The Gospel, Alone…with Jesus (part 2)

Last week I began writing about 1 Corinthians 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.”

In that post I discussed the lost and their need for the Gospel. This week let’s talk about the found.

After saying that we cannot avoid the sinful people of this world, Paul admonishes us not to associate with “anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality…” These are strong words. Let’s break it down.

“Anyone who bears the name of brother” is pretty straightforward. Who are our brothers? Other believers. Those who are the children of God. As John 1:12 tells us these are those who have received Him – the True Light, the Creator, the Word, Jesus – those who have believed in His name, “he gave the right to become children of God”. In other words, Paul is talking about people who call themselves Christians. We now have to consider those inside the church who are found to be guilty of sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, reviling, drunkenness, or swindling.

Let’s start at the end of this list and move to the beginning.  What is a swindler? This is a robber, someone who is excessively greedy, a lover of money, one who extorts others, one who is covetous. Might we call this kind of person a con artist? It is someone who wants what you have so badly that he will find a way to get it from you.

A drunkard is someone who regularly drinks and gets drunk.

A reviler is someone who slanders or blasphemes. To revile is to treat disrespectfully or to verbally abuse.

An idolater is someone who worships something in place of God.

Greed is the excessive desire for something, especially money.

What is sexual immorality? There was a time in our culture when this could be easily defined. Biblically, it still is easy to define. Sexual immorality is sexual activity that is prohibited by the Word of God. So, what’s included in that definition? As sex is a loving act meant to be shared between a man and a woman in the bonds of marriage, plenty falls under the heading of sexual immorality – fornication, incest, prostitution, rape, lust, masturbation, and yes, homosexuality.

Paul’s strong words in this passage are repeated in the greater context. He does not want believers to associate with someone who says he is a believer yet engages in this unrepentant sin. We are not to eat with him. We are to judge his actions and “Purge the evil person from among [us].” Does this reaction sound too harsh to anyone else? After all, I may have been guilty of some or all of these sins at some point in my life. Are these the unforgivable sins? Can I lose my salvation? How do I deal with the fact that I am a sinner who sins, yet I have been called to be holy in the Lord? Should the church kick me out? Is that loving? Ahhh, what to do?

Whenever I run into a passage of Scripture that seems out of place or harsh or difficult to reconcile, I first make sure I stop and pray. I need to go to God who is good, loving, fair, just, righteous, grace-filled, and forgiving. I need to remember that Jesus, God the Son, died the death I deserve to pay the price I owe for the sins I committed, and He was raised from the dead to defeat sin and death. All I have to do to be saved from my sin is to proclaim Him as Lord and believe in Him. That’s the Gospel. That’s the promise of eternal life with God. And, that’s what informs how I handle the Scripture, even difficult passages. How do I live and apply the Gospel now as a member of the family of God?

With the Gospel and the character of God in mind I go back to the verses. Look at verse 12. Paul asks, “Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?” This is a rhetorical question with the understood answer to be “Yes”. Those in the church are to judge those in the church. Here is where the metaphor of the body comes in handy.  What one part of the body does affects the rest of the body. You’ve experienced this. Let me tell on myself. I love sweets. In my estimation, it would be so wonderful if my mouth could indulge in sweets without that having an impact on the rest of my body. This is not the case, though. My mouth may love the sweets, but by stomach can’t fully digest them, and my intestines hate sugar. I get violently ill when I eat sugar. Then the sugar gets in my blood stream and as a diabetic that sugar wreaks havoc on the rest of my body. It can affect my circulation, my mental capacity, my balance, and the function of many major organs. My mouth cannot have sweets without the rest of my body paying the price. If it were possible, my body would be right to stop associating with a mouth that eats sweets. This is what we are called to do in the church. Paul is instructing us here that if there is a member of the body willfully engaging in sins like those he listed, we need to disassociate for the good of the rest. We cannot just live and let live. The sin of one is poisoning the whole body.

How do we reconcile this passage with other places in Scripture that seem to contradict this?  For instance, everyone’s favorite verse when it comes to judging is, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1) There have been a lot of sermons and commentaries written on this verse, but let me just ask this question, to whom is Jesus speaking in this passage? I’ll give you a hint, the church hasn’t been formed yet, and everyone still needs to come to faith in Jesus. Now can we see how this fits with Paul’s words in 1 Corinithians 5?

I don’t jump to “Judge Not”, I jump to another passage penned by Paul. In Galatians 6:1-2, Paul says, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” I read “don’t associate” in 1 Corinthians and then I read “restore him” and “bear one another’s burdens” in Galatians. Are these words of Paul contradicting each other? I don’t think so. I actually think they are giving the same warning in two different ways.

The concern Paul has in both passages is how the sin of a brother will affect the rest of the family. We have to deal with sin. We are born sinners in a fallen world, and we live with the consequences of sin every day. Christ died for those sins so we don’t have to live under the burden of God’s wrath, but we cannot pretend that sin isn’t sin because God loves us. That would disrespect the work of Christ. If we claim, as some do today, that something like sexual immorality is no longer a sin because Christ already died for that, we essentially say that God changed His mind after Christ went through the torture of paying that price. Do you see how that cheapens the suffering of our Lord? No, sin is still sin, whether Christ died for it or not! We are called to repent – that means turn away from it. The blessing for those in Christ is that when we slip and stumble back into it, we can and will be restored in Him.

In 1 Cornithians, Paul is warning the church to protect itself because one who is willfully sinning can pull the rest down. Someone who is willfully sinning and not seeking repentance is not convicted by the Holy Spirit and therefore is only pretending to be part of the Body of Christ. The willfull sinner needs a wake up call that he or she does not love God and is doomed by His wrath. So, Paul’s warning in 1 Corninthians is to protect the church and is hopefully the thing that snaps someone out of their sin. The purging will lead to contrition and repentance on the part of a true believer.

In Galatians, Paul is saying the same thing. He is recognizing that we may fall into and get caught in sin sometimes. The church is to help gently restore this believer, but also keep on guard that we don’t fall into the same sin.

Remember that Paul knew the churches he was writing to. He knew the weaknesses of the Corinthian church and the churches in Galatia. Could it be that those in Corinth he knew would be more likely to follow these sinners and those in Galatia would be strong enough to help their brothers get out? Maybe, but in each case, he called sin, sin.

As we read more of the context, we learn that in Corinth the church was tolerating such sins. No one was being called to account. They were letting things go, and so Paul was saying, “Enough, do the right thing and call sin, sin. Stop tolerating evil!” Unfortunately, we are a lot like the Corinthian church. We don’t like to hurt people’s feelings. We want to find ways to tolerate sin so everyone feels welcome. Remember my friends, the Gospel is offensive to those who are perishing. Do you love people enough to tell them they are perishing? Are you willing to do this especially if they claim to be part of the Body of Christ? Let God judge those outside the church, but we need to care enough to judge those inside the church.

Prayerfully the judgment these nominal believers experience will lead them to get alone…with Jesus for a time a true repentance. When that happens be ready to gladly and gently restore them to the church and bear their burdens as they work at repentance. That is the Gospel applied, and grace experienced. Messy as this approach seems, the aim is still unity among believers.