Year 2, Week 43, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 43, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of 1 Corinthians 5-7.

Today’s reading continues the Book of 1 Corinthians. Paul helped start the church at Corinth while on his second missionary journey. The Book of 1 Corinthians consists of Paul’s response to reports about the church there: “For it has been reported to me” (1Corinthians 1:11); but also in response to a letter that the church had written to him: “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote” (1 Corinthians 7:1a). 1 Corinthians 5 is Paul’s instructions concerning a second matter that has been reported to him: “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife…Let him who has done this be removed from among you” (1 Corinthians 5:1-2). The church was to gather and take action to remove the unrepentant professing believer from their assembly. 1 Corinthians 6 addresses reports that Paul has received about believers taking fellow believers to courts governed by unbelievers, as well as reports on sexual immorality, by reminding believers of what the Gospel has accomplished: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God…Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:11,19-20). 1 Corinthians 7 is the shift from the reports that Paul has received about the church at Corinth to the questions that the church had requested an answer from Paul: “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband” (1 Corinthians 7:1-2).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was Paul’s instructions and rationale for corrective church discipline: “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 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” (1 Corinthians 5:4-5). The church was arrogantly tolerating incest—a man was having sex with his father’s wife (possibly the man’s stepmother). The church was tolerating a sin that even their own culture thought repugnant. The church turned a blind eye to this person’s sin for reasons that are not clear. Paul rebukes the Corinthians and commands them to correct their errors. Paul directed the church to immediately “deliver this man to Satan.” By removing an unrepentant professing believer from that church, the local church is delivering a person to Satan. Such a person is no longer under a layer of spiritual protection provided to the church. The intent of formally removing an unrepentant professing believer from the church is twofold: “for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” As God’s dwelling place by the Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 3:16–17), the church protects its members from Satan’s sphere; but when a church can no longer affirm that a professing believer is a genuine believer, it must return that person to Satan’s sphere. Ideally, removal is ultimately remedial: it has a specific result (destroying that person’s sinful nature—such that the incestuous man will repent of his sexual immorality) and a specific purpose (so that God will save him). Thus, the ultimate desire guiding the church’s action is to see repentance and restoration.

Paul continues his discussion on corrective church discipline by pointing out the negative consequences that unfold when a church refuses to follow his instructions: “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). Leaven, like yeast, affects the whole batch of dough. It takes only a little bit of leaven to ferment and cause to rise the whole lump of dough. Perhaps their boasting was on how tolerant they were to tolerate the blatant ongoing sin of a professing believer. But they were tolerating unrepentant sexual immorality, which would ruin the whole church’s purity and undermine the purifying work of Jesus. Thus they “really are unleavened,” and therefore the leaven should be removed.

Paul clarifies exactly who should be removed: "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). Paul does not mean that believers must not associate with unbelievers; but that believers must not closely associated with unrepentantly sinful people who profess to be believers. Further, Paul sets these guidelines not just for sexual immorality, but also other public sins as well—such as (though not restricted to): “the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters…reviler, drunkard, or swindler."

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe