1 Corinth" 5 Brother (Lets get into it)

[Chris1975]

What can we learn from this?

1 Corinthians 5

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife!

• Paul was taken by surprise, that after having established this church planting, after having shared the Gospel, after praying over this church – that such a report comes back to his ears as to the conduct of some of the members in this body.
  
• For the church body is to be the body of Christ, in purity of conduct, and holiness.
• And yet we have the church involved in such things that surpass what even the unbelievers are doing.

[SUP]2 [/SUP]And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

• The godly response should be mourning. Being cut to the heart. Sorrow over this being done in the full sight of a Holy God. As representatives of Christ in a lost and dying world, the church engages in the very things for which they are to have come out of. Their witness to unbelievers has been compromised.
  
• Instead, they are puffed up. To be puffed up comes from a sense of pride. We are the “Church” – we have “Liberty” Yet they have used this liberty in the wrong way Galatians 5v13 [SUP]13 [/SUP]For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
• The godly response, from Paul’s chastening blow, was to remove this one from among you (from the church fellowship). Yet they have not done this.

[SUP]3 [/SUP]For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. [SUP]4 [/SUP]In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, [SUP]5 [/SUP]deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

• We in the church, have every right according to these principles laid down above, to judge those within the church (see 1 Cor 5v13 later in this chapter)
  
• And the judgement is severe. It’s handing this one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. We can see this in principle in the book of Job, and the authority that was granted by God to Satan for the destruction of the flesh: Job 2v7 [SUP]7 [/SUP]So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
• Yet the purpose for Job was to test Job (would Job, being a righteous man, turn on his Creator?) The purpose for the above chastening is the very opposite (would this 1 Corinthians 5 brother, being an unrighteous man, turn in repentance towards his Creator).
• The purpose for this chastisement by the church was as follows: To turn the heart of this person back to the Lord in repentance, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.
• No repentance would mean condemnation would remain. For he died in rebellion.
• Repentance would mean that although he would die in his flesh (possibly a sickness or disease), his eternal salvation would be secure on the Day of the Lord.

[SUP]6 [/SUP]Your glorying is not good.

• How on earth could they have been glorying?
  
• Was it that they were glorying in their liberty?
  
• Was it that they were glorying in the grace of God? Romans 5v20 [SUP]20 [/SUP]Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,
  
• Not themselves understanding Romans 6v1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? [SUP]2 [/SUP]Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

• Leaven is a yeast which by the addition of just a little amount, causes the dough to rise.
  
• Leaven in the bible is symbolic of sin.
  
• And we see the impact of this: 1 Corinthians 15v33 [SUP]33 [/SUP]Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” [SUP]34 [/SUP]Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
  
• Paul is warning here that the unaddressed issue of this Corinthian brother risks permeating the body of Christ in the church in Corinth.
  
• Are we not seeing that same things in today’s churches?

[SUP]7 [/SUP]Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.[SUP][c][/SUP] [SUP]8 [/SUP]Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

• During the Passover, the Jewish people celebrate with unleavened bread. This was symbolic that the Angel of Death passing over the Children of Israel required mainly two things (1) the blood of the lamb (which was symbolic of the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God); and (2) the eating of unleavened bread (which was symbolic of heart purity towards the Lord (no sin)
  
• Exodus 12v19 [SUP]19 [/SUP]For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger <Gentile> or a native <Jew> of the land.
• 2 Peter 3v8 [SUP]8 [/SUP]But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
• There have been 6 days (circa 6000 years since Adam) and 1 day left (1000 year millennial reign of Christ). For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses.
  
• Our God is a Holy God. His Standard has NEVER changed

[SUP]9 [/SUP]I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. [SUP]10 [/SUP]Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
[SUP]11 [/SUP]But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.

• So here we have Paul making a distinction. We are to reach out to the lost. Jesus was found ministering to tax collectors and sinners.
  
• Yet we are not to keep company with those in the church who practise such things.
  
• A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
  
• So, church, where is the scope for unrepentant sin amongst your members?

[SUP]12 [/SUP]For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? [SUP]13 [/SUP]But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”[SUP][d][/SUP]

• As a church member who is part of the body of Christ, we are to judge those within the body of Christ who are participating in sin.
  
• How then are we to judge?
  
• Matthew 7v1-5 “Judge not, that you be not judged. [SUP]2 [/SUP]For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. [SUP]3 [/SUP]And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? [SUP]4 [/SUP]Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? [SUP]5 [/SUP]Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
  
• This is the standard for judging – to judge without Hypocrisy. It means we cannot judge a brother in Christ if we ourselves are bound by sins. Those who pass judgement are themselves to do so only from a clean conscience.
• This is why Jesus could address those who brought the woman caught in adultery: John 8v7-9a [SUP]7 [/SUP]So when they <scribes and Pharisees> continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” [SUP]8 [/SUP]And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. [SUP]9 [/SUP]Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience,[SUP][h][/SUP] went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.
  
• So we have an interesting insight, because according to the Law a woman caught in adultery was to be put to death Leviticus 20v10 [SUP]10 [/SUP]‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.
• Were the scribes and Pharisees not within their rights to stone this adulteress? “Yes” But they were Hypocrites, doing the very things they accuse others of: Matthew 23v13. Also see Romans 2v1.
• Therefore come before God with a clean conscience. And warn the brother who is in sin: James 5v19-20 [SUP]19 [/SUP]Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, [SUP]20 [/SUP]let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
• Now from the above, you can see how this is done in the right way before the Lord, with clean hands and a pure heart.
• Ezekiel 33v8-9 [SUP]8 [/SUP]When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. [SUP]9 [/SUP]Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
  
• Therefore if the evil person will not repent, put him away from your fellowship (verse 13). Therefore, once again, no scope for unrepentant sin in the fellowship of the body of Christ.

The Following Letter (A sequel)

2 Corinthians 2
1 But I determined this within myself, that I would not come again to you in sorrow. [SUP]2 [/SUP]For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?

• Paul’s focus is not on pleasing man, but in pleasing God. Galatians 1v10 [SUP]10 [/SUP]For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
  
• Paul determined that by the sternness of his rebuke, repentance would be wrought. This would bring gladness to him, knowing that they were made sorrowful for their conduct. For Paul knew that godly sorrow produces repentance (2 Cor 7v10)
  

[SUP]3 [/SUP]And I wrote this very thing to you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. [SUP]4 [/SUP]For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. [SUP]5 [/SUP]But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent—not to be too severe.
[SUP]6 [/SUP]This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, [SUP]7 [/SUP]so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. [SUP]8 [/SUP]Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.

• It seems the brother in 1 Corinthians 5 took the road of repentance (if we can infer from this passage that Paul received interim feedback from the church at Corinth about this man).
  
• For we know the heart of the Lord, and He desires mercy and not sacrifice (Hosea 6v6; and Matthew 9v13 [SUP]13 [/SUP]But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’[SUP][b][/SUP] For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
  
• And if such repentance is granted by the Lord 2 Timothy 2v25-26 [SUP]25 [/SUP]in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, [SUP]26 [/SUP]and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil <also see Hebrews 12v1>, having been taken captive by him to do his will <also see Romans 6v16>.
  
• And the corresponding response to the Church is to welcome this one back in love and forgiveness. It is always predicated on repentance, and never an overlooking of the sin.

[SUP]9 [/SUP]For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things.

• Would the church at Corinth heed Paul’s instruction? Would they purge out the leaven from the lump as in 1 Corinthians 5v7?
  
• Would the church take this matter seriously, or simply overlook this?
  
• This, according to Paul, was his test of their obedience.
  

[SUP]10 [/SUP]Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, [SUP]11 [/SUP]lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

• Just as Paul judged in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 5v3) the brother who had done such a thing, he now restores in the presence of Christ (2 Corinthians 2v10).
  

2 Corinthians 7
[SUP]8 [/SUP]For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. [SUP]9 [/SUP]Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. [SUP]10 [/SUP]For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

• Paul is dealing here with the disobedience of the church for not having dealt with the leaven in their midst (as per the first letter), and now in the second letter he is dealing with the churches response (in repentance)
  
• Godly sorrow produces repentance (church are you seeing this?)
  
• Repentance produces a change in mind and behaviour (obedience)
  
• By implication – obedience leads to eternal life.
  
• Worldly sorrow produces death
  
• Worldly sorrow does not lead to a change in mind or behaviour (continued disobedience).
  
• By implication – Disobedience leads to Eternal torment (for the wages of sin is death)

[SUP]11 [/SUP]For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

• The Godly sorrow produced repentance which resulted in vindication.
  
• Vindication (Def): To be absolved from guilt / Justified.
  
• And we know that their response (works) was in faith, because James proves this as follows: James 2v24 [SUP]24 [/SUP]You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
  

[SUP]12 [/SUP]Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.

• At the end, Paul sums it up as such – it was written for the edification of the church in Corinth as a whole, and by implication (since we have the letters today in what we call the Bible), for the Edification of the Body of Christ globally.

 

[Meggido]

What can we learn from this?

1 Corinthians 5

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife!

• Paul was taken by surprise, that after having established this church planting, after having shared the Gospel, after praying over this church – that such a report comes back to his ears as to the conduct of some of the members in this body.
  
• For the church body is to be the body of Christ, in purity of conduct, and holiness.
• And yet we have the church involved in such things that surpass what even the unbelievers are doing.

[SUP]2 [/SUP]And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

• The godly response should be mourning. Being cut to the heart. Sorrow over this being done in the full sight of a Holy God. As representatives of Christ in a lost and dying world, the church engages in the very things for which they are to have come out of. Their witness to unbelievers has been compromised.
  
• Instead, they are puffed up. To be puffed up comes from a sense of pride. We are the “Church” – we have “Liberty” Yet they have used this liberty in the wrong way Galatians 5v13 [SUP]13 [/SUP]For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
• The godly response, from Paul’s chastening blow, was to remove this one from among you (from the church fellowship). Yet they have not done this.

[SUP]3 [/SUP]For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. [SUP]4 [/SUP]In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, [SUP]5 [/SUP]deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

• We in the church, have every right according to these principles laid down above, to judge those within the church (see 1 Cor 5v13 later in this chapter)
  
• And the judgement is severe. It’s handing this one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. We can see this in principle in the book of Job, and the authority that was granted by God to Satan for the destruction of the flesh: Job 2v7 [SUP]7 [/SUP]So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
• Yet the purpose for Job was to test Job (would Job, being a righteous man, turn on his Creator?) The purpose for the above chastening is the very opposite (would this 1 Corinthians 5 brother, being an unrighteous man, turn in repentance towards his Creator).
• The purpose for this chastisement by the church was as follows: To turn the heart of this person back to the Lord in repentance, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.
• No repentance would mean condemnation would remain. For he died in rebellion.
• Repentance would mean that although he would die in his flesh (possibly a sickness or disease), his eternal salvation would be secure on the Day of the Lord.

[SUP]6 [/SUP]Your glorying is not good.

• How on earth could they have been glorying?
  
• Was it that they were glorying in their liberty?
  
• Was it that they were glorying in the grace of God? Romans 5v20 [SUP]20 [/SUP]Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,
  
• Not themselves understanding Romans 6v1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? [SUP]2 [/SUP]Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

• Leaven is a yeast which by the addition of just a little amount, causes the dough to rise.
  
• Leaven in the bible is symbolic of sin.
  
• And we see the impact of this: 1 Corinthians 15v33 [SUP]33 [/SUP]Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” [SUP]34 [/SUP]Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
  
• Paul is warning here that the unaddressed issue of this Corinthian brother risks permeating the body of Christ in the church in Corinth.
  
• Are we not seeing that same things in today’s churches?

[SUP]7 [/SUP]Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.[SUP][c][/SUP] [SUP]8 [/SUP]Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

• During the Passover, the Jewish people celebrate with unleavened bread. This was symbolic that the Angel of Death passing over the Children of Israel required mainly two things (1) the blood of the lamb (which was symbolic of the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God); and (2) the eating of unleavened bread (which was symbolic of heart purity towards the Lord (no sin)
  
• Exodus 12v19 [SUP]19 [/SUP]For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger <Gentile> or a native <Jew> of the land.
• 2 Peter 3v8 [SUP]8 [/SUP]But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
• There have been 6 days (circa 6000 years since Adam) and 1 day left (1000 year millennial reign of Christ). For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses.
  
• Our God is a Holy God. His Standard has NEVER changed

[SUP]9 [/SUP]I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. [SUP]10 [/SUP]Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
[SUP]11 [/SUP]But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.

• So here we have Paul making a distinction. We are to reach out to the lost. Jesus was found ministering to tax collectors and sinners.
  
• Yet we are not to keep company with those in the church who practise such things.
  
• A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
  
• So, church, where is the scope for unrepentant sin amongst your members?

[SUP]12 [/SUP]For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? [SUP]13 [/SUP]But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”[SUP][d][/SUP]

• As a church member who is part of the body of Christ, we are to judge those within the body of Christ who are participating in sin.
  
• How then are we to judge?
  
• Matthew 7v1-5 “Judge not, that you be not judged. [SUP]2 [/SUP]For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. [SUP]3 [/SUP]And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? [SUP]4 [/SUP]Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? [SUP]5 [/SUP]Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
  
• This is the standard for judging – to judge without Hypocrisy. It means we cannot judge a brother in Christ if we ourselves are bound by sins. Those who pass judgement are themselves to do so only from a clean conscience.
• This is why Jesus could address those who brought the woman caught in adultery: John 8v7-9a [SUP]7 [/SUP]So when they <scribes and Pharisees> continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” [SUP]8 [/SUP]And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. [SUP]9 [/SUP]Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience,[SUP][h][/SUP] went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.
  
• So we have an interesting insight, because according to the Law a woman caught in adultery was to be put to death Leviticus 20v10 [SUP]10 [/SUP]‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.
• Were the scribes and Pharisees not within their rights to stone this adulteress? “Yes” But they were Hypocrites, doing the very things they accuse others of: Matthew 23v13. Also see Romans 2v1.
• Therefore come before God with a clean conscience. And warn the brother who is in sin: James 5v19-20 [SUP]19 [/SUP]Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, [SUP]20 [/SUP]let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
• Now from the above, you can see how this is done in the right way before the Lord, with clean hands and a pure heart.
• Ezekiel 33v8-9 [SUP]8 [/SUP]When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. [SUP]9 [/SUP]Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
  
• Therefore if the evil person will not repent, put him away from your fellowship (verse 13). Therefore, once again, no scope for unrepentant sin in the fellowship of the body of Christ.

The Following Letter (A sequel)

2 Corinthians 2
1 But I determined this within myself, that I would not come again to you in sorrow. [SUP]2 [/SUP]For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?

• Paul’s focus is not on pleasing man, but in pleasing God. Galatians 1v10 [SUP]10 [/SUP]For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
  
• Paul determined that by the sternness of his rebuke, repentance would be wrought. This would bring gladness to him, knowing that they were made sorrowful for their conduct. For Paul knew that godly sorrow produces repentance (2 Cor 7v10)
  

[SUP]3 [/SUP]And I wrote this very thing to you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. [SUP]4 [/SUP]For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. [SUP]5 [/SUP]But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent—not to be too severe.
[SUP]6 [/SUP]This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, [SUP]7 [/SUP]so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. [SUP]8 [/SUP]Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.

• It seems the brother in 1 Corinthians 5 took the road of repentance (if we can infer from this passage that Paul received interim feedback from the church at Corinth about this man).
  
• For we know the heart of the Lord, and He desires mercy and not sacrifice (Hosea 6v6; and Matthew 9v13 [SUP]13 [/SUP]But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’[SUP][b][/SUP] For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
  
• And if such repentance is granted by the Lord 2 Timothy 2v25-26 [SUP]25 [/SUP]in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, [SUP]26 [/SUP]and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil <also see Hebrews 12v1>, having been taken captive by him to do his will <also see Romans 6v16>.
  
• And the corresponding response to the Church is to welcome this one back in love and forgiveness. It is always predicated on repentance, and never an overlooking of the sin.

[SUP]9 [/SUP]For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things.

• Would the church at Corinth heed Paul’s instruction? Would they purge out the leaven from the lump as in 1 Corinthians 5v7?
  
• Would the church take this matter seriously, or simply overlook this?
  
• This, according to Paul, was his test of their obedience.
  

[SUP]10 [/SUP]Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, [SUP]11 [/SUP]lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

• Just as Paul judged in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 5v3) the brother who had done such a thing, he now restores in the presence of Christ (2 Corinthians 2v10).
  

2 Corinthians 7
[SUP]8 [/SUP]For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. [SUP]9 [/SUP]Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. [SUP]10 [/SUP]For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

• Paul is dealing here with the disobedience of the church for not having dealt with the leaven in their midst (as per the first letter), and now in the second letter he is dealing with the churches response (in repentance)
  
• Godly sorrow produces repentance (church are you seeing this?)
  
• Repentance produces a change in mind and behaviour (obedience)
  
• By implication – obedience leads to eternal life.
  
• Worldly sorrow produces death
  
• Worldly sorrow does not lead to a change in mind or behaviour (continued disobedience).
  
• By implication – Disobedience leads to Eternal torment (for the wages of sin is death)

[SUP]11 [/SUP]For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

• The Godly sorrow produced repentance which resulted in vindication.
  
• Vindication (Def): To be absolved from guilt / Justified.
  
• And we know that their response (works) was in faith, because James proves this as follows: James 2v24 [SUP]24 [/SUP]You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
  

[SUP]12 [/SUP]Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.

• At the end, Paul sums it up as such – it was written for the edification of the church in Corinth as a whole, and by implication (since we have the letters today in what we call the Bible), for the Edification of the Body of Christ globally.

CHRIS,
Honest question.

How do we reconcile this account with Church Discipline that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 18.15-18

[SUP]15 [/SUP]“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. [SUP]16 [/SUP]But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. [SUP]17 [/SUP]If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. [SUP]18 [/SUP]Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

 

[BeyondET]

Well I guess a church can throw these folks who are doing stuff in church out of church, then go hang out with them,

 

[Chris1975]

CHRIS,
Honest question.

How do we reconcile this account with Church Discipline that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 18.15-18

[SUP]15 [/SUP]“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. [SUP]16 [/SUP]But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. [SUP]17 [/SUP]If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. [SUP]18 [/SUP]Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.

OK, let's look at the words used, as its straightforward:

Matthew 18
[SUP]15 [/SUP]“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. [SUP]16 [/SUP]But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’[SUP][b][/SUP] [SUP]17 [/SUP]And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.


- if your brother sins against you (personally) then there is a way and method for dealing with this through the church (as opposed to taking one another to court).
- prior to this point being reached, the church wasn't aware of the situation. It was between brother and brother in this instance.
- the outcome of all of this was that should this brother not hear them (and by implication this includes heeding) then the they were to be ex-communicated.


Now let's compare the situation to what we see in the 1 Cor 5 church.

- what this brother was doing was done in full view of the church.
- neither had it been addressed, nor did it look like it was going to be addressed.
- in fact, it says the church was "puffed up". Total disregard for God's holy commandment (for this is what Pride is - a disregard for God's laws)
- the report of this even made its way to Paul's ears. So no real secret amongst the body of Christ.
- this chapter is more a rebuke of the church in Corinth itself (by implication the leadership), than what it is about the behaviour of this one person.
- If the Church had dealt with the matter upfront, as the words of Jesus indicated in Matthew 18, or at least when it came to their attention, it would have not come to this very grave approach.
- but the leadership, through their complacency and tolerance, lost their authority to now execute judgement. "You overlooked it for all of these months, but now you are so high and mighty to come and judge me" - could be the response from that sinner.
- Paul took authority by the Spirit and executed this judgement over this man, and did this though the church in Corinth.

 

[valiant]

What can we learn from this?

1 Corinthians 5

1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife!

• Paul was taken by surprise, that after having established this church planting, after having shared the Gospel, after praying over this church – that such a report comes back to his ears as to the conduct of some of the members in this body.
  
• For the church body is to be the body of Christ, in purity of conduct, and holiness.
• And yet we have the church involved in such things that surpass what even the unbelievers are doing.

[SUP]2 [/SUP]And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.

• The godly response should be mourning. Being cut to the heart. Sorrow over this being done in the full sight of a Holy God. As representatives of Christ in a lost and dying world, the church engages in the very things for which they are to have come out of. Their witness to unbelievers has been compromised.
  
• Instead, they are puffed up. To be puffed up comes from a sense of pride. We are the “Church” – we have “Liberty” Yet they have used this liberty in the wrong way Galatians 5v13 [SUP]13 [/SUP]For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
• The godly response, from Paul’s chastening blow, was to remove this one from among you (from the church fellowship). Yet they have not done this.

[SUP]3 [/SUP]For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. [SUP]4 [/SUP]In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, [SUP]5 [/SUP]deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

• We in the church, have every right according to these principles laid down above, to judge those within the church (see 1 Cor 5v13 later in this chapter)
  
• And the judgement is severe. It’s handing this one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. We can see this in principle in the book of Job, and the authority that was granted by God to Satan for the destruction of the flesh: Job 2v7 [SUP]7 [/SUP]So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.
• Yet the purpose for Job was to test Job (would Job, being a righteous man, turn on his Creator?) The purpose for the above chastening is the very opposite (would this 1 Corinthians 5 brother, being an unrighteous man, turn in repentance towards his Creator).
• The purpose for this chastisement by the church was as follows: To turn the heart of this person back to the Lord in repentance, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.
• No repentance would mean condemnation would remain. For he died in rebellion.
• Repentance would mean that although he would die in his flesh (possibly a sickness or disease), his eternal salvation would be secure on the Day of the Lord.

[SUP]6 [/SUP]Your glorying is not good.

• How on earth could they have been glorying?
  
• Was it that they were glorying in their liberty?
  
• Was it that they were glorying in the grace of God? Romans 5v20 [SUP]20 [/SUP]Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,
  
• Not themselves understanding Romans 6v1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? [SUP]2 [/SUP]Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

• Leaven is a yeast which by the addition of just a little amount, causes the dough to rise.
  
• Leaven in the bible is symbolic of sin.
  
• And we see the impact of this: 1 Corinthians 15v33 [SUP]33 [/SUP]Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” [SUP]34 [/SUP]Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
  
• Paul is warning here that the unaddressed issue of this Corinthian brother risks permeating the body of Christ in the church in Corinth.
  
• Are we not seeing that same things in today’s churches?

[SUP]7 [/SUP]Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.[SUP][c][/SUP] [SUP]8 [/SUP]Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

• During the Passover, the Jewish people celebrate with unleavened bread. This was symbolic that the Angel of Death passing over the Children of Israel required mainly two things (1) the blood of the lamb (which was symbolic of the death of Jesus, the Lamb of God); and (2) the eating of unleavened bread (which was symbolic of heart purity towards the Lord (no sin)
  
• Exodus 12v19 [SUP]19 [/SUP]For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses, since whoever eats what is leavened, that same person shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger <Gentile> or a native <Jew> of the land.
• 2 Peter 3v8 [SUP]8 [/SUP]But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
• There have been 6 days (circa 6000 years since Adam) and 1 day left (1000 year millennial reign of Christ). For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses.
  
• Our God is a Holy God. His Standard has NEVER changed

[SUP]9 [/SUP]I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. [SUP]10 [/SUP]Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
[SUP]11 [/SUP]But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.

• So here we have Paul making a distinction. We are to reach out to the lost. Jesus was found ministering to tax collectors and sinners.
  
• Yet we are not to keep company with those in the church who practise such things.
  
• A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
  
• So, church, where is the scope for unrepentant sin amongst your members?

[SUP]12 [/SUP]For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? [SUP]13 [/SUP]But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”[SUP][d][/SUP]

• As a church member who is part of the body of Christ, we are to judge those within the body of Christ who are participating in sin.
  
• How then are we to judge?
  
• Matthew 7v1-5 “Judge not, that you be not judged. [SUP]2 [/SUP]For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. [SUP]3 [/SUP]And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? [SUP]4 [/SUP]Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? [SUP]5 [/SUP]Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
  
• This is the standard for judging – to judge without Hypocrisy. It means we cannot judge a brother in Christ if we ourselves are bound by sins. Those who pass judgement are themselves to do so only from a clean conscience.
• This is why Jesus could address those who brought the woman caught in adultery: John 8v7-9a [SUP]7 [/SUP]So when they <scribes and Pharisees> continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” [SUP]8 [/SUP]And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. [SUP]9 [/SUP]Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience,[SUP][h][/SUP] went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last.
  
• So we have an interesting insight, because according to the Law a woman caught in adultery was to be put to death Leviticus 20v10 [SUP]10 [/SUP]‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death.
• Were the scribes and Pharisees not within their rights to stone this adulteress? “Yes” But they were Hypocrites, doing the very things they accuse others of: Matthew 23v13. Also see Romans 2v1.
• Therefore come before God with a clean conscience. And warn the brother who is in sin: James 5v19-20 [SUP]19 [/SUP]Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, [SUP]20 [/SUP]let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
• Now from the above, you can see how this is done in the right way before the Lord, with clean hands and a pure heart.
• Ezekiel 33v8-9 [SUP]8 [/SUP]When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. [SUP]9 [/SUP]Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.
  
• Therefore if the evil person will not repent, put him away from your fellowship (verse 13). Therefore, once again, no scope for unrepentant sin in the fellowship of the body of Christ.

The Following Letter (A sequel)

2 Corinthians 2
1 But I determined this within myself, that I would not come again to you in sorrow. [SUP]2 [/SUP]For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?

• Paul’s focus is not on pleasing man, but in pleasing God. Galatians 1v10 [SUP]10 [/SUP]For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
  
• Paul determined that by the sternness of his rebuke, repentance would be wrought. This would bring gladness to him, knowing that they were made sorrowful for their conduct. For Paul knew that godly sorrow produces repentance (2 Cor 7v10)
  

[SUP]3 [/SUP]And I wrote this very thing to you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. [SUP]4 [/SUP]For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. [SUP]5 [/SUP]But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent—not to be too severe.
[SUP]6 [/SUP]This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, [SUP]7 [/SUP]so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. [SUP]8 [/SUP]Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.

• It seems the brother in 1 Corinthians 5 took the road of repentance (if we can infer from this passage that Paul received interim feedback from the church at Corinth about this man).
  
• For we know the heart of the Lord, and He desires mercy and not sacrifice (Hosea 6v6; and Matthew 9v13 [SUP]13 [/SUP]But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’[SUP][b][/SUP] For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
  
• And if such repentance is granted by the Lord 2 Timothy 2v25-26 [SUP]25 [/SUP]in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, [SUP]26 [/SUP]and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil <also see Hebrews 12v1>, having been taken captive by him to do his will <also see Romans 6v16>.
  
• And the corresponding response to the Church is to welcome this one back in love and forgiveness. It is always predicated on repentance, and never an overlooking of the sin.

[SUP]9 [/SUP]For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things.

• Would the church at Corinth heed Paul’s instruction? Would they purge out the leaven from the lump as in 1 Corinthians 5v7?
  
• Would the church take this matter seriously, or simply overlook this?
  
• This, according to Paul, was his test of their obedience.
  

[SUP]10 [/SUP]Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, [SUP]11 [/SUP]lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

• Just as Paul judged in the Spirit (1 Corinthians 5v3) the brother who had done such a thing, he now restores in the presence of Christ (2 Corinthians 2v10).
  

2 Corinthians 7
[SUP]8 [/SUP]For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. [SUP]9 [/SUP]Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. [SUP]10 [/SUP]For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

• Paul is dealing here with the disobedience of the church for not having dealt with the leaven in their midst (as per the first letter), and now in the second letter he is dealing with the churches response (in repentance)
  
• Godly sorrow produces repentance (church are you seeing this?)
  
• Repentance produces a change in mind and behaviour (obedience)
  
• By implication – obedience leads to eternal life.
  
• Worldly sorrow produces death
  
• Worldly sorrow does not lead to a change in mind or behaviour (continued disobedience).
  
• By implication – Disobedience leads to Eternal torment (for the wages of sin is death)

[SUP]11 [/SUP]For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

• The Godly sorrow produced repentance which resulted in vindication.
  
• Vindication (Def): To be absolved from guilt / Justified.
  
• And we know that their response (works) was in faith, because James proves this as follows: James 2v24 [SUP]24 [/SUP]You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
  

[SUP]12 [/SUP]Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.

• At the end, Paul sums it up as such – it was written for the edification of the church in Corinth as a whole, and by implication (since we have the letters today in what we call the Bible), for the Edification of the Body of Christ globally.

Snore!! ...........