1 Corinthians 5:9-11 - Repentant, Unrepentant

 

1 Corinthians 5:9-11

NKJV

I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.

 

NLT

 When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.

 

It should not surprise, or offend us, that people who don’t know Christ are involved in sexual sin.  It should not surprise, or offend us, that people who don’t know Christ are greedy. It should not surprise, or offend us, that there are coveters, idolaters, drunkards, or extortionists; or any number of other sins that people who don’t know Christ do. Instead, without approving of the sin of sinners…we should expect that they would be sinners.  After all, weren’t we all as sinners in this world once before…didn’t we already do all these things too? This is our nature, not our purpose.

 

We should, instead, separate ourselves from unrepentant brothers and sisters.  Those that have professed Christ and still want to be in the world impenitently. But we should only do this when we have made every effort biblically to guide them back into a relationship with Jesus.

 

This is a pretty hard teaching…this whole removing the unrepentant from our midst. To be honest, at times I feel like a hypocrite. I sin because I live in this bag of flesh that is well trained in the ways of this world. I believe the difference is repentance, doing a 180 and turning away from my sin. This isn’t always easy because repentance means you’re not going back there again. Don't separate yourself from the people of the world, separate yourself from the sin of the world.

 

Repentant,

cej