1 Corinthians 5:1-13

When things happen in the church that mirror sinful practices in the world it is a scandal. But when things occur in the churches that are worse than what people read in the gutter press it beggars belief. In this highly charged, charismatic, spiritually gifted church in Corinth, there was an unchecked case of incest (1); and there just wasn’t the response from the believers that it warranted (2). There are behaviours that should break our hearts and cause us to take the sackcloth and ashes out of the wardrobe (metaphorically speaking.) Certain conduct, if persisted in and not repented of, demands excommunication. Like in any family, there has to be discipline. The ‘children’ of God must not get way with unrepented immorality. Paul was clear about the approach required in this situation where: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. The Message. The man should be put out of the fellowship (2-4).  That will mean being ostracised by his fellow- Christians (9-13). Admittedly, this will appear callous and cruel to many on the outside looking in. But it is actually a loving thing to do. It will hurt, just like it causes loving parents pain to chastise their children. But it has to be done for their good.

The phrase in (5) about handing him over to Satan is thought to be another way of saying that he should be put outside the protective fellowship of the Christian church. Through the sickness and suffering Satan may cause the hope is that the man will become repentant and saved (Prov.23:14) There are two clear reasons for expelling someone from the Christian congregation: a.) to purify the church, which is God’s holy temple (1 Cor.3:16, 17). The yeast will spread through the whole church if not dealt with (6-8): You pass it off as a small thing, but it’s anything but that. Yeast, too, is a ‘’small thing’’, but it works it through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast. So get rid of this ‘’yeast’’. The Message;  b.) to bring the person to repentance so that their eternal spirit might be saved.

Remember, Paul does not despise this man who is to be expelled; he despises only his sin…When we expel a person from the church, our purpose is not so much to expel the person as to expel his sin. It is primarily to cleanse the church of sin that we must expel the person. But the moment that person truly repents of his sin, we must forgive him and fully accept him back into the church. In fact, this is exactly what happened in the case of the man mentioned in this section (see 2 Corinthians 2:5-11). Tom Hale: The Applied New Testament Commentary, p. 611.

In The Messsge we read: Shouldn’t this break your hearts? Shouldn’t it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn’t this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with? I’ll tell you what I would do. Even though I’m not there in person, consider me right there with you, because I can fully see what’s going on. I’m telling you that this is wrong. You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own. Bring it out into the open and deal with it in the authority of Jesus our Master. Assemble the community – I’ll be present in spirit with you and our Master Jesus will be present in power. Hold this man’s conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can! But if he can’t, then out with him! It will be totally devastating to him, of course, and embarrassing to you. But better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the Master on the Day of Judgment.