1 Corinthians 5
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Important messages
Chapter 5
1.
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality
among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has
his father’s wife.
2.
And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let
him who has done this be removed from among you.
3.
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as
if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
4.
When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and
my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
5.
you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction
of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
We have come to a portion in
this book, where Paul passes judgment against sexual immorality. I don’t think
that I am telling you anything new, when I say that immorality is a huge
problem in the church today and it has been the downfall of many pastors and
other leaders. The fact is, it was also a problem in biblical times, beginning
in the book of Genesis.
Sexual misconduct is
different from unnatural addictions, which come from nicotine, alcohol, and
numerous kinds of drugs and barbiturates, in that it is a natural appetite innate
to the human body, as is hunger and thirst. One cannot expect deliverance from
it, but must learn to control it, just as he must control his appetite for
food. Sexuality is very basically a part of human nature, in order to insure
the procreation of the race: therefore it is a good thing.
However, all sexual activity,
biblically speaking, is limited strictly
and exclusively to a man and his
wife, after they have committed themselves publically to each other for life.
Solomon shares his wisdom on the matter in Proverbs 5:18-20, if you would like
to look it up, and the writer of Hebrews gives us a solid New Testament
position: “Let marriage be held in honor
among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the
sexually immoral and adulterous” (He.13:4).
In Genesis 35,
verse 22, Reuben committed an act that cost him his birthright (See Dt.21:17
and 1 Chron.5:1 to get the facts concerning the passing of his birthright to
Joseph): “Reuben went and lay with
Bilhah his father’s concubine. And Israel heard of it.” He brought the
matter up, when he was prophesying over his children in chapter 49. There is no
record that he ever mentioned it before. However, in that chapter, he begins
with his oldest son in verse 3: “Reuben,
you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent
in dignity and preeminent in power. Unstable as water, you shall not have
preeminence, because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it – he
went up to my couch!”
The sin mentioned in the
beginning of chapter 5 is similar. Of course, the woman involved is not the
perpetrator’s mother, but another wife of his father, probably due to his mother’s death. In any case, she is his father´s wife, just as in the case of Bilhah. Paul shows the
particularly perverse nature of the sin, which would even stand out as
intolerable among the unbelievers (1). The Law of Moses cursed the practice
(Dt.27:20).
Paul not only condemns the
sin, but also the general arrogance in the church concerning the matter. A form
of pride is at the head of so many problems within and without Christian
circles. It is a sin, particular disdained by God and at the head of a list in
Proverbs 6:16 and 17: “There are six
things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes (or a proud look, in other versions), a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood…” In dispensing
salvation, the Lord requires that it be received with humility: “By grace you have been saved through
faith. And this is not your own doing: it is the gift of God, not a result of
works, so that no one may boast” (Eph.2:8-9). Grace humbles the
sinner.
A pastor of a large church in
a city near our home committed immoral acts. When they were discovered, he
stood before the church to “confess” his sins, and was rewarded with applause
from the congregation. Other local pastors called in the president of a
mission, particularly known for his skill in confronting such matters. He told
the church in question that to deal with that sin only within the congregation,
was inadequate, due obviously to multiple conflicts of interest. He said, “You applauded when the pastor told you of
his sins. That was totally improper. In fear and shame, you should have been
crawling under the benches!”
Paul has to take godly
authority over the Corinthian situation. He states that the proper response to
sin among the believers should be mourning.
There should be remorse, accompanying repentance, manifesting an
understanding of the gravity of sin. He then calls for the removal of the
guilty one from among the members (2). The world around them must see that true
Christianity shows no tolerance for sin.
Discipline must be applied
for the good of the offender and it must be severe, in order to do any real
good. Spiritual matters do not necessarily require the presence of the judge
and Paul claims that he is present in spirit and has already decided the
sentence to be applied (3). The presence of Christ is there also in mighty
power to lend heavenly authority to the assembled church, as they pronounce
punishment (4).
The church is spiritual and
therefore all its actions must be done in the spiritual realm. Here is the
penalty: The man is to be given over to Satan. Some have questions, concerning
verse 5, so I will try to clarify its meaning. The guilty one is not profiting
from his place in the church and he is giving a bad testimony to society. For
his own good, the church literally casts him out; he is forbidden to enter its
activities, and he is given over to Satan.
Hopefully, this is not
permanent, but that by being separated from the spiritual protection of the church, he will experience the awful rule of the devil over his life. When he
realizes the pain and peril of this situation, his remorse will be severe and
his repentance will be deep. He will humble himself and turn back to Christ. In
this way, “his spirit may be saved in
the day of the Lord.” It is not an unconditional and direct result of his
punishment, but is, just the opposite, conditional and indirect. The condition
is repentance; the result is that his heart will turn to the Lord. It must be a
timely decision, before it is too late. (See the end result of this case in 2
Corinthians 2:5-11)
Disassociation
with spiritual leaven
6.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little
leaven leavens the whole lump?
7.
Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as
you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
8.
Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old
leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth.
9.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with
sexually immoral people-
10.
not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or
the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of
the world.
11.
But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone
who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or
is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler – not even to eat with such a
one.
12.
For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not
those inside the church whom you are to judge?
13.
God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from
among you.”
The Corinthians are boasting,
because of their ignorance of a spiritual principle. It is seen in this
proverb: “A little leaven leavens the
whole lump.” He uses the same symbolic term another time in Galatians 5:9. It
simply means that a little sin effects the
entire church (6). Solomon
declares it in Ecclesiastes 9:18 and 10:1: “One
sinner destroys much good. Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a
stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.”
Symbols are quite consistent
in their meaning throughout Scripture and leaven always has a negative
connotation, it seems to me. In the Old Testament, unleavened bread was always
necessary in sacrifices burnt with fire, which sacrifices symbolized an
offering to the Lord. Leaven was only used in two unburnt, grain offerings: 1) As
the grain offering in conjunction with the peace sacrifice (Lv.7:13), and 2) as
the wave-loaf offering at the feast of Pentecost (Lv.23:17). In those two
cases, leavened bread revealed the presence of sin, as John in his first epistle
declares, “The blood of Jesus his Son
cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us… If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and
his word is not in us” (1 Jn.1:7,8,10). The blood of Christ, the Passover Lamb, is shed for us, by whome we have free grace to enter into the presence of God, but that fact does not give license to sin.
Scofield comments, “Any thanksgiving for peace must, first of
all, present Him (Christ). In Leviticus 7:12, we have this, in type, and
so leaven is excluded. In verse 13, it is the offerer who gives thanks for his
participation in the peace, and so leaven fitly signifies, that though having
peace with God… there is still evil in him. In Leviticus 23:17: The wave-loaves were offered fifty days (Feast
of Pentecost) after the wave-sheaf (Feast
of Firstfruits)…With the wave-sheaf no
leaven was offered, for there was no evil in Christ; but the wave-loaves,
typifying the church, are ‘baken with leaven’, for in the church there is still
evil.”
Paul proclaims that the
Corinthian church should purge out the leaven, so that their practical situation will match fheir perfectly unleavened position in Christ (7). Jesus warned of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the
Sadducees, signifying false doctrine and hypocrisy (Mt.16:6, 11, 12; Mk.8:15
and Lk.12:1). It seems to me unlikely that in the Parable of the Leaven that
Jesus is giving a positive meaning to leaven, differing from all other
Scripture (Mt.13:33). I believe that He is showing an unwelcome appearance of growth,
beyond the real substance of the loaf.
In verse 8, John Wesley
comments, “Sincerity and truth seem to be
put here for the whole of true, inward religion.” That follows the idea of inward
substance, rather than a puffed-up appearance. Paul is speaking of a true
spiritual celebration, symbolized by the Feast of Unleavened Bread, beginning
with the Passover. Hypocrisy is the epitome of hidden malice and evil,
discovered in the religion of the Pharisees.
In view of the recent
developments in the church in Corinth, Paul clarifies a statement in an earlier
letter about associating with the immoral (9). He meant the immoral people in
the church, who called themselves brothers.
He made that stipulation to avoid a practice, which is not uncommon throughout
history up to our day: It is the practice of moving out of society into
unpopulated areas and living in communalism. This was never the Lord’s idea; He
prayed to the Father: “I do not ask that
you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (Jn.17:15).
The church is to live in society, rub shoulders with the world and be seen as a
light, as an example, to ungodly people (10). We live among sinners, without
partaking of their sins, as Jesus gave example throughout the Gospels.
When it comes to false
brothers, who shame the name of Christ before the world, for that reason, we
cannot associate with them. They claim Christianity, but do not live a
lifestyle, which is apart from the world’s lifestyle; these are to be avoided
(11). Again, I refer to Jesus’ prayer, which expresses His desire: “Keep them from the evil one.” Paul
also warned the Thessalonians, “If
anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and
have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed” (2 Th.3:14).
Sinners practice sin. The
evangelistic mission is not to moralize them. We preach repentance and faith in
Christ, not moral virtue. Trying to keep God’s law without the new nature is
taught in the New Testament as spiritual slavery, because the sinner is battling
against his sinful nature. The born-again Christian lives according to the new
nature and does the will of God freely from the heart. Let God keep score, as
far as outsiders are concerned. He measures the sin in the world and pours out
judgment accordingly. It is seen throughout the Scripture.
It is another issue altogether,
as far as Christians are concerned. Popular teaching today practically
eliminates judging. In the context of this chapter, judging is necessary and
healthy among Christians. I mentioned in an earlier chapter that Jesus taught, “Judge righteous judgment” (Jn.7:24),
so we had better be sure that our counsel lines up with the doctrines of Christ
and the New Testament. Paul absolutely states in verse 12 that members are to judge those within the church. To
the many who demand, “Don’t judge me!” I would ask, “Do you not want to be
recognized as a Christian, then?” The
one who claims Christianity, but doesn’t live up to the demands of Christ and
Apostle Paul, receives the same sentence against him today, as in the First
Century (13): “Purge the evil person
from among you.”
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