Introduction:
A. I’m told that Willie Nelson (the country singer) apparently at one time owned a golf course.
1. He said the great thing about owning a golf course was that he could decide what is par for each hole.
2. For you non-golfers, par is the number of hits of the ball you are allowed for each hole. Par is usually between 3 and 5. Hitting a birdie means that you were one hit less than par.
3. Willie Nelson pointed at one hole and said, “See that hole there? It’s a par 47. Yesterday I birdied it.” (Borrowed from sermon by Jason Cole, July 2006)
B. A person might be able to do that on a golf course that they own, but none of us can do that with the church.
1. We don’t get to decide what is “par for the course.”
2. God has already decided what is right and wrong, and if we do not measure up to God’s par, His standard, then we have sinned.
3. We must treat sin as seriously as God does.
C. If sin in the church is not addressed appropriately, then it has destructive effects.
1. UCLA sociologist, James Wilson, has observed an interesting fact about city life:
2. He discovered that the crime rate escalates on those streets where broken windows are not repaired.
3. His study showed that the failure to replace windows makes an announcement to the public saying, “The standards have been lowered and authority has been abandoned.”
4. Wilson sees such practices of disrepair as an invitation for further crime without the threat of adverse consequences.
5. What is true on the street is also true in the church. If we allow sin to go unchecked, we are inviting deterioration and destruction into the Lord’s church.
6. However, when we exercise the discipline needed to stop and change our damaging behavior, we will erect a fence of protection that will prevent further erosion. (Adapted from Reader’s Digest, Oct. 1995, p. 157)
D. As we move to chapter 5 in our study of 1 Corinthians, we see that Paul begins a new section.
1. In the previous 4 chapters, Paul has been addressing divisions in the church caused by pride, immaturity and worldly thinking.
2. In chapters 5 and 6, Paul calls the Corinthians to discipline church members whose actions compromise the holiness of the community.
3. As we study this section of the letter, we must remind ourselves again and again that Paul’s primary concern is not the sin of individuals, but the health and integrity of the church as a corporate body.
4. Those who commit sexual sins or pursue litigation against their brothers and sisters in the faith are doing damage not only to themselves, but also to the community.
5. Therefore, the community must act to preserve its unity and is identity as the sanctified people of God.
I. The Shocking Sin (5:1)
A. Against the backdrop of Paul’s agony over the division within the church at Corinth, he then expressed his additional dismay over a case of sexual sin in their midst.
1. The situation involved a man living immorally with his step-mother.
2. “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.” (5:1)
3. From Paul’s scanty description there is no way of knowing whether the man’s father had died or had divorced his second wife.
4. Certainly the Corinthians, to whom Paul was writing, knew the particulars of the matter.
5. The fact that the woman is not subject to disciplinary action says that she must not have been a member of the church.
B. Paul was shocked by this situation and knew that it compromised the entire church.
1. Even in a society as morally lax as Corinth, this sort of incestuous relationship was considered taboo.
2. The practice of taking close blood relatives or in-laws as marriage partners has been forbidden in all but the earliest days of the human race.
3. The Old Testament prohibited the practice.
a. Deut. 22:30 says, “A man is not to marry his father’s wife…”
b. Lev. 18:6-18 catalogs the close relatives with whom a person must not have sexual relations and the list is quite long.
4. Pagan writers from the Greeks and Romans can be cited who took the same negative view of such practices.
5. So, this offending church member was not only failing to live up to the standard of holiness to which Christ’s people are called, he was doing something that even the world would find reprehensible.
II. The Church’s Attitude (5:2)
A. It appears that the church’s attitude toward this scandal was as bad or worse than the scandal itself.
1. So Paul not only condemned the perpetrator of this unseemly affair, he scolded the church for its complicity in the matter.
2. Paul wrote, “And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?” (5:2)
3. But instead of being shocked and mourning the loss of one of its number to the world, the Corinthians were at least tolerating his behavior, and at worst were boasting about it.
4. It is difficult to say whether Paul means that the Corinthians are boasting in spite of the immoral man’s conduct or because of it.
5. If they were boasting because of it, then they were focusing on their new found freedom in Christ, and had misunderstood grace. Grace is certainly not a license to sin.
6. If, on the other hand, they were boasting in spite of this man’s sin, then they certainly had an overly inflated view of their spirituality.
7. Either way, Paul insisted that the community had a moral responsibility for the conduct of its members, because the conduct of individual members affects the life of the faith community.
III. The Required Action (5:3-8)
A. Certainly the church is supposed to be patient with its members who are weak and erring, and have a penitent heart.
1. The case at Corinth was not one where a concerned body was gently encouraging a penitent man to come to grips with his moral duties.
2. It was one where a compromised body was improperly defending an impenitent man.
3. Therefore, Paul was direct and unsparing in his instructions to the church.
4. The impenitent offender was to be “handed over to Satan.”
5. Look at verses 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.”
B. What Paul is saying here is that this man is to be denied the rights and privileges of church membership.
1. He was to be barred from the fellowship of the church.
2. Since Satan is the prince of this world (Jn 12:31), excommunicating that erring brother would amount to casting him back into Satan’s lap.
3. The duel purposes behind such an extreme action are as follows:
a. First, it was hoped the disfellowship would shame the man and awaken him to the enormity of his sin. This, in turn, would move him to put away the works of the flesh which were destined to bar him from heaven.
b. Second, his humility and penitence would allow him to return to the fellowship and be numbered among the saved at the return of Jesus.
4. What Paul was asking the church to do would be painful – both for the man who was disfellowshiped and for the body as a whole.
5. The motive behind the church’s action was not a vindictive one, but a redemptive one.
6. The apostle was not asking the church to lash out cruelly against one of its own.
7. Rather, he was asking for the entire body to stand together in opposition to the man’s evil behavior for the sake of jarring him to his senses and saving him.
C. Over the years, we as a body of Christ here at Wetzel Road, have only had to disfellowship a few individuals.
1. On many occasions, people who turn to sin leave the Lord and disfellowship themselves.
2. They know that their behavior is not consistent with their faith, and so rather than give up their sin, they give up their faith.
3. On just a few occasions, someone has been unrepentant about their sin and tried to maintain their involvement with the church while living in sin.
4. On those occasions, we have followed biblical instructions and have exercised church discipline.
5. Some responded appropriately to such discipline by repenting and being restored to fellowship, others did not.
6. Our responsibility is to obey the Lord’s instructions – which include attempting to restore the individual sinner, while at the same time protecting the church.
D. There is real danger to the church when proper church discipline is not exercised.
1. Paul employs a common metaphor to illustrate the danger.
2. Look at verses 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.”
3. Allowing the offender to remain in the church will contaminate the whole community.
4. The symbolic language used by Paul is drawn from the heart of Israel’s story – the celebration of the Passover commemorating the Israelites’ liberation from Egyptian bondage.
5. Christ, as the Passover lamb, has already been sacrificed, so the time is at hand for the Corinthians to carry out the other major part of the festival, the searching out and removing of all “leaven.” – which represents sin.
6. It is important for us to be clear about the function of the Passover lamb.
7. The Passover Lamb is not a sacrifice to atone for sin, rather, it symbolizes the setting apart of Israel as a distinct people delivered from slavery by God’s power.
8. The blood of the lamb on the doorposts of the houses marks Israel as a distinct people under God’s protection – His Grace.
9. In the same way, Paul’s metaphor suggests, the blood of Christ marks the Corinthians as a distinct people – the leaven must be removed to retain their holiness and consecration.
IV. An Important Distinction (5:9-13)
A. The final paragraph of this section (vv. 9-13) makes an important distinction between the church’s dealings with insiders and outsiders.
1. Paul is not calling for the church to withdraw from all contact with non-Christians.
2. The holiness of the church is a matter of its internal discipline and integrity, not of its separateness from the world as a whole.
3. The goal for the church is not ultimately to make the world like the church, but to be sure that the church does not become like the world.
4. The church must truly be counterculture.
5. It is the sharp contrast of the church from the world that gets people’s attention – we must be a light in the darkness.
6. We must maintain our contact with the world in order to be a light to the world.
B. While it is not our business to judge those outside the church, we are expected to judge those inside the church.
1. We must, of course, be very careful in our judgments.
2. We must not judge by mere outward appearances, nor should we be eager to find fault.
3. Final judgments must be left to the Lord alone.
4. Jesus’ standards must be respected and enforced within the church.
5. When we notice a brother or sister who is following what looks like a wicked course, we should approach them about it with love and concern.
6. If a fellow Christian persists in sin and will not turn away from it, then there is only one recourse for the church – Paul’s conclusion, “Expel the wicked man from among you.” (5:13)
Conclusion:
A. So what lessons can we apply to ourselves individually and collectively from 1 Corinthians 5?
B. First of all, We should acknowledge immorality for what it is.
1. Sin is sin. It is disobedience to the ethical teachings of God’s Word.
2. It is more than just sexual sin – although that was the sin that was going on at Corinth.
3. In our day and age sin is often labeled as something else – a choice, an alternative lifestyle, a mistake, a weakness, a habit, a disease, or something else.
4. Sin must be seen for what it is – it is destructive and deadly, whether that sin is sexual, greed, hatred, or anything else.
5. We must acknowledge immorality for what it is – it is not acceptable to a holy God.
C. Second, We should not allow ourselves to become indifferent to immorality.
1. When we recognize sin in our own lives and in the lives of others, we should grieve and repent.
2. Our attitude must never be “Oh, well.” “I’m in sin, or they are in sin…who cares.”
3. And as Paul rebuked the Corinthians, we must never become arrogant about our ability to tolerate sin.
4. We live in an age of tolerance that thinks we are enlightened and broadminded when we can celebrate sinful lifestyles – unfortunately, that attitude can spill over into the church.
D. Third, We should have the courage to discipline.
1. Initially, the discipline should take the form of loving correction or confrontation.
2. But in the end, if the brother or sister refuses to repent, then our only course of action left is to put them out of our fellowship.
3. The father of the Prodigal Son allowed him to run off to a distant land and to throw himself into a life of sin. In the end, the boy came to his senses.
4. Sometimes we have to put a person back out into the world in order for them to recognize how far they have drifted from the Lord and His people.
5. Thankfully, most of the time, a brother or sister will respond to correction.
6. King David repented when he was confronted by the prophet Nathan about his sin.
7. We must always hope and pray that any discipline we exercise will bring the desired result.
E. Finally, We should understand the difference between sin in the world and sin in the church.
1. The church is supposed to be an island of righteousness in the sea of moral pollution.
2. We have a responsibility to hold each other accountable to our Christian calling.
3. But we are not called to be the judges or policemen of the pagan world.
4. We are sent by God to live as salt and light in our ungodly world.
5. We are to be in the world but not of the world.
6. We cannot and should not expect the nonbeliever to live with the same ethical and spiritual commitments as the believer.
7. Let us note again the instructions Paul gave the Corinthians as they dealt with the man who was living with his step-mother.
a. She was not a Christian, so they were not instructed to discipline her at all.
b. The man was a Christian, so the church had a responsibility to discipline him.
8. Interestingly enough, the best chance the church had in saving both the man and his step-mother was their strong stand against the man and his sin.
9. As she observed his loving discipline, she would be more apt to see that being a Christian means something, and that believers mean business.
10. Some might object to correction and discipline saying that it is unloving, intolerant or judgmental.
a. We might answer, saying, “Is the doctor unloving or judgmental when he or she tells you that you must have an operation right away?”
b. “Do we want a doctor who tolerates viruses, bacteria, or cancer cells?”
11. Sin destroys and kills the body of Christ if it is allowed to fester and grow.
F. Let’s conclude with an invitation.
1. Perhaps there are some among us today who really need this word of discipline.
a. If there is unaddressed and unconfessed sin in your life, then I would urge you to repent and return to our loving heavenly Father who awaits you with open arms.
2. Perhaps there are some among us today who know a brother or sister in Christ who is headed away from the Lord.
a. Would you pray for the courage to lovingly warn them and urge them to repent and be restored? What will you do this week to help restore them?
3. Perhaps there are some today who have not yet called on the name of the Lord to be saved.
a. Do you recognize that you are a sinner and have been living in rebellion to God?
b. Do you realize that Jesus is the only Savior and that you cannot save yourself?
c. Salvation is a gift you must receive by faith, with repentance, confession and baptism.
d. Are you ready to be born again today?
4. Praise God that He gives us the power to become His children and remain His children.
Resources:
The (Im)Perfect Church (Studies in 1 Corinthians), Rubel Shelly, 21st Century Christian, 1983.
First Corinthians (Interpretation – A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching), Richard Hays, John Knox Press, 1997.
1 Corinthians (The NIV Application Commentary), Craig L. Blomberg, Zondervan, 1994.
1 Corinthians (Bible Study Guide), Charles R. Swindoll, Insight For Living, 1977.
“Immorality In The Church,” Sermon by John Huffman, Jr. Nov. 13, 2005
