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

 

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

1 Corinthians 5:7-8 - Removin' The Old Yeast

 

1 Corinthians 5:7-8

 

NKJV

Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

 

NLT

Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.

 

I’m not going into the detail of the context of these verses, you can catch up here 1 Corinthians 5:6 - Hammer & Heart Part Deux.  It’s important for sure. But I’m thinking about a different take on this, something personal.

 

I had a pastor friend of mine tell me one time that there’s nothing new, all pastors steal pieces and parts of other sermons…so I’m sure this is nothing new!

 

Using this thought of removing the “old yeast”, I’m struck by how much old yeast I have in my life. That’s right…there are things in my life that flat out don’t have a place in a believer.  Those very things can show up and lead me into things I shouldn’t be involved in.  As I grow in Christ, there are things that I used to think were no big deal…but now are a big deal.  I want nothing more than Christ to show up in me, so I have to remove the “old yeast” (those things that distract and drag me down) from my life.  Sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? But even though I’m a new creation, this bag of flesh I live in has been trained really well to live in this world. So to remove the old yeast, I have to capture my thoughts.  I have to make sure that I’m leading with Jesus and not me in all things.

 

I do that by living with my whole life pointed toward God; by being in God’s word every chance I get; and by loving others the way Jesus loved me (as close to that as I can get, anyway!) Easy right? No, it’s not.  It takes effort and grit and try to remove those old habits. It takes trusting God in everything.

 

Remove the old yeast from your life or it’ll put you in places you never thought you’d go and leave you there longer than you ever thought you would stay.

 

Removin’ the yeast,

cej

1 Corinthians 5:6 - Hammer & Heart Part Deux

 

1 Corinthians 5:6

 

NKJV

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

 

NLT

Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? 

 

This verse continues the story of the “tolerance” of the church at Corinth. Read this chapter from the start if you need an update, but in short…there was a man living in open sin with his father’s wife, something even the pagans were hesitant to do.  Apparently, he was unrepentant in his sexual immortality. To be clear, sexual immortality is anything that is outside of what God created in marriage between a man and a woman. This man was outside of God’s intention.

 

All that said, I want to focus on a couple of things.  First, the folks at Corinth were bragging about how tolerant they were.  “look at us, we see the world is changing.  God’s word doesn’t apply to this situation because the world is different.” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  Our world, and some churches, will tell us that times have changed and what was considered a sin, is no longer sin and that we should embrace it.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow (Hebrews 13:8).  That means that despite how our world changes, God’s plan for us is still the same.  That what God called sin 6,000 years ago…is still sin today. God is intolerant of sin, but He still wants people to come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ.  We should be the same.

 

Second, if we allow unrepentant sin in fellow believers to go unchallenged…it can destroy the whole church. Leaven was used in making bread. A bit of risen, aged dough from the previous batch would be stored away as the starting point for the next batch of dough. Working this tiny piece into a new batch introduced leavening agents which would spread to every piece of the new material. If the leaven was bad, the bacteria in it would quickly spread to the rest of the dough, making the bread worthless. So, how can we tell if someone is living in unrepentant sin?  We can’t unless they show it to us.  Our reaction should be one of sorrow when we see this. How can we help bring this brother, or sister, back into a relationship with God?

 

We could probably put on our self-righteous garments pretty easily when we start this process. I would warn you to get the plank out of your eye before even broaching this with someone.  Don’t  be a hypocrite. I hope we approach this with the same mercy that we would want applied to us.  We should be prepared to judge at the same level we would want to be judged.  Approach it with love and kindness…and truth, always with the truth of God.

 

Mercy, love, and truth,

cej

1 Corinthians 5:5 - Not Police, But...

1 Corinthians 5:5

 NKJV

 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

 NLT 

Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns. 

 Seems pretty harsh…to hand someone over to satan, doesn’t it? To be clear, this is about an unrepentant man who was living in open sin in the Corinth church. Still seems pretty harsh…but… 

 At first go, nobody likes to be disciplined…nobody! I was not a fan of the spankin’s and such that came from my parents when I was youngster. At the time I considered them unfair and just too much. In my later years (and when I had kids of my own) I understood the value of what my parents were trying to do. They wanted me to understand that there were consequences to my actions. That I could not just act any old way I wanted to…do bad things, get punished. I can tell you that I was never punished unjustly, my folks were fair. 

I think about this verse and the fact that this man was being cast out and handed over to satan; God didn’t want him to be cast out, his choice to stay in his sin got him cast out. One bad apple can ruin the whole basket is the concept that I see here. 

 Bibleref.net says, “Details aside, this verse clearly supports three crucial purposes of church discipline. First, it is necessary in order to convict and correct others so they aren't fooled about their spiritual state (1 Corinthians 10:12). Second, it is necessary for the spiritual health of the other believers (Jude 1:12; Galatians 2:4). Third, it is necessary to prevent the unbelieving world from having legitimate reasons to criticize the body of Christ (1 Peter 2:12; 2 Peter 2:1–2; Galatians 2:14). 

 Choices we make have consequences, that’s for sure. At some point, God is going to give us over to the world so that our flesh will be destroyed, because He loves us, if we continue in our sin (talkin’ to believers here). I don’t believe this is anything that God wants to do, He’d much rather we love Him and follow His truth over everything else. But people…. 

 We need each other because we are so capable of sin. We are no longer the old man, but we still live in this body that has been trained well in the ways of the world. Be involved in your church; have Christian friends that you go do stuff with; worship together (MEN, SING WHEN YOU WORSHIP…your family is watching). I pray that you have someone in your life that pulls you back from the edge with the truth of Jesus Christ. 

“Church discipline is not a group of ‘pious policemen’ out to catch a criminal. Rather, it is a group of brokenhearted brothers and sisters seeking to restore an erring member of the family.” (Wiersbe) 

 Not police, but… 

cej

1 Corinthians 5:4 - The Power in the Meeting

 

1 Corinthians 5:4

 

NKJV

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

 

NLT

in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus.

 

Earlier in this chapter, Paul is gettin’ after the church at Corinth for basically saying that an open sin by one of the brothers was ok. He said that he’d already judged the one who’d done the deed.

The Living Word (Bible) is best understood in context, but God can also take pieces (individual verses) of it and speak truth to us.  For me, he does it here. While I get what is being talked about here, the removal of an unrepentant brother; I also am struck by the last part after Paul says when you must call a meeting.

It says, when you are gathered together with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ…How bout dat!?!?  Mathew 18:20 says where two or more are gathered in my name there I am. Ecclesiastes 4:12 tells us that three strands are not easily broken. There is strength to be gained when believers gather. There is strength to be gained because we can encourage each other to pursue Jesus.  Hebrews 10:25 tells us to meet together; to not forsake it. How can we grow in our relationship with Christ if we’re not going to be around brothers and sisters in Christ? Yes, God supplies the growth…but you never know who He is going to be speaking through.  Meet together and do it with the power of Jesus!

 

In a meeting,

cej

1 Corinthians 5:3 - Hammer & Heart

 

1 Corinthians 5:3

NKJV

For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed.

NLT (includes part of verse 4)

Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man in the name of the Lord Jesus.

 

Today, I encourage you to at least go back to verse one and start reading.  If will give you some context for these verses.

 

I use a couple of commentaries in writing. Commentaries are a big help for this old cowboy to understand God’s word better.  I hope you have one, or two, or three that you use regularly. (Here are the ones I use, if you have some you use, please share in the comments…help some brothers and sisters out!  Enduring Word, BibleRef.com, and of course Bible Hub (lotsa help here) And now back to our regularly scheduled program…

 

Paul is basically calling out the church at Corinth because of what is a known sin of an unrepentant man.  He is exercising his authority as an apostle and leader in the church.  He’s saying, “just because I’m not there, does not mean anything goes”, and then we get into the hard part of his comment when he says, “I have already judged him”.  

 

Wait…what?  Doesn’t the bible say judge not lest you be judged?  Yes, but understand the context of what it says.  It’s not for us to judge unbeliever’s, but we should not let the unrepentant actions of fellow believers just lie there. The NIV says, “I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this.”

 

This one is kinda tough, I mean, shouldn’t we love and encourage someone back into a relationship with God?  Yes we should, our judgement (if we’re going to call it that) should come after some time has been spent loving on that person.  Encouraging them and speaking truth about what the bible says about their situation. I believe we all, at times, have been in a place where our sin has placed us in a place contrary to God.  I have and thank God I have people in my life who called me on it and led me back, in repentance, to a relationship with God. But what about the one who doesn’t want to hear any truth and has justified their position in sin? 

 

The Enduring Word commentary says, “Paul is not being disobedient in the slightest way. Jesus’ command in Matthew 7:1-5 forbids hypocritical judgment, and judging others by a standard that we ourselves do not want to be judged by. Paul is perfectly willing to apply the same standards to himself that he is applying to the Corinthian Christians. Some judgment is permitted, and some is not. “While Christians are not to judge one another’s motives or ministries, we are certainly expected to be honest about each other’s conduct.” (Wiersbe)”

 

There you go…we should only judge to the level we are willing to be judged at conductwise.  Still, every step should be taken before God and every step should be prayed over.  WWJD?

 

This is hard,

cej

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

1 Corinthians 5:1 - Not Self Medicated

 

1 Corinthians 5:1

NKJV

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife!

 

NLT

I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother.

 

This is really salacious! There are some commentaries that speculate that this man was a teacher in the church. Regardless, if he was a teacher or not…it was something that even the pagans found repugnant. I think if you look past the salaciousness of the actual sin itself, which don’t get me wrong…it’s wrong. But if you really dig down into this, really try to get to the root, you can see this is about doing what you want…regardless of right or wrong. This man, teacher or not, chose to do something because if felt good, it didn’t matter to him if it was right or wrong.

 

I wonder if we all dug down into why we commit the sins that we do, if we wouldn’t find the very same thing? Sure, at times there are psychological reasons, but maybe dig a little deeper. It felt good and, in that moment, we didn’t care about the consequences. As I write that, I am speaking to myself here!

 

I can look at times that I have sinned and the root of it, if I’m honest with myself, is that if felt good and I didn’t care about God or anyone else in that moment. I chose that particular sin to change how I felt, because in that moment life was too hard to deal with.

 

We need to learn how to deal with ourselves in a positive manner! I wonder if we don’t “self-medicate” with our sins? A wise person told me once that “sins are fun, otherwise no one would do them”  Sometimes, sins are funner than the life situation we are in at the moment. But it is so fleeting! It’s not there very long and will leave us feeling worse than we did before. We feel sad; and angry; and ashamed. All of these are not from God. But that’s the lie, isn’t it? It’s time to quit living on how we feel and start living in the spirit; so that we know who our loving, living God wants us to be.

 

Not self-medicated today,

cej