1 Corinthians 5:1-13
Paul identifies the sin in:
1 Corinthians 5:1 (NKJV) 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!
According to this verse, this case of fornication was well known, notorious, and public. There was sin in the assembly and, sadly, everybody knew about it, but nobody wanted to do anything about it. Paul labeled this sin as fornication. As we said last time, the word fornication is a comprehensive word; the Old and New Testaments apply it to any type of illicit sexual relationship. Fornication and adultery were common in Corinth--it was a city of prostitutes. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul has a very particular form of fornication in view. It was a type of fornication that was so hideous that even the heathen Gentiles did not practice it or condone it. It was incest. That's what Paul means when he says that "one should have his father's wife." The phrase "your father's wife" is a technical phrase for one's stepmother.
The Old Testament places sexual relations between a man and his stepmother in the same category as relations between a man and his natural mother. The law of God forbade such relationships and required capital punishment for violators.
Leviticus 18:8 (NKJV) 'The nakedness of your father's wife you shall not uncover; it is your father's nakedness.
Leviticus 18:29 (NKJV) 'For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people [refers to capital punishment].
We can even go back before the law was given and see that a similar act was a sin that brought judgement.
Genesis 35:22 (NKJV) And it happened, when Israel (Jacob) dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine; and Israel heard about it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:
Genesis 49:3-4 (NKJV) "Reuben, you are my firstborn, My might and the beginning of my strength, The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power. 4 Unstable as water, you shall not excel, Because you went up to your father's bed; Then you defiled it; He went up to my couch.
Ruben lost his inheritance rights because of his sin. From Cicero and others we know that such incest was also strictly forbidden under Roman law. The heathen forbade it!
In the church at Corinth, one of the Christians in the church was having an illicit sexual relationship with his stepmother. As Paul observed, it was a sin that did not exist among the Gentiles. We do not know a great deal about the woman who was involved in this sin, but she probably was not a believer because she was not reprimanded or disciplined by Paul. She may have been a widow or a divorcee. Whatever the specifics were, the church at Corinth had a believing man who was maintaining an illicit sexual relationship with his stepmother; that is incest.
Two things stand out from 1 Corinthians 5:1: First of all, Paul clearly labels incest as a sin, he calls it "sexual immorality."
Secondly, this verse strikes a mortal wound to Lordship theology, which teaches that a believer cannot continue in sin. This man was clearly a believer, yet he was involved in sin that even the heathen did not commit. Paul never questioned his salvation, but he called for discipline to turn him from his sin.
More shocking to Paul than the sin itself was the church's toleration of it. Paul revealed the reason that they tolerated the sin in:
1 Corinthians 5:2 (NKJV) And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.
They were tolerating this immorality in the church because they were proud. Here we see that spiritual pride is the main sin of the Corinthian church. They were probably proud about the fact that they were so loving that they were accepting this man in his sin. It is never loving to tolerate sin. Paul says that they should have mourned when they discovered this sin.
The Greek word Paul uses for mourned is pentheo, which is the word that is used for mourning for the dead; it is perhaps the deepest and most painful kind of personal sorrow possible. If you have ever had a loved one die, then you understand what this word means. We are to be deeply grieved about sin among believers. Do you feel this way? The Corinthian church's reaction to the fornication in their midst was as bad, or worse, than the sin itself. They were boasting when they should have been grieving. We are to hate evil!
Romans 12:9 (NKJV) Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.
Psalms 97:10 (NKJV) You who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
We could question the Corinthians' love for the Lord because they didn't seem to hate evil. God takes the purity of His church seriously, and He commands His children to take it equally seriously. Christians are not to tolerate sin within the church any more than they are to tolerate it within their own lives.
Ephesians 5:2 (NKJV) And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Ephesians 5:11 (NKJV) And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
They should have been mourning and exposing this man's sin. Sexual sin requires discipline, and the discipline called for in this passage is excommunication. Paul says that the sinning member is to be taken away from among them or excommunicated. What does it mean to excommunicate a believer? There are varying opinions on this. Some say that excommunication is the official exclusion of an individual from participating in the Lord's Supper. While that certainly is true, it's much more than that. From the rest of the text, excommunication is putting the individual out of the meetings of the church and disfellowshipping him.
Excommunication is not the first principle in church discipline; it is actually the fourth step in the process. Look with me at Matthew 18:15-25 where our Lord lays out the principles of church discipline.
Matthew 18:15 (NKJV) "Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.
There is some debate over whether the words "among you" are actually in the text of 1 Corinthians 5:2. But all sin effects the body and we are all part of the body, so all sin is, in fact, against us individually. We are to confront any known sin in the life of a believer. If I know that a believer is having an adulteress relationship, I need to confront him with it. He is, in fact, sinning against me because I am part of the church.
1 Corinthians 12:12 (NKJV) For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:20-21 (NKJV) But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."
What you do as part of Christ's body affects me and every other member of Christ's body.
Matthew 18:15 says the sinning believer is to be given a private rebuke; that is the first step. Most believers seem to think that this means to go tell the elders and let them deal with it, or tell someone with the gift of confrontation. That's not what it says. If you know another believer is in sin, you are to go to him alone with the purpose of turning him from his sin.
Matthew 18:16 (NKJV) "But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.'
The second step after the private rebuke is to take another person with you; this is a plural rebuke. If he will not hear you, then go to step three:
Matthew 18:17 (NKJV) "And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
This is the third step; the church is to be made aware of the sin and to try to turn the individual from his sin. It is a public rebuke before the entire congregation.
Matthew 18:17 (NKJV) "And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
This is the fourth ste; he is to be treated as a heathen or a publican. In other words, he is to be put out of the fellowship of the local church, he is to be excommunicated. I don't think that this means we don't allow him to come to our church meeting, but we are to exclude them from the Lord's Supper and from our fellowship. Our only contact with them is to remind them of their sin and to call them to repentance. This is not seen too often today, but this is how the church is to deal with sin. Discipline is not inconsistent with love; in fact, a lack of discipline is inconsistent with love.
Hebrews 12:6 (NKJV) "For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives."
The Lord disciplines his children because He loves them, and we will discipline our brothers and sisters in the Lord if we truly love them. We, here at Berean Bible Church, believe in and practice the excommunication of sinning members, but everyone needs to be involved in the first step to help prevent the excommunication of any member.
In 1 Corinthians 5:3-5, Paul gave us a procedure for implementing discipline. These three verses are one long sentence in the Greek:
1 Corinthians 5:3-5 (NKJV) 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. 4 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, 5 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.
Paul said that he had judged this man as if he were present with them, and he had delivered him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Next, Paul wanted the church to publicly eliminate this evil from its midst. When the local church acts in Jesus' name, that is according to His Word, they can be sure they are acting in His power. It is in the context of His teaching about church discipline that our Lord said:
Matthew 18:18-20 (NKJV) "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19 "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20 "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."
In other words, heaven is in agreement with the discipline of the church. The Lord will always bless and empower what we do in His name. Never is the church more in harmony with heaven and operating in perfect accord with her Lord than when dealing with sin to maintain purity.
Paul tells the Corinthian believers to "deliver such a one to Satan". What does it mean to deliver someone to Satan? The word "deliver" is the Greek word paradidomi, which means to hand over to judgement or punishment. The delivery unto Satan involves something of an apostolic judgment which would result in actual physical malady and perhaps even death. Support for this position might be marshaled from:
1 Timothy 1:20 (NKJV) of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Paul delivers Hymenaeus and Alexander unto Satan, and from the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11), we see the same idea.
Paul's purpose in delivering the sinning believer to Satan was that this man's spirit would be saved or delivered.
The text says that his spirit is saved through "the destruction of the flesh." The word "destruction" here is olethros, which is only found five times in the New Testament. Three of the five occurrences have a connection to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Paul may be talking about turning them over to apostate Judaism, of which Satan was the god.
Revelation 2:9 (NKJV) "I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
In joining with apostate Judaism, they would have been destroyed with Jerusalem, hence "the destruction of the flesh."
The important thing to see here is that the whole purpose of the discipline is remedial; it is to restore the person to fellowship.
Notice when his spirit was to be saved-- "in the day of Jesus Christ." This is a reference to the second advent of Jesus Christ which happened at the destruction of Jerusalem. Paul and all the other New Testament writers expected Christ to return in their lifetime. Let's just look at what Paul said to the Corinthians about the second coming:
1 Corinthians 1:7-8 (NKJV) so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The first century saints of Corinth were "eagerly waiting for the revelation of Jesus Christ." He said that they would be blameless in that day. They were expecting to see the second coming in their lifetime. Where did they get this idea from? They got it from Jesus. He taught them that he would return in their lifetime.
Matthew 16:27-28 (NKJV) "For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. 28 "Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."
Matthew 24:34 (NKJV) "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.
The "all things" included Christ's second coming and the destruction of Jerusalem.
1 Corinthians 7:29-31 (NKJV) But this I say, brethren, the time is short, so that from now on even those who have wives should be as though they had none, 30 those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess, 31 and those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away.
It wasn't the physical world that was passing away, but the world of Judaism:
Hebrews 8:13 (NKJV) In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
1 Corinthians 10:11 (NKJV) Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Paul said that the end of age was upon them-- first century saints. The age ended in AD 70 with the destruction of the Jewish temple.
1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (NKJV) Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
This is a famous rapture passage. Please consider audience relevance as you look at it. Who is the "you" that Paul is telling the mystery to? It's the Corinthians -- first century saints. Who is the "we" that shall not all sleep? First century Corinthians. Notice carefully verse 52, the trumpet sounds and the dead are raised and "we" shall be changed. Who are the "we?" Again, it is the first century Corinthians! Paul clearly expected that he and the Corinthians would be alive when the Lord returned. The dead were going to be raised, but Paul and the Corinthians were to be "changed" because they would not be dead but still living when the Lord returned. I realize that what I am saying is contrary to what most churches are teaching. The traditional teaching is that Jesus is to yet return in our future. Jesus said He would return before the generation, then living, passed away. The traditional teachers say, "We're still waiting." If Jesus didn't keep His word about His soon return, how can we trust Him to keep His word about anything? The integrity of Christ and the inspiration of Scripture is at stake in our eschatology. We can be traditional or we can believe Christ, but I don't see how we can do both. Alright, let's get back to our text.
These verses suggest some principles concerning the procedure for excommunication. First of all, it is to be done in relation to moral evil. Secondly, it is to be done after a private, plural, and public rebuke that the person has not responded to. Third, it is to be done publicly at a meeting of the church. Fourth, it is to exclude him from all fellowship. Fifth, it is applied by the elders and the church together. Sixth, it is done in order to bring him to repentance so that he will be restored to the Lord and to the local church.
Church discipline seems harsh to some people so in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Paul gave two principles that undergird such discipline in the church. The first principle comes from the laws of nature:
1 Corinthians 5:6 (NKJV) Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
Paul reached into the kitchen and brought out a very familiar illustration that the women in the days of the New Testament would have understood clearly; a little leaven leavens the whole lump. The idea is that even a little evil, by its very nature, spreads its corrupting influence so that whatever it comes into contact with is corrupted also. Paul told the Corinthians to purge out the old leaven, which is sin, so that they could be a new lump that was holy. Because of their position in Christ, they were unleavened, they were holy. And they were to be in practice what they were in position. Just as a little piece of leaven will influence a whole batch of dough, so one sin tolerated in the church will diffuse itself and spread its corrupting influence.
1 Corinthians 5:7 (NKJV) 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.
The second principle that undergirds church discipline comes from the Levitical law. We are to be keeping, in a figurative way, the feast of unleavened bread:
1 Corinthians 5:8 (NKJV) 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.
The background of this instruction is very simple. The children of Israel sacrificed their Passover lambs on a specific day. Before it was killed, they were to diligently search through their house for any piece of leaven and it was to be thrown out of the house. After the Passover lamb was slain and eaten, there was a seven-day feast that was called the feast of unleavened bread. There could be no leaven in the home during that feast.
Paul says our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, that is Jesus Christ. What the Passover lamb was to Israel, Jesus Christ is to us. As that lamb was slain and its blood applied to the door posts of the home, it provided a covering whereby the inhabitants of that home were protected from the just judgement of God, and they entered into God's salvation. When the blood of Jesus Christ, that was shed upon the cross of Calvary, is applied by faith to the life of an individual, that constitutes a deliverance from the just judgement of God upon him so that he is saved. The Passover lamb died for Israel and Christ died for us; it was a substitutional vicarious death. Since our figurative Passover lamb has died (Christ), we are to be figuratively keeping the feast of unleavened bread by purging our lives and our church of all of the leaven of our old sinful ways.
Excommunication is the most extreme form of church discipline. It must be carried out in the local church because of the corrupting nature of evil and because Christ has died for us. The church that tolerates evil in its congregation without discipline is a church that is permitting evil to corrupt the entire congregation, or a church that is denying the fact that their Passover lamb has died for them.
The rest of 1 Corinthians 5 clarifies what exactly the excommunication involves. Verses 9-13 make it clear that there is to be no social intercourse between the Christians in that church and the person who has been excommunicated by that church:
1 Corinthians 5:9 (NKJV) I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people.
Paul had written to them in a previous letter, which we do not have, and said, "Do not company with fornicators." They had misunderstood what he had said and they thought that he meant that they were not to have any type of dealings with people who were wicked and ungodly. In verse 10, Paul corrected that:
1 Corinthians 5:10 (NKJV) 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.
Paul said, "I realize that you must live next door to people who are ungodly, you must work in the same office as a fornicator, you must eat in a restaurant where there are adulterers and fornicators. You cannot withdraw yourself from all such evil persons if you are going to live in the world." We need to socialize with the sinners of the world in order to reach them for Christ. We need to be in the world but not of it. Christians are to be insulated from the world, not isolated. There is a great need today for us to evangelize our communities. We are taking in the Word, we are studying the truth, but are we sharing it with those who don't know it?
Paul said that if a brother, a Christian, was living an immoral lifestyle, other believers were to have no fellowship with him. Paul expanded his meaning in verse 11:
1 Corinthians 5:11 (NKJV) 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.
Somehow, we have gotten Paul's instruction backwards; we tolerate Christian sinners and will not associate with unbelieving sinners. We are to have no fellowship with any believer that lives in any kind of immorality, not just fornicators. The phrase "not to keep company with" is the translation of one Greek word, sunanamignumi, which means "to mingle together with." It is found only here and in 2 Thessalonians 3:14. We are not to socialize or eat with such a person. Do you see any exception clauses here? Does it say you are not to eat with him unless he is a really good friend, or a relative? Or unless everyone else is eating with him? Clearly, if a believer is living in sin and has been confronted with his sin and has not repented, other believers are not to have any fellowship with him. Fellowship is not to be broken without confrontation, however. Other believers' only contact with him should be to confront him in his sin and call him to repentance.
Some say that this does not supersede the relationship of a husband and wife or parent and child; they say the family relationship should never be severed for such discipline. Is that right? Does God break fellowship with his children because of sin? Do you remember Jesus saying "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Jesus Christ and God the Father lost fellowship when Christ was bearing our sin. If the church excommunicates someone, believers in the local assembly are to have no social contact with that person; his isolation is to bring him to a point of repentance before God.
How far are we to take this? Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians where Paul lays out a very important point for us. Paul dealt here with a very similar situation.
2 Thessalonians 3:6 (NKJV) "But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us."
2 Thessalonians 3:14 "And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed."
This phrase, "do not keep company with," is the same Greek word as in our text. How far do we carry this? Does it mean that when we happen to run into this person that we ignore him and act as if we don't even know him? How far do we take it? Notice verse 15.
2 Thessalonians 3:15 (NKJV) "Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother."
This is the fifth principle in church discipline; after the private rebuke and the plural rebuke and the public rebuke and the excommunication, that man is to be set apart. The believers are to withdraw from him so that there will be no social contact with him. But in doing this, they are not to treat him as an enemy, ignoring him, but on every occasion when they meet him they are to admonish him, to call him to repent of his sin and to thus be restored to fellowship with God and the local church. That is the fifth principle of discipline in the local church.
Now when a sinning believer is so treated, he may respond in one of three ways. He may resent it and walk away from the Lord and become an apostate. He may avoid the discipline by simply going to another church. In the days of the New Testament, they couldn't do this without leaving town. Even when they went to a new church, the church would look for a letter from the old church as to the believer's character. It is important to check a believer's past, especially if they are getting involved in ministry. There are many examples of needless problems caused because churches do not check the backgrounds of people in the ministry. The third and most beautiful response is that he may be converted by it; he may turn around and repent so that he can be restored to fellowship. This is the response we are hoping and praying for when we discipline someone. Apparently, the man at Corinth had this positive response to the churches discipline; according to 2 Corinthians 2 he repented.
2 Corinthians 2:5-8 (NKJV) "But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent; not to be too severe. This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him."
Paul exhorted them to forgive the man after he repented and to welcome him back into the fellowship with open arms. He did not have to prove himself with some kind of probationary period. The church is to follow God's example found in Luke 15.
Because we have failed to exercise the principles of church discipline, the American church is full of immorality today. Under God as his children we are responsible to discipline those in our midst who are in sin. And please remember, discipline starts with you! The first step is a private rebuke. You might be the only person who knows of the sin in another believer's life, and if you don't deal with it, you are not loving that person or you do not understand the corrupting nature of sin. May God help us to be faithful to God in following his precepts, no matter how difficult they may be.
1 Corinthians 5:12-13 (NKJV) For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person."
We have no responsibility for judging outsiders. We are to witness to outsiders, but not to judge them. We cannot chasten them and no remedial steps will alter the sin of the ungodly. God will judge those outside the church. According to Genesis 18:25, He is the judge of all the earth.
While believers are not to judge unbelievers, we do have a responsibility before God to discipline sinning believers. Therefore "put away from yourselves the evil person."
In Israel, God required capital punishment of gross sinners, so the demand for banishment from the church under the new covenant shouldn't amaze us.
Discipline is difficult, painful, and often heartrending. But it is the will of God that the church be pure. The main purpose of discipline is remedial, to call sinning believers back into fellowship. The history of the church shows that the church pure, is the church powerful.
The thrust of this whole chapter is the need for the church to deal with its sinning members
through loving confrontation. Purge out the old leaven. Knowing that a church exercises
discipline helps believers live holy lives through the fear of discipline.
This message preached by David B. Curtis on August 23, 1998
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