1Corinthians 5 REMEMBER THE EFFECTS OF SIN Society as a whole has become used to immorality and various kinds of sexual sins, accepting them as normal behavior in people. What we are experiencing today in our post-Christian world was quite common and, in some places like Corinth, accepted as socially okay. When a society has no inner moral compass or no written standard of conduct, such as the Bible, to control behavior, almost any social or physical interaction is tolerated. However, when one believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and accepts the sacrifice He made on the cross as payment for our sin, this places us in a much higher moral responsibility. The consequences of sin can not be overlooked. A "new creation" in Christ is one who has the Holy Spirit within. But the Spirit can be grieved or quenched by our actions or inactions. A professing Christian, when made aware of sin by the truth of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, will have a sense of guilt when sin occurs. Guilt is the conscience's response, acting on our behalf to prompt a change in our behavior. When the conscience is not heeded, and guilt does not change our behavior, outside influences must be used.
Any person in a church fellowship affects the local assembly, for better or worse. The testimony of a church is affected by the daily lives of those in that fellowship as well as in their participation in the church's activities. We are members of Christ, it is true, and we are also members of one another. Christian fellowship, when it is God-honoring and consistently follows the teaching of the scriptures, is a wonderful thing. Spiritual strength and joy can be shared and increased when the conduct of God's people is consistent with what we teach. When public and flagrant sin takes place among those who gather in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and is not corrected and dealt with in a scriptural manner, the whole church is paralyzed.
There are clearly defined ways to deal with sin by changing the behavior of the sinner through discipline. The whole point of discipline is to correct and, if necessary, punish one whose conduct in life has to be changed. In this chapter, the behavior that had to be changed was the immoral sin of incest. Moral standards are unchangeable in the scriptures. The legislative practices of a government do not change the fundamental standards of morality taught by the Spirit of God. When such sin takes place in a local assembly of God's people, we are not to overlook it, but rather mourn as we would one who has died. Strangely, the Corinthian believers did not look at the sin of a man having his father's wife as a serious problem. Even unbelievers look at that act with disdain and abhorrence. Those in the fellowship of the Corinthian assembly may have thought the open-minded approach and the grace of God would make this acceptable. That is an example of "the wisdom of the world" in contrast to "the wisdom of God." The woman involved is not mentioned in this incident, indicating she was probably neither a child of God nor connected to the assembly.
We are not called upon to deal with those who are non-Christians or are not a part of the assembly gathered in the Lord's name. While we do mourn over one who has fallen into sin, we cannot leave it at that. Sin has to be judged so that wrong behavior will be corrected and others will be warned. We do not have the right to pass judgment on another person's work for the Lord and his motives. We do have the responsibility to correct bad conduct. Paul plainly told the Corinthian believers what to do about this man to bring about the change of life and understanding he needed. Paul had already judged the matter, as it was open and needed no investigation into the affair. The assembly of those in that fellowship was to hold a special meeting. Under the authority of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that sinning person was to be "taken away," "delivered unto Stan," "purged out," and "put away." The man himself had to take responsibility for, and the consequences of, his actions. The welfare of that man and all in the local church was to be preserved by this action. This is not something to be taken carelessly or lightly, but is to change undisciplined behavior condemned by the standard of righteousness, to honorable and righteous living once again.
The influence of one person's discipline in a family affects everyone in that family. The same is true in an assembly. This is not an act of vengeance but of the correction of behavior. The expected result is repentance and restoration. The practice of church discipline is a motivating factor to the proper conduct of Christian living on the part of everyone in the assembly. We are still to pray for and encourage an erring person to repent and change so they may again come into the moral safety of church fellowship. By distancing ourselves from the sinner, a purging process occurs in the isolation from the church, which stops the "leaven of malice and wickedness" from working among all of God's people.
When one has been "delivered unto Satan," that person is not outside the faith, but outside the security and safety of the Holy Spirit working through the gifts in the church. Separation does not mean abandonment, but avoiding the contamination that public, immoral activity brings. To avoid facing sin or rationalizing sin, we can harm other people and misrepresent Christ to the world around us. The objective of proper, biblical discipline is to convict and correct a sinning believer and restore that person to the Lord and His people. It also serves as a warning to others not to engage in similar activity that leads to sin. Discipline in one's life is not necessarily easy, nor do people like it. Self-discipline can keep one from discipline imposed on us by others or the church. Varying kinds of church discipline increase in consequence, in keeping with the seriousness of the behavior.