1 Corinthians 5:2 - Truth in Love

 

1 Corinthians 5:2

NKJV

And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

 

NLT

You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.

 

The Enduring Word commentary mentions a few reasons as to maybe why the Corinth Church allowed the man mentioned in verse one to continue to be in fellowship with them. But I think this one probably sums up what they felt, and what is happening in churches today:

 

” More than anything, the Corinthian Christians probably allowed this in the name of “tolerance.” They probably said to themselves, “Look how loving we are. We accept this brother just as he is. Look how open-minded we are!” We should never underestimate what people will allow in the name of “open-mindedness.”

 

We as believers in Christ; as the Church (big C), should only be tolerant of those things that line up with what God’s word says. This verse talks about the unrepentant man in verse one, how they should remove him from the fellowship. I think it is really easy to look at the spec in someone else’s eye and not see the four-by-four in our own.  The key that I see here is that we should be in mourning and broken hearted over this sin of a fellow believer. What did we do to encourage that believer to come out of their sin? Did we talk with them? Did we develop a relationship with them, so that we were able to have that hard conversation about their lifestyle? What did we do in love, before we got to the place where someone was removed from the fellowship?

 

I’ve recently learned some lessons about this subject, it wasn’t a fun time for sure. I fully supported what happened, but it left me with some thoughts on what I could have done differently and what I will do differently going forward. There is never anything wrong with speaking truth to someone. But I’d say that our truth should never be a club; truth should be spoke with the same love that Jesus showed in His truth. Rest assured that truth is a whole lot easier to speak if you have a relationship with someone.

 

And if that truth is rejected, on any level; then it should break our hearts and we should mourn the loss of someone in fellowship. We should also, always, try to minister to them where they are to pull them back into relationship with us.

 

Seems kinda rambly today….

 

Love you all,

cej