A Church Set Free to Live Out Holiness (1 Corinthians 5)

Introduction

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul confronts a church that tolerates within it an immorality that even unbelievers would find unacceptable: a man is living with his father's wife, and no one in Corinth seems troubled by it. Paul's response is not a moral lecture, it is a reminder of identity. We are the people God has set free from sin through the sacrifice of his Son. And because we have this new identity, we are called to purify ourselves of the leftovers of our former slavery, even if it means taking radical steps as a church. Church discipline is not a punishment: it is an act of love for the sinner, for the assembly, and for the world.

Sermon Outline

1. Our identity always guides our behavior

• In 1 Corinthians 5 and 6, Paul keeps returning to the same question: "Don't you know?" In other words: do you know who you are?
• During a tournament or a World Cup, some people change their jersey, their schedule, their mood. Why? Because of their identity. Our identity always guides our behavior.
• The problem with the Corinthian church is that it tolerates things it should never tolerate, because it has forgotten who it is.
• This morning, we're going to talk about the link between our identity, sin, and church discipline. The word alone can sound off-putting, and yet the health of the church, the credibility of our mission, and the reputation of Jesus are at stake.

2. We are no longer the same batch of dough (v. 6-8)

• Paul points the Corinthians back to Passover: when it was time to leave Egypt, the Israelites had to leave everything in a hurry, with no time to let the bread rise. Leaven remained associated with the old life they were leaving behind.
• Every year, Jewish families would clean their homes to remove every trace of leaven: this is the image Paul picks up. "Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened" (v. 7).
• In the Christian life, the indicative precedes the imperative: what we are determines what we must do, and never the other way around. You are already pure, free, saved from judgment, no longer slaves, so get rid of the rotten leftovers.
• The Corinthians' problem is that they have too small a view of salvation: they see it as a new philosophy or a form of personal development. Paul says no: it is God's dazzling intervention to set a people free.
• Jason's illustration: his daughters open a bag of flour and find worms in it. No one says "we've already eaten some without dying, let's take a bit more out of the trash." You throw it out and buy a new bag. Nobody does that with flour, so why do we do it with sin?

3. Excluding out of love for the unrepentant sinner (v. 1-5)

• Paul does not ask that this man be excluded because he sinned (we all sin), nor because he struggles with a sin without overcoming it, nor even because his sin is especially serious. He must be excluded because he is living in sin without wanting to leave it, without repentance.
• The mark of authentic conversion is repentance. Exclusion becomes necessary when someone persists in sin in a way that contradicts, that invalidates, their profession of faith.
• In Matthew 18, Jesus describes the prior steps: first one-on-one, then with one or two others, then with the church, and only if the person still refuses, exclusion. At every step, the goal is repentance, involving as few people as possible.
• "Deliver such a one to Satan" (v. 5) means to stop treating him as a member of God's family, so that he goes all the way to the end of his sin, realizes how horrible it is, and understands that he needs a Savior. If someone has a fatal illness, it is not loving to tell them they are healed.
• Paul is speaking to the whole church, not just its leaders. The holiness of the assembly is everyone's business.

4. Excluding out of love for the church : a little leaven (v. 6-8)

• "Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" A tiny pinch is enough to affect the entire batch. It's the same in the church.
• Tolerating unrepentance risks contaminating the whole community. If we let someone persist stubbornly in sin while God is inviting them to change, we send the message that it's okay. When it is not okay.
• God cares too much about his people to let them sink because complacency has replaced repentance.
• Be careful not to confuse grace with something that superficially resembles it: complacency. "I know I'm doing wrong, but God forgives, he accepts me as I am." It's true that he accepts us as we are, but his salvation is too great to leave us as we are.

5. Excluding out of love for the world (v. 9-13)

• Being a church does not mean being a ghetto: "We're the pure ones, the people outside, ew, we want nothing to do with them." That may not have been far from the Corinthians' attitude. The exact opposite is what we should pursue.
• The church must be in the world without being of the world. Jason's image: we are the crew of a lifeboat sent to rescue those who are drowning. To accomplish the mission, the lifeboat must be in the sea, but the sea must not be in the lifeboat. If someone opens the portholes to let water in and sink the boat, they must be excluded from the crew.
• The world needs a church that genuinely lives out its salvation, and therefore pursues holiness. As strange as it may sound, the world needs a church that practices discipline, so that it is clear that God's true salvation is a salvation from sin, for freedom and holiness, a liberation found nowhere else.
• The first thing to do if I care about the church is not to nitpick at my neighbor's faults: it's to look in the mirror and remove the log from my own eye. Only then, humbly, can I approach my brother.

Key Takeaways

• Our identity always guides our behavior. The Corinthian church tolerates what it should not tolerate because it has forgotten who it is.
• In the Christian life, the indicative precedes the imperative: because God has set you free, get rid of the leftovers of your former slavery.
• Grace is not complacency. God accepts us as we are, but his salvation is too great to leave us as we are.
• Church discipline is a last resort, applied not to the Christian who struggles but to the one who refuses to repent. It is an act of love for the sinner, for the church, and for the world.
• The role of the church is not to be a moralizing ghetto, but a lifeboat in the sea, in the world without being of the world.

Personal Application

1. If someone asked you today what your church is, what would you say? A tradition, a Sunday morning club, a group of friends, or the people God redeemed by the blood of his Son for holiness and for mission?
2. Is there a "rotten leftover" from your former slavery in your life that you tolerate as if it were normal, telling yourself "God forgives, he accepts me as I am"?
3. Do you attend church as a spectator, or as a participant in the salvation God wants to work in you?
4. Are you willing to listen to a brother or sister who, out of love, would come to point out something in your life that needs correcting? And out of love, would you be willing to do the same for him or her?
5. Does your attitude toward those outside the church look more like moralizing judgment or like the compassion of someone who has received salvation by pure grace and wants to share it?

Scripture References

• 1 Corinthians 5 (central passage)
• 1 Corinthians 6:2-3
• 1 Corinthians 6:15, 19
• Exodus 12 (Passover and unleavened bread)
• Matthew 18:15-17
• 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 (restoration after repentance)

Further reading

• 20 Verses on the Unity of the Church
• Bible Verses on Leadership: 25 Biblical Texts
• 25 Bible Verses About Wisdom and Decision-Making

Frequently Asked Questions

Doesn't church discipline go against grace and love?

No, on the contrary, it is an expression of them. Paul clearly says that "delivering such a one to Satan" (v. 5) has the purpose that "his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." If someone has a fatal illness, it is not loving to tell them they are healed: love means telling them they still need treatment. Church discipline simply stops giving an unrepentant sinner the false assurance that he belongs to God's people while his way of life invalidates his profession of faith. It aims at repentance and restoration, as shown in 2 Corinthians 2 with the reinstatement of the disciplined man.

Should every Christian who sins be excluded from the church?

Certainly not. Paul does not ask that this man be excluded because he sinned (we all sin. Nor because he struggles with a sin without overcoming it), for now, we all struggle. Nor even because his sin is especially serious. He must be excluded because he is living in sin without wanting to leave it, without repentance, in a way that publicly invalidates his profession of faith. Exclusion is always a last resort, preceded by the steps of Matthew 18 (approaching one-on-one, then with one or two others, then with the church), and at every step the goal is repentance.

How can the church avoid becoming a moralizing ghetto?

By remembering that we are God's people sent to rescue those who are drowning, not a club of the pure. The church must be in the world without being of the world: the lifeboat must be in the sea to bring back the shipwrecked, but the sea must not be in the lifeboat. Discipline is exercised within the church (Paul says this explicitly in v. 12: it is not those outside that we are to judge, but those inside), and it is motivated by compassion for a world that needs to see that true salvation exists. Before looking at my brother, I must first remove the log from my own eye.