1 Corinthians 5:1-13, Called to Deal With Sin

Theological Proposition/Focus: The Call of a Christian is a call to diligently defend purity by appropriately dealing with sin

Homiletical Proposition/Application: Critically look at your life, are you dealing with sin?

Introduction:

Image: I was young and naive and this resulted in a root canal by the time I was 23.

Shortly after Emily and I were married while I was still in college I developed a cavity on my back molar. I was young and naive and we had no dental insurance so I made a bad decision. I decided that I would simply tough out the pain. I lasted a long time, about two years toughing out the pain until eventually part of the tooth actually broke exposing the nerve directly and I realized that I needed to get something done. what I didn't realize was that once the decay had gotten as bad as it was the cavity could no longer be treated by just putting in a filling but now I needed a full root canal, tooth reconstruction, and a cap. I thought I was being tough, saving some money, and showing myself able to handle a little pain. In reality I was being naive, ignorant, and just plane dumb. Had I acted when the cavity first appeared I would have done much better. Instead at 23 years old I got to experience the pain and expense of a root canal.

Body (1 Cor. 5:1-13 all at once)

Sin is a present reality that cannot be ignored (1-5).

Grace should never be used to excuse sin (1-2).

Paul begins chapter 5 expressing shock.

The phrase "it is actually reported" conveys a problem that is known outside the church and dismay and shock on the part of Paul.

While the Greeks in general saw sex as a necessity like eating and drinking and thus allowed prostitution, incest was strictly off limits.

We will talk more about this later but for now, understand that Paul is in a state of shock. How could this happen?

As if that was not enough, the Greek grammar (present infinitive ἔχειν) suggests this is ongoing.

We all sin, but there are times when people refuse to repent of sin.

We need to recognize that the wages of any and all sin is death but there are also people who insist on continuing in sin and that choice to engage in repeated rebellion needs special attention.

Verse 2 reminds us that the only proper response to sin is to mourn over sin.

Romans 6:1-2a states "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!"

From my reading of the text it sounds like the Corinthians were proud that they were being tolerant and showing grace to a sinner. This actually reveals a huge theological misunderstanding.

Sin must be dealt with (3-5).

The key takeaway from verses 3-5 is that sin must be dealt with. Now let's dig into some of the details.

I don't want to get too caught up in verse 3. Various interpreters have come to various conclusions but a simple reading suggests that Paul is simply stating something like "I may be a million miles away but that doesn't mean I don't know what has happened and what needs to be done!" Paul reminds the Corinthians that

Handing over represents a formal decision to place someone outside of the community, this is not damnation.

The destruction of the flesh may be a reference not to physical destruction but the end of this self-centered behavior

We often, appropriately think of the flesh as the physical body, but in fact the flesh can also refer to our sinful nature. And, in context here this might be one such instance. It is possible that what Paul is saying is that by formally placing someone outside the community they are given the opportunity to see the effects of their sin and turn from it. The key here is to recognize that the motive of ex-communication is restoration.

It is also possible that Paul intends flesh to refer to the physical body as in 1 Cor. 11:30. In either case, the individual is handed over to the domain of Satan, the world with the goal of restoration of the individual and protection of the church (which we will see shortly.) At this point, it is also only right that we look at the parallels between this passage and Christ's method of approaching discipline.

Image: God's way does work.

At this point, I want to tell you that God's way can work. I talk to a lot of people who think, even if they won't admit it, that church discipline does not work. After all, why would it. Can anyone say human wisdom? I was at a church and we exercised discipline for a case of unrepentant and continued adultery. Several years later the woman returned to church. God can work through His plan.

Sin is insidious (6-8).

We must recognize the danger of sin (6).

In verses 1-5 Paul had given his primary position. You need to deal with a significant sin in your presence. Now Paul begins his justification for this Paul begins by comparing sin with yeast and in order to understand this comparison we need to understand a little about baking in the ancient world.

In the ancient world people used scraps of older leavened bread rather than pure yeast. Something akin to sour dough today.

The idea was that when cooking a fresh loaf of leavened bread the family would take some left over raw dough from the previous batch and mix it with the new raw dough. Then the dough would be allowed to sit and ferment. This process resulted in a batch of completely leavened dough.

Paul paints a picture of sin starting in one place but spreading throughout the entire congregation.

In fact, one major problem with the "sour dough" methodology at the time was a lack of refrigeration and hygiene. The problem is that in any culture there may be more than yeast growing and in a warm climate without refrigeration an important policy is to periodically clean out all the leavened bread from the house to start over. This ensures that bacteria laden raw dough is not allowed to continue to infect.

We are called to differentiate between those who are part of the church and those who are not (9-11).

We are called to sexual purity (9).

First, let me deal with an easy issue in the text.

The first thing we need to understand is that the Bible identifies as sexual immorality.

The Greeks practiced free sex, the Greeks practiced homosexuality, the Greeks seem to have had fewer inhibitions than our culture and Paul states "have nothing to do with sexual immorality!"

Now it is possible to take Paul's command too far.

We are called to take care with whom we have fellowship (11).

To the relationship Paul clarifies "don't associate, that means don't even eat together."

In order to understand this we need to understand what eating together means. Meals in the ancient world is where closeness and relationship was built. In my view, the early church probably had regular fellowships meals. I suspect that a fellowship meal was at least a weekly occurrence.

Church membership demands accountability (12-13)

Church membership demands accountability (12).

Paul makes the point that it is not his job to worry about the sin of an individual outside of the church. His job is to do everything he can to protect those inside the church. As a quick aside, this does not mean you should stay away from all politics but that your goal should be to protect the church, this includes children.

Church membership demands accountability (13).

So, how do we judge those inside the church? I propose the solution is that we hold each other accountable.