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."
(1 Corinthians 5:1-13 NIV)
The situation in the church in Corinth was simple. There was a man who was living in an immoral way with his stepmother, his father’s wife. And Paul, hearing of this and seeing the gravity of the sin that it was, is absolutely shocked that they were not only tolerating that kind of behavior but were even congratulating themselves on how tolerant they were.
They thought that by overlooking sin they somehow were being broad, inclusive and tolerant. They thought it was a wonderful thing that the love of God is broad enough even to accept people living in that kind of sinful lifestyle. Paul didn’t think so. As a matter of fact, in this passage of scripture Paul gives perhaps as sharp a rebuke to them as he does to anyone in all of his letters. Basically he is throwing up his hands and saying, "What’s wrong with you people in Corinth who claim to be followers of the Holy God, that you would allow the testimony of Jesus Christ and the reputation of the church to be drug through the mud because you’re unwilling to deal with sin. I’ll tell you what you ought to do. Kick the guy out!"
Do you struggle with that? Does that seem harsh to you? What would happen today if we took that strong a stand against sin? What would be the impression of those around us? Would it be that we were legalistic? That we were unloving? That we were not tolerant and accepting and forgiving? Probably so. I’m sure many people would feel that way–– especially the one who was the object of the church discipline.
Other things may happen today, such as being sued in a secular court of law. And I suspect that there are some churches that are very afraid of dealing with real problems in this manner because of the legal threat.
But it’s clear from the context that Paul expected the church in Corinth to rise up and deal with the situation in their midst. And there are a number of important reasons why we, as the church of Jesus Christ in our culture, need to be more serious about the sinful lifestyles we will allow to continue in our midst without such church discipline. We need to recover a sense of accountability in the church for a number of important reasons.
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. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief… (5:1-2a)
We need to recover accountability because sin is deadly. People in the world today make fun of sin but Paul thought they should be filled with grief instead. They should be filled with grief because of what this kind of behavior will do to the people in whose lives it exists. Most people don’t really believe that sin is as deadly as it is and that it causes as much harm as it does. God knows different. He knows the impact, the consequence of sin in people’s lives. He knows that it’s like a cancer eating away at the very fabric of our character, at the very heart of who we are as Christians. If left unchecked, it will do as deadly a job as the most virulent form of cancer today. It will kill you spiritually. It will destroy your integrity. It will destroy your witness, your reputation. It will destroy your family. It will impact, not just you, but literally hundreds of people who know you. There is no kind of sin that doesn’t hurt everyone around you. If you are hurt, lots of people are hurt. It impacts us all.
And because life is not a game, God takes sin seriously. You know how seriously he takes it? He takes it seriously enough that he would send Jesus Christ to come and die on a cross so that you could receive forgiveness. Sin is not just something to be overlooked, ignored. Sin has to be dealt with. A penalty must be exacted and that’s what Jesus paid on the Cross, the penalty for your sin. He died there because of his great love for you, so that you could be forgiven.
Why did he forgive you? So that you could rake all of that sin off of the plate and have room for more? No. He came to die to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so that we could live for him–– so we could be a walking and talking testimony of what it means for God to impact a human life. God want us to be a picture of the transformational change that occurs when the Spirit of God comes and indwells a human being.
And we need to recover this idea of accountability because purity is so vitally important in the life of a Christian. Becoming accountable will encourage us to be pure and stay pure. It will keep us from the damaging effects of sin in our lives.
We all struggle with sin. Let me make it clear what we’re talking about here. We are not talking about throwing out anyone who commits any kind of sin and only receiving people who are perfect. If that were the case, we would all be thrown out. No one in this room, including me, is anywhere close to perfect. All of us struggle with sin. And all of us sin. What we are talking about is unrepentant, persistent, grievous sin that exists in the church. And the accountability we need to have with one another is to hold each other accountable to live like we ought to live.
Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 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. 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, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. (5:2b-5)
The second reason why we need to desperately need to recover accountability is because people need to live right. And the whole object of the church discipline Paul commands was so that this man could recover himself and perhaps be spared a horrible fate.
What does it mean to turn him over to Satan? That sounds pretty bad doesn’t it? Well it is! But he’s not saying turn him over to Satan so Satan can take him to Hell. He says turn him over to Satan so that his sinful nature can be dealt with and so he will be saved in the end. What he’s saying is simply this. If this guy persists in his sin and doesn’t respond or repent, then put him out of the fellowship and have nothing to do with him. Let him see the full end of his chosen course. In other words, quit propping him up, quit encouraging him. When he falls, quit lifting him up. If he won’t repent, then let him fall and lie there. Let him hit the wall. Quit putting the mattress between him and the wall. Let him see what it’s like to exist outside of the Christian community–– outside of the fellowship of the brothers and sisters in Christ who love him. Let him see what it’s like to live with Satan for a while.
Perhaps one of two things will happen. One, he’ll hit the wall and find out how hard it is and come to himself, like the Prodigal Son did. And why did the Prodigal Son come to himself? He came to himself because when he got himself into a bad situation his daddy wasn’t sending him money to subsidize his sinful lifestyle. He realized how bad the choice was he had made. His dad did not become an enabler for the sinful lifestyle. The son suffered the consequences of his sin. That can be a needed revelation for some.
The Bible tells us that the object of accountability and discipline is restoration. In Matthew 18 we find the Biblical method for dealing with those who are in a sinful situation. It’s also the Biblical method for resolving interpersonal conflict within the church.
"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. (Matthew 18:15-17 NIV)
The first step in dealing with the conflict is to deal with it in private first. It is not to discuss it, to gossip about it, or to publish it, but to privately go and see if the person will not see the error of his or her ways and repent. "If he listens to you, you have won your brother over."
"But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." The next step is that you bring a few more with you. You draw on the wisdom of others. Hopefully, they can clarify the issues and help everyone to see them in the right way. If this doesn’t work, then you must go to step three.
"If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. If he refuses to hear, then it comes to the church and becomes public and the church has to deal with it. If the church judges that this indeed is a wrong lifestyle for which the person needs to repent, and if the person refuses to repent the recourse is to put the person out of the fellowship and treat him or her like an unbeliever.
But the goal is restoration. It is all through this passage in Matthew 18. Deal in private first. There is no need for exposure. Only broaden the circle if there is no response. Even if all else fails, the disciple of expulsion is designed to wake the person up and restore them. The whole reason is to let them know that sin is not to be trifled with, that sin is a serious matter. We hold people accountable because they need to live right.
Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 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. 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. (5:6-8)
The third reason we need to recover accountability is because, when we do not, the church is polluted by the sin. When we allow and tolerate ongoing perpetual sinful behavior, then we destroy our own effectiveness, witness and reputation. Worse than that, we allow something to begin to work within us that will eventually destroy the harmony and fellowship of the local church.
He uses the illustration of the power of a little yeast to permeate a large batch of dough. In other words, if you allow this to spread as yeast or as cancer, as it were, you are heading for disaster as a church. It’s going to eat you up from within! You see, when we do not recover true Biblical accountability and church discipline, the church is polluted and our effectiveness is destroyed.
When those who do not know Jesus look at the church, what do they see? Do they see a place that reflects the teachings of Jesus? Do they see a place where people live out what they say they believe? Do they see love and mercy, purity and holiness? Or do they see the same sinful stuff that they see everywhere else in the world?
As a representative of Jesus Christ, we need to take the lifestyles of those in the church seriously. We need to hold one another accountable to live right so the church shines as a light in darkness, and doesn’t become part of that darkness.
I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—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. 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. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you." (5:9-13)
But you know the biggest reason why we need to recover accountability? It’s not just because sin is deadly, although that’s a wonderful reason. It’s not just because people need to live right, although they need to. It’s not just because the church is going to be negatively impacted. It’s because people need Jesus.
Paul is saying the focus here is not on those people in the world who live like sinners. The reason they live like sinners is because they don’t know Jesus. You can’t expect people who don’t know Christ, to live like they do know Christ. And if you back off of those people you are withdrawing yourself from the very people that you need to be reaching for Christ.
But you can’t reach them if you refuse to deal with the people in the fellowship who are destroying the effective witness of the church. You have to deal with the internal problems if you expect to reach people with the message of Christ. Otherwise they’re going to look at you and conclude that Jesus has made no difference in your life.
When the world sees that our relationship with God actually makes us different people, holy people, honest people, people with integrity, people with love, grace, forgiveness, patience, and joy, they will sit up and take notice. But if they see swindlers, idolaters, drunkards, people who cheat in business, people who sleep around on their husbands and wives, they’re going to look at us and say, "I don’t want any of that. I’ve already got that. Give me something that counts."
People are looking for people who stand for something. Do you love Jesus enough to say, "Pastor, I’m going to be accountable. If you see something in my life, talk to me about it. And I will assume God sent you. And even if it’s something I don’t want to hear, I will listen to you. I will pray about it. I will change whatever it is if I need to. I won’t leave the church. And I will be different. I want to be different because people need to see Jesus in me. I want to be different because people need the Lord."
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