1 Corinthians 5:1

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that has done this deed might be taken away from among you... deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

When the church isolates from the world but tolerates sin within, it loses both its witness and its way—Paul calls us back to mourning, purity, and restorative discipline.

Line Upon Line, Here a Little, There a Little

Almost five years ago I began teaching the book of Isaiah at the Bible college, going through all 66 chapters in about 14 weeks. When I first studied through it, I was struck by Isaiah 28:10. There Isaiah is accused by his hearers of being repetitive—his teaching was "precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little." In the Hebrew it reads even more like a broken record.

I found it interesting that the insult brought against Isaiah is descriptive of how we teach Scripture at Calvary Chapel. It is a distinctive of our movement that we teach line upon line, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. By doing so, you can be sure we don't miss anything. The problem is, we don't miss anything. There are difficult passages we can't dodge. We finished chapter 4 a couple weeks ago; if we jumped to chapter 8, you'd wonder what happened to 5, 6, and 7. Many churches and even our own personal reading skip right over hard texts.

Tighten Your Belt of Truth

You've probably noticed over recent months that each week feels like a one-two punch. There are a lot of heavy things in 1 Corinthians. As I study through these passages, I often think, "Miles, you need to lighten up a little." But week after week we get into heavier passages. So I'm prefacing what's coming. You might need to tighten your belt of truth, adjust the breastplate of righteousness, and fasten the helmet of salvation.

But know this: while the shield of faith defends well against the fiery darts of the wicked one, the word of God's truth goes right through that shield. You are completely defenseless to it. God's word is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts. I've been challenged in my thinking even though I've studied this before, and over the next several weeks it's going to challenge us.

Not of This World

A good decade ago it was common to see canvas bracelets with the letters WWJD—"What would Jesus do?" That concept actually started in the 1930s in a Christian book, but became very popular in the 90s. Beginning around 2001, another acronym overtook it: N-O-T-W, "Not of this world." You see it on shirts, hats, shoes, handbags, key chains, and even tattoos. Rarely a day passes without seeing a car flying by at eighty miles an hour proclaiming "Not of this world."

In John 18, on trial before Pilate, Jesus says His kingdom is not of this world. Just prior, in John 17, He prays His high priestly prayer for His disciples—and for us. In verse 14 He says:

I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from evil.

This is the primary place we get the phrase "in the world but not of it." While we are physically present in this world, we are not to partake of its practices nor be influenced by its values.

Isolation Breeds Toleration

The problem is that this idea has caused great bodies of the church throughout history to isolate themselves from the culture around them. They look at the world's sin and sickness and withdraw. But that is not what Jesus prayed. The heart of His prayer is in verse 15: "I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should protect them from evil." God does not want to remove us, because we are to be an influence upon this world.

In John 9:5 Jesus said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." He has called us to be lights as well. The Sermon on the Mount tells us this explicitly, and 1 Peter 2:9 says we are to proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

But when the church chooses isolation because of sin in the world, it quickly becomes too remote from those it was commissioned to reach. And usually, when the church isolates, it begins to tolerate sin within its own ranks. Trying to separate from the world's sin, they harbor sin inside the church and justify it because they are God's chosen people. Israel did the same thing throughout the Old Testament.

The church has an amazing knack for justifying sin within its ranks while pointing at the rest of the world: "That's wicked. That's sin. You're going to hell." Right after 9/11, when Pastor Eric, Rick Kirstead, Mark Cato, and I went to minister in New York City, we came upon men on the street with signs screaming "Repent! You're all going to hell!" That's often the world's perception of the church—full of hypocrites and condemning phonies. And that perception has come about because of our own actions.

A Sin Even Pagans Abhorred

Paul is confronting a church with just this problem. They had separated from the culture, yet tolerated sin within. We've already seen they divided into factious groups—an internal issue affecting their fellowship. But here in chapter 5 the issue is their witness in their culture, an external problem. The whole city knew of a commonly reported sin in their church—something even the people of Corinth looked down upon as wicked. And remember, Corinth was one of the most carnal cities of antiquity. When even a carnal, immoral people say "that's sick," there's a real problem.

The general problem: "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you." The word is porneia—sexual immorality. It covers all extramarital, premarital, or unnatural union: adultery, fornication, homosexuality, incest, bestiality. It also covers idolatrous worship of images and pornography.

The specific problem: "such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife." The word "named" is not really in the original; it could simply read "such fornication as is not among the Gentiles." The Old Testament law forbade this. Deuteronomy 22:30 says a man shall not take his father's wife. Deuteronomy 27:20 says, "Cursed is he that lies with his father's wife... and all the people shall say, Amen." The Roman statesman Cicero called such an incestuous act "an incredible and unheard of wickedness"—and he was a pagan. Yet the Corinthians condoned it.

This was not the man's biological mother but his stepmother, who apparently was not a believer—Paul addresses only the man, not the woman. Yet Paul sees no difference. This is sin, and it needed to be dealt with.

Puffed Up Instead of Mourning

Their response troubled Paul more than the sin itself. "And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned." Somehow they were proud of the whole issue. That the sin happened was incredible; that the church would boast about it is beyond understandable. He says they should have mourned—mourning as you would over a lost loved one, treating this man as lost to them because he is in unrepentant, open, willful sin, unaffected by conviction.

This echoes Isaiah 5:20: "Woe to those who call evil good... that put darkness for light." Perhaps the Corinthians believed their liberty in Christ allowed such behavior—that after becoming a Christian you can do anything you want, with anyone you want, because God is gracious. Far be it from us to think that, for Paul says in Romans 6, "Shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid."

But I think the real case is that they had fallen into the trap of seeing toleration as a mark of love. That is one of our issues today. We tolerate things thinking our toleration proves we are loving. We're constantly told that if we love someone we will tolerate—and we've substituted the word "accept" for "tolerate." Yet Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary, defining toleration, adds a note: "The law of love tolerates no vice." If you cringe when you hear that this man should be put out of the church, it's an indication that we've been more influenced by the culture of our world than by the values of the Bible.

The Punishment

In verses 3 through 5 Paul gives the punishment. "For I verily as absent in the body, but present in spirit, have judged already... concerning him that has done this deed." Even though not physically present, Paul has already passed the judgment they ought to be passing.

When we judge sin, we're often confronted with Jesus' words in Matthew 7, "Judge not, that you be not judged." But that is taken out of context. The context of Matthew 7:1–5 is that we first examine ourselves—first remove the beam from your own eye—and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Paul says the same in Galatians 6: when you restore one overtaken in sin, consider yourself, lest you also be tempted.

So Paul prescribes: the next time you gather together, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, "deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." Cast him out of the church, out from under the protection of the saints, and say, "God, whatever you need to do, do it." When the Corinthians received this, they weren't cheering. They probably expected Paul to praise their loving acceptance. Instead they got rebuke. This was a church that boasted about their agape feasts—which is why Paul had to define real agape love in chapter 13, because at those very feasts some were getting drunk and tolerating immorality.

Delivered to Satan for His Good

Why deliver him to Satan? Ultimately for his good and the good of the church. Paul did the same with Hymenaeus and Alexander in 1 Timothy 1:20, whom he "delivered unto Satan, that they would learn not to blaspheme." He said, "Lord, do whatever you need to do, even allowing the enemy against them, that they would be changed."

There are two ways to view "the destruction of the flesh." One, Paul means physical death, like Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Two, Paul means the destruction of the man's carnal, sinful nature—that he would reckon dead his old man. If he truly is a Christian, he ought to crucify this lifestyle. It doesn't matter if his flesh desires it or feels good in it; it's an abomination before God. I guarantee there are things in this room that God counts as sinful that our flesh likes—gluttony, for example. I won't go further or I'll get in trouble.

Paul was more concerned about the man's eternal well-being than his temporal feelings, and we need that perspective. We must be more concerned about a person's eternal state than how they feel in the moment. "That made me feel so bad." Good—repent!

A Little Leaven

In verse 6 Paul gives a picture: "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?" "Your glorying is not good" is the major understatement of 1 Corinthians. How terrible to boast about your spirituality while letting this go on. Even one person allowed to sin will soon affect the whole church.

It is essential that those given authority in the body be willing to execute it by rightly calling sin sin. In Lamentations 2, Jeremiah watched his nation go into captivity partly because false prophets failed to tell the people the truth. The illustration of leaven would have been obvious to Paul's readers, who baked bread daily. Yeast, activated by warmth, consumes the sugars around it and off-gases CO2, causing the dough to rise. A little yeast leavens the whole lump. Likewise, a little sin left within the church affects the whole body.

His prescription, verse 7: "Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened." Underline that—as ye are unleavened. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." We are new creations, not becoming new creations. Christ has dealt with the punishment of our sin and is dealing with its presence and power now, so we ought to live as new creations.

Christ Our Passover

"For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." We are unleavened because Jesus, the true Passover lamb, was sacrificed for us. In Exodus, when the Passover was instituted, Israel removed leaven from their households before partaking. There was a practical reason—they would leave Egypt with haste and have no time to leaven bread—but it looked forward to Jesus, who knew no sin yet became sin for us. The Passover lamb was without spot or blemish, without leaven, which in the Bible is a picture of sin. Therefore He extends His righteousness to us.

So, verse 8: "Let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." Lest they think He means literal yeast, Paul defines it as malice and wickedness. Jesus' disciples constantly misunderstood Him, thinking He spoke literally when He warned of the leaven of the Pharisees. The feast here is not Passover but the Lord's Supper. As in 1 Corinthians 11, when you come to communion, examine yourself so there is no leaven of malice or wickedness, but sincerity and truth.

The Principle: Whom to Separate From

Verse 9 gives the principle: "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators." Paul had written an earlier letter we do not have—so in reality our 1 Corinthians is his second letter, and 2 Corinthians his third. In that earlier letter he told them not to keep company with fornicators, but they misinterpreted and therefore misapplied it. This is important: we can misinterpret Scripture and so misapply it.

They thought he meant withdrawing from all the people of Corinth. But Paul says, "Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world." If we separated from all the immoral, covetous, thieving idolaters of the world, we'd have to check out entirely. We're surrounded daily by people whom the Bible classifies as sinners—acquaintances, coworkers, family members. They're not believers, so we cannot expect righteous living from unrighteous people. It shouldn't shock us when an unbelieving coworker undercuts us for a promotion. But it should shock us, and cause us to mourn, when we see such things in the church.

So-Called Brothers

So Paul adds an addendum in verse 11: "But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one, no not to eat." Notice "called a brother." Paul expects true brothers to walk differently. His implication is, "I don't think this man is a real believer." How could someone live in unrepentant, open, willful sin, unaffected by the conviction of the Holy Spirit? At best he is a Christian in name only—either deceived or a wolf in sheep's clothing.

These sins are unfitting for Christians. The covetous person is eager for selfish gain; greed dominates his life. The idolater mixes worship of false gods with Christianity. The railer is verbally abusive—incongruent with the faith. The drunkard is given to perpetual drunkenness. The extortioner is simply a thief. By the power of the Spirit, we are to put these things away.

Put Off the Old, Put On the New

We are to cut these things from our own lives. Ephesians 4 spells out what this looks like. Beginning at verse 17, Paul says walk no longer as the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind. Verse 22: put off the old man, corrupt according to deceitful lust; be renewed in the spirit of your mind; put on the new man, created in righteousness and true holiness.

Practically, verse 25: put away lying and speak truth. If you're a perpetual liar, stop—even if your stories become less exciting. Verse 26: "Be angry, and sin not"—be angry for the right reasons (read the Scripture) and react the right way (consider Jesus). Don't let the sun go down on your wrath, lest you give a foothold to the devil. Let him who stole steal no more, but labor and give. Let no corrupt communication come from your mouth, but that which ministers grace. If you struggle to speak kindly to your kids, spouse, or coworkers, use the theology of Thumper: if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all—then speak grace. Do not grieve the Spirit. Put away all bitterness, wrath, anger, and malice, and be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as Christ forgave you.

Separation for the Sake of Restoration

If a person called a brother walks continually in unrepentant, willful sin without conviction, Paul says "with such a one, no not to eat." In context that means the Lord's table—he is barred from communion and fellowship among the saints. But it also means you are not to have intimate, relational contact with him.

That is hard. Many say, "No, I need to reach out and be accepting to that person." But if they walk in unrepentant sin claiming to be a believer, separate from them. Perhaps that temporal separation will cause them to recognize how much they want fellowship with their brothers and sisters and with God, and they will repent. Would you rather be separated for eternity? They may not truly be a believer, so treat them as you would any unbeliever—evangelize them. "You're walking in sin. I don't think you're a Christian. Repent. Prove me wrong." I once told a man exactly that. He got angry and wanted to prove me wrong. Praise the Lord—I'm glad he did.

Separation is essential for the health of the church and ultimately for the restoration of the sinning individual. It was painful in the Old Testament when a leprous family member had to be told, "You can't come here anymore," lest all be infected. If sin is allowed to remain, it affects our worship, our work, and our witness.

God Judges Those Outside

We close with verse 12: "For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person." It is not Paul's responsibility to judge outsiders, but it is the church's responsibility to judge those within who sin in these ways. God will judge those outside.

The church needs to key into this. We constantly point the finger of judgment at the world—but God will judge them. Quoting Deuteronomy, Paul says, "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person." This is hard, but it is essential for the health of the sinning individual and for the church, because a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

A great picture of this is Achan in Joshua, who took something accursed from Jericho; because of sin in the camp, people died. May the Lord by His Holy Spirit purge from our lives anything that does not glorify Him, and purge from the church that which does not honor Him, that we would be a bride without spot or blemish, shining brightly to a dark world.

Closing Prayer

Father, Your Word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, and it cuts deep, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Lord, in hearing this, which is totally against the culture in which we live, we are challenged. But God, I pray that You by Your Spirit would cause us to meditate on these things, to identify in our lives anything that is not pleasing to You, that we would bring it before You and You would remove it. You said through the Apostle John, if we confess our sins, You are faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Would You purge from us this morning anything that is leaven, hindering us in our worship, our work, and our witness. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.