July 18, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the next 16 days we will be reading through the book of 1 Corinthians together. The church in Corinth was an absolute mess! They were plagued by serious issues of arrogance, division, sexual immorality, and confusion concerning doctrine as well as the particulars of their moral living under the gospel. This church needed a wake-up call, a call to repentance and purity, to renewed devotion to Christ, to love and unity, and to zeal for the gospel. The church has changed little over the last 2,000 years, but praise God that there is abundant grace for the mess! Each of us needs this same call to humility faithfulness, unity, and fervor today as much as they needed it then. Let\u2019s heed this call which God gave the church at Corinth through the apostle Paul and let it shape the way we live as Christ\u2019s body!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here Paul turns his attention from the arrogance causing divisions within the Corinthian church to the arrogance of tolerating flagrant sin within the congregation. Paul has heard report that they are continuing to fellowship with a man engaged in sexual immorality and that they refuse to discipline him or remove him from the church body. Paul reminds them of the holiness that they are called to maintain in their personal lives and in the lives of the church, and urges them to remove this man from their fellowship immediately!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To many of us it may seem strange that Paul would urge such a thing, but he reminds the Corinthians here of the grave danger tolerating unrepentant sin in the church presents, both to the church and to the sinner! Refusing to discipline members engaged in unrepentant sin puts the church in a dangerous position, Paul says, because that sin will inevitably spread its poisonous consequences throughout the whole congregation in some way (v.6). This is a reminder to us that our sin does not only have personal consequences for us; it can have communal consequences even if we aren\u2019t aware of them (check out Joshua chapter 7 for a good example of how even our secret sin that no one else knows about can still have spiritual, communal effects!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Refusing to discipline the church member engaged in unrepentant sin also puts the sinner in a dangerous position because it does not call them to repentance and holiness! It is important to remember that church discipline in never meant to include punishment for punishment\u2019s sake, but that it is aimed towards\u00a0restoration\u00a0<\/em>even if that means the sinner is put out of the congregation for a time. As the body of Christ, we are called not only to live holy lives but to hold one another accountable as well, and that is why Paul tells the Corinthians in verse 5 to \u201cdeliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh,\u201d (by putting him out of the fellowship) \u201cso that his spirit may be saved<\/em> in the day of the Lord.\u201d The goal is for the person to finally repent and be restored to the fellowship!<\/p>\n\n\n\n What might the church look like if we really, consistently held one another accountable in this way, refusing to be tolerant of unrepentant sin, whether in ourselves or in our midst? How much more like Jesus would the church look like?<\/p>\n\n\n\n