Fifteen years ago, next week, I was called to become the pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church, Wentworth, Wisconsin. As I began my first full-time ministry position, my rookie season, I found myself facing a couple of situations which were probably as difficult as any that I have dealt with the last fifteen years. The second Sunday I was there, a fellow named Bob was sitting in the front row. The next Sunday a woman named Linda was sitting beside him. After a few weeks, I learned that Bob and Linda had recently been expelled from a nearby Covenant Church, where they both had been members. Bob had abandoned his wife and moved in with Linda. He rejected the admonition of the Covenant Church leaders to return to his spouse. We had a number of discussions at our deacon board meetings as to how our church should respond to the situation, but we never came up with an answer. A few months later, Bob and Linda got married and they attended Lakeside Church for a few years, but never became members. The second situation involved a man who, until one year before my arrival, had been the chairman of the church at Lakeside. It came out that he had been having sexual affairs with two women in the congregation. He was asked to resign his position in the church which he grudgingly did, but he expressed no remorse for his actions. He quit attending worship services, but the church never rescinded his membership. Some folks in the congregation continued to be his close friends, while others said they would stop associating with him until there was some evidence that he had repented from his sin.
As I look back on these two situations now, fifteen years later, I have a feeling that as a pastor and as a church, we should have handled things differently. I still, however, am not sure what exactly we should have done. Church discipline, dealing with individuals in a congregation who persist in serious sin and refuse to repent, is a very tough issue. Yet, it is an issue which God, through the Bible, tells us is important. Our journey through the Book of 1 Corinthians brings us today to Chapter 5:1-13. This is not an easy passage with which to come to grips, but I do believe God has some very important things to say to us in these verses. Let's pause and pray that we would listen and hear as He speaks today.
I want to start out by saying that of all the sermons I have preached over the last fifteen years, this is probably one of my least favorites. Church discipline is tough stuff. So why this topic? #1) For the church, including First Baptist Church, to be healthy we need to be willing to implement discipline sometimes. In fact, in protestant churches, preaching the Word faithfully, administering the sacraments correctly, and exercising church discipline have been identified as the marks of a true church. We will talk more about what this discipline involves during the rest of the sermon. #2) My job as a pastor is not to tell you just what I want to say, or to tell you what you want to hear. My responsibility is to proclaim and explain what God has said to us in His Word, the Bible. Here, in this church, we believe the Lord worked through human authors, inspiring them to write the Scriptures. This means that when the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians, he was writing not only his own words, but also putting down the very words of God. When God speaks, we'd better listen. And when He chooses to spend thirteen verses talking about church discipline, I think it would be very foolish for me to say something like, "1 Corinthians, Chapter 5, is too difficult or controversial, so we will just skip it and move on to Chapter 6." Whether we realize it or not, we need to hear what God is saying in this text.
Let's walk through the text and look at Paul's message to the Corinthians. Here we find instructions about dealing with immorality in the church. 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. A man (just to make things clear, we will give him a name -- Adam) is having a sexual relationship with his stepmother. Whether the father has died, or divorced the woman, or was still married to her we don't know, but Paul notes that even in Corinth, a place where moral standards were very low, people were shocked by what was going on. 5:2a And you are proud! Paul is not saying they were proud of what Adam was doing, but is referring to their general attitude which we talked about last week. 5:2b Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? The Corinthian church was guilty of ignoring a serious moral problem in their midst. 5:3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. Remember, Paul was the founding father of the Corinthian church and was deeply concerned about what was happening there. 5:4,5 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. It is clear that Paul is instructing the Corinthians to expel Adam from the church. But the details of the last verse have been the subject of lots of discussion. What does it mean to hand the man over to Satan? Though Paul certainly believes in a personal devil, he is probably not anticipating a direct demonic attack upon Adam. Rather, by expelling him from their church, they would be putting him out into the devil's territory, severed from the protection and support of God's people. What is the purpose of doing that? Literally Paul says, "So that his flesh might be destroyed." Some think this means he will suffer physical affliction which will lead him to repentance. Most Bible scholars go along with the New International Version , however, and believe Paul is using the term flesh to describe our inner, sinful nature, our dark side. Thus, the hope is that being officially ostracized from the church will make Adam so emotionally miserable that he will repent so he can regain a right relationship with God and can rejoin the fellowship.
Paul then illustrates his point from the Old Testament. 5:6-8 Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast -- as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth. Sinful behavior is like yeast or leaven. It has a tendency to grow and to spread, much like a cancer in the church. The Passover custom was to sweep all the leavened bread crumbs out of the house in preparation for Passover, so that there was no danger of the new unleavened bread being contaminated. Paul's point is that the immoral individual needs to be removed from the church so that he does not contaminate the fellowship and is not a bad influence on other members of the congregation. 5:9-11 I have written 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 you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. In a couple of weeks we are going to look at these verses more closely. The main point is the Corinthians had misunderstood or twisted the instructions Paul had previously given them. They decided to stay away from people outside the church, non-Christians, who were immoral. Paul, however, had warned them against associating with people in the church, folks who claimed to be Christians, who were living immoral lifestyles. He had told them not to even eat with such a person. Some suggest Paul simply meant that Adam not be allowed to participate in the Lord's Supper or the Agape Feasts which were held in the church. I think he had something more in mind. Sharing a meal was part of friendship and fellowship in the ancient world, just as it is today. The person who refuses to repent of sinful behavior should be deprived of that type of fellowship. You should not even go out for a cup of coffee with that individual. Paul then sums it up in 5:12,13 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 man from among you."
After reading this, maybe you wonder, "Is Paul being too harsh? Is he too judgmental?" We live in a day when Matthew 7:1, "Judge not lest you be judged," has become the favorite verse of many. Paul says, "Outside the church 'judge not' is indeed the rule, but inside the church you'd better be willing to judge those who persist in serious sin." Now again, we need to keep in mind the nature of what we have just read. If these are merely the words of Paul, a 1st Century Christian leader, then they are probably just an interesting example of how the early church dealt with immorality in their midst. If, however, these are not just Paul's words, but are also the very words of God, then they are much more than an object of historical interest. If these are God's words, as I believe they are, then they are instructions for us, for First Baptist Church, about dealing with serious sin in our midst. If we believe the Bible is God's Word, we need to figure out how this text applies to us. Before we try to do that, I want to say something that may help some of you feel a little more comfortable. As we have read these verses, maybe you have been thinking, "Oh, oh, I might be in big trouble. What if Pastor Dan finds out that on Wednesday I called in sick to work, but then went fishing. Maybe I will get kicked out of the church for being dishonest." Well, let me say, though I would never encourage someone to call in sick unless they really are, that this is not the type of sin which would cause someone to be expelled from our fellowship. I can honestly say that as I look around this room, I see lots of people who I know are less than perfect, but I don't see anyone who I think should be disciplined by our church. I am not talking about this topic because we are contemplating taking action to remove someone from our congregation. It is important, however, to understand what Paul is teaching so that if and when the time comes that we as a church need to discipline one of our members, we will all understand what the process should be.
Now, I want to point out three things we need to remember in practicing church discipline. #1) We need to follow the instructions Jesus gives in Matthew 18:15-17 "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he 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 he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector." They were not very friendly toward pagans and tax collectors. Let's say I hear a report that one of our deacons (I'll call him Joe) has left his wife and is living with another woman. The first step I should take is to go talk to Joe or at least give him a call. When I do that, maybe I will find that yes, Joe did move out of the house, but only temporarily because he moved in with his mom to take care of her while she recovers from surgery. Or I may find out that yes, Joe is having an affair, but he feels terrible about it. He wants to get back together with his wife and he wants to make things right with the Lord. If that is the case, I will certainly encourage him to do that. Yet, even though he has committed a serious sin, there is no need for church discipline because Joe is repentant. He probably needs to step aside as a deacon, but that is another issue. Another possibility is that Joe will say to me, "Yes, Pastor Dan, I'm having an affair. But, so what? I just don't love my wife anymore and who I sleep with is my business, not yours."
If Joe responds that way, I should go to Step 2. I ask one or two other people, in this case probably deacons, to join me in talking to Joe again. This time he may have a different attitude. After listening what the three of us have to say, he may respond, "Boy, guys, I guess you are right. I've been acting like a jerk. I need to repent and make things right with God and with my wife." Or, he may tell the three of us to get lost and mind our own business. At that point, Jesus tells us we need to take the situation to the church. In our congregation the board would probably discuss it first, but eventually it should go before the congregation at a meeting of some type. We would inform everyone about what Joe is doing, of his unwillingness to repent, and the congregation should agree to exclude him from the fellowship and no longer treat Joe as a Christian brother. This third step may be a very painful act, but it is what 1 Corinthians 5 describes. Of course, even at this point Joe can repent and he will be welcomed back into the church. But if he refuses to do so, the people in the congregation should be encouraged not to associate with him.
#2) Church discipline (as described in our text) should only be used in dealing with serious sin. Many sins, like calling in sick but going fishing, probably should not be dealt with in this manner. But, isn't dishonesty or any other sin serious? Yes, it is, and we should take it seriously, especially in our own lives. Only certain sins, however, require church discipline. How do we know which ones do? Well, I see two criteria which we find in our text. In either of these situations, the discipline process should be started.
The first is sin that is harming the reputation of the church. Remember that in Corinth, even the pagans were shocked by the man sleeping with his stepmother. Now, in our day when moral standards have been so eroded, it is hard to imagine how nonbelievers would be shocked by any type of sexual immorality. During the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, there were folks who said, "What's the big deal? Everyone has extramarital sex and lies about it." Yet, surveys showed that almost 3/4 of Americans still think adultery, not being faithful to one's spouse, is a big deal. So, I think if deacon Joe were having an affair and people knew about it, the reputation of the church would probably be harmed. Yet, there are also some sins which have nothing to do with sex that fall into this category too. In Verse 11 Paul mentions a swindler. A Christian who is a dishonest businessman and is always taking advantage of other people as he tries to make a quick buck, could do great harm to a church's reputation. If that is what deacon Joe is doing, it iss to sin. This is what Paul meant in Verse 7 as he spoke of getting rid of the yeast. Now, I think a wide variety of sins could fall into this category. One factor would be, who is committing the sin? If deacon Joe goes out and gets drunk, it is probably a bigger problem in the church than if a 19-year-old kid does, even though the state of Minnesota may say what Joe did is perfectly legal. Because he is a leader in the church, because he is seen as an example by others, it is a big problem if he refuses to repent of his actions. Now certainly, if there is a 19-year-old in the church who is repeatedly getting drunk, he or she should be confronted about that, but my point is that it is much more dangerous when church leaders fall into sin and refuse to repent. I also think what Paul says applies not only to those who do what is wrong, but also to those who believe and teach what is false. If Joe is a Sunday School teacher and he is telling his class that Jesus was a very good man, but not really God, that false teaching needs to be confronted. If Joe refuses to repent and insists on spreading his ideas throughout the church, eventually it may very well be necessary to expel him from the congregation. False teaching is certainly a spiritual cancer that can destroy a church. When I look at the decline of mainline protestant churches in recent decades, I think it can be, at least in part, attributed to the fact these churches never dared to discipline. Pastors who denied the basic teachings of the Bible, including the deity of Christ, were allowed to remain in their pulpits. The decision last week of the United Methodists to not allow homosexual marriages or to not ordain practicing homosexuals as pastors shows most Methodists recognize that the church needs to draw some lines and be willing to say that what some people are teaching or doing is wrong. So hurray for the Methodists! Anyway, the sins that require church discipline are sins which harm the reputation of the church or those which tend to spread throughout the congregation.
Thirdly, the goal of church discipline is always restoration. Love, tough love, should be the only reason anyone is ever expelled from any congregation. It is difficult for us to understand how Paul saw this working because today most folks have a very different attitude about the church. Being expelled would not be pleasant for anyone, but if it happened many folks would think, "Oh, well, I will just go to the church down the road," or "I'll have more time to golf on Sundays and I can listen to Christian radio during the week." In Corinth it was that way. To be excluded from the church meant being separated from one's spiritual home. The discipline Paul recommends is intended to be a spiritual slap across the face, so that the one who has been living this immoral lifestyle would wake up and realize how foolish he was being. For church discipline to be effective, it may mean we need to work on building stronger relationships, strengthening bonds within the congregation, and it may also mean that congregations need to work together and support each other as they seek to exercise discipline. At the beginning of the sermon I told you about Bob who had abandoned his wife, moved in with Linda, and had been expelled from the Covenant Church. I sometimes wonder what would have happened if our church at Lakeside would have said, "Bob, you are not welcome to participate in our congregation either, until you repent of your sin." I don't know. Let me add, however, that I know that there are people who have been expelled from their churches not because of sin on their part, but because of sinful attitudes on the part of a pastor or other leaders in the congregation. In those cases I think it is important we welcome these folks in, embrace them as spiritual refugees who need a church home to grow and serve in. But, when we are dealing with Christians who refuse to repent of serious sin, our motive for using church discipline should never be to punish them for what they are doing, but rather to restore them. If that is not the goal, then church discipline becomes ugly and destructive.
Friends, this has been a very different type of sermon. Some of you may be thinking, "Pastor Dan, I feel frustrated because I have more questions about this passage now than I did when you started." I think that's OK, and if you give me a call I'd love to talk with you about that. Others of you may be thinking, "Pastor Dan, this is all interesting stuff, but what does it have to do with me?" Let me close by pointing out some practical lessons for us. First of all, we need to take the Bible seriously. As a Christian, you don't have the luxury of saying, "I don't understand 1 Corinthians 5, so I'm not going to worry about it." All of us who are believers in Jesus need to come to grips with what it teaches. If you have not done that yet, I encourage you to do so. Secondly, personal holiness, striving to obey God, is important. Paul gives an important implicit warning in this text. Don't any one of you go off the path of following Jesus Christ. If you do, out of love, we will seek to discipline you, just as a parent disciplines a child who is doing what is wrong. Thirdly, we need to pray for the spiritual health of our church. It is nice that a lot of people come here on Sundays, but it is far more important that we are becoming a group of people whose lives are bringing glory to God. If that is not happening, our church is sick and it needs to be restored to health. Fourthly, we need to support decisions to exercise biblical discipline. Make up your mind today that if there ever comes a time our church needs to discipline someone in our fellowship, you will support that decision, unless you are really convinced that the biblical guidelines are not being followed.
Friends, I have a two-year-old son, Brock, who needs to be disciplined sometimes...lots of times. He doesn't like it when I do that, and I don't enjoy doing it. But for his good, and the good of our family, I have to do that. Church discipline is a very unpleasant thing. But because we love God, because we love His church, because we love the people who are a part of it, it is something we need to be willing to do.
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