It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 And you have become puffed up and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present: 4 in the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 5: 1-5 LSB
1 Corinthians 5: 1-5
We left off in the previous chapter with Paul correcting the arrogance of the Corinthians, and also talking about what it is to be an actual steward of the mysteries of God. He says, "it is required of stewards that one be found faithful," and for the thousands that think they have been called to this, well now we get to see the part of shepherding that everyone wants to avoid. Instead of heaping compliments like so many churches do, instead of sweeping things under the rug, Paul has addressed their pride, and now he is going to show them even more reason to be humble. They haven't done their jobs as stewards; they haven't guarded the body of Christ. Everyone has been more interested in showcasing their talents and performative art, what makes me more special than everyone else, but this is not the call of Christ. I have been around countless Pentecostals who always go to Corinth for their defense, my dad calls himself a Corinthian Christian, as some will say Carnal Christian, but they say that thinking that it is okay to play down pride and immorality. They say that thinking that this is an acceptable church type, and that you should be able to find a church like this, live in sin, but be complimented for your voice, or ability to play piano, to give a Ted talk, or for being an "encourager". They put more upon feeling than believing the word of God. I remember when they lost a pastor at a church in N.C., a church that was built upon the principle of making everyone feel comfortable, having a light hearted fun message, good music that was entertaining, and every idea that anyone had or said was a good one, unless it made someone feel bad. The pastor was involved with women at the church, and I think there were some money issue too, but the people's worry was "he is such a dynamic speaker, what will we do, how will we replace him, will this cause us to lose membership?" When he was confronted by elders there he said that there was no one there mature enough to deal with him. He was arrogant in his sin, and sadly a lot of the people, my father and stepmother included, would have been okay with him staying there as the shepherd of that church. The Corinthian church is not the model of what we want to be; Paul is going to model for us how you deal with Corinthians.
John MacArthur gives us an interesting background and cultural context to help us understand the prevalence of immorality among the Grecians considered by many to be the intellectually elite - "The Greeks’ view of life was that sex was a biological urge, as much as taking a drink of water or getting sleep or exercise or eating. Sex just was there and whatever happened, happened, and it was fine. Live it up, no hang-ups. And that doesn’t sound like it’s too old fashioned, really. It sounds like kind of up-to-date. I remember seeing a quote from Hugh Hefner, “Sex is a biological necessity. Find yourself a girl who’s like-minded and let yourself go. It’s no different than eating and drinking.” Well, that is exactly what the Greek view of sex was."
But interestingly enough, though they gave absolutely no sacredness to it, though they gave absolutely no assent to the fact that it had some kind of a pure context, they also forbid any woman to do it outside of her marriage, while a man could do anything he wanted. That’ll give you some idea who ran things in those days.
The chapter breaks (not inspired) unfortunately often cause us to lose a sense of context and continuity in the flow of the Biblical text. The chapter break here while not necessarily bad, might result in us forgetting what Paul had just declared, having just given the church a strong, clear warning in the form of a question, asking "What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?" And then we read about we read about this flagrant sin which the church is in effect almost flaunting! In effect in his question in this context he was saying "Clean up this immorality and I’ll come lovingly. If it’s still there when I get there, some heads are going to roll.” (MacArthur)
V. 1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you - There must have been some real believers there, people who were unwilling to live like this, to have what Christ did be made of low account. Someone was bothered enough to report the sin, and this isn't them being unloving, and what follows from Paul will only pick up what Christ had already instructed. The leaders of this church, and probably many of the people, had become more interested possibly in "unity", the favorite word of those who sell out the truth, who will trade being righteous for being liked. It's not an uncommon thing though, and I want to hold myself up to this mirror, and whoever reads this, please, don't think of this as applying to some people in the distant past that were only guilty of one sin that you would never do. Lets be clear, to God sex is sacred, and they had lost the understanding of sacredness. How many times have you joked about sexual things? How many times have you watched a movie that had sex scenes in it, making light of what God is saying is no light matter here? But you didn't watch it for that, I know, it was for your favorite actor and the well written plot. How many times have you made fun of someone who is gay, mocking them rather than praying for them? How many times have you asked someone to quit being a prude, a legalist, when they brought up the inappropriate nature of your talk or behavior? Sometimes we just loathe them in our head. The culture holds the sexual no higher than a hand shake, and are we proud because we hold it a little higher than that? What does the Bible say about sex?
…3Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. 4Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it. 5Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are weapons of violence.… Genesis 49:4
…7You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her. 8You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father. 9You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.… Leviticus 18: 7-9
10If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death. 11If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 12If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both must surely be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is upon them.… Leviticus 20: 10-12
…28If a man encounters a virgin who is not pledged in marriage, and he seizes her and lies with her, and they are discovered, 29then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives. 30A man is not to marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s marriage bed.… Deuteronomy 22: 28-30
…19‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 20‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’ 21‘Cursed is he who lies with any animal.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’… Deuteronomy 27: 19-21
The Bible deals with incest, with adultery, and even fornication, which a lot of the so called church no longer considers a sin worth confronting. Now we are fortunate not to live in a theocracy like Israel did, because stoning is pretty brutal, and the open and honest account that the Bible gives us about Israel, shows that this wasn't enough of a deterrent. You actually need a changed heart, but in the church that comes with wanting to keep the sacred sacred, whether doctrine or living, and Paul is going to give direction in how to handle this. We no longer require the boy our daughter sleeps with to pay us fifty shekels of silver, but it shows that there was a violation of God's design for marriage in having sex outside of that relationship.
…23And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.” 24For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.… Genesis 2: 23-25
27You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.… Matthew 5: 27-29
As John MacArthur (in a sermon preached in 1975, almost half a century ago!) said that "The Corinthian church was truly an island in a sea of paganism, and particularly the waves of immorality were washing over this little island, and the Corinthian church had been infested with immorality. And more than that, it had become tolerant of it." He goes on to state a very important point "that one of the securities that we have against sin is our being shocked by it....But in our society...nothing really shocks us anymore." (1 Cor 5:1-5 Immorality in the Church - excellent sermon - you need to listen to this one!) (As an aside I know from discussion with a local pastor that a number of his congregation were actively engaged in a lengthy series called Game of Thrones that apparently is filled with pornographic images for lack of a better word). MacArthur's comment is reminded of the fable of the frog in the kettle of water. The heat is turned up so slowly that the frog fails to perceiving the rising, dangerous temperatures and before long it is too late and frog is boiled alive! Are Christians in America becoming like this frog? The Corinthian church was an island in a sea of immorality. Not only had many of the member actively participated in this lifestyle before conversion (cf 1 Cor 6:9-10+), the cities of Corinth and Athens were "the seat of most of the immorality (IN THE ANCIENT WORLD). They, according to historians, were the two most immoral cities. Even their worship was immoral. They had prostitutes in their temples where the people went to worship." (John MacArthur)
“Our security against sin lies in our being shocked at it.”
V. 1b Such a kind that does not exist even among the gentiles - They had become so much like the culture that they even passed it up. I remember as a teenager being at a friend's house whose dad was the head deacon at a megachurch and when we were preparing for a fishing trip my buddy opened up the trunk of his dad's car and it was loaded with porn. Call me a legalist, but I don't think he should have been a deacon. Paul is not going to let this smear on the body of Christ remain unchallenged. The damage is astronomical, and our playing it down also plays down the Cross. It makes light of the eventual sacrifice of the innocent that always follows. Abortion has nothing to do with women's rights, it has to do with selfishness, a loss of the sacred, and our desire to have immoral relationships without repercussions.
Pornography Stats:
1. At 13.3 billion, the 2006 revenues of the sex and porn industry in the U.S. are bigger than the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball combined.. Worldwide sex industry sales for 2006 are reported to be 97 billion. Perspective? Microsoft, who sells the operating system used on most of the computers in the world(think all of India & China)reported sales of 44.8 billion in 2006.
2. The porn industry made more last year than: “Microsoft, Google, Amazon, E-bay, Yahoo, Apple, Netflix, & Earth Link”...combined.
3. Pornography is scarring lives, destroying marriages(lying/trust issues, hurt, forgiveness, how many times. Feelings of: “being cheated on”, “lack of her self-worth”, “I’m not good enough”), corrupting the church and destroying our nation; without action the problem will only get worse.
G. We are going tonight to have a serious talk about real life issues. (Stats: about 50% men in churches; 17% women struggle w/pornography)
H. A serious talk about the bondage, addiction and trauma that so many people are struggling with today.
1. Hopefully, those who are struggling with this (a family, husband, wife, oldest son, single man/women) you’ll be challenged to open up these areas of their lives to God, so He can heal you and set you free.
I. How do we deal with then, sexual immorality in the church today? Like Paul did.
V. 2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst - Even heathens find you repulsive, but you still go around pounding your chest, saying you are spiritual when you are worldly. You think you are more mature when you are really just disobedient and self serving. You haven't withheld correction for the sake of love. If you really loved the person you would have mourned over this grotesque sin and removed the guilty from your midst. Look at what Phineas does in a Theocracy, and consider that all God is asking of you now is to tell the truth about sin, give the whole counsel of God and confront the sinner, excommunication is way easier than execution.
6Just then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 7On seeing this, Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand,…
…8followed the Israelite into his tent, and drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and on through the belly of the woman. So the plague against the Israelites was halted, 9 but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000. 10Then the LORD said to Moses,…
…11“Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the Israelites; for he was zealous for My sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in My zeal. 12Declare, therefore, that I am granting him My covenant of peace. 13It will be a covenant of permanent priesthood for him and his descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”… Numbers 25: 6-13
…9And now I rejoice, not because you were made sorrowful, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you felt the sorrow that God had intended, and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11Consider what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! In every way you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.… 2 Corinthians 7: 9-11
Vs. 3-4 When you are assembled - This takes us back to Christ's instruction about 2 or 3 gathered together in His name, that He is there in the midst of them. The context in that chapter is about this very thing, church discipline, yet I have heard whole sermons about it applying more for health, money and all sorts of things, but context is king.
15If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.…
…18Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven. 20For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”… Matthew 18: 15-20
V. 5 Deliver such a one to Satan - You treat him as an unbeliever, but as a brother in that sense as well, that you treat him as someone lost, as someone like your family member who you would want to see come to Christ. You witness to him. He is turned over to the world though and like Job, often God will let a man be tested by Satan, by way of his health.
…19holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and thereby shipwrecked their faith. 20Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. 1 Timothy 1: 19-20
1Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.… Galatians 6: 1-2
…5But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.” 6“Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “He is in your hands, but you must spare his life.” 7So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.… Job 2: 5-7
…5And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you. 6For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” 7Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?… Hebrews 12: 5-7
As Wayne Barber says "Two things happen when sin is not dealt with within the church. First of all, the testimony of believers is damaged outside the church. But secondly, the purity of the believers is affected inside the church. You see, you have young people growing up, you have people that aren’t mature in the faith, and when you allow sin to go on and you don’t deal with it, it’s sending a message it must be okay. So a younger person says, “Well, if it’s okay for him, it’s okay for me.” The purity of believers within the church begins to decay. Paul, as an apostle under the authority of Christ Himself, says, “I’m making a decision and this decision is not based on my own opinion. It’s based on the fact of the authority of Christ. It’s God’s idea. It’s not man’s idea.....when we begin to tolerate sin in our lives, we’re going to begin to tolerate it in others lives. Then it begins to get in the church. It just decays our testimony in the world. The world looks at us and laughs and says, “You’re spiritual air bags. You know what to say but your life does not show us that you really love the Lord Jesus Christ.” - PA
To deliver (paradidomi) means to give one over to the power and authority of another, in this case Satan and from 1 Cor 5:2+ we know one thing deliver means is that the man is to be removed from the church. Paul uses deliver (paradidomi) in Romans 1 (Ro 1:24, 26, 28+) for turning God rejecters (Ro 1:18-23+) over to "the lusts of their hearts to impurity....to degrading passions....to a depraved mind." So in Romans the delivering over is not for restoration but for retribution, divine judgment. In another use of deliver (paradidomi) in the context of discipline in 1 Ti 1:20 Paul writes "Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme." So in this passage the delivering over is intended to have a restorative or remedial effect which is similar to Paul's intent of the deliverance in 1 Cor 5:5 "so that his spirit may be saved." In other words, whatever the disciplinary action God allows Satan to carry out, the effect is that while Satan means it for evil, God means it for good. Whether the final outcome will be good however depends on the response of the sinning man. Will he repent and turn from his sin and unto God? Or will he willfully refuse to repent? If he does the former, his spirit will be saved. If he does the latter, the implication is that his spirit would not be saved.
The question also arises as to how could the church deliver such a one to Satan? First of all, this deliverance to Satan clearly does not mean the church had the authority to send the man to hell, for no individual or church has that authority. Only God has such authority. So almost every commentator agrees that the deliverance is carried out by expelling or removing the man from fellowship with the church He would then in effect be in the world, the domain controlled by Satan ((Col. 1:13+, John 12:31). John adds that "the whole world lies in the power of the evil one." (1 Jn 5:19+). The sinning man would be under the dominion of Satan. And this is where we have to speculate. Would Satan be able to inflict physical harm as he did to Job (Job 2:4-7)? Would Satan be allowed by God to take the man's life? Or would God take the man's life if he refused to repent? I cannot be dogmatic. - PA
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