1 Corinthians 5

Immorality in the Church
This chapter is a quick excerpt of Paul on condeming the church's approval of sins, instead of them seeking to purge themselves of sin and keeping the church pure. This specific example of the case of a man who has his father's wife. The details are not known, but either way, it is a forbidden relationship, that "is not even named among the Gentiles." Paul is judging their response to this great sin in their midst, they did nothing, he tells them to "deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." This sounds pretty harsh, but we must remeber that is what we all need. To destroy the flesh that the spirit may be saved despite our sin. The larger picture is that we are already saved by Christ thru faith, but our flesh wars against our new nature as a child of God, innocent. This case, the man may or may not be a believer who is either caught up in sin, or knows nothing but sin if he is not a believer. Either way, the act of discipline here by the church would reveal that and would be a sanctifying device in his life to purge his sinful flesh and point him to what is right and pure and true.

The Church's Sin
Paul is also criticizing the church for endorsing such a sin, or any sin for that matter. The church is not being faithful in upholding her duties as the bride of Christ. She is to work to sanctify, not endorse and accomodate sin. "A little leaven leavens the whole lump" is the statement Paul uses to show that it doesnt take much to ruin the batch. Even in the life of the individual we see this as truth. One small sin can lead to much bigger and more horrendous things. We should as believers and especially as members of the church, seek to purge our congregations and teachings of error of doctrine as well as tendencies that harm. Also, we should be careful not to accomodate or condone sin, but to call sin sin and to take appropriate actions to aid in destroying sin in the member's lives. Lord, renew our church's to practice appropriate discipline and to teach truth that is applicable to our lives!

Clarification on Previous Instruction
Paul then quickly clarifies on a point that he made in an earlier letter to the Corinthians. He wanted them to know that when he said not to keep company with sexually immoral people, he meant people in the church. Not only sexually immoral either, but "covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner - not even to eat with such a person." The people who are not in the church, I guess Paul is acknowleding we will not be able to avoid and they cannot be expected to know and practice sanctification if they are not believers. To these people we go with the gospel. But to believers, we go with correction on the areas of big sin, if they do not listen, then the church institutes discipline. This is necessary for the Christian's sanctification! If only we as believers and churches understood the principles of church discipline and practiced them. Lord, clarify this area in my life as I seek to understand your word better. Paul ends with - "But those who are outside God judges. Therefore 'put away from yourselves the evil person.'"