The Love One Another Podcast | Episode 12 - Living Set Apart in a Corrupt Culture

This is the Love One Another podcast from Beach Point Church.

Together, we're exploring the first letter to the Corinthians with the hope that we will be formed by the way of the cross and the love of the one who bore it.

Admitting, as this letter says, that we are nothing without love.

Love empowered by the Spirit through the work of Jesus is an unstoppable force.

It invites each of us to join God in the work of redeeming all things back to God.

With that in mind, let's open our hearts to God's word today.

Today's reading is 1 Corinthians 5, verses 9 through 13.

1 Corinthians 5:9–13

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people, 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.

But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister, but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler.

Do not even eat with such people.

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?

Are you not to judge those inside?

God will judge those outside.

Expel the wicked person from among you.

When the prophet Nathan confronted King David about his rape of Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, Nathan told David a story.

The poor man loved the lamb to the point that he let the lamb sleep in his arms.

But the rich man needed a lamb to serve to a guest, and rather than slaughter one of his own, he took the poor man's beloved lamb, slaughtered it, and served it to the guest.

David was outraged.

He said, As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die.

He must pay for that lamb four times over because he did such a thing and had no pity.

And the prophet Nathan responded, You are the man.

Paul had his own David and Nathan moment here in 1 Corinthians 5, because he opened the chapter by addressing an outrageous and egregious case of sexual immorality.

We as 21st century readers look at Paul's righteous frustration about this man in the church who is sleeping with his stepmom, and we think as surely as the Lord lives, he should pay for what he did.

And Paul, in his most prophetic voice, said, You are the man.

But now I'm writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister, but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler.

Do not even eat with such a people.

The yeast leavening the bread of the church was not merely sexual immorality, but it was greed, idolatry, slander, drunkenness, and theft as well.

And Paul's response to that sin is the same as before.

It doesn't matter if the sin problem is a shocking case of incest or a simple case of greed, a tricky case of idolatry or a challenging case of a ton artist.

The response to that problem is to remove the yeast from the bull.

That is an uncomfortable solution.

Even as we read these verses, we likely feel a twinge of guilt and heavy-heartedness trying to understand what that could possibly look like today.

And in an effort to avoid that discomfort, there are many who will look outwardly instead of inwardly.

Rather than thinking about sin in the church, many will look to the sins of the world.

And Paul saw this coming.

He said, What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?

Too often we are quick to avoid the discomfort of addressing sin within the church by attempting to address the sin outside the church, to call out a corrupt culture that threatens us from the outside.

But Paul wasn't concerned with the culture outside the church.

Paul was concerned with the culture inside the church.

A culture which in Corinth had embraced sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, slander, drunkenness, and swindling.

So as we look to 1 Corinthians in our context, we have to consider where we, both as an individual and as a community, have allowed yeast into the mixing bowl.

Let's take a moment to respond to today's reading.

How do you respond when someone close to you points out sin in your life?

Defensively, dismissively, or with humility and openness?

Instead of focusing on the sin you see in the world around you, how might you better turn your attention inward, allowing God to deal with the areas in your life that need transformation?

You can find the Love One Another Sermon Series and other resources at Beachpoint.com/slash messages or on the Beach Point Church app.

May you carry the love of God into every encounter you have today.