1 Corinthians 5
McGeeCHAPTERS 5 AND 6THEME: Scandals in the Corinthian church
1 Corinthians 5:1
IMPURITYThis was a case that was up before the church. This was not gossip. It could be translated: “It is reported actually and factually.” This was not just a rumor that was going around. This case was common knowledge. It was such fornication that was not even mentioned among the Gentiles. It was the sordid story of a man who took his father’s wife, his own stepmother.
1 Corinthians 5:2
The apostle is using strong language here. He is dealing with a very grievous sin. The congregation in Corinth was compromising with this evil. We need to recognize that flagrant sin in the church must be dealt with. The Lord Jesus had given detailed instructions in Matthew 18: “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican” (Mat_18:15-17). They did not carry out this procedure in Corinth. This was a case of compromise with evil. John Morley has said that compromise is the most immoral word in the English language. I think I would agree to that. The church in Corinth was compromising itself by compromising with this evil. There are certain things about this case that we need to note. This case was an acknowledged situation which had no need of proof. This was not a matter of gossip or of hearsay. Paul would never have brought up something like this if it had simply been a rumor. Also we need to note that it was not a questionable sin. It was a glaring sin, and it was actually recognized by the world outside as being sin. It was incest. This is in contrast to questionable activities, which should not be brought out in the open and dealt with by the church. Let me give an illustration of what I mean. A lady was converted in the church where I served as pastor. She called me one day about three months after her conversion, and she was very disturbed. She said, “I’m very disappointed and very discouraged. I have been a chain smoker and have wanted to give up cigarettes. I have tried for three months and I have failed. I have come to the place where I hate them and I hate myself for not being able to give them up.
What should I do?” I gave her several suggestions. I said, “Look, it is a questionable sin, and it is one that you hate and want to give up. I don’t blame you; your testimony is involved. First of all, continue to pray, and ask your personal friends to continue to pray for you, as you say they are doing. Also I will pray for you. I know God will give you the victory because you want it.
Secondly, don’t be discouraged. And the third thing is: please do not tell it to the dear saints in the church. If you do, they will absolutely skin you alive because they consider it the worst sin in the world.” After about three months I saw her coming into the church, and I could tell by her face something had happened. After the service she could hardly wait to talk to me. She said, “I have wonderful news for you. From the day I talked to you down to the present, I haven’t smoked once.
God has given me deliverance!” Now, smoking is one of the things I classify as a questionable sin. It is not mentioned in the Word of God; nor does it have any question of immorality connected with it. Therefore, it is to be handled differently. It is not to be brought before the church for judgment. By contrast, this case of immorality in the Corinthian church was a flaunting of God’s law. Therefore, this needed to be handled with church discipline. There was no doubt about this being a sin. It is not a questionable matter. It was such a horrible sin that it was not even practiced by the Gentiles outside the church. I would like to say something to our present generation. Living together without being married is sin in God’s sight. It makes no difference what public opinion says about it or how many people are practicing it. The Word of God calls this sin, and there is no other way one can look at it. It is not a questionable sin as far as the Word of God is concerned. The church in Corinth did not need to establish the fact that the man was living in sin. Their error was that they tolerated it. They condoned the sin by doing nothing about it. They compromised, and that is the worst thing they could have done. You can put this down as an axiom: A pure church is a powerful church; an impure church is a paralyzed church. You can look around you at churches today and see whether or not that is true.
1 Corinthians 5:3
Paul is telling them to meet together, and if this brother will not forsake his sin, they are to deliver him over to Satan. That is a tremendous statement. Does he really mean that? He said it; apparently he meant it. This is something that the Word of God teaches. Do you remember that Job was delivered over to Satan? Satan came to the Lord and complained that He wouldn’t let him touch Job. He told God in effect, “You tell me how good a man Job is, but if You will just let me get to him, I will show You whether or not Job really is true to You. He will curse You to Your face!” So the Lord gave Satan permission to test Jobwith the limitation that he could not take Job’s life. There is a great comfort in this for us: Satan cannot touch a child of God unless he has the permission of God Himself. And if God does permit it, then it is for a reason. You will also remember that the Lord Jesus told Peter that Satan desired to have him to sift him as wheat. The Lord Jesus permitted Satan to do this to Peter. Peter was turned over to Satan, and that night he denied his Lord. What he did was just as dastardly as the crime of Judas Iscariot. However, Peter hated himself and he hated what he had done, but it taught him how weak he was. God used this experience to produce the kind of man who would get up and preach the sermon that Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost. Then there is the example in 1Ti_1:20 where Paul writes: “Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.” These two men were professing Christians, but they were blaspheming. Paul says he delivered them over to Satan. Now I realize there is danger of our feelings and our emotions getting involved, and there is a danger of fanaticism to which some people are inclined; but in our churches today we do have certain men and women who are hurting the cause of Christ. I believe we have the right to ask God to deliver them into the hands of Satan, to be dealt with, so that they won’t hurt and harm the body of Christ. I pray that God will deliver certain men over to Satan to let him give them a good workout. It will either bring them to God (if they are true believers) or it will reveal the fact that they are not genuine believers at all. If they are Christians, then they will come out clear-cut and come out clean for God and for the Lord Jesus Christ. I think we have a right to pray that prayer. This is strong medicine! And for these carnal Corinthians it was strong medicine. Paul is writing that, although he can’t be with them in his body, he is with them in his spirit. He tells them the way he is voting. And his prayer is to deliver this man into the hands of Satan.
1 Corinthians 5:6
Do you know what the church in Corinth was doing? At the same time that they were shutting their eyes to the sin that was in their own congregation, they were bragging about their other activities. They were gloryingboasting. Probably they bragged about the missionaries they sent out and about being true to the Scriptures and about winning souls for Christ. What hypocrisy! Yet there are many folk who feel that being busy in Christian work covers a multitude of sins. Paul says that their glorying was not good. Didn’t they know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Leaven is never a symbol of the gospel; it is always a principle of evil, and it represents evil in this instance.
1 Corinthians 5:7
What does leaven do to the bread? Well, you put it in the dough, set it in a warm place, and the bread begins to puff up. When it gets to a certain height, the bread is put into the hot oven. Why? To stop the leavening process. If the bread did not get into the oven, that leavening process would go on and the bread would rise higher and higher. Finally the whole loaf would be corrupt and rotten. Now that is exactly what happens with evil in the church if it is not dealt with. Finally the whole thing will blow up and will destroy the effectiveness of the church. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump; so it must be purged out. In the Old Testament, after the Feast of the Passover there followed immediately the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Paul says that Christ, the true Passover Lamb, has now been sacrificed for us. This should be followed by lives that are free from leaven. Instead, this Corinthian congregation was allowing leaventhat is, evilto come right into their church. These were the very ones who were talking about the death of Christ and the crucifixion of Christ, and yet they permitted leaven to enter into the church.
1 Corinthians 5:8
Paul is not talking about how a person is saved. He is talking about the walk of the believer after he has been saved. Sincerity never saved anyone. But if you are a child of God, you will be sincere. The world today needs to see sincerity among believers and needs truth among believers. Paul says, “Let’s have sincerity and truth in the church there in Corinth.” You see, the church there was really insincere. They had gross immorality in their midst. They thought they could get by with this, and they pretended that everything was all right. They were pretending that they were telling the truth and living the truth when actually they were not.
1 Corinthians 5:9
Paul had previously written to them and had condemned these sins. Corinth was a city given over to immorality. There were a thousand priestesses at the temple of Venus or Aphrodite who were nothing in the world but harlots. They were prostitutes, and the whole city was given over to this immorality in the name of religion. Now here they are permitting this immoral man to come into their fellowship and to eat with them. They patted him on the back and accepted him as one of their own when they knew he was living in sin. The church in Corinth thought they could drop down to the level of the world. Does the church today think it can drop down to the immorality of the world and get away with it? My friend, the church today has lost its power. I am speaking of the church in general. Thank God there are still wonderful churches left, churches that stand out like beacon lights across this land, Bible churches that stand for the Word of God. The other day I heard of a young preacher who took a stand when they tried to introduce hard rock music into his church. It meant that he lost several hundred of his members who walked out.
I thank God for a preacher like that, one with intestinal fortitude. Most men today are compromising and shutting their eyes and letting the world come in. The church has lost its power. An impure church is a paralyzed church, and a pure church is a powerful church. That is true for the individual also. Now Paul says this does not apply to fornication only. He also applies it to covetousness. How about a deacon in the church who has sticky fingers? How about the man in the church who has his hand on a lot of money? Paul also includes idolators, those who are fooling around with other religions. I heard about a leading officer of a church who walked out and joined a cult. I am telling you that the Word of God teaches that a little infection in the church must be dealt with or else it is going to corrupt and wreck the church. A little leaven will leaven the whole lump.
1 Corinthians 5:12
Paul says that he is not judging the people on the outside. That is not his business. He is to judge those inside the church. God will judge those who are on the outside. It is the business of the church to judge evil which is in the church. We are interested to know how things worked out in Corinth. To find the answer we need to turn to 2Co_2:4-8: “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.” This immoral man had come in deep repentance after Paul put it down on the line in his previous epistle. Today we need a great deal of couragenot compromisein the church to point out these things and say, “This is sin.” I think that when this is done, the believer who is in sin will confess, like this man in Corinth and like David did, and will repent and change his ways. The Corinthian church handled this very nicely. Why? Because Paul had the courage to write this kind of letter. In 2 Corinthians Paul explains why he had done it: “Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you” (2Co_7:12). Paul says that he wrote as he did for the welfare of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today we hear this flimsy, hypocritical attitude: “Well, we don’t want to air this thing. We don’t want to cause trouble. We’ll just sweep it under the rug.” My friend, God cannot bless a church or an individual that does this. If God did bless, God would be a liar. And you know that God is no liar. He will judge inaction in a case like this. This chapter has a tremendous lesson for us. And it is very practical, is it not?