1st Corinthians 5 & 6
Corinthian Problems
The Corinthian problems had many issues that Paul had to grapple with in this first epistle. These included internal divisions and a flawed approach to worship. These were internal Church problems, however, which had little bearing on society at large. The world has little understanding, nor can they see the relevance, of our discussion around theological differences.
When a moral scandal erupts, however, among those who profess the name of Christ this is a very different matter. Suddenly everyone is interested and fascinated. This is exactly what happened in the Church at Corinth. It was a Church scandal, which became a public outrage because it truly shocked society.
Before moving into the detail given within the text of Scripture, it is important that this topic be set in context.
Sins & Consequences
Every Christian sins – we do so in thought, word and deed. There are sins of commission (things that ought not to be done) and sins of omission (that which is left undone but ought to have been done).
But while every sin deserves the wrath and curse of God not every sin is the same. Not every sin, for example, has the same effect on others. What we think harms ourselves, whereas what we do can have a devastating impact upon others. There are certain sins such as theft or fraud, violence and even murder, adultery and fornication which generate such an outrage – that the perpetrator will forever have to live with the consequences.
Can God forgive such sins? Yes – of course he can and he does as long as the person who commits the acts is truly repentant. Can the perpetrator of such moral lapses love a fruitful Christian life after restoration? Yes – this is entirely possible and the Church ought to restore such because we also are tempted (Galatians 6:1).
Forgiveness, however, is different from consequences.
Such an individual can receive the forgiveness of God and be restored to fellowship within the Church – but will have to accept that the consequences must still be suffered.
King David until the day he died, lived with the evil that he brought into his family with the scandal of Bathsheba and Uriah. God forgave him for the adultery, deception and murder, but thereafter the sword did not depart from his house. This too was a sin that made enemies of God to blaspheme (2nd Samuel 12:1-12).
In like manner the adulterer will continue to face the breaking of marriage vows and the distrust this has generated within the family. The thief and the person who commits violence must suffer police charges and possible criminal convictions even though God may have forgiven the sin.
Losing our Testimony
When coming to this section of Corinthians I sought out the late Dr John MacArthur for help. I did so because I know that Dr MacArthur has both preached and written extensively on Corinthians. I came across a deeply challenging sermon he preached entitled “Sexual Purity within the Church” (https://www.gty.org/sermons/print/80-25/sexual-purity-in-the-church). He reflected upon how common this kind of sin is among professing Christians. He also commented upon the epidemic of immorality that was breaking out among pastors in North America. Commencing his sermon he told a story of a pastor who left the ministry because of “moral indiscretions”. He was seeking a return to ministry and he requested that Dr MacArthur write him a reference. Dr MacArthur refused.
In the discussion which ensued Dr MacArthur explained that this was neither about forgiveness or restitution – it was a matter of example:
There is an issue of setting the standard for the kind of holy life that the church people are to be called to. And when you have forfeited that publicly you no longer can stand in the position of that exemplary individual. That’s the issue. It isn’t that God won’t use you. It isn’t that God won’t forgive you and bless you. It is that you are no longer qualified for the role of modeling what Christian character is all about in the position of an elder or a pastor.
This is real live example of what it means to live with the consequences of one’s sin – as it impacts one’s qualification to be a leader within the Church.
Ultimately in the case of the former pastor, whom Dr MacArthur described, and in the case before us in 1st Corinthians 5 & 6 – bad decisions were made. Bad decisions lead to outcomes which are life changing.
This is the upshot – the big challenge we all live with: We are all one bad decision away from being part of a church scandal which shocks society.
1: The Extent of the Scandal
It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. (1 Corinthians 5:1)
Ancient pagan society was deeply immoral. What we consider the norm in terms of marriage and faithfulness was unknown. This was a pre-Christian society. All of the standards which became normal in the Christian world, which are now being torn down, were completely foreign to the thinking of the ancient Greek, Roman or Barbarian. Corinth was particularly depraved. So much so that this city acquired a reputation throughout the Roman world.
To be a Corinthian was synonymous with sexual perverseness.
The whole city was involved in prostitution and homosexuality.
Among the Christians, however, there was a sin that shocked even the Corinthians.
Allegations
Paul wrote that “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you”. Paul was not making allegations based on hearsay evidence. There was a body of material that he could draw on as he identified this sin. Already, as I have pointed out previously, he made mention of the house of Chloe, who were especially grieved by these goings on.
When making allegations we must have clear evidence and those who bring the complaint must not be afraid of being identified.
Fornication
This word ‘fornication’ is the Greek word ‘porneia’ from which we get the English term ‘pornography’. It is a term which encompasses all kinds of sexual immorality – whether that is before marriage, couples living together, within marriage as adultery or indeed sins of the mind and of the sight which pornography is.
The nature of the fornication though in Corinth was a sin that scandalised even the Corinthians. Living in an intimate relationship with one’s father’s wife was regarded as incest in the Greek and Roman world.
This was one thing which you could not and dare not do. Yet a man who claimed to be a Christian was behaving in this way.
2: The Complacency towards the Scandal
And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. (1 Corinthians 5:2)
Pride Before the Fall
The big question is:
how did the Corinthians get themselves into a situation where they tolerated something that even they had not done in their unconverted days.
The answer lay in their pride. They had been so caught up in their disputes about minor matters they avoided the proverbial ‘elephant in the room’. They were more interested in their contesting allegiances with respect to Paul and Apollos than the moral purity of the Church.
There are few greater priorities in our Christian lives than the maintaining of our Christian testimonies.
Once we lose our reputation for morality and integrity – it’s lost forever and it impedes our usefulness for the Lord.
If there is one sin, to which we are all prone – one which will bring us down and which always precedes a fall – it is pride. It is possible to be more interested in debate over the finer points of theology than our own morality and honesty. It is possible to be filled with criticism towards a brother or sister because that brother or sister doesn’t conform to some standard that isn’t in our rule book – while we ourselves are embracing a scandalous sin.
3: The Remedy for the Scandal
For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Corinthians 5:3-5)
Handed Over to Satan
Paul’s language sounds drastic and extreme. The severity of the discipline, however, is indicative of the scandalous nature of the sin. Paul authorised and instructed the Corinthians to turn a blind eye no longer. They must step up and deal with this sin.
Sin must be dealt with. We cannot tolerate sin.
Whether it is sin in our own lives or sin in the Church – once we are made aware of it – we must act. In some cases an apology is all that is warranted – in this extreme example the individual was to be handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.
Some understand this expression to refer simply to excommunication. Certainly, in cases of persistent unrepentance the Church has the authority to remove a person from fellowship. Yet the strength of Paul’s language in this unique case suggests a censure that may have involved bodily affliction at Satan’s hand. Whether it included excommunication or not, the ultimate aim remained restoration.
This man had sinned in the body. The woman whom he was sinning with was not a believer, as she is not mentioned in the discipline. This increases the guilt as the man was responsible to driving an unbeliever to sin and eternal danger. We have a solemn responsibility to lead non-Christians to Christ by our own example.
Therefore God’s restraint was to be removed – this man was to be exposed to bodily suffering at the hands of the devil in order that he might be brought to repentance – that his soul might be saved.
The discipline was severe but it was designed with grace in mind. True spiritual discipline has repentance in view. It will have this effect upon those who are truly converted. How we respond to discipline has a lot to say about how genuine our faith has been to begin with.
There are times when personal and even church discipline are insufficient. When the Church becomes aware that laws have been broken the police must be informed, as repentance necessarily involves paying our dues to society. The power of the magistrate has been ordained by God, to whom we are subject (Romans 13:1-5).
One of the characteristics of this age is that we do not take sin seriously as we should. We are not shocked as we ought to be simply because we have been desensitised by the spirit of the world. Being desensitised places us in dreadful moral danger.
The Lesson from the Early Irish
The greatest challenge I have received from early Irish Christianity is their sensitivity to sin. God built his Church in Ireland in a pagan world. Christian morality was unheard of. Crimes such a stealing violence and even murder often went unpunished. To combat this evil the Irish created a system of penitence. Sins often had tariffs associated with them.
Forgiveness did not eliminate responsibility.
The thief had to replace what he stole and the murderer had to work for the victim’s family to replace the labour that he had stolen. The Irish monks frequently kept penitential books where they recorded their own sins. Most interestingly of all the Irish created the idea of the ‘Anmchara’ meaning ‘Friend of the Soul’. This was one whom the Christian went to after sinning for counsel. The Anmchara could not forgive but pointed the penitent in the direction of the one who could forgive.
In the light of all this – Are we not so ambivalent, so slack towards sin today? Could it be that we use grace as an excuse to sin?
Grace rather than being an excuse for sin ought to be our inspiration for living godly lives in this wicked world.
4: The Challenge from the Scandal
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. (1 Corinthians 6:13)
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
The Temple of the Holy Ghost
Moving across to Chapter 6 where Paul returns to this subject of sexual infidelity, the Apostle refers to the justification so often made by those that indulge in sin. ‘My stomach was made for food therefore I eat’ – but Paul was not talking about food; he was referring to sexual behaviour. The phrase – “belly for meats” was a Greek idiom. This was a way of saying – ‘I can live as I please’ – ‘My body craves sexual pleasure therefore I feed the body’. This is the language of the world today. I can do as I please, live as I please – be whatever I choose to be. If my marriage doesn’t work I will look for love elsewhere. Christian ethics or morality are seen as outdated practices. This was how the Corinthians lived.
But this is not how the Christian ought to live.
These bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. They were purchased by the blood of Christ and are for the glory of God. Paul at the close of Chapter 6 produces the shocking example of joining Christ’s member to a harlot. If marriage produces ‘one flesh’ as man and woman become one – so logically speaking a Christian using his or her body for sin is joining Christ’s body to that sin. If we truly love the Lord – this is a powerful incentive for holiness.
Church discipline is not the opposite of grace; it is grace applied seriously.
Let us take care to live for the glory of God — remembering that grace is never permission to sin, but power to pursue holiness.
Clogher Valley Free Presbyterian Church 