Incest. Not your typical church problem. So at first glance this text seems irrelevant to us. Let’s see . . .
THE SIN
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you? (1 Corinthians 5:1,2).
Paul has received a report of “sexual immorality” among the Corinthian Christians. The Greek word, porneia, is used of all sexual practice outside of marriage. But quickly we learn what porneia Paul is condemning: “a man is living with his father’s wife.”
The woman isn’t the man’s mother. We’re not told anything about the father/husband. Did he die? Was there divorce? It matters not. Even pagans counted it immoral for a father and son to “have” the same woman.
The sin is compounded: the church is “arrogant.” How can they be arrogant with such perverse sin among them? The Corinthians remember are triumphalists. Having the Spirit, they ask, how can sin hold any consequence for such spiritual people? They aren’t boastful of the sin; they’re boastful of their “triumphant” spirituality that renders such sin inconsequential.
Rhetorically, Paul asks: “Shouldn’t you have grieved over sin and been moved to repentant action so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you”?
The church is “called to be God’s holy people” (1 Corinthians 1:2). But sin has corrupted the church’s corporate holiness. The incestuous man should be removed from among them.
The Judgment
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgment in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord (1 Corinthians5:3-5).
It’s unclear what Paul means by “I am present in spirit”. But what he wants done is crystal clear: “As if present” he has “already pronounced judgment” by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. His verdict: “When you are assembled (the whole church is to act) and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus (Paul seems to say that the Holy Spirit makes his spirit present among them) you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh . . .” They are to expel him from the Christian community and, thereby, put him back into Satan’s realm. The intent is for his sinful nature (“flesh”) to be destroyed so that in the final judgment his spirit may be saved. In other words, the purpose of discipline is redemptive.
The Cleansing
Your boasting is not a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Corinthians 5:6-8).
The man’s sin has infected the whole church—and they’re boasting! Paul uses what is probably Jewish folk-saying (“a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough”) to diagnose sin’s effect on the whole community and to repeat what they must do (“Clean out the old yeast”) so they can be “unleavened” as they really are in Christ.
How are they “unleavened” (cleansed from sin)? Paul turns to Passover: they are “unleavened” by the sacrifice of their paschal lamb, Christ. Therefore, they should “celebrate” who they actually are in Christ—not a community infected with “malice and evil”, but cleansed with “sincerity and truth”.
The Correction
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons–not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge? God will judge those outside. “Drive out the wicked person from among you” (1 Corinthians 5:9-13).
Paul had written previously—a letter not providentially preserved Scripture. The Corinthians had misunderstood his instruction. He didn’t mean, “Don’t associate with the world’s immoral (that would mean leaving the world). He meant, “[Don’t] associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister” who is practicing sexual immorality, greed, idol worship and so on. “Do not even eat with such a one.”
It’s God’s work to judge outsiders. The church is to judge insiders. As Deuteronomy 17:7 commands: “Drive out the wicked person from among you.”
The Take-Away.
Should you not have mourned?
My first reaction is to sort of boast that my church isn’t guilty of so egregious a sin as incest. My second is to examine how Paul wanted church discipline to be carried out so, if necessary, we might follow. My third is to realize (again) how rarely do we discipline sin-practicing church members.
But only after much inspection of this passage do I confess how little, if any, do we mourn over our sin. I’ve not talking about occasional transgressions. Nor about anything as extreme as incest. I’m talking about those addictive sins, such as pornography or drugs. I’m talking about those isolation sins, such as the church doing little or nothing to reach our neighborhoods with the evangelistic/social gospel. I realize the first may demand discipline but not the second.
However, the larger issue is, “Should we not mourn over sin?” So the big take-away for me from this text is not how to do church discipline. It’s a call to grieve over the sin in me and among us.
O Lord, you know we still carry a sinful nature, even though your Holy Spirit indwells us and we’re your people. But keep us from treating sin lightly. Give us a heart to mourn over sin that we might more successfully shun it and that we might more highly treasure your salvation. For the glory of your holy name, Amen.
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