(Audio version; Music: "With All I Am" by: WorshipMob; "How Will I Know" by: WorshipMob Adaptation)
Introduction
This has been somewhat of a sad week for me from a
spiritual perspective. I am still convinced that the Church is the light to a
world that is in desperate need of direction and hope. Jesus is Lord and Savior
and the Church must reflect His magnificence. However, many Christians, including many
pastors, believe that means accepting virtually any behavior just so people
will continue attending church all in the name of love. Well, I always
understood love as being the selfless act of seeking the best interest of
others above all else. How exactly does the acceptance of unbiblical behavior
in any way convey the message of love? Let me illustrate; my youngest daughter
is almost 23 and my oldest daughter is almost 25. I love them both with every
fiber of my being and I know my wife, Laura, does as well. However, there have
been times, and continue to be times, in each of their lives when we have had
to intervene in their lives and insist that they modify their behavior and/or
attitude. Those times were painful and difficult but they are now both such
amazing young women. If you think I'm trying to pat myself on the back you're
missing my point entirely. Instead, I share this with you because seeking the
best interest for another may in fact mean having a difficult conversation with
them or disciplining them.
Although this is an extremely difficult relational
dynamic that is often neglected within our homes, it has virtually been abandoned
in our churches today. I have only met one pastor, the one who inspired me to
pursue a life of ministry, who has had the courage to discipline a church
member. It was a beautifully loving act that brought about correction,
reconciliation and rehabilitation. Unfortunately, however, church discipline is
rarely if ever practiced in our churches. Most churches thrive on the message
of grace to the exclusion of virtually everything else. This particularly
practice isn’t exclusive to today’s mega-churches. The attitude is pervasive in
many other churches as well, irrespective of size. The thinking behind this
strategy is that it is far better for unrepentant sinners to attend church and
continue to hear the gospel message than for unrepentant sinners to be kept
outside the Church. Please hear what I’m saying, I’m not saying that sinners in
need of salvation should somehow “clean-up” before they come to church to hear
the gospel message. That would be foolish; the sick don't first get well before
they go to the hospital, they go to the hospital to get well! No, I’m talking
about those who have already accepted Christ as their savior and consider
themselves part of the Church yet knowingly sin without any intention to stop
their sinful behaviors or attitudes. Church leaders and confessing Christians
must be willing to draw a line in the sand established by the teaching of
Scripture when it comes to sinful behavior and attitudes and have the courage
to say, “This far and no farther!” If church leaders and confessing Christians
are unwilling to do so then it gives the impression to a watching world that we
are more concerned with money or being popular or that we have a serious
God-complex and think we are responsible for everyone’s salvation! How about
this; let God be responsible for salvation and we be responsible to be obedient
to what He tells us to do!
So what lit my fuse this week that has inspired this
particular teaching? Well There were a number of things but I will narrow it
down to just two. I live in what could be described as a very liberal area of
Colorado; politically, socially, morally and spiritually. Consequently, it is
not at all unusual to see a bumper sticker that spells out “COEXIST” using
various symbols representing the letters. Let me explain each letter in case
you are unfamiliar with this particular expression:
“C” Uses the symbol of Islam
“O” Uses the symbol of peace
“E” Uses the symbol for males/females
“X” Uses the symbol for Judaism
“I” Is dotted with the Wiccan Pentacle
“S” Uses the symbol for Confucianism
“T” Uses the symbol of the Cross for Christianity
The message advances the idea of harmonious and peaceful
equality of all peoples and equal validity of all faiths. A nice sentiment but
that’s not possible with Jesus! For example, what in the world would a Wiccan (witchcraft)
Pentacle, which is also the symbol for Satanism, have to do with the Cross of
Jesus; are you kidding me? It must be Jesus and nothing and no one else. If
that means speaking out against everything that presumes a position of equality
with Jesus then we must speak out. Sometimes that means strife and conflict but
that’s not necessarily unbiblical. Jesus must be the hill we are willing to die
on (Pay close attention to what I am saying here: Jesus as the Way, the Truth,
and the Life and the only way to heaven is a truth we must be willing to die for. However, unlike the death cult of
Islam, that belief is NEVER, EVER something we are permitted to kill someone
for who doesn’t believe that!). Remember that Jesus himself said that he did
not come to bring peace but the sword; it’s Jesus and only Jesus (Matt.
10:34-36) and that truth divides humanity like a sword! Certainly Christians
can all agree on that can’t we?
Well we can excuse the ignorance of an unbelieving world,
but recently, while driving home from work, I noticed on the car in front of me
plastered right next to a “COEXIST” sticker was the sticker from a very
popular, local “evangelical” church. That's what broke my heart! I’m not saying
this particular church has a duty to inspect the car of everyone in their
church and legislate who can or can't use their bumper sticker; that would be
ridiculous. However, I am familiar with this particular church’s ministry philosophy
and they are concerned primarily with getting people, including believers,
unbelievers and unrepentant sinners, through the doors and thereafter hope they
keep coming back every week to hear something that might somehow transform
their lives. I wonder what would happen if this church and others (and that
would be most others) would tell unrepentant sinners that they cannot return
until they are prepared to repent and seek forgiveness for their sins. I might
be wrong but my guess is the term “mega-church” would become an extinct
historical phenomenon as opposed to a present reality. In fact, I wonder how
many churches would be able to fill a living room let alone a sports arena as
some are in the habit of doing.
The other item that lit my fuse this week was the news
that a small local church has finally given in to the cultural pressure of the
homosexual community and started performing same-sex marriages and have
welcomed practicing homosexuals into their community of believers. I know both
of the pastors of the church fairly well and I know the theological education
they both received because we all graduated from the same seminary! Now, I can
tell you that I never missed a single class during all my years at seminary and
I was never taught that something that is clearly unbiblical can somehow be
acceptable to the Church just because the sinful, unbelieving culture
surrounding the Church says it must be accepted. I guarantee you that we learned
that the Church was to be the immoveable object against which a sinful culture
could smash itself but could never move. These pastors believed the lie that it
is more loving to accept sinful behavior than to expose it for what it is and
guide people to repentance. They believe that if they don’t accept sinful
behavior then people will stop attending their church and then they will have no
influence over their lives to hopefully correct their sinful behavior. Their
philosophy is that by accepting their sinful lives they are practicing the love
of Jesus and sinful people will somehow magically get the message that their
sinful lives are sinful. I can honestly say that I have lost count how many
times I have read the Bible but I can also honestly say that Jesus never, ever
demonstrated love by accepting sin. Shame on pastors who preach Christ
crucified yet openly accept sinful behavior in their churches in the name of
Jesus! That is such an insult to Jesus who paid for humanity’s sins with His
life! It grieves my heart to write those words but the truth is that shepherd’s
who close their eyes to unrepentant sin among their community of faith are
complicit in killing their sheep. Instead, it is high time that Christians, and
especially pastors, begin to practice some Tough
Love.
Subject Text
1
Corinthians 5:1-13
It is actually reported that there is sexual
immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A
man has his father’s wife. 2 And
you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put
out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in
spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if
I were present. 4 When
you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit,
and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may
be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is
not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of
dough? 7 Get rid of
the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For
Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old
yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the
bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I have written you
in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people
of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In
that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with
anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an
idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even
eat.
12 What
business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge
those inside? 13 God
will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”
Context
As always, it is important to place our Subject Text in its proper context.
Corinth was a major metropolitan city. It was an extremely influential trade
center and the most important city in the region. The church in Corinth was
established by Paul during his second journey through the area and consisted
primarily of Gentiles. The city was renowned for its idolatry and immorality.
It is within this context that Paul addresses a particular form of sexual
immorality within the Corinthian church.
Text Analysis
It is actually reported that there is sexual
immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A
man has his father’s wife.
We learn in v. 1
that there is a particularly serious case of sexual immorality within the
church that has come to Paul's attention; a man within the church is having a
sexual relationship with his mother (probably his step-mother, based on the
text, but that does not mitigate the affront that the sin creates). The force
of the Greek makes clear that this is more than a one-time event. Instead, this
particular relationship is ongoing. To make matters worse, incest was a sexual
immorality that was particularly heinous not only in Judaism, but according to
Paul, within the Greek culture as well. The Greeks who tolerated pretty much
everything thought this was heinous! Paul uses the Greek word porneia, from which the English word “pornography”
is derived, to identify this incident of sexual immorality. However, porneia is a general term that
encompasses any sexual immorality. “The word was picked up in Hellenistic
Judaism, always pejoratively, to cover all extramarital sins and aberrations,
including homosexuality.”[1]
“Sexual immorality” is a very broad biblical category that encompasses all
sex-based sins. Rather than trying to list them all, a good, basic biblical
definition of sexual immorality would be any sexual activity (including, but
not limited to, intercourse) outside the context of traditional marriage
between one man and one woman.
2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled
with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?
As bad as the sexual immorality was that Paul describes,
what really has Paul burning in v. 2
is the fact that no one in the church is doing anything about it. Not only that
but they are acting as though nothing has happened; as though grace now
mitigates all sin and makes it irrelevant. The Greek word translated by the NIV
as “pride” can also be translated as; “self-important,” “arrogant,” or “complacent.”
Paul insists that they should have been grieving for the one who had fallen
into sin not basking in their new-found graces. Paul then says something that is
at the heart of the message I’m trying to convey through this particular
teaching. Paul says that they should have removed the sinner from their fellowship.
“A formal state of mourning would stamp the life and worship of the church
objectively and publicly in a way which it would thereby make it intolerable
for the offender to remain, and would then in all probability have made his own
choice to leave (or to change his lifestyle). He would know that he blighted
the church's life.”[2] In
case those who read this part of Paul’s letter were not quite sure what he
meant by “removing this sinner from their fellowship,” he makes his point
perfectly clear later in this section of verses.
3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in
spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if
I were present. 4 When
you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit,
and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,
In vv. 3-4
Paul reiterates his authority to pass judgment on this follower even though he
is not present with them physically but is united with them in spirit/Spirit.
His point is not to be understood as saying that only he has the right to pass
judgment on this person because of his position but that he has done so where
they have failed to do so. “In a day when the church tolerates every kind of
sin, (‘because we who are sinners must not be judgmental’ {read: sarcasm}), the need for discipline within the context of the
Spirit’s power is perhaps greater than ever…The great problem with such
discipline in most Christian communities in the Western world is that one can
simply go down the street to another church. Not only does that say something
about the fragmented condition of the church at large, but it also says
something about those who would quickly welcome one who is under discipline in
another community.
Probably it should be added that if one were to be so
disciplined in our day, too often the person could ‘take it or leave it’ as far
as the church is concerned—and that probably says more about the condition of
the church itself than about the person who is dissociated. Maybe the most
significant thing we can learn from such a text is how far many of us are
removed from a view of the church in which the dynamic of the Spirit is so real
that exclusion could be a genuinely redemptive action.”[3]
5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may
be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
Paul’s point in v.
5 can be very confusing but is one of the two primary purposes behind
Paul's instruction to remove this particular sinner from their fellowship. What
does Paul mean when he says, “hand this man over to Satan?” It is doubtful that
Paul meant an actual physical act of delivering this person to Satan. Instead,
“The language means to turn him back out to Satan’s sphere. This does not mean
that Satan would not directly attack him in some way, but that is incidental to
the language, not its primary intent. In contrast to the gathered community of
believers who experience the Spirit and power of the Lord Jesus in edifying
gifts and loving concern for one another, this man is to be put back out into the
world, where Satan and his ‘principalities and powers’ still hold sway over
people’s lives to destroy them.”[4]
How, you might be asking, does being separated from the community of believers
help this man? Well, according to Paul, it serves the purpose of destroying the
man’s sinful nature and making it possible for him to be ultimately saved. “What
Paul was desiring by having this man put outside the believing community was
the destruction of what was ‘carnal’ in him, so that he might be saved ‘eschatalogically’...In
this case, as most often in Paul, ‘flesh’ and ‘spirit’ designate the whole
person as viewed from different angles. ‘Spirit’ means the whole person as
oriented towards God. ‘Flesh’ means the whole person as oriented away from God.
The ‘destruction’ of the sinful nature would thus belong to the same kind of
imagery as in ‘crucifying’ it (Gal. 5:24; cf. Rom. 7:5-6).”[5]
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little
yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch
without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been
sacrificed. 8 Therefore
let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and
wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
We find the second of the two primary purposes behind Paul’s
instruction to remove this sinner from their fellowship in vv. 6-8. This second purpose is to maintain the purity of their
community. Paul uses the illustration of yeast to make his point. Just as yeast
works its way into and throughout an entire batch of dough, so does immorality
work its way into and throughout an entire community of believers (v. 6). Let me illustrate Paul’s point by
using a more contemporary illustration. According to a recent Gallup poll,
nearly 80% of Americans profess to be Christians. However, 51% of Americans
approve of same-sex marriages. I may not be great at math but that represents a
significant number of professing Christians who approve of same-sex marriage!
How could this happen? I suspect that some small sexual immorality was
tolerated at some point and has now begun to work its way throughout the entire
believing community. Paul implores the church to remove the yeast (the sinful
man) so that they can be a fresh batch of dough without yeast (v. 7). Once the sinful man is removed,
they can then celebrate community without the contamination of this sinful man (v. 8).
9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with
sexually immoral people— 10 not
at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and
swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing you that
you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually
immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With
such a man do not even eat.
Vv. 9-11 Expand on what Paul intends when he instructs the church
to remove this man from their fellowship. We might think that this simply means
that he is no longer welcome at spiritual gatherings. But this would
necessarily imply that there is a distinction between the sacred and the
secular. This would never have been Paul’s understanding of life. Instead,
Paul’s instruction “not to associate with” means not, "To ‘mix up together’;
in the context of social intercourse it means [not] to ‘mingle with’ or ‘associate
with’ in a close way."[6]
The past tense grammatical context of vv.
9-10 would seem to imply that Paul had written them previously about either
this matter or a similar matter. Whatever the case may have been, Paul makes
his point crystal clear in v. 11
when he says that they are not to “associate with anyone who calls himself a
brother but is sexually immoral...” (along with a long list of other sinful
behaviors and attitudes). In fact, they are not to even share a meal with such
a person. It is quite clear that Paul is drawing a line in the sand that the
community of believers are to separate themselves in every way from this man.
It is, however, important to note that Paul is only speaking of disassociating
with believers who are unrepentant and not unbelievers who don’t know any
better. This is an important distinction and a matter of grace I will discuss
below.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the
church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from
among you.”
Paul wants to make sure in vv. 12-13 that it is understood that judgment for those outside the
Church is prosecuted differently than judgment inside the Church. “If people wonder
about those outside, outsiders do not escape responsibility for their
lifestyles; they have God as their judge, but it is not for the church to try
to impose its corporate house rules upon them. This does not imply that the
church should keep silent about what God has ordained for the welfare of
humanity. But it places its imposition of ‘rules of conduct’ for the internal
affairs of the church and the external affairs of the world on different
footing. Against the laissez-faire, consumerism culture of today, Paul asserts
that to become part of the Christian community is to explicitly place oneself
under the discipline of the Christian lifestyle.”[7]
Application
Recently, in one of my classes
(doctoral level classes mind you), a classmate and fellow pastor from
Hollywood, California described his struggle with practicing homosexuals in his
congregation. He was trying to decide what level of church leadership they
should be permitted to hold. His struggle was that he was torn between the fact
that homosexuality is clearly condemned as sinful in both the Old and New
Testaments and the fact that Jesus never specifically condemned homosexuality.
In fact, his struggle was magnified by Jesus’ command to not judge others. Let
me start with the matter of judgment. It seems fashionable these days to
protect a whole host of sins and particularly homosexuality by erecting a wall
around that sin called “non-judgmentalism” by using Jesus command not to judge
others found in Matthew 7:1. However, in the context of all the relevant verses
found in Matthew 7:1-6, Jesus is talking about our attitude in judging others
not that we shouldn’t judge others. Instead, we must always have our own sins
or our propensity to sin in view when we are dealing with the sins of others. It
is always more difficult to judge the sins of others if we are busy dealing
with our own. But it doesn’t mean we must remain absolutely silent about sin.
Furthermore, the absolute
prohibition against the judgment of sin is entirely inconsistent with Jesus’
overall mission to the world and His message to us as well—that mission and
message is forgiveness. We are called to forgive because we have been forgiven
(Col. 3:13). So let me ask you, what is inherently true about forgiveness? That
we have judged something to be wrong that necessitates forgiveness! We make
moral judgments every day of our lives—we judge lying to be wrong, we judge
abuse to be wrong, we judge abortion to be wrong, we judge terrorism to be
wrong, we judge tyranny to be wrong. We judge many destructive behaviors to be
wrong so let’s stop trying to hide our favorite sins within the manufactured
walls of “non-judgmentalism.”
Let me now say a few things about
those who struggle with biblical teaching that is clear throughout Scripture but
not specifically addressed by Jesus. This is where your theological doctrine of
the Trinity and the divine inspiration of the biblical authors converge. In
Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he writes that all Scripture is
“God-breathed.” That means that Jesus was a party to the writing of all the
Scriptures not just the biography of His life and ministry contained in the gospels.
Therefore, if Paul, or Peter, or James, or Jude, or any other biblical writer,
provide instruction about anything, including homosexuality, you can be
confident that Jesus would approve since Jesus, as a member of the Triune God,
inspired the teaching in the first place along with the Father and the
Spirit—the other two members of the Trinity. Remember that the Trinity
represents the model of perfect unity and agreement. That means that there is
nothing included in the Scriptures that is not stamp with Jesus’ inspiration
and approval.
What About Grace?
Some of you who have been reading this might have been
asking yourselves this question; where does grace fit in? Well that’s a great
question to ask in the context of discipline and love. Let me try and explain.
Grace is the hand that welcomes the unbeliever through the doors of the church
to hear the message of salvation. Grace prays diligently and waits patiently
for unbelievers to make a commitment to become followers of Christ. Grace
welcomes unbelievers to the community of faith through confession, repentance
and baptism. Grace is patient with mistakes and setbacks in the believer's life
of faith. Grace lovingly removes an unrepentant sinner from the community of
faith as an act of love for the unrepentant sinner and an act of love for those
who remain in the community of faith. Grace prays diligently and waits
patiently at the door for an unrepentant sinner to repent and return. Grace
welcomes an repentant sinner back to the community of faith through confession,
repentance and forgiveness. This is a picture of true Grace; this is a picture
of true Love!
Paul’s instruction to the church in Corinth and for us
today is not rooted in hatred for sinners. On the contrary, Paul’s instructions
are rooted in love for those who are still lost, for those who have become lost
and for the well-being of the Church overall. If we are to fulfill our mission
to go to all corners of the world to make disciples of all nations, it is
incumbent on us that we properly instruct the disciples we have already made.
Sometimes that’s difficult; sometimes that’s confrontational; sometimes that’s
painful; sometimes that requires Tough
Love. In the end, however, it will be worth it for those within the Church
and for those outside the Church as well. “A holy congregation, which
graciously cleans its own house to preserve its purity but which does not
expect the same standards of obedience from the unregenerate, can profoundly
impact an unholy world.”[8]
[1] Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The
New International Commentary on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI:
William B. Eerdman's Publishing, 1987), p. 200.
[2] Anthony Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The
New International Greek Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing, 2000) p. 388).
[3] Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians,
pp. 213-214.
[4] Ibid., p.
209.
[5] Ibid.,
p. 212.
[6] Ibid.,
p. 222.
[8] Craig L. Blomberg, 1 Corinthians, The NIV Application
Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), p. 115.
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