1 Corinthians 5:9-13

1 Corinthians 5:9-13

I wrote to you all in my letter to not associate with sexually immoral people – by no means with sexually immoral people or the greedy people or the plunderers or the idolaters of this world, for consequently it was necessary to depart out of the world.  But now I wrote to you all to not associate with a sexually immoral person, a greedy person, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a thief while he should be called a brother – to not even eat with one such as this.  For what is it for me to judge the outsiders?  Do you all not judge the ones inside?  And God will judge the ones outside.  Get rid of the evil one out from yourselves.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

This is a bit of a neat passage in which we can meet the humanity of Paul.  It appears in reading his words that this is not the first time that Paul has written a letter to the Corinthians.  In that first letter, he apparently told the people to stay away from rampant sinfulness.  He now has to come back and correct some things.  We’ll handle his correction in the next thought.  But for now, let’s pause and reflect on what this means.  Paul wasn’t perfect.  He didn’t always say things perfectly.  He had to constantly calibrate teaching with circumstance.  There are indeed some universal truths: Jesus is God, salvation comes only through His death on the cross, and things like this.  But many other decisions – things like where to do ministry, to whom God is calling us, and how we should respond to sinfulness around us – are all far more complicated topics.  These topics require constant calibration in sensing God’s will.  It is common for teachers and disciple makers to need to go back and recalibrate often as circumstances change in ministry.

What do you think about this idea of calibrating and re-calibrating teaching?  Do you believe that there are situations in which one approach may be the godly approach but in another situation the same approach might not be the way God desires something to be done?

Second Thought:

What Paul needs to recalibrate is his teaching on rampant sinfulness.  Paul meant to say that it is wise to stay away from rampant sinfulness within the body of Christ.  After all, as Paul says here if we are to stay away from rampant sinfulness completely then we won’t be able to go out into the world at all.  If we are to stay away from rampant sinfulness everywhere how would we be able to do anything for the kingdom of Christ!  No, we need not fear the rampant sinfulness of the world.  What we need to be careful about is the rampant sinfulness within the church.  It isn’t that God cannot deal with the sinfulness.  Instead, rampant sinfulness within the body of Christ is a demonstration of a place where the Spirit of God is unable to have authority over life because the person is unwilling to submit to God.  That is what we should like to avoid.

Do you think the average Christian is more understanding of sin within the body of Christ or sin on the outside of the body of Christ?  Why do you think this is true?  How might this impact how effective our ministry to the world can be?

Third Thought:

Paul tells us that it is not our job to judge those outside the body of Christ.  It is God’s place to judge them, not ours.  We are to focus on being His body.  We are to follow Him, draw closer to Him, and go where He calls.  As for what happens outside the church, that is for Him to decide and for Him to judge.  We go in mission; He sorts out the details at the end of the age.

Do Christians like to judge those outside the church?  Why do you think this is true?  What does our desire to judge those outside the church do to our desire to do mission?

Passage for Tomorrow: 1 Corinthians 6:1-8