By Joey Carroll
Commitments that stand the test of time grow stronger. Commitments that fall apart at the first sign of adversity were not really worth the time to make. Every church that claims to follow Christ has a commitment to the Word of God, whether they recognize it or not. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 3:15 that the church is “the pillar and support of the truth,” (NASB). Which means we not only proclaim the truths of God’s Word, we hold to them.
In 1 Corinthians 5, the Apostle Paul is livid at the church. Someone in the church was openly and unrepentantly walking in sexually immoral sin. But Paul’s frustration was not directed toward the individual; he was frustrated with the church. In fact, Paul calls the church “arrogant” for two reasons. First, they were not mourning over the sin within the church, and secondly, they had not exercised church discipline by removing the unrepentant man. They were simply doing what they thought was best.
I would imagine that everyone who is a mom or dad understands the need for a standard of behavior in the home. Most wayward attitudes and actions are met with grace, but there are cases when the behavior so greatly exceeds the standard, discipline in some form is necessary. When our children were at home, the one thing that would always guarantee discipline from their dad was being disrespectful to their mom.
If you’ve ever heard someone say, “The church is full of hypocrites,” they are quite right. The church is full of sinners – full of people who rebel against the commands of Scripture on a regular basis. A people who are always in need of the grace of God that comes to us through the Gospel – the Gospel which says that reconciliation with God is available through repentance from sin and faith in Jesus Christ. But that grace does not erase the fact that there is a standard of behavior established in Scripture of how we are to conduct ourselves as Christians. In fact, that is the reason Paul wrote 1 Timothy (see 1 Timothy 3:15). All wayward attitudes and actions are a “big deal” because the wages of (all) sin is death, and so Christ died in our place. But there are certain behaviors that simply cannot be tolerated in the church if left unrepentant. Sexually immoral sins are of such a nature that they cannot be tolerated. Sexually immoral sins powerfully contradict the character of Christ and His people. Our Lord died to save us from our sin, not condone it.
The church at Corinth had chosen to ignore a man who was actively engaged in sexual immorality. Sadly, that sounds familiar. A man has an adulterous affair in the church, and everyone seems to just look the “other way” unconcerned with how it reflects on Christ and His Church. Paul was not about to leave that one alone.
The first thing Paul disciplined the church with was their lack of mourning. In other words,
Corinth was not weeping over what the man in the church was doing. When a man leaves his wife for another woman, it destroys the entire family. It’s ignorant to think that everyone in that home is not totally devastated. We often forget that faith in Jesus brings us into one family, the family of God. Faith in Jesus makes us one with God, and it makes us one with everyone who is Christian. We are truly brothers and sisters in Christ. When someone in the church chooses sin over Jesus, it should cause great weeping and mourning in the church. We are not “each to his own,” but one united body of believers (1 Corinthians 12:12).
Secondly, Paul disciplined the church because they simply looked the other way on the issue and refused to discipline the man by removing him from the church. What would removing the man from the church accomplish? Paul is about to explain that in the next few passages. It is very important to understand, and I will deal with that next week. But for now I bring you back to the word “commitment.” As the church, are we a people who are committed to the instruction of Scripture? Are we the pillar and support of the truth, or are we more committed to dealing with things as we think best?
This article originally appeared in The Clarion Newspaper.
Corinth Baptist Church 