1 Corinthians 5:12-13 - Hammer & Heart Part Trios

1 Corinthians 5:12-13

 

NKJV

For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

 

NLT

It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

 

Wait a minute, did that just say that it’s not my responsibility to judge the world? But, but, but…the world is full of sin and it’s my job to tell them they are going to hell! Holy cow, does this mean that I am not to use my self-righteousness to beat people over the head with their sin?

 

Yup! That’s what it means. It means that, at times, we are too busy judging those non-believers that we neglect the purity of the believers (starting with ourselves). But I think we need to be forewarned that this practice, called "church discipline," is not often carried out in Christian churches despite this clear teaching. The result is an epidemic of poisonous spiritual influences (Jude 1:12; 2 Peter 2:1; Galatians 2:4) and whole lot of criticism from the non-believing world (1 Peter 2:12; 2 Peter 2:2). On the other hand, some of what is called "church discipline" today has been carried out in a manner which is unloving, inconsistent, an unhelpful to the reputation of Christ (Galatians 6:1; Matthew 18:15–20).

Obviously, churches must be prayerful and wise about when and how to apply Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 5. The goal is not self-righteousness or vindictive revenge. Rather, it should be protection of truth and the repentance of the sinner.

 

I believe the key is how much we love God and how much do we love each other. We should be humble enough as believers to realize that our only job with non-believers is to show the love of Christ. Speak the truth, for sure, but let the Holy Spirit work on them. We don’t win people to Christ by beating them over the head. It also means that we should be humble enough as believers to accept a “call out” when our sin is out of control. We should be close enough to each other that we can’t hide our sins. That we have a couple of friends that know what’s going on in our lives and are not afraid to speak truth to us.  Are you that friend and do you have those friends?

 

Call out,

cej