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  Long Island Abundant Life Church 長島豐盛生命教會

1 Corinthians 4-5

9/1/2012

 
Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Sin in the Church
"I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 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. 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." 1 Corinthians 5:9–11

Today's reading is a pretty long one and full of a bunch of different things, so if you have any questions, make sure you ask them in the comments.

Today's passage is a pretty important one in the area of what is usually called "church discipline".  It's a difficult topic and one we've touched on before (in Matthew 18:15-20 for example).  I'm not going to super in-depth here, but give a few principles from the passage.  The situation that Paul is responding to appears to be that there is a man in the Corinthian church that is having a sexual relationship with his step-mother.  Not only is the church not condemning this, but it seems that they are taking pride in that fact that they feel the Christian freedom and liberty to allow it!  In response, Paul writes some important thoughts:

1. What is church discipline? 

    Church discipline is when someone is put out of fellowship.  Those in the church are not to associate or even eat with those who persist in habitual, obvious sin and refuse to repent of it (see the verses above).  This is the case of the man mentioned in chapter 5 - the instruction is to put him out of fellowship.

2. Why do  church discipline? 
    There are a few different reasons, but none of them is "to be mean and judgmental".  The reason Paul gives here is that these obvious and unrepentant sins can affect the entire congregation.  There are a variety of ways such sin can wreak havoc on spiritually immature believers and even on those who are mature.  This is where Paul says "a little leaven leavens the whole batch".  A little sin can go a long way in polluting an entire church.  This is the "big picture" reason for church discipline in a church-wide sense.  But there is of course the person that is actually committing the sin, which leads us to...

3. What is the goal of church discipline?

    The goal of church discipline, as I said, is not judgement.  It is not shunning just to be jerks.  The goal is RESTORATION.    This is what Paul means when he writes "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."  The goal is that by being put out of fellowship, cut off from the body, that the sinner will realize the error of their ways and seek repentance, confession, and restoration.  This is actually what ends up happening in this particular case, as we'll see in 2 Corinthians.  We NEED to get this straight, because it's the whole point:  church discipline is not punishment.  It isn't like paying a fine or being grounded.  It's an intervention by way of being cut off from (presumably) everyone you love and care for, and the very place that you worship God.

As I said above, this is just a really quick overview of some of the principles in the passage - I encourage you to read it closely and notice these things in it.  There is so much more that can and needs to be said on this topic, but unfortunately not now.  Again - if you have any questions or thoughts about another part of today's reading, be sure to put them in the comments!

Andrei
9/1/2012 07:39:09 pm

Just a few comments/questions:

1. v. 13 - 'Scum of the world, refuse of all things.' - Jesus was really everything to them.. verses like these continuously hammer in that point in my mind..

2. v. 20 - 'For the kingdom of God does not consist of talk but of power.' - I thought it was weird that they worded it that way. What does this mean?

3. Church discipline is making more sense to me..

Greg
9/4/2012 03:28:45 am

1. Definitely.
2. Here's a quote explaining: "Being a big talker is one thing, but living by God’s power is quite another. Some people talk a lot about faith, but that’s all it is—talk. They may know all the right words to say, but their lives don’t reflect God’s power. Paul says that the Kingdom of God is not just fancy talk, it is to be lived. There is a big difference between knowing the right words and living them out. The “Kingdom” refers not to the future reign of Christ but to the present reign of God in believers’ lives. A person can live only by God’s power when he or she has the Holy Spirit within (see John 3:3–8; 2 Corinthians 5:17)." (Bruce B. Barton and Grant R. Osborne, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Life Application Bible Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1999), 66.)
3. Great! It's definitely a difficult and sensitive topic.

Gina
9/2/2012 12:17:00 am

It seems pretty easy to understand this passage but complex as well. At what point is church discipline & restoration instituted? Is it at the point of discovery of sin /repentance of sin? the contention is ..how do you restore that person if you cut him off from fellowship and from the place the person needs to be restored?

Greg
9/4/2012 03:39:55 am

Church discipline, at least according to how most would read Matthew 18:15-20 (and some other places) is instituted after a person has been living in open and unrepentant sin, been confronted by someone and not repented, then confronted by that person again with 2 or 3 witnesses and not repented, then brought before "the church" - I would say this would be akin to the church leadership such as pastors and/or elders/deacons and not repented. It's a long process with a lot of chances for repentance. As for restoration, that occurs when repentance occurs. How that happens I think depends on the sin and who was harmed by the sin. There isn't any specific requirement that the confession and repentance always be public, but it MUST be before church leadership. That issue is a little harder to say for sure, because there aren't as many specifics about how confession/restoration should occur. I think it means that we need to exercise wisdom in that area.

As for your final question, I think that basically the offer should be made when church discipline is instituted, "Whenever you are ready to repent and be restored, we are waiting to hear you and to offer forgiveness." It puts the ball in that person's court. They are always welcome to go to church leadership to be restored.

You're right that this is a hard issue. I think it's probably one of the hardest things to deal with as a church. Sadly, this means that many churches NEVER do this, to the harm of both the church as a whole and to the unrepentant sinner. Church discipline is one of the marks of the true Church, but sadly most churches let fear or confusion stop them from instituting it. I think it's very revealing about a church if it has never instituted church discipline (unless it's a very new church plant or something). The fact is, people are not perfect and cases WILL come up where this will need to happen. Seeing a church that has never done church discipline doesn't make me think that it must be a great place with really good people - it makes me think that most likely the church is too afraid to do what is right. Again, it's a hard issue but a necessary one. Good questions/thoughts Gina!


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