Scandal, legal action and sex
Scandal!
1 Corinthians 5:1-13
Corinth is a very sexy place. To be a ‘Corinthian’ means living to satisfy all your appetites for food and drink and sex. In Corinth everything can be done to excess, because nobody knows you and nobody cares. But the church should be different.
Paul has heard that one of the Christian men at Corinth is having sex with his father’s wife. This probably means he is living with his stepmother while his father is still alive. This is forbidden several times by the laws of Moses (in Leviticus 18:8; Deuteronomy 22:30; 27:20). It is a situation which would be offensive even to pagans.
To Paul, this is outrageous. It is a blatant and continuing breach of Christian holiness. But the Corinthians are proud of it! They’re not hung up on all the old ‘don’ts’. They can do what they like because Christ has set them free!
Paul tells the Christians at Corinth that they should have reacted to this man’s behaviour with united grief. It should have upset them deeply that a Christian brother could shame his Lord in this way. They should have expelled him, for his own sake. Much better for him to be punished in this life and come to his senses, than lose his eternal salvation.
Paul reminds the Corinthian Christians that they are pure. They are living in the sunlight of Christ. They are an Easter people. At Passover, the spring-cleaning sweeps all the old yeast from a house. Yeast is a symbol of wickedness, because it spreads so completely. Now Christians are to have a new kind of yeast—they must be filled with sincerity and truth. Paul doesn’t expect Christians to be perfect—but he urges them to be open and honest.
Paul has written to them before about all this. In a previous letter he told them not to have anything to do with people who are sexually immoral. Some of the Corinthians thought he meant that they shouldn’t mix with the rest of society. But Paul now explains that he didn’t mean that at all.
Christians must mix with unbelievers. That’s what Jesus came to do. He had a reputation for sharing meals with tax collectors and other outcasts, and for being a friend of sinners. He told his disciples that they must do the same—like light shining in darkness and yeast mixing with dough. This is how the people of the world will see the gospel lived and hear it explained.
But it is a different matter to mix with evil in the church. The church is a holy people, and its standard of living must express the holiness of God. Paul says that Christians must have nothing to do with church members who are flouting the standards of holiness. It isn’t only in matters of sex that Christians must be pure. The same applies to greed for money and possessions, lying, being judgmental about people, drunkenness and robbery.
Paul says that people who call themselves Christians but persistently behave in these ways must be expelled. They must be excluded from the church’s fellowship meal. Today we call this ‘excommunication’—being banned from attending Holy Communion.
Paul says this discipline is the task of the whole church. It is not just the responsibility of an apostle or leader to take action against an immoral member. Everyone must be involved, acting together as a body.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED AND RECEIVED FROM THIS DEEP STUDY.
Everlastingsalvationchurchofgod.com
PASTOR ANDRA HIGGINBOTHAM