In the first few chapters of 1st Corinthians, Paul calls the readers to unity where there is division. We explored that controversy and Paul’s remedy in the previous articles. And during that exploration, it may have felt like “anything goes.” We must be unified in Christ no matter what. But “anything goes” is not true, as we will see in our next Corinthain Controversy.
In Chapter Five, Paul confronts a blatant sin. Keep in mind that Corinth was a sexually immoral culture, even by Roman standards. “I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother.” (1 Corinthians 5:1, NLT) It would seem that some in the Corinthian church were proud of their open-heartedness. Paul had other thoughts about it. “You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.” (1 Corinthians 5:2, NLT) We should never be proud or arrogant about sin (ours or others).
In the verses following, Paul deals with two parties: the man himself and the church. About the man he said, “Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.” (1 Corinthians 5:5, NLT) There must have been something we don’t know about for Paul to go this far and seemingly this quickly. We can assume that the man was unrepentant and perhaps even prideful in his sin. There is always room to begin with repentance and restoration. Still, eventually, if those attempts are unfruitful, then separation is in order for the good of the person and the church.
To the church, Paul wrote, “Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:6–8, NLT)
This is a narrow path. Everyone sins, including those in the church. The whole purpose of the church is to introduce sinners to Jesus. But neither should the church take pride or boast about the kinds of sinners they are attracting. The Vineyard movement calls this “welcoming, but not affirming.” We welcome all without affirming their sin. It is not an easy path to walk. It is much easier to either judge and cast away or to affirm sin boastfully. I see both extremes in the church today.
Paul calls us to a better way, the way of sincerity and truth. We sincerely want folks to repent and find forgiveness, healing, and a new life in Christ. But we must also speak the truth about the ugliness of sin, the way of righteousness, and freedom for the captives. That means calling sin what it is – sin. And we must also be truthful about our own sins and sincerely desire forgiveness and freedom for ourselves.
The more devious sin in all of this is boasting. We either boast in our judgments or boast in our open-heartedness. Pride is sin. Instead, remember this, “Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:31, NLT) Lord, forgive us.
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