1 Corinthians 5 (Pt 4)

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 (ESV)

[12] For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? [13] God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

When dealing with serious sin in the lives of fellow believers 1 Corinthians 5 lays out four appropriate responses. The first response should be a broken heart on the part of the church. We should mourn sin. The second response should be to exercise accountability. We sometimes need to administer discipline. Third, the church needs to recommit to purity, sincerity, and truth. We need to recognize our own vulnerability to sin.

The fourth response to sin is to remember that we are not called to transform the world from the outside in. We need to remember that a commitment to purity does not negate our call to evangelism and discipleship. We are committed to purity within the body. We trust God's judgment outside the body. We continue to reach out. “I,” that’s the Apostle Paul. “Wrote to you,” that’s  the Corinthian believers. “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world” (1 Cor 5:9-10).

Too often we excuse sin in our midst because–well, after all, we’re all just sinners anyway. At the same time we criticize the World for being the World. Of course they are living together outside marriage; they are not believers. Of course they are excusing and even celebrating same-sex attraction; they are not believers. Of course they reject prayer and the Bible in public schools; they are not the Church. Of course they are greedy, or dishonest, or addicted to drugs or alcohol; they do not have the indwelling Holy Spirit. What do we expect? We are not a Christian country or a country of Christians. We live in a world and a culture ruled by brokenness and separation from God.

Unfortunately, our tendency has been to cut ourselves off from the very World God has called us to reach with the Good News of Jesus. At the same time, we excuse some of the very same sins in our own lives. We have this backward. We need to take sin seriously in our lives. We need to speak and live grace and truth to those outside. The fourth response to sin is to remember that we are not called to transform the world from the outside in, but from the inside out through the Gospel that changes hearts.