1 Corinthians 5 ’Christ-shaped judgment’
It is always hard to speak on judgment. No one likes to hear about it. We like to hear about love. But love’s not the only topic in the Scriptures. We’ve got to hear all that God is saying in the bible, and so we’ve got to hear about judgment. And here it’s the question of judging others.
Now Judgment comes with negative connotations - After all, Jesus said, ’Do not judge, lest you be judged’. In chapter 4 verse 4 of 1 Corinthians, Paul says It is the Lord who judges me. 5Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time
And yet, we have the passage in front of us, which says in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 12:What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?
The implied answer is, yes, we are to judge those inside the church.
So how do we understand it?
Today as we look at 1 Corinthians 5, I hope to untangle this for us.
1. Churches are to judge those within.
Take it from the top, verse 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.
It’s not a one off sin. The present tense of ’has’ indicates an ongoing sexual relationship between the man and his father’s wife. A man has his Father’s wife. So a strong message needs to be sent that this is unacceptable. Verse 2.
2And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?
verse 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.’ So Paul does pass judgment, as part of the congregation in spirit.
verse 12 ’Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."
So Christians are in some cases to judge those within the church, and leave those outside to God.
But in what sense is this meant?
Well, the verb to judge is used in different ways in the bible.
We all know that there’s a time for some kinds of judgments. We all believe in a court system, as does the bible. And what courts do is judge. The bible speaks positively of the local authorities, and of magistrates, whose job is partly to judge. When there is serious sin, we all know something should be done. Some sort of judgment is needed. And judgment within of church members by the church is what’s in view. Hear me right, it’s not a replacement of the judges of our land. It’s in addition to the court system. But we are to have our own judgments within the church.
Now this is different from the judgment Jesus and Paul warns us against. I’d suggest Jesus and Paul are saying, don’t tread on God’s turf. We don’t know people’s hearts, we don’t make up right and wrong. Let’s not pretend we do. Don’t judge in that way.
But there is a judgment to be made by the church, without making up a new bible, without pretending to know people’s hearts. And that’s what’s in view here.
There hasn’t been an excommunication in the Adelaide Anglican churches for a very long time. We’ve had notorious sin, but no excommunications. That’s the Anglican name for what we’re talking about here, by the way, excommunication. It’s probably a bad sign that we haven’t had any, a sign of our lack of gumption. Oh don’t get me wrong. We don’t want an excommunication in our church. Please God no. But we’ve got to be ready to do it as a church, if it’s the right thing. For churches are to judge those within.
But who makes this judgment?
2. The judgment is performed by the local church.
verse 4: 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, 5 hand this man over to Satan
It’s a church that assembles which is in view doing this judgment. Not a denomination or a worldwide communion.
A few years back the Anglican General synod put forward a canon which said that excommunication was the realm of the bishop. However in Adelaide, we did not confirm that legislation. That’s what I was told at our last clergy formation meeting, anyway. So it is still rightly the realm of the local church to make the judgments of the kind discussed in this chapter. It’s our job. And that’s a good thing.
It’s always tempting for people to grasp for power. Bishops can be tempted to do this. But on this matter of church judgment, we mustn’t hand over our responsibility to the bishop or his assistants. He has his own job, but this job of judgment is ours. We need to appoint judges from within our midst to do the job in case there ever is an instance where we need to hand someone over to Satan.
But hang on a second, what’s involved? what is this judgment, this handing over to Satan, this excommunication?
3. The judgment involves a persons’ removal from church
hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. i.e. remove him from the care that comes being with the gathered people of Jesus. Outside of that care of Christ’s church, that is where Satan reigns.
verse 9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
verse 11 you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is ... With such a man do not even eat.
verse 13 "Expel the wicked man from among you."
These commands should be taken as addressed to a group of people. It’s not that as individuals we need to avoid certain other individuals. It would be a farce if that were it. Family members might have to never see each other. No, that’s not it. Even the biggest heretic going, say John Shelby Spong, or insert name of heretic here, whoever, we can greet him, eat with him if we see him coming down the street. Jesus himself associates with many who call themselves believers and yet he declares their immorality.
No, it’s about who comes in with the gathered church, when we are gathered as church. Or as the passage puts it, it’s about who joins when we are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus. You can see why communion gets mentioned as part of this. It’s the most regular way we eat together as church. That’s just one reason that this sort of judgment has been called excommunication, being barred from communion.
So who are the ones we should remove? What do you have to do to receive this awful judgment?
4. The judgment is for those who claim to be Christian, but are in fact unrepentant sinners, and where the sin involved is a serious sin.
verse 9: I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people-- 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 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.
Elsewhere in the Scriptures, it is clear that all sinners who repent should be accepted into the church. So here, it’s not addressed to anyone who has ever been greedy and repented, or been drunk, or slandered someone and repented. We’ve all sinned in many of these ways, I’m sure. But the point is that we’ve repented.
The people in view here are those who are unrepentant of these serious sins. So it’s those who rob others unrepentantly. They rob others and they say robbing is a good lifestyle. They are proud robbers. Or proud drunkards. They proudly engage in sexual relationships outside of marriage. More about sex next week. But what we have here are serious sins, performed unrepentantly, by people who are still claiming to be Christian, and want to come to church.
Now, I said serious sins. Why did I say that?
Well, there are other sins, not listed here, which are not so serious. Questions of whether you baptize babies, or ordain women, or insist on a tithe, or a Sunday rest day. All of these are not mentioned here. The bible speaks about them, so when we get it wrong, we are sinning. But they are not listed as serious sins. Getting them wrong doesn’t put us outside the Christian faith. Get robbery wrong, and act on it - now that matters massively. Professional thieves have no place with us in church. That’s what’s being said. We won’t have them here. Just as God won’t have them in heaven.
I do enjoy movies with professional thieves, don’t you We’ve had a lot of them lately. Sean Connery in Entrapment I enjoyed. I like the Ocean’s 11, 12 and 13. It’s all about professional thieves. I like the music It’s made out to be so glamorous and cool, isn’t it. But no, we won’t have professional thieves in church, if they want to say they’re Christian. It’s a travesty on Jesus’ name.. In reality, they mess up their lives and other peoples’ lives. They need to repent of their lifestyle, then they can be Christian.
But though that might sound harsh, it needs to be said that this judgment is a loving judgment. Our purpose for judgment is not vindictive, it’s loving.
5. The purpose of this judgment is so that they might be saved
verse 5 so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
This is crucial. The hope is that the person will see the seriousness of their sin. Their need to repent. And they will do just that, and be saved. That’s where love comes into it. It’s tough love. But love it is.
Tough love is back in, these days I see. They’re linking payment of welfare to getting kids to school. Both sides of politics support this approach at the moment. And it sends a clear message. You must get your kids to school. It’s tough, sure. But it is loving. The kids need to be at school. Just so, here is a tough love. We’ll send people out of church for a time, aiming to bring them back to the kingdom.
XXXIII. Of excommunicate Persons, how they are to be avoided. That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church, and excommunicated, ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful, as an Heathen and Publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the Church by a Judge that hath authority thereunto.
In time, we’ll need a statement of process for doing this in our church. That’s a job for our core group. But let me finish not on a note of judgment, but of grace. See I can’t finish this talk without turning to forgiveness, and it’s very releasing.
6. Forgiveness is mentioned in chapter 6:9-11
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
All of us have sinned in some way or other. Perhaps greed, or drunkenness, perhaps slander or sexual immorality. i don’t know. But when we repent in the name of Jesus, it all goes away in God’s sight.We are washed of our sin Set apart for God, sanctified. And justified. Found not guilty.
Do you know Jesus? Why not repent of your sin and turn to him today if you don’t. There is forgiveness, no matter what you’ve done.
There is a time for judgment. By the local church, of those within the local church. It involves removal from the local church. But it’s got to be done in love. It’s got to be done with a view to the person’s salvation, with prayer. Remembering that God’s forgiveness is always available to all, if they repent.
