Church Discipline - 1 Corinthians 5

Welcome back to our daily Bible reading. My name is Keith Foskey and I'm the pastor of Sovereign Grace Family Church. Today we're going to be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Now, if you didn't watch yesterday, I just want to remind you that we've changed our format a little bit.

Instead of reading the entire chapter to you, I'm only going to be making a few comments on some of the verses. I'm encouraging you to read the chapter on your own so that you are able to read it, look at it, and understand it.

In fact, I would encourage you, if you haven't read the chapter yet, pause the video now, go read the chapter, and then come back so that you can hear the comments after you've read it for yourself. And if you haven't been keeping up with us on our daily Bible reading, you can go to sgfcjacks .org and you can find our daily Bible reading there.

And you'll be able to download it on your mobile device or print it out and keep it with you so that you can keep up with our daily New Testament reading. We're reading through the books of the Bible of the New Testament in the order that we believe that they were written.

Paul’s Case Against the Corinthian Church

So, this morning we're going to be looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 5. This is a pivotal verse in 1 Corinthians, or a pivotal chapter, because herein Paul begins to lay out his case against the Corinthians.

He's already talked about the fact that there's divisions among them. He's already talked about the fact that there's been reports of problems that are coming out of the Corinthian church, and now he begins to address one specific sin.

Apparently there is a man in the church who has gone and had a relationship with his stepmother, and at least that's a way we would understand when it says his father's wife wouldn't be his mom but would probably be his stepmother.

And there has been an illicit relationship there, and the church has done nothing. In fact, it would seem as if when you read the text that they are actually somewhat proud of the fact that they have been tolerant, that they have not been judgmental, and Paul chastises them for not bringing the judgment that is very necessary in moments like this.

Leaven, Passover, and the Spread of Sin

And he even describes this as being like leaven that is still in the camp, or leaven that still needs to be cleaned out. And he reminds them of the Passover in verse 7. He talks about the fact that one of the things you do at Passover is you clean out all the leaven, and leaven would be used as an example of sin.

If you remember, Jesus talks about the leaven of the Pharisees, but where are the leaven of the Pharisees? And the reason why leaven often was used as an example of sin is because leaven has the ability to permeate and affect the entire lump of dough.

When you put leaven into a lump of dough, it causes the whole lump to rise. And that's the idea, is sin, when it's allowed to go unchecked in the camp, it is destructive because it begins to affect the entire camp.

It doesn't just stay in one spot, but it begins to spread and spread throughout until the whole group is affected. And this is why the church is called to enact something called church discipline. And church discipline is described in Matthew 18, where Jesus says, if a person sins against you, go to them and tell them their sin.

If they do not repent, then go and take two or three witnesses with you and try to encourage them to repent. If they still won't repent, take them before the church. And then, of course, the church has a responsibility of what we would call excommunication, or removing them from the body.

And you can go to Matthew 18, you can read about that, you can read what Jesus says. It's a very important thing, something a lot of churches do not want to practice because it is somewhat controversial.

In fact, not somewhat, it's very controversial. But at the same time, it's an important principle that the church needs to be following, and that is that if there is overt and unrepentant sin happening within the body, and it's something that is something that the person has been encouraged to repent of and they refuse to repent of, then that is a time when the church must act.

And Paul goes on to say that it is our job to do so. He says, now we're not supposed to be judging the sin that's outside of the world because, or outside in the world, because ultimately people in the world are going to sin.

And you can't expect an unsaved person to behave like a saved person. That's not going to happen. So, you know, just remember, wretch is going to wretch. That's a saying that I've been using for years.

You know, I don't get surprised when sin happens outside the church, but we should always be discouraged when we see overt, habitual, unrepentant sin happening within the church. And when it is happening within the church, the church has a responsibility to speak out against it.

The church has a responsibility to bring discipline, if necessary, up to and including removing a person from the church if it's necessary. This is never something that the church looks forward to. It's never something the church wants to do.

But it is an important process that the church must be willing to do. In fact, when John Calvin was describing how to understand the church and what makes the church, or a church, what are the things that are foundational for the church, there were three things that were necessary.

Calvin’s Marks of the Church

The first was the preaching of the gospel, the accurate preaching of the gospel. The second was the proper administration of the sacraments or the ordinances, baptism in the Lord's Supper. If those things are not present, then it's not a church.

If the gospel is not present, then it's not a church. But the third thing that Calvin would argue is that if discipline is not present, then it has ceased to be a church. And I know there's a lot of places today that call themselves churches that are not in any way practicing discipline, and we see what happens when sin is allowed to run rampant and unchecked, and Paul says it must not be.

He tells the Corinthian Church, he says, you need to deal with the sin that's in your midst. It's not something that's ever fun, but it is certainly something that is always necessary. I pray this has been helpful to you.

I pray this will be helpful in your understanding of today's text. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for this opportunity to look at this text together. I pray that it has been an encouragement to those who have listened, and I pray that they will have a better understanding of it as they go through it today.

In Jesus' name, amen. Now again, may the Lord bless you and keep you, and may he make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. And until we get to come back together again, I look forward to that day.

I say may the Lord bless you until we meet again. God bless.