Paul now addresses the whole question of sin in the church, and we will look again at a passage from the last study.
1 Corinthians 5:9-13 I have written to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you.
It is a contradiction for the Christian church to have in it those who are blatant unrepentant sinners. So what should we do if we are faced with this in our church? Yes that is the responsibility of the leaders, but it is actually the responsibility of us all. Again this raises the problem of making judgements and we can’t just sweep things under the carpet because they are difficult.
How much sin is acceptable? (Rumoured sin? Obvious sin?)
And what do we make of verse 11: ‘with such a man do not even eat'
Doing nothing is not an option, so how can we guard the integrity of our church without conducting a witch hunt?
We are entering a grey murky area! Many churches have a form of membership. This can be limited to those people who have made an adult confession of faith (some even requiring adult baptism), where other churches simply require that you join in the services regularly and support the ministry. Here we are to distinguish between those who claim to be Christian, and as such have been accepted as members of the church (v 11); and those who also worship with us, who may or may not appear or claim to be Christians.
In the church I attend people have to be interviewed by established Christians before they can be accepted as members of the Church. It is as much to find if they know and love the Lord Jesus, as to see if their lifestyle matches their confession.
If in the life of the church it becomes apparent that verse 11 applies – what do we do?
How would we 'Expel the wicked man from among you'?
Again, the church I attend has a constitution document which says:-
8.1.2 When there are differences that lead to difficulties between members of the Church (and it is recognised that sometimes misunderstandings will arise) each member should try to resolve the situation with gentleness and humility following Christian and Biblical principles. It is a matter of great sadness when problems arise and it may be necessary for another wise and experienced member of this Church (or if invited a member of a neighbouring Church) to act as mediator or friend to those seeking to achieve reconciliation.
8.2.6 In exceptional circumstances where the conduct of a member is considered to be contrary to the Purpose and Beliefs of the Church and/or disruptive to the relationships between members in the Church then the Church Meeting may, after considering the facts, terminate the membership of that person. The Church Member should be allowed to hear what is said at the Church Meeting, to correct any errors of fact and offer any explanation of the circumstances or reasons for their actions before the Church Meeting prayerfully and carefully considers whether that person's name should be removed from the list of members.
NOTE: Clause 8.2.6 is only a framework within which church discipline may be exercised. The clause should be read and acted upon only after the procedures mentioned in clause 8.1.2 have been exhausted. Action under this Clause would be a matter of great sadness to the whole Church and an action of last resort after all means of resolving disagreements by dialogue have failed.
But as we said before, doing nothing is not an option.
Let’s move on into Chapter 6 where Paul continues his theme. Before we do though I must point out that Paul probably comes down heavily on sexual immorality, because that was a major problem for the church at Corinth. (We will look at verses 1-8 in a moment.)
First read verses 9 and 10
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Verses 9 and 10 can be a bit frightening, so we need to remind ourselves that we are all sinners saved by grace, so read verse 11
11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Remember, because of that – there are no limits to his saving grace: all can be saved.
Now read 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
12 ‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say – but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’– but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 You say, ‘Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.’ The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! 16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ 17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.
It is not necessary to study this passage line by line, but we will look at some important teachings.
Firstly to remember that (v9) the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God. An obvious fact but some were trying to suggest that now they were saved, they could return to their wickedness and continue without fear of judgement. The argument was that surely as Christians we are no longer bound by the law. And our new freedom is unlimited.
Is this wrong? If Jesus’ blood cleanses us from all sin, can a Christian go on deliberately sinning? (Look at 1 John 3:1-10, Romans 7:14-25 and Romans 8:1-17)
Look at these next two passages:
1 Corinthians 6:11
11 But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your body.
Paul reminds Christians what they had been, and contrasts that with what they now are: Holy and Righteous in the sight of God, through the cleansing blood of Jesus, shed at great cost on Calvary. Because of this they are to regard their bodies no longer as their own, but now as somewhere where God lives by his Holy Spirit.
God does not live in a temple built by man, he lives in something built by God – us.
We are his ‘Temple’.
One of the ways the Holy Spirit works is to alert our consciences each time we sin. We can ignore these promptings, but they won’t go away. Romans 2:15 says that when we sin our conscience either accuses us, or excuses us – but we still know we have sinned. However much we theorise about our freedom, sin is in direct opposition to a holy God and will never be acceptable to him.
Some people try to make a distinction between body and soul (or spirit) saying that the body (the ‘flesh’) will always be sinful. Paul counters that argument in verses 12-20 by saying that when we gave our lives to Jesus, we gave him our bodies too. He lives in us by his Holy Spirit and we are being callous if we treat the price he paid for our salvation as of no account.
It also means that wherever we go and whatever we do we are forcing Jesus to come with us and to join in with whatever we are doing. (verse 15)
Moving on from deliberately committing actual sin, how do we understand verse 12? Everything is permissible for me — but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me — but I will not be mastered by anything.
Is it possible to engage in activities which, though not sinful in themselves, are not beneficial to my spiritual life, and may even affect my witness to others?
(Hobbies? Interests? Leisure activities? When does an interest become an obsession, or an addiction?)
Note that 1 Corinthians 6:12 suggests that some activities may master us, but we have asked Jesus to be our Master and Lord, and he will not share that position with another.
We have just been discussing the very difficult subject of making judgements about those within the church. We recognise that we have been given the responsibility and authority to do this. We also recognise that we have been given the wisdom, knowledge and spiritual insight to be able to do this. Now, Paul says, if that is the case, why take your own problems to the civil courts? Do we expect that the ‘ungodly’ would have the same wisdom, knowledge and spiritual insight?
So we can now look at 1 Corinthians 6:1-8
1 If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints?
2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?
3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!
4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church!
5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?
6 But instead, one brother goes to law against another— and this in front of unbelievers!
We will return to verses 2 and 3 in a moment, for now we will start with 4 and 5:
4 Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church!
5 I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?
Paul’s argument is that any Christian with the guidance of the Holy Spirit would be able to give a better judgement than the wisest non-Christian.
Is it fair to say that only Christians, with the indwelling Holy Spirit, can really determine what is truly right or wrong?
Now 7 and 8:
7 The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?
8 Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.
For someone to feel so aggrieved that he has to sue another Christian means that in one way or another sin has entered into the relationship between them. Maybe on the part of the accused, maybe on the part of the accuser, maybe both. As a result someone is demanding his ‘rights’.
Is it true to say that Christians have no rights, only privileges?
Read Luke 6:27-37
27 ‘But to you who are listening I say: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who ill-treat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.
32 ‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.
35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Jesus’ teaching centres not so much on verse 31: Do to others as you would have them do to you. As on verse 36: Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Try to think of situations where we might be expected to pay for what we have done (in money or some other form of retribution) and where instead a merciful conclusion would be most welcome.
The generosity of forgiveness shown to us by our Heavenly Father must now be our example of the way we treat others. Putting the two verses together we have: ‘Do to others as mercifully as you would have your Heavenly Father do to you’.
Standing up for our ‘Rights’ is not what Jesus did and is not what we should do. Standing up for God’s rights is more productive!
(The study on ‘Christian Living’ covers this in more depth.)
Now we can look at verses 2 and 3:
‘2 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?
3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life!’
How many times does the phrase ‘Do you not know’ occur in this chapter? Six times.
Remembering what we read in 1 Corinthians 4:10: We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ!, obviously Paul is pointing out that those who thought they had superior knowledge are perhaps lacking in this area.
A quick search shows that no-one has been able to find any other passage in the Bible which sheds more light on these two verses but the facts of Paul’s statement are simple: ‘we will judge the world’, and ‘we will judge Angels’. We can only speculate how this might happen. Does anyone want to speculate how this might happen?
Barnes, in his ‘Notes on the Bible’ says:
If asked "in what way" this is to be done, it may be answered, that it may be meant simply that Christians shall be exalted to the right hand of the Judge, and shall encompass his throne; that they shall assent to, and approve of his judgment, that they shall be elevated to a post of honour and favour, as if they were associated with him in the Judgment.
They shall then be regarded as his friends, and express their approbation, and that "with a deep sense of its justice," of the condemnation of the wicked. Perhaps the idea is, not that they shall "pronounce" sentence, which will be done by the Lord Jesus, but that they shall then be qualified to see the justice of the condemnation which shall be passed on the wicked; they shall have a clear and distinct view of the case; they shall even see the propriety of their everlasting punishment, and shall not only approve it, but be qualified to enter into the subject, and to pronounce upon it intelligently.
And the argument of the apostle is, that if they would be qualified to pronounce on the eternal doom of men and angels; if they had such views of justice and right, and such integrity as to form an opinion and express it in regard to the everlasting destiny of an immense host of immortal beings, assuredly they ought to be qualified to express their sense of the smaller transactions in this life, and pronounce an opinion between man and man.
