A five word review of 1 Corinthians.

Serious issues in the Church

Lesson:

God holds Christians accountable for the behavior of other Christians.

Examine the scriptures:

Who is being addressed?

^{1 Corinthians 1:2} I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

All of the people in the church.

1 Corinthians 5 (NLT)
Paul Condemns Spiritual Pride
¹ I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do.

I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. 

This is a serious violation of the Old Testament law as well as Roman law.

Leviticus 18:8 & 29 (NLT)
⁸ “Do not have sexual relations with any of your father’s wives, for this would violate your father.
²⁹ Whoever commits any of these detestable sins will be cut off from the community of Israel.

² You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame.

See verse 9 (continuation of a behavior addressed in a previous letter from Paul)

Ephesians 5:3 (NLT)
Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people.

 Ephesians 5:11 (NLT)
Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.

Apparently the church was showing no remorse for this behavior.

Indifference

Jonathan Edwards:
“The more a true saint loves God, the more he mourns for sin.”

 James 4:8-9 (NLT)
⁸ Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. ⁹ Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.

• An appropriate response to sin in the church is sadness, mourning, and feeling shame.

 And you should remove this man from your fellowship.

Another example of removing a believer from the church.

Matthew 18:15-17 (NLT)
Correcting another Believer
¹⁵ “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. ¹⁶ But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.

 ³ Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man ⁴ in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. ⁵ Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.

•  Sin in the church must be addressed.

 Destroy the sinful nature, not the man.

Thrust the believer back into the world on his own, apart from the care and support of Christian fellowship. That person has forfeited his right to participation in the church of Jesus Christ, which He intends to keep pure at all costs.

Thrust into Satan’s realm.

Many have supposed that by the “destruction of the flesh” Paul meant only the destruction of his fleshly appetites or carnal affections; and that he supposed that this would be effected by the act of excommunication.

The inner believer belongs entirely to Christ and we have the absolute assurance that he will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. But in the meanwhile the unrepentant believer may be turned over to suffer greatly at the hands’ of Satan.

The goal:

Ultimate purification of the person.

Preservation of a believer.

• One reason to discipline those inside the church who are sinning is for the benefit of the individual.

⁶ Your boasting about this is terrible.

Blinded to their duty in regard to blatant sin that devastated the church.

Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? ⁷ Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you.

One bad apple in a basket of apples will eventually ruin the entire basket of apples.

• Unaddressed sin will corrupt the local church.

Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. ⁸ So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.

⁹ When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. 

 ¹⁰ But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. ¹¹ I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.

•  Professing believers are held to a different standard than individuals outside the church.

¹² It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. ¹³ God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

•  The local church is responsible for judging those inside the church who are sinning.
• A second reason to discipline those inside the church who are sinning is for the benefit of the Church.