1 Corinthians, Chapter 5
© Copyright
2002 Darroll Evans, all rights reserved
Paul begins this section by scolding the
Corinthians in manner that is not used any with any other Church. Bad news travels fast! Them news of this
Church moved at light speed! It was
reported as common knowledge that the Church was condoning sexual
immorality. Pagan societies considered
that sin so vulgar that even the heathen Gentiles did not practice that form of
sexual immorality.
It is said by some that God cannot "look
on sin." That teaching comes from Habbakkuk 1:13a---"Thou art
of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity [gross
sin]" (KJV). However, the phrase
"canst not look upon" is an idiom. It means that God "cannot
condone" sin. God looks on sin
every moment of every day when he looks on the earth. He saw your sins before
he called you to His Son Christ Jesus. He called you "in" your sins
and then, through Christ Jesus, cleansed you "from" your sins. The sexual sin among the Corinthians was
fornication between a son and his stepmother. Even today it is not condoned by
our vulgar, sin filled, heathen societies.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians---Are you so
puffed up, so arrogant that you can so easily over look this matter? It should
bring you to tears! The one that has done this should be "removed
from" fellowship. However, as we
shall see later in Second Corinthians, Paul is not talking about the ungodly
practice of excommunication. He was recommending a form of discipline.
Though Paul was not on the scene, he had
spiritually judged the situation. Every drug dealer in your hometown knows one
portion of Scripture, "Judge not."
Every crook trying to distort Christianity uses, "Judge not".
We are well within our Christian rights and responsibilities to judge
situations, and this situation was rotten to the core!
Paul’s remedy seems harsh, but it was in the
best long-term interest of the offender. It was to deliver the young man to
Satan so that his offending flesh might be destroyed. But in doing that, his
spirit would be saved. That was Paul’s
way of dealing with common everyday works of the flesh that had brought on this
situation.
Galatians 5:19-21a
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath,
selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; (NKJV)
Satan does not need to work hard to make us
fall into sin. We can quite readily get there on our own!
The Corinthians were actually glorying in,
rejoicing in and/or boasting about this situation. Talk about the lowest common
denominator! Just a little sin goes a
long way! Adam had only one sin when he was tossed out of the garden. Let me
give you my version of Paul’s further advice. "Clean up your act!"
That is not a literal translation.
I would not have slit verses 7 and 8 in the
usual manner. Seven (b) should be part of verse eight. Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven
of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul loudly proclaims that Christ is our Passover! He has been sacrificed for
us. Because Christ is our Passover, we
should observe it. That teaching is far from most Church teachings. Almost all Churches observe Easter, but how
many observe Passover? Due to anti-Semitism in the early Church Passover had
been passed over as a Holy Day. Christ’s death and crucifixion focuses on the
Passover.
Paul told the Corinthians not to associate
with fornicators (i.e. sexually immoral people). However, he adds a condition
to that. In advising them not associate
with the sexually immoral, Paul clarified his statement. Paul was not telling
them to limit their non-Church associations. That is impractical and would kill
any evangelical effort.
However, there are crooks within the Church.
The Roman Church has gone through a period in which far too many leaders were
found to be sexual predator priests and/or suffered from pedophilia.
Because they are pretenders and not true brothers we are not to associate with
them. Pedophilia may be a scourge on the
Roman Church worldwide, but due to the
Then Paul says something that most pass by
quickly. He says, "for then must ye needs go out of the world."
Apparently Paul considered leaving the Earth was not an option or the plan of
God.
Paul goes on to say that if a
"brother" is open sin we should not keep company with him. Those that
use the freedom of Christ as license to live as they please in sin are not
actual brothers-in-Christ. They are pretenders! They are
pseudo-Christians! Paul gives us a
partial list of pretenders. Please keep in mind that, be they Presidents
or Popes, those who live in habitual sin do not belong to Christ. Repentance is a sign of a Christian. Habitual
sin is the sign of an unrepentant heart!
In Verses twelve and thirteen, Paul makes
something very clear that Satan has tried to pervert for centuries. Christians
are not to judge those outside the Church. However, if any person comes among
us claiming to be a brother or sister we have the right and responsibility to
judge them.
If God has chosen us, He shall cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we not in the cleansing process, we are none of
His and should not receive the blessings of the Church. I know of one man that was living in open
fornication. He came forward to be accepted into the Church. The Church
received him that night. After the service, he went back to his home and his
open fornication. Later he was baptized, got up out of the water and went back
to his sin without any sign of repentance.
When the woman was caught in adultery, Christ
told her to go and "sin nor more." He did not say,
"Just go back to your old life."
Another Church had leaders that were
divorced. They wanted to remarry, but the Pastor refused to perform the
ceremony. No problem! They fired the Pastor! The newly appointed pastor got the
message, if he wanted a job---do what we want.
Paul ends this chapter by saying,
"Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person." Will
the Church be strong enough to put away sin from the camp of God?