I love it when God reminds me of a biblical truth in my morning quiet time, and then uses that information later in my day. I am always amazed and overwhelmed when I see His personal touch in my life.
Recently I was reading in 1 Corinthians and I was stopped by 5:9-13.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
This section is about how sin is defiling the church. It strikes me that Paul says we can’t avoid sinful people in the world because we “would need to out of the world.” We should expect that worldly people are sinful. They don’t know any better. They may be acquainted with the Law, but without the Holy Spirit they are still enslaved by sin. Paul clarifies himself in saying we shouldn’t associate with sinners who claim to be brothers. These are people who say they are believers but actively, unrepentantly engage in willful sin. While he starts this section by talking about sexual sin, he clarifies further that he is talking about all sin in saying those guilty of “sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler”. We are not to associate with those who call themselves Christians, but engage in sin, in fact, we are not to even eat with them. We are to “purge the evil person from among [us]”.
How do we deal with these verses? It depends on the people group we are dealing with. Are we talking about those outside the church, or those inside the church?
Let’s start outside the church. If they are outside the church, we should expect them to be sinners. We have to deal with these people. Our hearts should break for how lost they are. We need to interact with unbelievers and look for ways to share the gospel with them.
This past Friday afternoon I was sitting in a waiting room that had the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympic Games playing on the TV. The sound was down, so my only interaction was visually. I was intrigued by the use of the Seine for the procession of the athletes. I thought that was a wonderful highlight of a beautiful part of Paris. Then I thought, “Parisians are weird.” Paris sets itself apart even from other parts of France. My sister-in-law is from the South of France, and her family has often mentioned how they dislike Paris and Parisians. With this context in mind, I settled in (I was in that waiting room much longer than I had anticipated) to watch the artsy strangeness that is Paris.
As I watched, my heart began to break. The camera shots seemed to jump back and forth from the various nations’ athletes to a catwalk featuring what looked like an elaborate fashion show. It seemed decadent. It was unsettling. What was Paris trying to show the world? Thankfully, I was out of the waiting room before the even more disturbing scenes unfolded, or maybe they happened before I walked in. I really don’t know much about the proceedings, and I hadn’t planned to pay attention. In the last few days, I have seen many stories and posts about the disrespectful, sacrilegious nature of the opening ceremonies. I am very glad that I didn’t have to watch to full bacchanal Paris put on display.
What would Paul have said about what we witnessed? Was Paris purposely trying to mock believers by coopting the Last Supper for a display of evil Satan worship? Were they purposely disrespecting Christianity? The organizers have apologized for doing so, but we will probably never know their true motives. What we do know is that the organizers of the Paris Olympics were not at all seeking to honor God. But should we be surprised? We live in a fallen world. We believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have been set apart for His purposes and indwelt with the Holy Spirit. The world is lost, and some of those in the world have been set apart for evil purposes. What should be our response?
I’ve been distressed by the angry reaction of some of my fellow believers. I get being offended by what they saw. From what I understand, it appeared to be drag queens reenacting the Last Supper. That is offensive. Even if it was a reenactment of something else (as some have defended), celebrating what is clearly not of God and antibiblical is offensive. So, those who were offended, why did you watch? Maybe I’m wrong here, so please correct me if I am, but no one was required to watch this display, right? I’m sorry if you really like the Olympics and the opening ceremonies were something you look forward to watching. However, you could have turned it off. We don’t do that enough. How about praying for those involved? We don’t do that enough either.
Paul teaches that we can’t avoid immoral people in this world. So, what’s our plan to deal with them? Do they deserve your disdain, hatred, and angry words? Why are they doing what they are doing? Because they do not know Jesus. I’m preaching to myself right now. I want to be angry and call it righteous anger. Is it righteous when those who do these evil acts literally don’t know any better? I think the biblical answer is, no.
So, turn it off, walk away, look for ways to have the kind, nurturing conversations necessary to point them to Christ. Give them the opportunity to experience the Gospel, alone…with Jesus. I’m talking to you, Meri!
Now if a brother or sister in Christ is doing these things, it’s a whole different story. But more on that next week.