Alba 4-27-2025
SIN IN THE CHURCH
I Corinthians 5:1-13
There was a flock of wild ducks headed south for the winter. One of the ducks looked down and sees domesticated ducks in a barnyard and the easy life that they have. He decides to leave the wild ducks to spend some time with the domesticated ducks figuring that he would join back up with the wild ducks when they flew north again in the spring.
Over the next several months, the wild duck enjoyed his time in the barnyard eating cracked corn and Duck Chow. But he began to look forward to the time when he could rejoin his old friends. Sure enough, right on schedule, overhead they flew – the wild ducks headed north.
The wild duck in the barnyard began to flap his wings but all of the cracked corn, Duck Chow, and the lack of exercise made him too heavy to fly. The only thing he could manage to do was to get off the ground, cruise at a low altitude, and then crash into the barn. He was embarrassed and ashamed of his lack of ability to fly with his fellow wild ducks. So, he made plans. He decided to lose some weight and exercise his wings so that the next time the wild ducks flew over, he’d be ready to take his rightful place. Every fall and spring, the wild ducks flew overhead and the wild duck in the barnyard never could get off the ground. Eventually, he no longer paid any attention to the wild ducks flying overhead. He hardly even noticed them. After all, he had become a barnyard duck.
The lesson here is that when someone is caught in a sin, there is danger in allowing them to remain in their sinful behavior. It is because they soon become comfortable with it, and then never have the desire to leave it behind. Every one of us needs to understand that we’re all susceptible to sin. But also every one of us also needs to know that there is hope if we leave that sin – because we can be restored.
That was the apostle Paul's plan for a man in the church at Corinth. But before restoration could occur, both the church and the man needed to do some things. The situation was actually horrid to think about. And yet it was happening in the church, and it seemed to be accepted by the congregation.
Chapter five of First Corinthians deals with the problem, so lets read all thirteen verses of this chapter. “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
“Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
“I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore 'put away from yourselves the evil person.'”
The Easy-to-Read Version may give us a better understanding of Paul's reaction to what is going on in the church. The first verses of this chapter read this way: “I don’t want to believe what I am hearing—that there is sexual sin among you. And it is such a bad kind of sexual sin that even those who have never known God don’t allow it. People say that a man there has his father’s wife. And still you are proud of yourselves! You should have been filled with sadness. And the man who committed that sin should be put out of your group.”
This chapter reveals that Paul had written a previous letter to the church which we don't have. But they misunderstood something in that letter. So he sets to straighten that out. There was sin in the church. And this chapter gives churches even today guidance in what to do about it when it happens. The first thing is...
I. Sin Should Fill Us With Sadness (Vs. 1-2a)
The church in Corinth is told that the wrong attitude has led to the wrong action. Their pride in being open-minded and tolerant has led to endorsement of sinful behavior. A man is having sex with his step-mother, and it is bringing shame to the name of Christ, and is undermining the proclamation of the Gospel. The work of God is being hindered because of him. If that’s Christianity (“a kind that does not occur even among pagans”), what would make people desire it? It was a scandal. But the real scandal is that the church was not scandalized by this man’s behavior.
Paul says, “And you are arrogant about it!” Then in verse six he says, “Your glorying is not good!” At least some in the church reacted by being proud and boasting! Can you imagine? What kind of church is that? What Christian fellowship would put up with that in a member of the church? Instead of celebrating their deliverance though Christ by walking in holiness, they were celebrating by returning to and rattling the chains of sin! The church at Corinth was in spiritual crisis! There was sin in the church.
The Corinthian church, not only does not deplore the sin, it somehow endorses the behavior. It is unclear exactly what is taking place, but there is no sadness. Is the church actually condoning the behavior as something good? Or it is showing indifference, simply ignoring the irregular relationship? One thing is clear, the believers do not seem to be upset or embarrassed about it, and have no problem with the man remaining in good fellowship.
I am afraid that even in our day, when moral standards have been so eroded, it is hard to imagine how people would be shocked by any type of sexual immorality, sadly, even in many churches. Likely today's thinking would be much like the Corinthians: “Isn’t it great that we’re so permissive toward this member’s immoral behavior? Why, we’re thrilled to allow this person to continue along the line of his personal choices. We’re so inclusive, diverse, and tolerant!” There are such churches. They call themselves “open and affirming.” In other words, they skip over scriptures like First Corinthians chapter five, and act like God never said anything about sexual purity. But they are wrong!
The apostle Paul says that what was happening should have caused great sadness that someone was openly living in sin. Isaiah 63:10 says God is grieved when His people rebel against His word and way, which is what this is. It is not a brother caught in sin, but a brother openly rebelling against God—and there is the huge difference.
Above all things, God desires a relationship with us. His desire and longing and willingness to have a relationship with us has been clearly shown in the sending of His Son Jesus to go to the cross and take the penalty of our sins upon Himself. When sin is allowed to enter the church it shows that we have forgotten that Jesus died to make us clean. Jesus shed His blood to in order to cleanse us from our guilt and sin. The issue of salvation deals with sin.
It doesn’t mean that we are to go around looking for sins in other people. Nor that we should consider ourselves the self-appointed judges of everyone. Instead a godly sorrow should arise when we see our fellow church members becoming entrapped in a sin. We must understand the seriousness of sin, and take seriously the purity of Lord's church.
So secondly, when there is sin in the church we can’t just go along with it, treating it as acceptable behavior.
II. Sin Should Not Be Tolerated (Vs. 2b)
The sins that we often overlook and not think much of are the very things that nailed Jesus to the cross. Far from tolerating it, the Corinthians should have dealt with the sin, encouraging this guy to repent. The question is: “How tolerant should we be?” The answer is, “Precisely as tolerant as God is.” We can look at His Word and learn the standards to maintain. We can draw wisdom from Him so that we act properly and speak properly. Being tolerant of sin destroys a society and a nation. It happened with Rome. It can happen with us, too. Paul knew the danger of sin. This is why he said, “Deal with it! Don’t ignore it, don’t agree with it, and don’t be silent about it! Warn people what it will do to their holiness and their walk with God. Sin should not be tolerated.”
There are many things that should come to mind to keep us from sinning. All sin is bad. All are a rebellion to the will of God and to His majesty. And we need to remember that our sin does not just affect ourselves alone. Our sin can hurt other people, and cause them to stumble as well, and hurt the church. There are no comparison degrees with sin. But in this instance we see an improper relationship with God, and an improper testimony to the world.
We cannot allow sin to go unchecked. Verse six points out that sin is like yeast in bread, it spreads so that it affects the whole. In the same way, it is the nature of sin to ferment, to corrupt and to permeate the whole body. Left unchallenged, sin, like leaven, infects others around it. Any sin, if not dealt with, will eventually spread in yourself and to others. And verse seven tells us to remove everything from the old life that would taint the new. Jesus is our Passover lamb who was sacrificed for us on the cross so that we could be made free from sin. Now, we are to live what we have become in Christ. In other words, not tolerate sin. And if we find ourselves or others living in ways God condemns, we need to take action. So, when there is sin in the church, the third thing is...
III. Sin Should Be Removed (vs. 5 & 11) Actually the sinner
God always is a God of love. But a church makes a mistake if it believes that it is loving to let people do whatever they want to do. Sorry, that's wrong! A loving church and loving God will instruct us to do what is right. And the church should also follow God’s mandate for dealing with sin and protect itself from sin.
The Israelites had to remove all leaven from their houses before the Passover festival. They were to sweep even the leavened bread crumbs out of the house in preparation for the Passover so that there was no danger of the new unleavened bread being contaminated. Paul's point to the Corinthian church 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.
Dr. Ronald Shultz, Chaplain with Maverick Ministries, told this story: “This seems obvious, but I was offered a chance to preach in view of a call to a church where the head deacon showed up at meetings drunk, and if he did not like what he heard, he went back across the street to fetch his shot gun.” He said, “I declined.” And he added, “That is one of the problems with making people a deacon for life as it is hard to remove and defrock them. He should have done that one time only and been removed from his position.” Amen!
The city of Corinth was known to be a place of loose immoral conduct. Paul is warning the church by telling them to be aware of the sin filled culture around them, and now it had infected their church. But this particular sin in the church even went beyond the actions of the unbelieving Gentiles not in the church. Paul then orders them to, “Cut it out before the cancer spreads!” He wanted them to “Nip it in the bud!” as Barney would say. But Paul is serious. The phase he uses is, “Deliver such a one to Satan” (vs. 5).
So what does that mean? Well one reason Paul instructs the church to hand this man over to Satan was to make a statement to the church that sin in never acceptable or justifiable. When one remains in sin, that person is in bondage to Satan. Delivering to Satan is giving the unrepentant believer over to the life he has chosen. Paul wants the enemy to have more access to this guy – not so that he’ll be punished, but so that he’ll realize what he’s doing and turn away from it. He’s not going to turn away if the church not only doesn’t let him know that what he’s doing is wrong, but actually accepts it.
Then they are told to have no fellowship with this known active sinner. That sounds harsh, but there are at least two reasons. One, it is not good for the sinner because it lulls him or her into a false security that it isn’t all that bad. Secondly, if it is known publicly that the person is in a sin and is a member of the church, it makes the church look like they are condoning the sin.
In verse 13, Paul quotes a verse that is at least five places in the book of Deuteronomy where the Lord speaks of someone who has committed a particular sin and says, “put away from yourselves the evil person.” Paul says that he has already judged this individual, and that as a church they should too, and do it at a time when they are gathered together in the name of Christ. The whole church must take responsibility. And when it is done, it must be done with the authority of the Scriptures and in the Spirit of Christ—always looking to redemption as the final outcome, not punishment.
You see, it is not that we have to be perfect in order to come to the Lord – but we need to be willing to be made perfect. We need to be willing to let go of our sin and let God heal us. Certainly, no honest Christian will contend that he or she can live any way that they please regardless of the shame brought to Christ’s name. And surely most Christians agree that we all need some form of accountability, seeing as not one of us is perfect. The purpose of church discipline is not to hurt anyone’s feelings, or to just be a bunch of dogmatic legalists, but rather is to be an action based in love, hoping that repentance will come about in the end. In II Corinthians chapter seven it appears that the action taken by the church did result in repentance and reconciliation.
Aren't you thankful that at the cross God gave a remedy for the sin that so often makes us fall? And aren't you thankful that when we turn back to the Lord any sin in the church, any sin in ourselves, can be washed clean under the blood of Jesus? I am!
CLOSE:
Have you ever played the board game SORRY? You know, you move your tokens around the board, and if you happen to land on the same spot of another player, then you can say the word SORRY, and send the other player back to the very beginning point. Isn't that fun? Oh, SORRY!
Maybe you enjoyed playing the game, especially when you were winning. But it is not as much fun to be the one who is knocked back to the beginning point of the game. When someone pronounces the word SORRY and then sends you backwards, their SORRY doesn't sound very sincere. It is often said with a laugh.
Many people play that SORRY game with God. The word SORRY is said, but there is no real genuine repentance, and no real change in life or the way of living. SORRY is said, but there is no real spiritual growth. They soon slip back into the same old insincere lifestyle.
They sin and then say the word – SORRY, but they never get victory and they never come out of sin. That’s the SORRY game. Adapted from a sermon by Vernon Caruthers, The Sorry Game, 11/5/2009
A teacher, when asked when a man should repent, said, “Repent on the last day of your lives.” And the students said, “But we do not know when that will be.” And the teacher said, “Then repent now.”
