The Way - Day 067 (1 Corinthians 5)

Pastor Tom's Journal on Today's Reading:
1 Corinthians 5
Paul has primarily dealt with the issue of division within the church and has challenged the Corinthian believers not to be unified through following an individual man, but to be joined together through the message of the crucified Christ, which is a message sent directly from God. This message brought hope and would ultimately free them from the power and penalty of sin. Unfortunately, the church at Corinth had been widely influenced by worldly thinking that had led them far away from spiritual maturity; in fact, Paul wrote to them concerning an issue of sexual immorality which existed in the congregation. Paul writes, "It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles [unbelievers]—that a man has his father’s wife!" (5:1). The specific immoral situation was that a man was having an affair with his stepmother, which was strictly forbidden in the scriptures (Leviticus 18:8; Deuteronomy 22:22). Rather than confronting this man with his blatant sin, the Corinthian church simply ignored or excused it (5:2). Paul was very angry at their failure to discipline this man, whom he had already judged in his own mind (5:3), and advised them to give him over to Satan to experience judgment (5:4-5). Paul's demand for judgment of this man was not rooted in hatred for the individual, but in love for the purity of the church. Tolerance of this type of sin has the potential to influence others to also do evil (5:6-8).
Apparently Paul had written the Corinthians another letter which commanded them "not to keep company with sexually immoral people" (5:9); however, Paul further explained what he meant by that statement. His intention was not for believers to cut off communication with the outside world (5:10), but to guard themselves from these types of sin entering into the church (5:11). The church of Corinth needed to be an influencer of the world, but the world must not become an influencer of the church. Paul reminded his readers that God was the judge of those outside the church, while they must judge those who are within in order to maintain the purity of the church (5:12-13). John MacArthur provides some helpful insight concerning this issue, "Those on the outside are for God to judge and believers to evangelize. Those who
sin on the inside, the church is to put out" (MacArthur Study Bible, p. 1735).

Dear God, bring purity to Your church and use me to reach out to those who need to find their way.