I Corinthians 5:1-8

 I Corinthians 5:1-8

This short chapter is dedicated to addressing a case of horrific immorality within the church. A man in the church is having an incestuous relationship with his mother or stepmother. There is in this chapter a number of principles and practical lessons for our lives as disciples today living together in a community of faith.

First is the danger of abusing grace. By grace, God justifies the sinner, but He does not ever justify the sin. This sin, abhorrent even to the Greeks, could never be made right by grace. The Corinthians took a perverse pride in their acceptance of the sinner. As if to say, “See how good grace is. In Grace, anything goes.” Grace is almost seen as permission to sin. The extension of grace to a sinner that doesn’t also declare and require passionate love to the grace giver, which, by the way, will include obedience, is a prostitution of grace.

Second, when there is gross immorality in the church, the correct response is intense grief and sorrow. In many churches, people will mourn the loss of a fellow member to death, or the death of a dog or a cat, and in some cases the loss in a game. At the same time, the congregation will tolerate, and in the worst cases even celebrate, blatant sin. But sorrow for sin by itself is only the beginning point. It must be sorrow that includes a point of action. In this case, the action that is needed is excommunication.

Third, the church must not be flippant about excommunication. By virtue of belonging to the body of Christ, a Christian enjoys certain protections. When they are turned over to Satan, that protection is removed. For this reason, the church must excommunicate a person only as a last resort and only in cases of unrepentant and unrestrained sin. When a person is excommunicated, they are delivered over to Satan in the hopes that the destruction of the flesh will result in the spirit being saved in the coming judgment. Satan is powerless over the Christian except as we surrender authority to him by sin or by making an agreement with him. Real misery and harm await the person under Satan‘s power. The mind and the body are subject to and defenseless against one who hates them with a white-hot passion. The excommunicated Christian is vulnerable even up to the point of demonic oppression and possession. Terrible as that is, even in this there is an expression of God‘s goodness. There is the hope that in the end the spirit of the backslider is saved, and in the meantime the church is protected.

“Lord, protect Your people from hearts that are open to sin. AMEN”