Dealing with Sin in the Church
1 Corinthians 5:6-13
Truth Taught- The Church is called to remove the unrepentant and persistent sinner for the good of the community and the sinner.
Last time we saw Paul’s instructions concerning the man in the Church guilty of sexual immorality and how the Church was literally welcoming sin by tolerating even what the pagans would not accept…
1 Corinthians 5:1–5 (ESV)
5 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. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 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.
He gave his assessment of the situation and then told the Church to remove this man from their midst. Now, he gives them and us the reason why they must expel this man from the Church.
What they failed to realize, something that has gone undetected by them is just how much this sin had affected the Church. This man’s sin has infected the entire Church. They are arrogant and do not see it. They are tolerating sin and do not realize it. So, Paul being the God-sent Apostle is going to explain things to them and call them to action.
His plan of attack within the Church is also the plan of attack we can utilize on a personal level to fight sin in our own lives.
He begins by using the analogy of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover.
1 Corinthians 5:6–13 (ESV)
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 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. 8 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.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 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. 11 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. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
1. Sin is Like Leaven
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 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. 8 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.
The Bible tells us that the Israelites were to eat only unleavened bread every year during Passover as a commemoration of the Exodus from Egyptian bondage. Since the children of Israel left Egypt hastily, they did not have time for the bread to rise, so it was made on that very first Passover without leaven. In describing this bread and why it was eaten, the Bible informs us of the following: “Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste—so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt” (Deuteronomy 16:3). Further commands regarding the eating of unleavened bread are found in Exodus 12:8; 29:2; and Numbers 9:11. To this day, in Jewish homes, the Passover celebration includes unleavened bread.
The reason they were to eat unleavened bread was two-fold. First, they did not have time to let the leaven or yeast work because it was Passover and they had to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Second, leaven has been used in the Bible as a symbol for sin. Unleavened Bread means they leave the leaven or sin behind them in Egypt.
It is very fitting for the Apostle to make the connection here and to give us a picture of how leaven has worked within the Church. The man involved in sexual immorality is the leaven. His sin has infected the entire church. For the sake of the Church, they must remove him like removing leaven during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. In the Passover and the Feast, they were to remove the old leaven from the house so that any bread made would not be contaminated with leaven.
In the last section this man was to be removed for his own good, so that Satan would destroy his flesh and perhaps his soul would be saved. This text shows us that he is to be removed so that his sinful influence would no longer contaminate the Church. Get rid of the old leaven so you can be a new lump of dough.
There is a difference between yeast and leaven. Leaven is the small bit of dough taken from last week’s batch and saved to be added to this week’s dough. It is added after it has already begun to ferment. The issue was that as the dough ferments it gets a little worse each time and even can bring about sickness and infection. Once a year, in God’s providence, they were to rid their home of all leaven. After the feast, they would start fresh with new yeast.
Within the Church, they could not see the affect sin was having on all of them. They were infected and did not fully realize it. Like the leaven, each batch/each sin and their attitude toward sin got worse. They desperately needed to remove the old leaven and become a new batch.
Galatians 5:9 (ESV)
9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Remove the old leaven, the sinful man, so that they might be a new batch without sin in their midst.
Look at how he qualifies what he tells them so they do not get the wrong idea…
7 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.
Because of the sacrificial substitutionary death of Jesus, they are unleavened however, they must work toward actually being unleavened. Beloved in Christ, we are unleavened; we are viewed by God as sinless and we still must seek holiness in our Christian lives. They are viewed by God as having the righteousness of Christ and now they must begin the work of grace whereby they actually make progress in that very realm. Their removing leaven did not save them they were already unleavened through Christ and yet they had to be sanctified and had to persevere to the end.
Just like in the OT when the sacrificial lamb was killed, this was the means of their atonement and salvation as the blood of the sacrificial substitute covered their sin until Christ, so too we are saved by the shed blood of Jesus we are unleavened before God. Now we must begin the daily work of sanctification whereby we become unleavened or make progress in the direction.
Because all this is true,
8 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.
Here, Paul is referring to living the Christian life as he writes, celebrating the festival. The Christian life is to be the constant work of ridding the house of leaven and living as God’s new batch in Christ.
They could begin this process as they took the first step and removed the incestuous man from among them. They could begin living and celebrating the festival as God’s new creation in Christ.
So, step one in dealing with sin personally and within the Church is to realize how it works…it’s like leaven.
In our second point, we see what God would have us to do about it…
2. Do Not Associate with Someone Who Calls Themselves a Christian but Lives a Life of Sin (5:9-13)
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 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. 11 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. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
First and foremost, Paul is referring to the man who had engaged in sexual immorality. This is the Greek word porneia. The man is referred to as pornos. His sin has captured his identity. He’s known as the sexually immoral man.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people
Sexually immoral people. Here it is the Greek word pornos. Do not associate with a pornos who calls himself a brother in Christ.
The problem was that they were associating with this man and they were even arrogant about it.
Paul had written a previous letter to them telling them not to associate with the sexually immoral (pornos) people. They were completely disregarding his instruction and had rather than not associating had almost embraced them and welcomed them.
Paul is not telling us to not associate with lost people who may be pornea but with those inside the Church who call themselves brothers in Christ…
10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world,
He’s telling us we should speak to lost people of course, concerning their condition etc so that requires associating with them. We are not to judge them, as he tells us, God will do that. The issue is completely different when it come to the Church.
11 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.
We must seek to be accurate here with what Paul is telling the Church. First, he’s not saying that we should not associate with the lost world. Second, he’s not saying that before one can be a member of the Church, they must be sinless. Third, he’s not even saying that one who may struggle with certain sins from time must be removed. What he is telling us is that a person who still lives like the world and is known by certain sins and those sins become public and there is no repentance, these people must be officially removed from the Church. In their unrepentant condition they are not welcome to attend. They look like those living out in the world and persist in their former way of life so, they must be sent out into the world.
Someone who exhibits no change in their lives but professes faith should be avoided. God tells us…Do not associate with them.
Why should we not associate with them? Why should they be removed from the Church? Because a little leaven leavens the entire lump.
The goal within the Church is for an entire body of believers to be growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus. Jesus is our model and we must strive to live more and more like Him. When someone who persists in sin is also part of the body, they lower the standard and make it easier to join in with them in whatever sin they model. They make it harder to follow Christ. So, the Church must distance itself from such people.
12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
We are to judge those within the Church when persistent sin exists. Especially, the leadership must engage in watching with loving care over all members for persistent, unrepentant sin. We are called to be gentle and kind but also lovingly firm when needed. We must engage in discipline when needed.
God will take care of judging those outside the Church but we must judge those inside.
Then Paul leaves us with the healthiest way to deal with persistent public sin inside the Church…
Purge the evil person from among you.
This person wants to have things both ways. They want to belong to the Christian community without leaving their former way of life behind. This example makes it seem like others can to that too. Such persistent sin demands that the Church step in and help them with their choice. This discipline is helpful both to the individual and to the Church as a whole.
Not associating with sinners of this kind is a great strategy for each of us on a personal level as well.
Conclusion-
I want us to look briefly at another passage where Paul tells us how it is Christians are to deal with sin that they struggle with.
Here in this passage Paul mentions some of the exact sins those in Corinth were struggling with. How does he say we are to deal with personal sin?
We have a wonderful strategy given to us by the Apostle…Put off and Put on strategy. This is a wonderful game plan to overcome sin, dealing with them one by one. This works with any sin no matter what it is.
Ephesians 4:22–29 (ESV)
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin;do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
One of the principles of Christian growth is called the “put off and put on” principle (see Eph. 4:22–24). Behind the principle lies the fact that there are always sinful attitudes and actions we need to put off, and there are always positive traits of righteousness we need to put on more firmly.
Whatever sin you may struggle with ask God to show you the opposite positive action or thought and begin practicing that and you will discover that in time, your past sins will no longer have the hold they may have now.
Matthew 6:19–21 (ESV)
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Colossians 3; Matthew 6
We must realize that the sins we used to engage in are associated with our old self that’s been put to death with Jesus. So, to overcome sin we must take on a heavenly perspective and practice the things that are consistent with who we are now, not who we used to be.
Resources Used:
1 Corinthians by Gordon Fee
1 Corinthians by John MacArthur
1 Corinthians by Thistleton
1 Corinthians by Um
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