3 "Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. 5 Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns."
If Christians are supposed to be so loving, then why is Paul telling the Christians to kick this man out of the church? Isn't the church supposed to be welcoming and accepting of everyone? Well, yes...and no. We are accepting of non-Christians for sure, because they have no reason to behave in any way other than their sinful nature, as they do not have Christ. But, as Christians, we are to be as iron again iron, sharpening one another and holding one another accountable in the pure and blameless life to which Christ has called us. Again, if this man, a self-proclaimed Christian, has decided that the way God set things up (i.e. NOT sleeping with your mother) is not really meant for him, too, then something must be done.
Kicking someone out of the church is the absolute last resort when words and loving confrontation were not enough. Even still, the purpose in kicking the man out of the Church is not for punishment. Notice this! The reason for kicking him out, or in other words, handing him over to his sinful nature and to Satan, is "so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns." Kicking him out is the loving thing to do in the hope that he will hit rock bottom and decide to come back to the Lord. This man is living with a wall of sin between he and God. He cannot possibly be behaving this way WHILE communing daily with his Lord. But as long as the people around him continue to keep him comfortable in his choices, then why would he ever want to change? Again, he has changed his VALUES so that he can ACT the way he wants to! How will he ever go back without a little painful prodding and poking in the the right direction?
Remember that all hurt is not harmful. I think I've shared the story before that my mom watched as I, her high school daughter, made some really sinful and selfish decisions one season. She even warned me as we were driving in the car one day that the direction I was headed was not going to end the way I wanted it to end. I didn't listen, of course, and sure enough, I quickly hit bottom. I lost leadership positions, respect of others, and many of my freedoms for a while. It HURT for about 6 long months! And my mom stood back and allowed me to make the choices I was so set on making. But as a result of my hurt, I was not harmed -- in fact, I grew! And I became closer to Christ during that season.
This is what I see Paul saying here. For this man's GOOD, he needs to be cut loose to do what he's going to do. Eventually, as sin does, he will feel enough pain in the way he's living that he will want to make some changes, and we will pray that he ultimately decides to come back Home with a repentant, softened heart.
6 Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. 8 So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth."
The other reason that the man needs to be kicked out, is that the Corinthian church is a mess. They think they have it all together, but they don't. They don't think they need a leader, but they do because they are a new church with a lot of "baby Christians". So, Paul uses the analogy that just as a little bit of yeast can spread quickly throughout a whole batch of dough, so will the sin amongst the church.
And not just back then! There is a reason Jesus is the Shepherd and we are SHEEP. Sheep follow each other, right? Not only that, but they follow blindly sometimes. We follow what's comfortable, what's popular, and what's easy a lot of the time. Perhaps your church isn't struggling with a lot of people who might quickly fall into sleeping with their mothers, but I can assure you that your church is not perfect because the people in it are not perfect. Paul is not expecting the people to be sinless -- all believers struggle with sin daily. Instead, he is speaking about people in the church who deliberately sin, feel no guilt, and refuse to repent. That kind of sin, he says, cannot be tolerated because it affects others. Blatant sins left unaddressed can begin to blur lines and cause great confusion among a church. It's easy for us to just ignore our big problems and hope they go away on their own while continuing to pray for and encourage one another. But sometimes, the most loving thing to do for an individual and for the Church is to lovingly but assertively address a heart that has hardened.
After all, Jesus, our Passover Lamb, came to change our hardened hearts, and He doesn't desire that they ever go back to the way they were before.
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