A Shock Call to Action
Opening Prayer
Lord, teach me to be a peacemaker rather than a troublemaker.
Read 1 CORINTHIANS 5:1–13
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3 For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Read Psalm 51:1–13 as you prepare your heart for this incisive chapter.
Think Further
In this hard-hitting passage, Paul calls upon the church to deal with moral depravity of a kind that would shock even outsiders—despite the low standards of morality in Corinth. More than that, the local believers were proud of their radical tolerance in allowing this situation to continue.
Tolerance is one of the key virtues respected among democratic societies today. As the author W. Somerset Maugham warns in A Writer’s Notebook, though, tolerance can sometimes be just another name for indifference, revealing a lack of conviction. Paul is demanding the believers at Corinth to be firm and deal with this situation instead of just allowing it to fester—perhaps from the fear of being criticized for taking a stand.
Knowing how tough this action would be, Paul takes his readers back to the roots of their faith in the Old Testament. Like Jesus, who warned his followers about the leaven of the Pharisees (Matt. 16:6), Paul points them to the Passover feast itself (6,7) with its symbolic act of cleansing their houses of any trace of leaven each year at the start of the feast (Exod. 12:15).
Every Jewish believer would understand this. It appears that he had written to them earlier about this (9), but they had misunderstood him, thinking he was telling them to isolate themselves from the sinful world around them—an almost impossible task. Paul is specific in naming the sins in verse 11 as being forms of spiritual leaven, which must be removed from God’s house (the church) by us, his people.
In his radical call to action, Paul tells them to “Expel the wicked person from among you” (13). This would not be well-received in many parts of today’s world, due to hostility from the secular community, but it is still a vital word for our times.
Apply
“For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household” (1 Pet. 4:17). Ask God to give wisdom and tough love to leaders who must administer discipline.
Closing prayer
Lord, I understand that church discipline is a vital part of church life, and I submit myself to the leadership in my church.
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