Snapshots from Corinth
‘Delivered to Satan’ - 1 Cor 5
What is the Church? We know hopefully that it is not bricks and mortar. It is not a place - although we all use the word ‘church’ loosely when we say “It’s Sunday so let’s go to Church”. The Church meets within the building. The building is the building and the Church is made up of all who profess their faith in Christ and their baptised children.n.
Here is a question for you. When is a Body of Christian Believers a Church? Are there any distinguishing features that make such a fellowship a Church? Well yes there are. Presbyterians believe that there are 3 marks of the Church. These are:-
1. The Preaching of the Word of God.
2. The proper administration of the Sacraments
3. The right exercise of church discipline.
1 Cor 5 is about the local church and it’s especially about Church Discipline. Let’s look at it and see what God is saying to us today. James says ‘let every one be quick to listen’ - that means be ready - to hear what God says and to be in the local church when God’s Word is made known - us the Lord’s Day. Don’t put anything inn place of Christ and His Word on a Sunday. If you are serious about going on with God then you will agree that what I have just said is a truism - So 1 Cor 5.
1. The problem1-2a:
Corinth as we have heard on previous Sunday AM’s was a corrupt city full of every evil and sin. It was sex obsessed. The 1st C world was like that. The age in which we live has a witnessed a sexual revolution. Our society is sex obsessed. If you doubt it look at the media. In places a sexual laxity has even entered the church. Immorality is accepted as is homosexual practice. Things that were anathema to Christians when I was younger are now accepted in some places even in evangelical circles in the UK.
We all face temptations. We all struggle with them. We al need God’s power if we are to be Christ’s and if we are to live for His Glory.
The problem in Corinth was that “a man was living with his father’s wife”. Let that sink in. - Living with his father’s wife!! In Greek it is literally “A man is having his father’s wife” - meaning that a church member a male was having an affair with his step mother. An illicit union of a particularly unsavory kind was happening. The pagan world of the day according to Cicero viewed this as “an unbelievable crime”.
This was quite a problem for Paul. By the way the word “immorality” means all pre marital, extra marital and unnatural sexual intercourse. All are under the judgment of God.
Church history affirms that Satan uses sexual temptations and sin as one of his most frequent tactics to quench spiritual vitality.
So Paul faced this pastoral problem and in addition the attitude of the local church to it. “And you are arrogant” You should be mourning! A Christian should never be arrogant. But the church Corinth full of arrogant people. Some of hem put men before Christ as it witnessed in their factious groups and rivalry in Chapter 1.
Despite the fact that the world would have looked on at this illicit union of the man with his stepmother and seen it as a scandal - the church accepted it and even were arrogant about it. Paul cannot have this and he calls for discipline - one of the 3 marks of the Church.
The need for discipline: 2b-13
Lest we think this unduly hard and even violent - “let him who has done this be removed from among you” and “you are to deliver this man to Satan” - remember the purpose of all church discipline. It is always to bring the wandering soul back to God!
Discipline is necessary for the good for the individual: 3-5 - good because of the reason for it - ‘that his spirit may be save in the day of the Lord Jesus’. In other words it is good that someone suffer because of sin and so to be ultimately saved. Paul’s assertion is that he has judged the issue.(3) Notice what he says as he uses the name of the Lord Jesus. This is serious in the extreme. This is not the Presbytery or the Elders this is Christ speaking. “Deliver him to Satan …flesh.”
What can this mean - ‘destruction of the flesh’ / ‘deliver to Satan?’ Well, it may mean that the man was to be let go by the local Church so that he could indulge in a life is unrestrained sin which could result in him beginning to loathe it and then turn back to Christ. It may mean that the mean was to be excommunicated ie he would not be served the Lord’s Supper at the weekly Service. Hopefully then when he sees what he has been doing he will turn back to Christ. To be excluded for the Table has been the greatest act of discipline.
You see this man had trampled on his conscience. He had spurned the grace of God in Christ. He had flown in the face of all that was decent. What he needed was to have his soul resensitized to the eternal consequences of his blasphemy! The discipline was for his good.
Discipline is necessary for the good of the local church 6-8 - Paul returns to their arrogance. He has taught about the rescuing of the man now he turns to the sick church. It may be that when Paul wrote this the Passover Celebration was near. For at the Passover all yeast was removed from the house. Only unleavened bread was eaten for 7 days and a solemn search of each house as made to ensure that there was no yeast in the premises. Notice how he also talks about Christ our Paschal lamb was slain. What is the connection?
It is this. The man living with his stepmother is like a large piece of leaven or yeast in the local congregation. His presence taints the whole body of the church. You see the death of Christ calls for purity in the believer and in the local congregation.
So the local church at EPC should be without leaven. Look at verse 8. The church should be marked by sincerity and truth. Malice and evil should have no place among us. We must be a community characterized by sincerity and truth!
We all commit sin for we are all sinners - and we all need to be cleansed and forgiven every moment of every day. If you are looking for a perfect church - you will not find it in Londonderry or anywhere else on earth. If you think you have found it think again! We need to walk in the light every moment. We need to use the Lord’s Day to be challenged and to be taught how to live for His Glory. We need to stay close to Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. The hymn rightly puts it:-
“Prone to wander Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love”
Corinth was indeed a sick church.
However the church is a celebrating community. (8). - we celebrate Christ as our Paschal Lamb - our only Saviour and Redeemer. That calls for the best praise, the best music the best heart. And why should we not give such when He gave all for us. Jesus our Paschal Lamb has been slain! He was ‘sacrificed’ - His death fulfilled the OT sacrificial requirements totally -
There was no other good enough,
to pay the price of sin,
He only; could unlock the gate
of Heaven and let us in.
We should all live in the fear of being under the discipline of the church. What would it mean to us if the Kirk Session were to exclude a member from the Lord’s Supper?
The Corinthians were arrogant that one of their members lived as he did - how do we react when members snub the local church; ignore God’s Word and Commandments; and when nothing is holy any more and nothing really matters except me and mine! Most congregations in PCI and any other demoninations could do far more if their members were committed not only to the Lord but also to His church - if such a distinction can be made. Are we proud - arrogant about our Congregation when it is not as it ought to be and we are not as we ought to be?
So EPC and Corinth do you see the connection?
Today is a call to create under God a Congregation worthy of the name. That has implications for every member and particularly for every Elder. How do as Elders square up? How could we ever discipline members if we are not as we should be? Elders are called Ruling Elders and they rule not by ecclesiastical power but by moral and spiritual integrity! What a challenge?
Discipline is necessary for the good of the local church.
Notice as I close verses 9-13 - Some words of warning 9-13 Paul in an earlier letter had told the Corinthians not to associate with immoral men. This had been taken up by some as to mean have no dealings with any immoral person - and so some were isolationists. Here he clarifies what he meant - have no intimacy with any brother or sister who is persisting in blatant sin.
This is in line with the incarnation, life and example of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. He fully identified with sinners by His life and example. So must we be - in the world but never of it. Involved in Councils, Assemblies, Sports Clubs and Residents Groups etc., etc - we are after all the salt of the earth. Notice the issues that Paul mentions here:
1. Obsessed by Sex = immoral
2. Captivated Money = greedy
3. Loving Possessions = idolater
4. Addicted to Alcohol = drunkard
You would think Paul wrote this in November 2007. Fellow Christians caught up in these are to be treated differently from non Christians who are. Why is that? It is so that they may come to see that they damage the work and witness of the local church. See the language Paul uses because he believes in the local church and its witness - “not even to eat with such a one” - “drive out the wicked person from among you”.
What a challenge? We need to live in Godly fear - the fear of being called by almighty God to so great a Salvation only to fail Him. If we all lived in Godly fear - listening and obeying for God’s Word - living our lives in the power of the Spirit then this City with all its madness would know the difference.
Last week - the attempted murder of a brave police man in the presence of school children - the rape of an American girl - a young man after the evil venerating Halloween jumped off the bridge to his death. What can the church say to all that if she is flabby, indifferent, unconcerned, self centred and arrogant? What can such a church say - nothing - sadly!
So let us build a community of faith here that is vibrant. That is committed to God and to each other. Committed to the City and to the mission of Christ - that’s what a church should be like.
Who is you for that? By the grace of God I am! Are you?