Church discipline will never be popular, but it will always be necessary.
1 Corinthians 5:1-13 (NIV)
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3 For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister a but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 29: The Marks of the True Church
We believe that we ought to discern
diligently and very carefully,
by the Word of God,
what is the true church—
for all sects in the world today
claim for themselves the name of “the church.”
We are not speaking here of the company of hypocrites
who are mixed among the good in the church
and who nonetheless are not part of it,
even though they are physically there.
But we are speaking of distinguishing
the body and fellowship of the true church
from all sects that call themselves “the church.”
The true church can be recognized
if it has the following marks:
The church engages in the pure preaching
of the gospel;
it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments
as Christ instituted them;
it practices church discipline
for correcting faults.
In short, it governs itself
according to the pure Word of God,
rejecting all things contrary to it
and holding Jesus Christ as the only Head.
By these marks one can be assured
of recognizing the true church—
and no one ought to be separated from it
Summary
Today’s passage probably isn’t on anybody’s favorites list. No one chooses something from this passage as their 'life verse.' This passage is ugly from start to finish, starting with the incestuous relationship that would make even the most sinful of pagans blush, and ending with the seemingly merciless command to expel the immoral brother.
Yet this passage is fundamentally important for anyone who’s interested in being part of a healthy church. It’s in this ugly passage that we learn that the Church must never tolerate sin, and that far from being merciless, church discipline is an act designed to lead to mercy.
Paul is shocked that the Corinthian church was “proud” of what this man was doing. Commentator Verlyn Verbrugge helps frame this issue in a way relevant to the actions of some churches in our own day and age:
It boggles the evangelical mind to think that a group of church members could entertain such pride about the sexual escapades of one of their own, especially when even pagans were looking at the church with raised eyebrows over what the church was tolerating. What lies behind this attitude? Do the Corinthians perhaps believe that sins of the body do not affect the soul and spirit of a supposedly saved individual? Or is this another expression of their triumphalist theology, which argues that because they are in Christ sin can no longer touch them? Or do they maybe even think they are helping God’s grace appear greater, since the more sins they commit, the more his grace will abound (cf. Ro 6:1–2, written from Corinth)? Unfortunately, we do not know what thinking lies behind this arrogance.
Regardless of their motivation, Paul emphatically denounces the toleration of such sinful behavior and commands the church to discipline this immoral brother by handing him over "to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (sarx), so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord” (v5).
Dig Deeper
Many people have a negative connotation of the concept of church discipline. They might remember a person struggling with drugs or alcohol who was put out of the church without being offered any help to break the addiction, or a pregnant young girl who was forced to publically repent before the congregation while the guilty young man anonymously sat a few pews back. Sad examples like these have soured generations of otherwise faithful church members on the practice of church discipline.
Yet out of all the dozens, or even hundreds, of attributes a healthy church ought to emulate, we confess church discipline to be one of the three primary, irreducible marks of a true church. This ugly passage in 1 Corinthians 5 helps us understand two key reasons why.
First, Paul writes that unaddressed sin doesn’t just affect the particular sinner. It quickly spreads like yeast through the whole batch of dough (v6). Secondly, disciplining sinners within the congregation is a tool used to bring the sinner to repentance, with restoration to the church as the primary goal. It seems that this harsh command to put this man out ultimately did exactly what Paul intended: it led to the man's repentance and restoration (2 Corinthians 2:5-11).
In our own contexts, church discipline is being exercised again after decades of not being used. Pray for wisdom for those involved in those situations and that ultimately the discipline will lead to the repentance and restoration it's designed to achieve.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who disciplines those He loves;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that our churches will carefully use the third mark of the church for the godly purposes it's designed for;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
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