Sin Accomodating Churches-1 Series

SIN ACCOMODATING CHURCHES-I—1Cor. 5:1-13

Attention:

A beehive is populated by bees of the same heritage. They work together to supply what is needed to expand their hive & multiply themselves continually. If bees from outside the ‘tribe’ approach the hive they are dealt with as enemies of the entire hive. Thus the integrity of the hive is maintained.

Similarly, The church proper is populated by Christians, all of the same heritage...they are brothers & sisters by the blood of Jesus. None of them are Christian sympathizers, they are Christians! They work together to supply what is needed to expand their hive & multiply themselves continually. Their integrity is to be maintained...

However, those who are sympathizers are readily invited to witness & be involved with the true Christian work but only to a limited extent...

...Because...

1)The church ministers in the world & interacts with the world(Jn. 17:15)...

2)We cannot ultimately determine the reality of anyone’s salvation(only God can per 1Cor. 4-5)...

3)We minister to & with those who consider themselves ‘saved,’ the church can inadvertently & ignorantly become party to worldliness(Mat. 7:16-20).

4)Our hearts can deceive us so that we think we are doing God service when in fact we are undermining the Kingdom(Jer. 17:9-10; Jn. 16:2-3)!

One of the horrible things about having so many denominations & even more so—to have many ‘churches’ in the same area—is that there is no central church to which all Christians commit(as within Catholicism)!

Each church is instead built upon some aspect of preferentialism rather than an adherence to Jesus Christ! Thus those disappointed in a church or even disbanded from a church can ‘go down the street’ as it were, where they will be readily accepted & their unrepentant sin is disguised or tolerated.

Paul admonished the Corinthian church because they had allowed/accommodated heinous sin in their midst.

The church must not tolerate/accommodate sin in their midst.

*How can the true church effectively act against sin in their midst?

When does a church accommodate sin?

9 deficiencies of sin accommodating churches.

1—Sin Accommodating Churches skirt...

BASELINES(:1)

Explanation:(:1)God’s Mandate

:1—“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, & such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles--that a man has his father’s wife!”

Though the the sin of incest was shocking enough, what was even more shocking was that the church chose to accommodate it.”—MNTC/ECNT

“Actually reported”— cf. 1:11

Commonly known by those both inside & outside the church!

“Sexual Immorality”(porneia)—is a “flexible term” which widely encompasses all that God has revealed is illicit or forbidden in the realm of sexuality.—ECNT

“A man”—

Paul does not name the person...for various reasons:

1)As he is concerned for the rescue of the final outcome of his spirit/soul(:5)...

& possibly:

1a)As the attachment of the name could be wrongly attributed & misapplied to other members of his family.

1b)As such an attachment could possibly so deeply scar the indicted that the church’s action could be taken as personal rather than spiritual.

2)As the church where the actual problem lies will itself grow in its faith thru Paul’s handling of their situation.

Or it could simply be that Paul had foresight thru the Spirit, to provide a blank-slate, uncorrupted, & de-culturalized indictment of the same problem among Christians wherever & whenever they my be. The application is universal.

Thus the Church always carries with it the potential to be tainted with sin, as it also always carries potential to override sin’s influence by faith & empowerment in Christ Jesus.

“As is not even named among the Gentiles--”—

This serves to awaken the Corinthian church to the fact that “even “ pagan “Gentiles” aren’t party to such sexual sin.

In fact, by virtue of pagan(“Gentile”) convictions regarding family(that God has placed in their hearts), even they(those who do not recognize God directly) view such behavior as perversely despicable!

If your lifestyle dishonors & ‘spits in God’s eye’ then it would behoove you to surrender & change that aberrant aspect of your lifestyle in order to be reconciled to God, would it not?!

“That a man has his father’s wife!”—

“Use of the present tense infinitive[“has”] suggests an ongoing, habitual relationship”—NAC

Neither the father nor the step-mother are dealt with. This suggests that the couple is either divorced or that the father is dead.

This scenario also suggests that the step-mother is not a believer.—NAC/MNTC

Lev. 18:6-11—‘None of you shall approach anyone who is near of kin to him, to uncover his nakedness: I am the LORD. ‘The nakedness of your father or the nakedness of your mother you shall not uncover. She is your mother; you shall not uncover her nakedness. ‘The nakedness of your father’s wife you shall not uncover; it is your father’s nakedness. ‘The nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father, or the daughter of your mother, whether born at home or elsewhere, their nakedness you shall not uncover. ‘The nakedness of your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, their nakedness you shall not uncover; for theirs is your own nakedness. ‘The nakedness of your father’s wife’s daughter, begotten by your father--she is your sister--you shall not uncover her nakedness.”