It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”
My Understanding: After Paul had finished addressing the Corinthian church concerning their worldliness, their spiritual immaturity, and their issue with following after men and man’s wisdom instead of following Christ and his wisdom, he next took on the problem of gross sexual immorality that was going on within the church, that the church knew about, and that they did nothing to address the problem, or to try to stop it. This problem was compounded by the fact that they had great pride in their leaders and their human knowledge, and they probably thought they were doing pretty ok. The particular area of sexual immorality to which Paul was referring was that of an incestuous relationship.
Again, these problems Paul had to address with them, as their spiritual father, were not exclusive to the Corinthian church. Sin is sin no matter the era. And, the same kinds of problems Paul addressed in the Corinthian church of his day exist within the church yet today, and I believe are now in epidemic proportions. There is much immorality going on in our churches today – pornography addiction (even among a high percentage of clergy), extra-marital affairs (even among church staff members), unwanted advances by church leaders towards those in their employ or under their authority, loose morals, sexual humor, flirtations, sexual remarks, acceptance of sexually-oriented material, et al. And, much of this goes unchecked because the church people and/or the leadership do not want to deal with the problems, and they don’t want to confront anyone, and they often make excuses for this kind of behavior, so it continues within the church to the detriment of the innocent.
And, then Paul addressed the attitudes of the people toward this sin. They were proud. I don’t know that he meant they were proud of this situation, but rather that they were proud of their own Christianity and religiosity and they apparently were not moved to grief and tears over what was going on between this man and woman. And, again, I believe this kind of attitude has reached epidemic proportions in our churches today, which I believe is a reflection of our society as a whole and of how much the church has adopted the ways and attitudes of the world about sin and thus they have become just like the world and do not, for the most part, stand out in stark contrast to the world and its ungodliness. I find that Christians today, for the most part, though not all, are more interested in being sociable with their friends in the church and would not want to upset those friendships by finding out what is really going on spiritually in their fellow Christian’s lives, let alone care enough about their brothers and sisters in the Lord to take the time to confront the sin in the sinner and to help the brother or sister toward restoration back to a right relationship with God.
Paul’s advice to the Corinthian church was to hand this man over to Satan so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. I am certain there are many interpretations as to what this means. I believe that, in this context, the thought here is that this man knew he was sinning but had not repented. Maybe he had been confronted but he did not change his situation and no one, apparently, was calling him to account for his actions. The first rule should always be to confront lovingly and humbly the person who is caught in a sin for the purpose to restore the person back to a right relationship with God. Yet, if the person refuses to repent and refuses wise counsel from the church, then the church is to expel the person from the church fellowship so that he or she is forced to face the reality of his or her sin in hopes that he or she will repent and will turn back to God. As well, this action should be taken so that the rest of the church is not infected and follow suit, thinking that the church obviously does not take serious sin very seriously.
I believe that this problem of sexual immorality existing in the church unchecked is compounded and is assisted by television, popular music lyrics, video games, movies, commercials, magazine covers, store window displays, the internet and easy access to pornography, etc., which all help to promote and glorify sexual humor and sexual encounters. Most romantic movies are about people sleeping together who are not married to each other or are about extra-marital affairs. Even stealing, lying, cheating, etc. are glorified in movies and TV shows. And we, as Christians, have often allowed all this sin into our homes and minds under the guise of entertainment and have even excused away the parts we found offensive, if we even found them offensive, because we felt that the movie or show, overall, had redeeming features to it. We have become so desensitized to sin that we barely even notice it when it shouts at us in the face or we excuse it away or we just don’t want to have to confront it because we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. And, I believe many leaders in the church are not willing to address these issues because they themselves are struggling with these sin issues and are not living victorious lives over sin.
So, Paul had to take a strong stance on this sin issue that was going unchecked, not because he enjoyed being the bad guy and just loved to confront people in their sins, but because he loved them greatly and he grieved and wept over their sins and prayed for his brothers and sisters in Christ to be free from the power and control of sin over their lives. He knew how much sin destroys lives, marriages, homes, relationships, health, and most of all it destroys our fellowship with our Lord and makes us slaves to sin instead of slaves to righteousness.
Paul’s strong stance, which was from the Lord, was that they should not associate with brothers and sisters in Christ who are living actively sexually immoral lives and who are refusing to repent of their ways. He said we should not even eat with them. He was speaking to the church as a whole and what action they should take with those within the family of God who are living in sin and who are refusing to repent. This action is for their benefit to help them to see that the church will not just stand by and allow them to destroy their lives, so this is an act of love, kindness and mercy. This action is also for the benefit of the rest of the church so that the remainder of the church does not get the notion that it is ok to live in sin and so this kind of unchecked sin does not spread throughout the congregation to where many more are involved in sexual immorality, too.
Some people will call this judgmentalism, but we are to judge sin within the church according to scripture and we are to love and care enough about one another to confront sin and to be willing to help others to flee from sin so that they can walk in victory, too. Yet, we cannot make anyone change. Sometimes we just have to let them go and we have to let them make their own mistakes until they come to their senses and they realize the futility of the way they have chosen to live and they choose for themselves to come back to God.
Jesus died on the cross for our sins, not just so we could escape hell, though many would think that and even teach that. He died so that we would be free from the power of, control of and bondage to sin in our lives on a day-to-day basis. He paid the price! He paid the debt we owe so we could go free! He rescued us from the body of sin and death so that we would no longer live to gratify the sinful nature. Yet, so many Christians still don’t get this. They think sin has power over them and that they are helpless in its grasp. But Jesus conquered sin when he died and when he rose again, so we don’t have to be controlled by sin any longer. We can be free! It does not mean we will never sin, but what it means is we don’t ever have to feel powerless against sin and its deceitfulness any longer. We don’t have to give in! In Christ we have the power to say “NO!” to sin and to reject its grip on our lives.
The Ransom / An Original Work / September 8, 2011
Jesus paid the ransom, so we’d be forgiven;
Purified from our sin, so we’d be set free.
Crucified on a tree; took on him our sin.
Buried our sin with Him; rose in victory.
Jesus calls us to Him; asks that we flee from sin;
Obey His commandments; live eternally.
God our Father loves us, which is why He gave us
His Son to die for us on a cruel tree.
God created us to walk in fellowship
With Him, daily trusting in His righteousness.
He has a plan for us to abide in His grace;
Be transformed in our hearts; live for him always.
Won’t you trust in Jesus? Be your Lord and Master?
He wants to forgive you; give you victory
Over sin and yourself; Jesus set you free.
Daily walking with Him, live victoriously.
Invite Him in your heart. He’ll give you a new start.
Your old life behind you, a new creature be.
Song lyrics and sheet music at:
https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs2/home/songs/the-ransom
Song on video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8itooCN1I3k
http://www.godcares.tv/video/1175/The-Ransom
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