Thread: I Corinthians 5
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Old 07-23-2009, 09:16 AM
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PaulB PaulB is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: The Northwest of England
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Default 1 Corinthians 5

Hello again Amanda / Steve – you two always have a knack of making me hunger to turn to the Scriptures because of the way in which your sincere hunger comes through your posts!

Steve – I also agree with what you have said and the manner in which you have approached the subject.

Concerning your question Amanda it is a very good one! Where does a church draw the line or how is it possible to judge between the average church member concerning their private sins?

Here are my immediate thoughts on the chapter after just studying it (following a very long day at work!)

I think that a key point of the chapter is brought to attention right in the middle of it:

V6 “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:”

What this man had done was effecting the entire assembly and in such a way that its witness would have been ruined for good the “salt” was in danger of loosing its saviour!
Our Lord Jesus Himself also warned the disciples to:

Lk.12:1 “In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

I believe that the danger spoken of here is the open willingness to tolerate known sin. The Corinthians were boasting in what had happened in their congregation and if it was not something that the world had knowledge of, it wasn’t far from being their public shame (thus shaming the name of the followers of Jesus Christ as a whole).

Now (like Steve just mentioned) it isn’t about someone who is struggling with a private sin, but something that will bring down the testimony of the name of the church. I believe that such an issue stems far beyond judging the private life of a fellow brother or sister, but acting swiftly in a way that sees beyond the individual and cares about the bigger picture.

And Paul takes this so seriously that he makes it clear that it is better to throw someone like that out of the church rather than to destroy its reputation as a whole.

The leaven of hypocrisy (i.e. pretence) is not to be tolerated amongst those who name the name of Jesus. Acts 5 makes this very clear, so much so that it says; V13 “And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them.”

So, the way that I see it is that the church is to be more concerned about the magnification of the name of Jesus than it is about a “so-called” brother who has no concern for what he is doing to that precious name.

God bless – hope this helps

PaulB!