DEALING WITH OPEN SIN IN THE CHURCH
I Corinthians 5: 1-13
INTRODUCTION:
A. In chapter four, Paul sought to warn the Corinthian church
much like a father would warn his son
1. Paul’s warning concerned the sins that were within the
church at Corinth
2. Any consistent sin is a danger to the church’s:
a. Unity-- Corinth was divided
b. Usefulness to God-- God can’t and won’t use a dirty
vessel-- Corinth was defiled
c. Witness to the world-- Corinth was disgraced
3. Hopefully, any warning that may be given about sin is
given to prevent that sin from taking place in a believer’s
life
B. In chapter five, Paul goes one step further and gives us
instructions on dealing with a brother who falls into sin--
scandalous sin
1. Here in is instruction that we have either ignored or
refused to apply in church life
2. Instead of openly dealing with scandalous sin, we have
sought to hush it up and cover it over
a. The problem is that what we seek to cover up always
has a way of getting out
b. When that happens, the church loses her testimony in a
community
I. THE SIN AT CORINTH V. 1
A. It was a sin that Paul calls fornication
1. The word fornication comes from the same word that we
get our word pornography from
2. This points out the method by which Satan often traps a
person and causes them to fall into adultery and sexual
immorality
a. Satan takes a human desire and causes us to dwell on
how that desire can be fulfilled
b. Satan never seeks to get us to fulfill that desire God’s
way-- through the marriage relationship
c. Instead, he promotes lustful thinking and fulfilling that
desire through unlawful means
d. Satan tries to make fulfilling sexual desires through
unlawful means more exciting than through God’s
ordained method
3. He often uses what we see to entrap us
a. David sinned after he saw Bathsheba bathing
b. Ladies, because of this, you need to be careful how you
dress
c. Pornography is a trap to lure one to go further than just
looking
4. Satan’s goal is to get us to cross the line and commit an
act of sexual immorality
a. If he can do that, he can destroy a family
b. If he can do that, he can destroy our witness-- this sin is
so damaging that Proverbs says that it will give us a
reproach that cannot be wiped away
c. People will forget all the good we have done and just
remember our sin-- ask David
d. If Satan can get us to cross the line and commit an act
of sexual immorality, he can cause us to destroy
ourselves-- disease, poverty come from this sin
5. There was sexual immorality in this church
B. The sin in the church at Corinth was so vile that even the
heathens’ rejected it
1. This man had committed incest with his father’s wife
2. This sin was so vile that even the Roman government had
declared it criminal
3. Its interesting that today we have gotten proud of our
tolerance for things that wicked men years ago called
criminal-- homosexuality, incest, etc.
4. For Corinth, the bad part about it all was that everyone in
the community knew about this man and his sin and it was
ruining the church’s testimony and reputation
II. THE CHURCH AT CORINTH’S REACTION TO THE
SIN IN THE CHURCH V. 2
A. They refused to mourn over it
1. It didn’t bother them
2. Even today, we have gotten used to seeing open sin in the
church
a. We are not surprised when it happens
b. We don’t grieve when it takes place
B. They refused to deal with it
1. We often refuse to deal with scandalous sin:
a. Because we don’t want to hurt the feelings of the
offender or his family
b. Because we are afraid if we deal with someone’s sin they
will leave the church
c. Because we are afraid if they leave the church, they will
take their money with them
d. We can’t divorce personality from the principle involved
2. Because we won’t deal with sin, we justify sin
a. We hide behind the idea that we aren’t judges
b. We say we don’t want a stink
c. We claim to be open minded and redemptive
III. HOW PAUL TELLS US TO DEAL WITH OPEN SIN
A. Deal with open sin openly-- when you are gathered
together
1. Why try to hide what is open and out in the community?
2. Paul lists the specific sins that are to be dealt with v. 11
a. Sexual immorality
b. Covetousness
c. Idolatry
d. Reviling-- slander
e. Drunkenness
f. Extortion
3. By opening dealing with those who insist on living with
such sins:
a. You let the world know what is right and wrong
b. We instill a Godly fear in the rest of the church
c. We clean out the leaven of sin
B. How we openly deal with such sin
1. Give the offender an opportunity to repent
a. That repentance should include a public apology to the
church-- open sin should be openly confessed
b. If the offender repents, he should be forgiven and
restored to the body-- Galatians 6:1
2. If repentance is not offered, the church should exercise its
authority
a. The church should withdraw its fellowship from that
offender-- with one don’t even eat
b. The church should turn the offender over to Satan for
the destruction of the flesh-- those Satan uses, he
destroys
3. The design of such a drastic step is to bring the offender
to realize the grave nature of his sin and bring him back to
God
CONCLUSION:
A. This man did eventually repent and Paul had to write the
church in II Corinthians and tell them to forgive him
B. We can never expect to clean up a lost world until we clean
up our own house
C. Judgment must begin at the house of God
