1 Corinthians [Season One]- 1 Cor. 5:1-13- Esther Guy: Dealing With Sin In The Church

Esther Guy walks us through the intricate structure of 1 Corinthians 5.

Transcript

Scripture Reading And Setup

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If you have a Bible or a device, open it to 1 Corinthians. This summer we are doing a series on 1 Corinthians, and today we are looking at chapter 5. So we'll be reading a few verses before 1 Corinthians 5, starting a few verses earlier, chapter 4, verse 18. Gonna wait for the rumble of the pages to stop a little bit. All right, here we go. Now some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you, but I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk, but the power of those who are arrogant. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power. What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod or in love and a spirit of gentleness? It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles. A man is sleeping with his father's wife, and you are arrogant. Shouldn't you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this? Even though I am absent in the body, I am present in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who has been doing such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus, hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, otherwise you would have to leave the world. But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy and an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don't you judge those who are inside? God judges outsiders. Remove the evil person from among you. The word of the Lord.

Corinth In Moral Chaos

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Not the happiest of passages. But here we go. So what was going on in the church at Corinth? Rather than being good and holy servants of Christ and stewards of the mystery of God, like what was preached about last week, the Corinthian church was in moral chaos. Michael Gorman wrote, for the people of Israel, ancient Jews and early Christians, in principle, if not always in practice, being God's holy people meant being set apart and distinctive. It meant in a limited but substantive way taking on the character of God. Holiness is what distinguishes the people of God from the not people of God. To be holy means to be a publicly identifiable people who embody God's very character in their particular social setting. But the Corinthians are not acting like a holy people. The Corinthians were going in the wrong direction, not towards Jesus in holiness and repentance, but away from Jesus in willful rebellion. And we see this in the sinful way of life of an individual, then in the sinful response of the church. So an individual, sinful way of life, chapter 5, verse 1 says, It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles. The NIV says, a kind that even pagans do not tolerate. A man is sleeping with his father's wife. It is unclear if the father was living or dead, and there are problems either way. And because it was his father's wife, it says his father's wife, the woman was likely his stepmother, and because the only the man was being called out and not the woman, the woman was probably not a believer. So she would have been considered outside of the church community. Now, we don't know all the details of the situation, but at the very least, this man was engaging in sexual immoral behavior that even the Corinthian society that was rife with sexual immorality would not have tolerated. And it is clear from the text that this was not just a one-time act, but an ongoing way of life. And if that wasn't bad enough, there was also the church's sinful response. Verse 2, and you are arrogant. Shouldn't you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this? The church's sinful response was that of arrogance and hypocrisy. We see their arrogance in the way that they did not grieve or lament the sin. Instead, we see in verse 6 that they boasted. Arrogance. And then how do we see their hypocrisy? The letter that we call 1 Corinthians is not actually the first letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthian church. That first letter has been lost to us, but we know about it because Paul referenced it in our passage today. The Corinthian church totally misunderstood Paul's first letter to them. And that shouldn't surprise us because even the apostle Peter wrote that Paul's letters are hard to understand. So in 1 Corinthians 5, 9 to 11, Paul clarified for them what he was saying in that first letter. He said, I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters, otherwise you would have to leave the world. But actually, I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. So we see their hypocrisy and how they kept fellowship with the unrepentant person who claimed to be a follower of Jesus. He's a Christian, he's one of us, he's fine. While at the same time, they were judging those who weren't followers of Jesus for not acting like they were followers of Jesus. Isn't it so easy, so tempting to point our fingers to the people out there, outside of the church, and judge them for the things that they do while at the same time ignoring and excusing our own sins. There was a sinful way of life of the individual, then there was a sinful response of the church. Yes, sexual immorality was a grave sin that was present in the Corinthian church along with other serious sins. But the reason those sins were able to fester was because of the church's arrogance and hypocrisy. So that was the state of the church in Corinth. So

Why Paul Frames It As Holy

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now what was Paul's message to the Corinthian church, and what can we learn from that? 1 Corinthians 5 is a chiasm. I get to nerd out. I'm so excited. A chiasm is a form or a structure where a series of ideas are presented, often leading to the main thrust of the passage. Then from that main thrust, that sequence of ideas are presented again in reverse order. And that form is a mirror image and a powerful rhetorical tool. So, to help us understand Paul's message to the Corinthian church in this chapter and what we can learn from that, we're going to start in the central axis of the chiasm, the main thrust, and then we're gonna work our way out. You ready? Here we go. The main thrust of this chapter is in the second part of 1 Corinthians 5, 7. For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. If you read straight through 1 Corinthians 5, without the context of the chapters that led up to it, which we shouldn't do, we should always read within the context, this statement feels a little out of place. But we know from everything that came before that Jesus and what he did on the cross is the whole point, the whole thrust of our mirror, of our message and every part of our lives. Christ is our Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed. This is a reference to the Jewish festival Jesus was celebrating with his disciples on the night when he was betrayed and arrested the night before he was crucified. The Passover feast was a remembrance of a key moment when God liberated his people from slavery in Egypt. And it was a story that was to be passed down from generation to generation so it could be retold year after year. Whether you grew up in church or watched The Prince of Egypt, you know the story. The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt, and Pharaoh had so much fear and contempt for the Hebrew people that he ordered that every son born to the Hebrews be killed. But Pharaoh underestimated the girls. And through women, including the daughter of Pharaoh, God saved a boy named Moses and later sent him to deliver his people from slavery. Moses said to Pharaoh, Let my people go, and Pharaoh said, No. And each time that happened, God sent a plague to show Pharaoh that Yahweh was more powerful than the gods of Egypt. And the tenth time this happened, God told Moses in Exodus 11, I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that he will let you go from here. About midnight I will go throughout Egypt, and every firstborn male in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl who is at the grindstones, as well as every firstborn of the livestock. Then there will be a great cry of anguish through all the land of Egypt, such as never was before or ever will be again. But against all the Israelites, whether people or animals, not even a dog will snarl, so that you may know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel. By the way, to strike only the firstborn was a mercy in light of Pharaoh's slaughter of every son to be born to the Hebrews years before. So God then gave Moses instructions for what the people of Israel were to do that night. They were to kill an unblemished animal and use that animal for a feast. And he said, They must take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses where they eat them. I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and strike every firstborn male in the land of Egypt, both people and animals. I am the Lord, I will execute judgments against all the gods of Egypt. The blood on the houses where you are staying will be a distinguishing mark for you. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. Jesus is our unblemished Passover lamb who is sacrificed on the cross for humanity. Someone once told me, I feel like when God sees me, all he sees is sin. Is that true? And the answer is no. For those of us who are in Christ, God sees the blood of Jesus. And because of the blood of Jesus, our Passover Lamb, we have new life in him. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed to forgive us of our sins and save our souls, to mark us as a people who are set apart, who are continually being transformed and sanctified, made holy by the Holy Spirit, to liberate those who are enslaved in whatever form of enslavement, to bring redemption, justice, and healing to every part of humanity and creation that has been touched by sin and death, and to make it possible for us to observe the feast, to live in communication communion with him and his people. In light of all of that, to live as though Jesus did nothing makes no sense. It is a mockery of Christ, our Passover Lamb, and his sacrifice for us to continue in willful unrepentance, arrogance, and hypocrisy. If we are followers of Christ, the Passover Lamb, who has been sacrificed, then we as individuals and a community should reflect that. Not only in our words, but also in our lives. Let's move to the next part of the chiasm.

Christ Our Passover Lamb

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1 Corinthians 5, 6 to 7. Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. And then we have the main thrust for Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Do we have anyone here who makes bread? Oh, we've got some! Yay! Notice I did not raise my hand. Yes, I that's so cool. When Paul talks about leaven in this passage, he's not talking about yeast, that ingredient that makes dough rise. He's talking about starter. When they would make a loaf of bread, they would cut off a little bit of the dough and save it to be starter for the next loaf of bread. And they would do that over and over and over again. But over time, bacteria would be growing in that starter, which could eventually become toxic. So every Passover they would clean out the old leaven, get rid of their starter, and bake a fresh loaf with a whole new dough. And that's what he meant by a new unleavened batch. I love that when Paul wrote, clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new unleavened batch, he didn't stop there. He said, A new unleavened batch, as indeed you are. He was saying, This is who you are in Christ because of what he accomplished for you on the cross and what the Spirit is continuing to do in you. So become who you already are. And in order to do that, you need to deal with your sin. The sin, the bad stuff that's in the leaven, it's growing bigger and more toxic over time. And if we say, let's just leave it alone and eventually it'll go away, it's not going to go away. The problems will grow and fester, and it will damage our relationship with God and others. It will damage our souls and it will damage our witness. We live in a hyper-individualistic society, and that hyper-individualism has seeped into the fabric of the Western church. And that causes us to be ignorant of the ways our sins impact and influence others, and the ways the sins of others impact and influence us. And Paul was saying to the Corinthian church, hey, the sexual immorality of that individual is toxic for the whole community. Your tolerance of that sin and refusal to deal with it will corrupt the culture of this church, of people who should be marked by holiness. We often think of holiness as doing a good job at following a list of things we should do and not do. That's definitely many people's paradigm for holiness. But when our paradigm for holiness is Jesus Himself, his life, death, and resurrection, not a list, but a person who walked among people, who said that the summation of the law is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, then we begin to realize that a list of do's and don'ts is insufficient for expressing how holiness is embodied by individuals living amongst one another in our families, in our church, in our communities. Sexual immorality, along with every other sin that Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 5.11, is social in nature. Sexual immoral, greedy, idolater, verbally abusive, drunkard, swindler. When sin is not dealt with, people are harmed. We in the American church have much to grieve. 1 Corinthians 5.8. Therefore let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. What would it look like for us to be people of sincerity, purity of motive in Princeton, New Jersey, and beyond? As I minister to students at Princeton University, I see the ways that their education and environment is discipling them to be motivated by greed and ambition. What would it look like for them and for each one of us if our motives were ordered by fixing our gaze on Jesus, not using him as a mascot to sanctify whatever it is that we want, but looking to Christ, our Passover Lamb, to sanctify us as we live and work in the places he has called us to? And what would it look like for us to be people of truth? To have the courage to allow the Holy Spirit to shine light on our sins as individuals and as a community, to not look away from our sins or excuse them or deflect by saying, But look at the sins of the people out there. What would it look like? What healing and redemption and restoration and justice could be possible if the church could commit to being people of truth. Ecclesia, we cannot fix the American church or the Western church, but we can choose as a church body to be people of sincerity and truth. Let's keep going.

Leaven, Holiness, Sincerity, Truth

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First Corinthians 5, 3 to 5. Even though I am absent in the body, I am present in spirit, as one who is present with you in this way. I have already pronounced judgment on the one who has been doing such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I am with you in spirit and with the power of our Lord Jesus, hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. And then 1 Corinthians 9 to 13. I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters. Otherwise you would have to leave the world. But actually I wrote you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister and is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don't judge those who are don't you judge those who are inside? God judges outsiders. The ESV translates verses 12 to 13 as, for what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Now, verse 5 uses some intense language that we're gonna need to untangle for our 21st century minds. So we're gonna just set that one aside for a minute and come back to it later. But for now, the part of the chiasm, this part of the chiasm makes us ask two uncomfortable questions. Who are we to judge and who are we to associate and fellowship with? Who are we to judge? When we think about judging, what probably comes to mind is Matthew 7 1. Do not judge or you too will be judged. And people often quote that to say, you can't judge anybody for any reason ever. Um, but there is a right place for making judgment. So let's look at what Jesus said in Matthew 7 1 to 5. Do not judge, or you too will be judged, for in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the Speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye. How can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite. First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Jesus was saying we start by looking at ourselves and judging our own sin and dealing with it. Then when we have dealt with our own sins, then we'll be able to help our brothers and sisters. So coming back to 1 Corinthians 5, who did Paul say those in the church of Corinth were to judge? Those who were inside the church. He wasn't talking about church membership or attendance. He was talking about the communal life of the people who were followers of Jesus, a community that was supposed to embody God's character to the world and to help everyone in that community to continue in faith amidst the temptation and persecution around them. It was vital to their survival that they tend to the health of this community. And in order for them to do that, they had to deal with sin when it arose, which required that they make judgments about the people within their community. Not to be judgmental with a critical spirit. Boy, do we have enough of that. But rather to be full of the love of Christ as they encourage our brothers and sisters in the faith. The purpose of judging is not to feel good about ourselves or to elevate ourselves above others or to justify demonizing those we view as enemies. I want to make it clear that judging those inside the church is not a justification for despising or tearing down our brothers and sisters in Christ who are hurting or who are struggling as they actually actively walk the road of repentance. And because I have seen too much, when someone sees sin and harm in the body of Christ, and in love and humility they draw attention to it, they are not being divisive. It is those who continue to walk in unrepentance and those who choose to look away who are dividing the church. I have no desire to recount all the stories that have compelled me to say what I just said, but I will say that I have shared some of them with our pastor, because he is my pastor. And he once said to me, Esther, if I do or say anything that is not okay, I want you to tell me, I want you to call me out. And Ecclesia, I want you to know that first of all, I have not had reason to take him up on that offer. And secondly, this message that I am preaching today is not a critique of this church body, but rather an affirmation of its leadership and an encouragement for us as a body to keep leaning into the transformative work God is already doing among us. The purpose of judging those who are inside the church is to deal with the things that are keeping us stuck in immaturity, harming our community, and eroding our witness. And when done right, it paves the way for repentance, healing, and shalom. What about those outside the church? It's God's job, not ours, to judge those who are outside, those who are not in Christ. Until someone chooses to begin following Jesus, we cannot expect them to act like they are in Christ. So judging non-Christians for acting like non-Christians just doesn't make sense. So we judge those who are inside the church and leave it to God to judge those who are outside the church. So what is our responsibility to those outside the body of Christ? We are to live and preach the gospel. We are to love them and point them to Jesus. Another purpose of those within the church body, judging those who are inside it so we can make choices about the kind of people we associate with and fellowship with. Paul made it clear that we're not supposed to cut non-Christians out of our lives for acting like non-Christians. If we do that, then we cannot be salt and light in our communities and people will miss out on hearing the gospel and coming to Jesus. But Paul had strong words concerning people who claimed to be Christians, but were living in willful rebellion and unrepentance. He said in 1 Corinthians 5, 11 that they were not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother and sister and is, and then he lists a bunch of sins. Do not even eat with such a person. Why? Because a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough. Am I saying we need to be quick to cut people out of our lives? No. But we need to have discernment about those we allow to influence and shape us, those we admire and seek to emulate, those we platform and celebrate. Alright, one last part in the chiasm.

Judging Inside The Church

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1 Corinthians 5, 1 to 2. There is among it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you. And the kind of sexual immorality that is not even tolerated among the Gentiles. A man is sleeping with his father's wife, and you are arrogant. Shouldn't you be filled with grief and remove from your congregation the one who did this? And then 1 Corinthians 5.13, the last part, remove the evil person from among you. And then the verse that we said we'd come back to, 1 Corinthians 5.5. Hand that one over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Handing them over to Satan wasn't about discarding a person and closing them off from opportunities to repent. And talking about the destruction of the flesh wasn't talking about any sort of physical harm, but rather the metaphor of the flesh that Paul often used to refer to our sin nature. This statement was about recognizing that the person was already living as though they were not in Christ. They were living in willful opposition to God. On that note, a quick word on excommunication. The church has a dark history of abusing this practice. Tara Lee Koble wrote, Paul tells the church how to respond to those in the church who actively rebel against God's call for sexual integrity. Not those who struggle to obey, but those who refuse. There's a big difference. Rebellion and repentance move in opposing directions when it comes to sin. There is no such thing as standing still. They're supposed to judge those in the church. He doesn't mean the church takes the place of God as final judge, determining the destination of that person's soul. He's saying to act as fruit inspectors and spade callers. If a Christ follower is in blatant rebellion against God, address it. If they continue to rebel, deliver them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Why? So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. This is intended to bring repentance by letting them hit rock bottom. Restoration is always the goal. All this to say, Paul was not advocating for us to emulate the Spanish Inquisition. And if you have genuine questions about excommunication, I am sure that Pastor Ian would love to answer those questions for you. So I want us to look at one more phrase.

Lament, Repentance, Loving The Church

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When we see sin in ourselves or in the church, our first response should be grief. And throughout scripture, we see that the healthy expression of grief is lament. Lamenting is being fully honest with God, giving voice to our grief while telling the truth about the way things are and the way they should be. It is when we fail to lament that we become judgmental of those we are not authorized to judge, and we ignore the things that God has given us the responsibility to deal with. But when we lament, we open up pathways for repentance and healing. So to sum up this whole chapter, because Jesus is our Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed, we can be a people of sincerity and truth, among whom there can be repentance and healing. What is God saying to us here in Ecclesia today? When I preach, I like to tell stories, especially personal ones, but for this particular sermon, I had a hard time choosing a story to tell. Not because I could not think of a good example of the church harshly judging sins of those outside while ignoring sins inside, but because I have far too many. My heart grieves for the church, the big sea church that extends far beyond Ecclesia. We are a mess. Before my husband and I moved here a couple years ago, we were college pastors in Missouri, and every summer we did something called summer sessions. We'd gather throughout the summer to talk about hard topics that were difficult to discuss in a sermon. And we would open up space for people to ask questions and process together. And several years ago, we had so many conversations with students and young adults who were disillusioned by the American church for good reasons and they were struggling to stay. They say things like, I love Jesus, but I can't stand Christians, or I love Jesus, but I want nothing to do with the church. So that summer we led a series of conversations called Loving the Church Even When It's Hard To. And in all of our years of doing summer sessions, that one had the largest attendance. And the stories that were shared that summer were heartbreaking. Jesus loves the church. How do I know that? Because Scripture calls the church his bride. We are to love the church because Jesus loves the church. And the church is made up of all of our sisters and brothers in Christ. And in that love for the church, we do not close our eyes to the way she is impacted by sin, both as victim and perpetrator. Just as we all are, we all sin and we've all been sinned against. Where there is sin, we make repentance possible. Where people are sinned against, we make healing possible. Here at Ecclesia, I know that there are people who have our own stories of pain and disillusionment with the church. Many of us have heard the statement, the church didn't hurt you, people hurt you. First of all, that is bad ecclesiology, bad theology of the church. The church is not the building or the institution, the church is the people. Second of all, statements like that may have a spiritual ring to them, but they don't capture the love and compassion of the good shepherd who, according to Ezekiel 34, seeks the lost, brings back the strays, bandages the injured, and strengthens the weak. He is our Passover Lamb who is sacrificed to forgive us of our sins and also to heal us of the wounds that were inflicted on us by the sins of others. So here is the invitation for us today. First, let's fix our eyes on Jesus, our Passover Lamb. Second, let's examine our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to bring to light and reveal to us every bit of sin, arrogance, and hypocrisy that is in us. In every way we rush to point fingers at the sins of people out there while refusing to take an honest look at the sins right here in our own lives and our church body. Third, let's lament the ways we as individuals and as the church have sinned and been sinned against. And finally, let's walk in repentance, both individually and communally, so we may fully be who we already are in Christ. Lord, have your way in us. Transform us. We surrender to you, Lord.