  WHAT WAS THE OUTCOME? WHY?