The church is made up of imperfect people, simultaneously saints and sinners. We have a constant responsibility to challenge and encourage one another about sin. But what happens when things become more serious?
Don’t get caught in the headlights (v1 -5)
Have you heard the expression “a rabbit caught in the headlights?” It refers to a creature panicking and freezing when a carlights shine on it. This seems to happen in Corinth. There is a shocking situation. A man has been sleeping with his father’s wife. It is possible that this was a second wife and so not the man’s own mum but this was still classified as a form of incest. It also brought shame on his father and was adultery too.
The church seem caught in the headlights, not knowing how to act. So they let it go and try to make this into a positive. They think they are showing grace. Paul will not have this. He points out that the sin is so egregious that even the pagans around would be shocked.
Paul, as an apostle is able to instruct them on what to do. He makes a judgement. This is serious sin and so, they are to remove the man from the church. This is what we sometimes refer to as church discipline or excommunication. Notice, that it is something that wasn’t to be left to a few church leaders to confront. The whole church were to agree to the action and cooperate with it. This means that it would also be a public matter. The world around would know that this man was no longer part of the church.
In effect, the man is “handed over to Satan”, he is treated as being part of the Devil’s kingdom instead of Christ’s. The aim is “the destruction of the flesh.” In other words, the hope is that this drastic action will stop him from being complacent about his salvation and so bring him to the place of repentance and restoration.
Be alert to danger (v6-8)
Paul says that the church are not to boast about their inaction. They need to recognise the damage that this sin will do if not dealt with immediately. He uses the image of the Passover meal, a form of which they celebrated each week as communion. You normally used unleavened bread for this, to commemorate the people of Israel leaving Egypt in a hurry. However, if you just got a little bit of yeast in the dough, then this would spread through the whole batch. You couldn’t have part of a loaf leavened and part unleavened.
Paul insists that sin is like leaven, it gets in and infects a whole life and a whole church community bringing contamination. Sin does this in the church first because the reputation of the whole church and the Gospel is affected by the one action. Second, that one example will encourage and lead others into sin. Thirdly, because the man’s sin harms others not just himself.
The church, and particularly its leaders have a responsibility to ensure that the whole family of God are protected from the harm that sin does.
Get your own house in order (v9-13)
This situation helps Paul to explain a bit more about what he has meant in previous correspondence about purity and holiness. Christians are not to partner with and get their lives entangled with ungodliness. However, this doesn’t mean that we are to cut ourselves off from friends and family. Paul says that he isn’t interested in judging what unbelievers do.
The danger is not so much from the world around. We can spot and discern sin there. It’s from people who claim with their words to follow Jesus but show in their lifestyles that they are far off from him
This helps us to think through what we do as churches. We preach the Gospel to those who don’t know Jesus and we apply the Gospel to those who do, showing them how it enables them to say yes to Christ and no to sin.
Conclusion
What kind of church should we be? We should be one where there is concern about the impact that sin has on individuals and on others. This is why holiness matters.
Faithroots 