In the middle of what I think is Paul’s second most combative letter to one of his churches.
The first is Galatians – where he is tackling the issue of Judaizers who want to take the believers away from grace and back to the law.
The Corinthians were going the opposite way. They had begun to mix in Greek Wisdom and Philosophy into Christianity and reckoned they were wiser than Paul and Jesus. They also thought they were more spiritual than Paul. So spiritual that the physical didn’t matter and you could do what you like with your body.
So Paul starts the letter reminding them of who they really are in Christ – their identity before dealing with some of the false teaching that had crept in that was leading to some bad living.
They are the Church of God 1:2 – God’s new people
They are sanctified 1:2 – they have been made holy
They are saints – “holy ones” 1:2
They are not lacking any spiritual gift 1:7
God will sustain them to the end, guiltless when Christ comes back 1:8
Paul has a pattern of indicative and imperative.
He indicates who they are because of Jesus and then tells them to live in the good of it – the imperative.
Corinth was a really debauched city – it had two ports and those sailors were pretty immoral!
There was a temple to the Greek god of sex and thousands of Temple prostitutes.
It was such an immoral place – that there was a verb “To live like a Corinthian”
As you can imagine, the Corinthians were sex mad – as sex mad as our culture, if not more.
Yet the gospel had broken in – people were becoming Christians and God was washing them clean.
The devil hates a revival and sent in false teachers – so that they were beginning to think – hey we are spiritual, so our bodies don’t matter, so let’s do whatever with them. There’s nothing new under the sun – I’ve heard of some people twisting grace that way in this decade too.
In chapter 5 we find out that they Christians weren’t just living like a Corinthian, they had some who were living worse than a Corinthian. Let’s read the passage…
It’s like a bad episode of Jeremy Kyle…
Stop sleeping with your step mum
V1 sexual immorality – the word is porneia where we get pornography from. It’s the word used for any sexual activity outside of a husband and wife marriage. So it encompasses fornication – sex before marriage, adultery, homosexual sex – interestingly in 6:9 two words are used for homosexual activity one active and one passive.
In the church there was a man sleeping with his step mum. The church was tolerating it and was even arrogant about it happening. We are free! We are exercising our freedom. Paul flings back some of their slogans that they had twisted in 6:12 “All things are lawful for me.”
Paul is shocked at their tolerance of sin and their arrogance about it. They should be mourning – feeling the godly sorrow that leads to a change of mind and turning from such immorality – repentance in other words.
Deal with it
They have been made holy – and this man is definitely not living in the good of being made holy.
Paul tells them what to do in v3-5 – when they are gathered together in the Spirit, they need to act like he is there rather than just reading a distant letter – what he means by and “my spirit is present”. And kick him out so Satan can deal with him.
In the church there is the experience of the Spirit, the presence of Jesus, gifts are exercised to build each other up. There’s protection and favour. By putting him out and back into the world, he is vulnerable to attack. Paul’s hoping that will bring him to his senses and repentance so that he will come back.
Note the eternal security of v5 – be saved in the day of the Lord.
In 6:9 Paul elaborates further “the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God” – the context is this man and Christians suing each other. This man’s not dealt with persistent sin is causing a loss of inheritance, not a loss of salvation.
The good news is that kicking him out worked. By the time of the second letter it is clear the man has stopped, repented and somewhat sheepishly come back. 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 READ! He needed to be shown love, forgiveness and comfort.
Al this sounds quite harsh, but Paul now explains tolerating that kind of sin is a big deal.
Why deal with sexual sin in the church?
God is awesome! What He has done is awesome – wants us to shine like stars in the world Phil 2:15. That man’s behaviour was worse than the depraved behaviour of the Corinthians so they were not shining like stars, they were doing the opposite. Paul goes further though
In 5:6-8 Paul explains sin is like yeast working through dough.
As you know I love making pizza and I generally put 2 teaspoons of yeast in 1.8kg of flour. Over the next two hours, the yeast works its way through the dough and makes the whole lot rise. Tolerating and being arrogant about one man’s gross sin will work its way through the whole church.
If sin is tolerated and even boasted of as part of freedom then it spreads like yeast in a dough or gangrene in a wound.
You can see it in how may 70’s celebrities have turned out to be perverts – it was tolerated and it spread.
In 6:12-20 Paul then explains how sex unites us in one flesh. In Genesis the Lord explains that marriage is two becoming one, one flesh. The sex act consummates that – sex is a beautiful expression of love within a marriage, of two becoming one – it’s a spiritual connection. The Corinthians were slipping into a Greek dualistic error. They were spiritual and so the flesh didn’t matter and what one does with the flesh doesn’t matter. Paul is reminding them that yes you are spiritual, but you are also physical and they are connected as one. When you sin sexually you sin against the body and your body is a Temple of the Holy Spirit.
Process of getting caught up in sexual sin
James reminds us how temptation works. We are lured, we are enticed by our own desires. Then when the desire gives birth, it’s sin and sin increased towards death. There’s a process - Temptation, sinning, increasing sin.
It offers fleeting pleasure. And momentary satisfaction, but never enough, it only leads to more desire and entrapment.
Sexual sin like that – caught in porno, never satisfies, need worse and worse to get aroused and then trapped.
Sexual sin is filled with shame- devil loves that because it stays hidden and even more trapped.
As a school governor I recently did a Safer recruitment course – part of that involved listening to a paedophile talk about the process of getting caught up in that.
Grace is so good. Jesus’ blood washes us clean. I know some of you believe we don’t need to confess our sin once we have become a Christian because we are declared righteous. And we are! You’d take a verse like 1 John 1:9 and say that is for non-Christians becoming Christians. I have sympathy for where you are coming from, because too many Christians live under condemnation and introspection which is wrong. But I’d have to disagree graciously – the wrath of God for our sin has been propitiated, taken away the moment we respond to the Gospel and are justified. I don’t need to endlessly worry or feel condemned – I am righteous because of Jesus. I even think using the word “convicted” of sin for Christians is unhelpful because it implies guilt and wrath. The Greek word has a range of meaning – convinced, rebuked, confronted.
There are times when the Spirit shows us sin and when our conscience tells us we are doing wrong. When we need to change our mind about what we are doing and stop – that’s the essence of repentance. My experience of trying to help people caught up in sexual sin is that very much know they need 1 John 1:9 – they need to know they are cleansed.
Satan loves to trap people in shame – confessing it to someone else brings it into the light and allows us to experience the cleansing reality of what Christ has done again. Telling some of the folks I have had to help trapped in pornography, sexting, adultery, addiction to masturbation that they are declared righteous and you don’t need to confess it to God doesn’t help them. Yes they are declared righteous, yes they have NOT lost their salvation. But at that life changing moment they need to sense that they are washed clean and pure again and be empowered live in the good of who they really are again.
Cleansing available – washed. Driscoll story.
Some of you today, may be smiling on the outside, but know you are trapped in a cycle of porn and confession and living with condemnation and shame. That’s not what the Lord wants. If you are a Christian, you are declared righteous and there is no condemnation – Jesus wants to come by His Spirit and wash you clean and empower you to live free with the help of brothers or sisters around you.
The world is full of immorality, but… v9-13
Paul’s told them in no uncertain terms to expel the immoral brother – with the hope that Satan’s attacks will come to nothing and he will return, which 2 Cor 2 shows he did.
The issue is that The Church is called to shine like stars in the universe and that man’s practice and the churches toleration and arrogant boasting of their freedom to behave like that meant they were not shining at all. Paul wants us to live grace filled, joy filled holy lives that are attractive to those out there. And they weren’t.
So he says stop it, kick the guy out who is so shockingly immoral.
But don’t stop associating with the world because they are immoral.
Stop associating with Christian hypocrites – challenge them to sort their life out.
But be in the world, just not of it. Associate with sexually immoral, the greedy, the swindlers, the idolators. Just don’t do what they do empowered by the Spirit.
Don’t be holier than though – show them how the grace of God changes us! So we can say noto unrighteousness Titus 2:13
Pray!
Courage to confess to one another
Power to be holy
Power to shine like stars in the world.
