"A Study of 1 Corinthians" by Hiram Kemp - Part 4

Good morning. If you have your Bible, go ahead and be turning to 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4. We're going to deal with the last part of 1 Corinthians 4 rather

quickly and then move on into chapter 5. But again,

this quarter we're studying 1 Corinthians, Same Mind and Same Judgment.

And last week Neil was dealing with 1 Corinthians 4,

really 14 through 20 here at the end. And I don't know that

he got to 20, or through 21. I don't know that he got to finish

just like he wanted, so I said I would just kind of quickly cover this

section and then we would move on. I'm going to read it first though.

This is the last part of where Paul is talking about preacheritis. And so he's

been talking to the Corinthians in the first 3 chapters and on into the 4th

chapter about the issue of having favoritism among preachers. And now at the end

of chapter 4, he's kind of summarizing what he said, and then we'll get into

a new subject or topic as we enter chapter 5. But here is 1 Corinthians

4 beginning with verse 14. I do not write these things

to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers,

for I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you

then, be imitators of me. This is why I sent Timothy,

my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways

in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church.

Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you, but I will come

to you soon, if the Lord wills, And I will find out not the talk

of these arrogant people, but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist

in talk, but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with

a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness? So,

first thing, Paul kind of summarizes why he wrote all of this in the

first 4 chapters to begin with. And Paul, as their father in the gospel,

look at verse 14. He says, I do not write these things to make you

ashamed, but to admonish you. And you really could summarize that as

being the thrust and the theme behind everything Paul ever wrote. Paul never

wrote to— shame people or to embarrass them. He always wrote in order

to admonish and encourage. Where you might read of some of Paul's letters and

you read some things that seem to be harsh or extremely difficult,

what's going on in those passages is not that Paul's berating people or

attempting to beat them over the head, but instead Paul's warning, instructing,

and trying to correct and deter their behavior into the right direction. So you

can think about some other passages where this takes place. This isn't just what Paul's

doing as an apostle. Throughout the New Testament, Christians are encouraged to admonish and

instruct other Christians. So 1 Thessalonians 5:12,

1 Thessalonians 5:12

he says, those that are over you in the Lord, speaking about elders, they have

responsibility to admonish. And 1 Thessalonians 5:14,

1 Thessalonians 5:14

Paul would say, admonish the idle among you, or those that

aren't walking uprightly. Colossians 3:16, when we sing, we're to teach

Colossians 3:16

and do what? Admonish one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

So Paul does this in the first 4 chapters of 1 Corinthians.

Primarily about their love for these various preachers and elevating

one person above another. Now, here's a question.

What do you think motivated Paul to do this? Because admonishing is not

easy. What makes it difficult to practice admonishing,

instructing, and encouraging people toward proper behavior? What makes it hard?

Somebody's going to get mad. Yes, maybe that's a difficulty. We don't want to get

anybody upset. What else?

Admonishing. Why don't we admonish? Or why is it a struggle

to admonish? And if you figure that out, you'll figure out the answer to what

motivated Paul to admonish. Somebody might get mad, that makes

it hard. What else? You don't

want to put them on a pedestal, Lori. Okay, Bill? They may

not want to hear it. I think that's it. Yeah, Lori says

if you don't love them enough to admonish. Sometimes we don't admonish because

we just don't have enough love in our tanks for each other or for other

people to really correct them. And Paul lays this out here. Paul says, I'm your

father in the gospel. Paul was able to admonish and encourage because he really loved

these people. And sometimes we avoid admonishing people, and we normally

go about it in 2 different ways. Sometimes we practice avoidance. So you did something,

it's messed up, I'm just going to avoid you. I won't deal with you.

We practice avoidance instead of admonishing because it's difficult. To come

to somebody and say, hey, I think you're out of line here, I think you

misstepped here, and here's where I want you to correct it. Or we lean on

the opposite reaction, and that is that of anger. I can't admonish people

because if I admonish, I'm so mad I'd say something. And while that may be

true, there does come a point where we need to get our spirit and our

attitude under control enough to say, hey, I want to encourage,

I want to warn you, and I want to point you in the right direction.

And all of the other reasons that were given, legitimate and true,

but admonishment isn't really about the way they receive it and respond. That part's

up to them, but the correcting and the pointing it out is up to us,

and it's going to play a big role in what we're going to talk about

in the chapter that follows. Mike, go ahead.

Gentleness or whether you need to use fear

on that. In other words, if you're going to counsel, you need to

learn to look who you're counseling and what they need. That's exactly right.

Yeah, Jude doesn't get us out of admonishing. He just says, hey, there are different

approaches to take for different people. Some snatch them out of the fire, hating even

the garment spotted by the flesh. Others deal with them gently because they're struggling

in unique ways. Now going on from here, Paul says the Corinthians were to imitate

his life of suffering and humility. In verse 16, he says, I urge you then,

be imitators of me. And this will come up again in chapter 11

and verse 1, where he says, be followers of me even as I

also follow, who? As I follow Christ. So Paul's telling the

Corinthians, hey, instead of falling out with each other over preachers, I'm admonishing you,

trying to correct you, but I want you to be imitators of me. In fact,

in verse 15, when he says, I became your father in the gospel

through Christ Jesus, there wouldn't be a Church of Christ at Corinth if Paul hadn't

gone there in Acts 18. In Acts 18, you remember verses 1 through 8,

Paul goes there, preaches on his second missionary journey, and the Bible says many

of the Corinthians hearing and believing, they were baptized. And so

Paul's whole point is, hey, the ministry of suffering that has been

mine, I want you to adopt that and be imitators of me. And he sends

Timothy to remind them of this truth. In verse 17, he says,

I'm sending to you my beloved Timothy. He's a faithful servant in the Lord.

He'll remind you of my ways which be in Christ as I teach them everywhere.

And in every church. This is important. We know Timothy. Timothy is

a proven faithful servant from Derbe and Lystra, Acts 16:1-3.

Acts 16:1–3

Elsewhere, Paul would say in Philippians 2:19-22, I don't

Philippians 2:19–22

have anybody like Timothy who will genuinely and naturally care about your welfare.

So we know who Timothy is. He's proven and trusted. But why

would sending Timothy and the rest of this statement, as I teach everywhere

in every church, why would Paul include this statement in his summary remarks to

people that are divided over preachers? What do you think Paul is trying to get

across to them? In verse 16, he says, hey, be imitators of me.

And then in verse 17, I'm sending Timothy, this beloved faithful

servant, and he'll remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach him

everywhere. Why send Timothy?

Okay, so maybe because of their issues with unity, Paul says, I'll send Timothy because

I want you to see this reflection, this love Timothy for me, and hopefully

you all for each other. Kevin?

Yeah, I think the whole point is they're divided over preachers, but Paul's

saying what really matters the most— the truth of the message. It's so

clear that this is the case that I don't even have to come to you.

I can send Timothy. He embodies and preaches and teaches the same message,

and it really won't make a difference. And so Paul's telling them, I'm sending Timothy.

He's going to remind you of my ways in Christ, and we preach the same

thing in every church. Just parenthetically, this says something to us

about Paul and about the way doctrine is laid out in the New Testament.

Sometimes people get this idea that, well, there was a Philippian gospel

and an Ephesian gospel and a Thessalonian. Paul says he taught the same thing everywhere

he went, and this parallels with the theme of 1 Corinthians 1:10,

1 Corinthians 1:10

be of the same mind and of the same judgment. And then the last

thing Paul does in this section is he says, I hope to come to you

soon. It seems like in verse 18, as Paul's dealing with these issues of

division, that some of the individuals that are divided and some that are

in opposition to Paul, I think this will come out in a greater way in

2 Corinthians, they think that Paul's delay in coming to them is because

of timidity or fear or cowardice. But Paul says, I'm going to

come to you. And when I come, he says, I won't wanna know about

the talk of these individuals that oppose me, but instead their power.

Verse 20, because the kingdom of God doesn't consist in talk,

but he says, in power. He wants to see if these individuals

that are opposing him will actually follow through and do the things that they're

supposed to do. Lastly, in verse 21, and this goes back to what

Mike mentioned a minute ago, Mike Lentz, what do you wish? How do you want

Paul to come when he arrives? Shall I come to you with a rod or

with love and a spirit of gentleness? And I think this closing by Paul on

this whole discussion is important because it reminds us this about this:

admonishing people is not so much about setting people straight,

it's also about being optimistic that they will straighten out

in the long run. Paul always did this. When he wrote to Philemon, in Philemon

he's saying, hey, I'm sending Onesimus back, get a lodging for me, fix your issues

with Onesimus. And then in verse 21, he says, I'm writing this

to you, Philemon, mindful that you will do even more than I say.

Paul's always optimistic in the midst of his admonishing that people

will not only receive what he says, but also follow

through and do it. And so we talked about a minute ago, We struggle to

admonish because we think people will get mad. We don't want to offend

them. But see, if you're motivated by love, you say, hey, people make mistakes.

People step out of line. One, I love you enough to correct you.

And 2, I believe you want to do the right thing too.

And I think you'll make it right. And that's how Paul ends this section on

the division among them concerning the preachers, Paul,

Apollos, Cephas, Christ, or whatever other personalities were motivating this. And Paul

says, I'm on my way soon. And I want to see how you behave.

All right, before we go into chapter 5, any questions on chapter 4 or the

first 4 chapters of 1 Corinthians? All right, good. Let's go to 1 Corinthians

5. Now, the church at Corinth had many problems,

but what we're going to discuss in chapter 5, I think, is their greatest problem

that they face in this congregation. When you get to chapter 7, Paul will

start with the now concerning phrase. That's in chapter 7, verse 1. It's in chapter

8 and really down through chapter 16. And that's where Paul's kind of having this

Q&A with the Corinthians. They had asked Paul questions,

Paul's answering them with these now concerning statements. But in chapter

5 and really on into chapter 6, the issue that Paul's going to discuss with

the Corinthians is really their greatest problem as far as immorality

and one of the main reasons why Paul wrote this book. I'm going to read

all of it, all 13 verses, and then we'll kind of set up the context,

and then we'll just march through what the passage is trying to instruct

us to do. 1 Corinthians 5, starting with verse 1, it is actually

reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind

that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man to have his father's

wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn?

Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent

in body, I am present in spirit, and as if present,

I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you

are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present,

with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to

Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in

the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really

are unleavened. For Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed.

Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice

and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

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

not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers

or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

But now I'm writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name

of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed

or is an idolater, a reviler, a drunkard, or a swindler,

not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with

judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among

you. All right, so the events taking place

in 1 Corinthians 5, Paul's writing to them about immorality. A report had been given

to Paul about a man who had been sleeping with his stepmother. That's what Paul's

saying is taking place in chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. The report had been

brought to Paul, and rather than the Corinthians mourning and feeling some grief over

their behavior and the things that they had done, Paul says they're puffed up,

and as a result of this, they didn't mourn. And what follows in 1 Corinthians

5 is really about how they're supposed to practice church discipline

and what God wants them to do in this situation. And Paul's going to give

that inspired instruction. Here's what I want you to see in 1 Corinthians 5 that's

interesting, or at least I stumbled on this working through this passage. It's interesting

that after the first 2 verses, Paul doesn't really give a lot of details

about the circumstance in Corinth. Like, after he says what he has to

say about why this needs to take place, Paul doesn't really zero in on the

specifics. And give any gruesome details about the events in Corinth.

And it seems like that's the case because Paul is saying, and he lists some

other sins in this section, if anybody's guilty of anything like

this or remotely close to it, you're to practice the very same thing.

The action doesn't have to reach the egregious nature or

public embarrassment of 1 Corinthians 5. If a Christian is impenitent,

meaning they're in sin, they won't repent, the instructions

that Paul gives throughout the rest of 1 Corinthians 5 just naturally apply.

So, Paul doesn't say, hey, Here's what they were doing. This was so terrible.

He mentioned some of that, but after that, he no longer focuses on this specific

activity here. Instead, he focuses on the practice that the church is supposed to carry

out in disciplining this person, and we'll talk about why that's the case. So,

1 Corinthians 5, let's notice a few things. First, the wrongdoing and the

wrong response. In verse 1, it's actually reported that there is sexual

immorality among you, and of a kind that's not even tolerated among pagans,

for a man to have his father's wife. And he says, you're arrogant.

Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who's done this evil thing be removed

from among you. So, sexual immorality. And then Paul says,

this is a kind not even tolerated among the Gentiles.

Why? Or among the pagans. Why would Paul add that in at the end of

verse 1? There's sex— excuse me, there's fornication, sexual immorality,

and then say it's not even done like this among pagans. What does

that mean? It's such a deplorable sin.

Okay, yeah, it was such a deplorable sin that they were committing, for sure.

But why tell them, hey, this isn't even done among the pagans?

I've got some verses on the screen, and throughout the New Testament, Paul will

sometimes discuss Gentile behavior. Jews were in

sin and needed the gospel as much as Gentiles, but there were specific behaviors,

especially in the area or the realm of sexual ethics,

that people from a Gentile and pagan background just did things

or really didn't have any parameters on what they practiced. And the New

Testament often makes this abundantly clear. Let me show you an example. Go to Romans

Romans 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, for example.

Romans 1, starting in verse 18, Paul says, for the wrath

of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness

of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. So they hold down

the truth. And then he'll go down through some behaviors. And this is the Gentile

world he's talking about. When you get to verse 26, he says, for this reason

God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged

the natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave

themselves up to natural relations with women and

were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts

with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. Again,

This will come up in chapter 5 of Galatians where he talks about the works

of the flesh. So my question is, in 1 Corinthians 5,

why does Paul introduce this subject and the behavior of the Corinthians and then say,

hey, I just want you to know this isn't even tolerated among pagans?

Chuck, go ahead. I think a lot of this is a synopsis

of what we do. The way they talk about Christians is, oh, if you're loving,

you're going to accept because of their tolerance of it.

We are so forgiving. We are so unjudging of our brothers. I mean,

I was wondering about your take on that. Is that, in other words, they're kind

of being tolerant of it rather than deal with it,

but then a lot of the people in the world today don't want

judgment. In other words, they, you know, they want the blessings without the judgments.

Yeah, well, what I'll say to that, Chuck, is let's wait on it.

It's going to come up in a few verses about what they're puffed up about,

but it's a good question, and I think even some good application. Let's just pause

on What does it mean to be puffed up about this? I'll say something about

it in a minute, and you can chime back in if you want. But what

I was saying here was, when Paul says this isn't even done among the

Gentiles, I think what Paul's saying is this: the Gentiles engage in a lot of

sexual immorality, but not even the Gentiles engage in the sin

of incest that's going on here with the Corinthians. Not even these individuals

would do this and be open and public about it and puffed

up. Nicole? They're in Corinth, which was

basically the epicenter of absolute immorality. I mean, didn't they have

like some shrines where they would go and have like orgies and whatnot? So for

you to be smack dab in the middle of like the most deviant sexual behaviors

and for him to be like, not even your neighbors do this stuff, like that's

pretty bad. Yeah. I think maybe he's, I don't know, kind of hitting

them where it hurts. Yeah, I think you're right. I think Paul's trying to draw

their attention and say, hey, look, Things are so bad, you're supposed to look different.

You not only don't look different, you're worse than the people that we're trying

to reach. And he'll drill down into this in chapter 6 as well. Mike.

As his body, but present too, have already judged.

Paul judged. Why can't we judge? He looked at,

he saw something, and he judged that. What,

you know, what's the saying that you have no right to judge?

Paul had a right to judge. For sure. And Mike, we'll get to that in

a minute. Let me say one more thing about verse 2, but you're exactly right.

You're exactly right. There is a time to call it out and judge it.

And Paul's going to say that in 3. And really in 9 down through 11

as well. But in verse 2, he says,

you're puffed up, you're arrogant. Ought you not rather to mourn?

Let him who has done this wrong be removed from among you. So this

idea of being puffed up and arrogant, it runs throughout this book. It's in chapter

4 and verse 6, the same idea. If you look right back up right before

this, look at chapter 4 and verse 18. He says, some are arrogant.

It's in chapter 4 and verse 19, the talk of these arrogant or puffed up

people. So one of the things Paul keeps coming back to is the Corinthians

A lot of this is based on their knowledge. 1 Corinthians 8:1, he'll say,

1 Corinthians 8:1

knowledge puffs up, knowledge makes you arrogant, but love builds

up. So it's one of those things he keeps coming back to. And here he's

saying, hey, you guys are puffed up. And instead you should be mourning that this

is even taking place among you. Here's my question. Look at verse 2 and look

at the end of verse 2. What does Paul say should happen because this

has taken place? This one is easy. Everybody can

get this if you've got a Bible. What does he say at the end of

verse 2? Let what? Let this person be removed from among you. Now listen,

Paul doesn't use the phrase specifically church discipline, but throughout chapter

5, he's going to say things like purge. He's going to say take out the

old leaven. He's going to say remove this person from among you. He'll say in

verse 4, deliver this person over to Satan.

All of this terminology is designed to suggest the Corinthians were

supposed to do something about this behavior in their midst among the members,

specifically regarding this person.

Correct. And Chuck, you are ahead again, but we are getting to it, I promise,

for sure. All right, all right. So let me say something before we get

to the why of church discipline. Let me just deal with a few caveats that

normally come up on this subject. Number 1, sometimes when you start talking about church

discipline, there's a little bit of a struggle, and people say things like,

hey, who are we to discipline somebody? I mean, we're all sinning.

Everybody in here is a sinner, and we all fall short. Is that true?

Yes, but church discipline is not for sinners. Church discipline is

for impenitent sinners who wear the name brother that are Christians. So everybody

sins, but if anybody practices high-handed sin and says, I'm going

to hold on to my sin and I'm going to hold on to the church's

hand in Christian fellowship, that's when church discipline takes place. So it's not enough to

say this is harsh, how dare we do this, everybody falls short. That's true,

and everybody can repent, everybody can confess, everybody can walk in the

light, even if you do something as egregious as 1 Corinthians chapter

1 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

5. Here's another thing. People sometimes get to this issue of church discipline and

we think we ought to let God do the judging. And as Mike said a

moment ago, who has God put in charge of dealing with this on the congregational

level? He's told Christians that Christians are to carry this out

and to do it. One more thing about church discipline before we get into the

why, and that's the bulk of this chapter. Paul is going to talk about why

this ought to be done. Just keep in mind, church discipline does not kick

a person out of the church. It doesn't. Church discipline doesn't make

a person more lost, like, well, we've kicked them out of the church, now they're

more lost than they were before. Church discipline simply acknowledges that which

according to God has already taken place as a person is walking

in a way that's not uprightly. So now let's look at what Paul says about

the why. Number 1, Chuck, here we go: to save a soul at

the day of judgment. So he says in verses 3 through 5, For though absent

in body, I'm present in spirit. Paul's not there, but he says it's as good

as me being there. I've already pronounced judgment on the person who did this thing.

When you're assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present

with you. Why give all of that material on the beginning of this? Why say,

when you're assembled and I'm present with you, and when you're gathered together in

the name of the Lord Jesus? Why does Paul say all of that first?

Why mention him as an apostle? He says, when you're assembled in the name of

the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present, because in verse 3 Paul says,

it's as if I'm right there with you. And then he says again,

with the power of the Lord Jesus. Why preface his statement with all of those

phrases beforehand? The authority.

That's right. Yeah, Levi, this is right. The authority is going to come

from 2 places. Well, really one. All authority is with Jesus in heaven, Matthew 28:18,

Matthew 28:18

and Paul is carrying this out as an inspired apostle.

And he's saying, listen, when you gather together and my spirit is

with you— Paul's an inspired apostle, and what he's writing to them is the

command of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 14:37. Jesus has all authority

1 Corinthians 14:37

in heaven and in earth. He's saying, when you're gathered together, you're doing this because

I'm instructing you as an apostle. And where did Paul get his authority from?

He got it from Jesus Christ. And so he's saying, this is exactly what Jesus

wants you to do. And then at the end of verse 4, he says— or

in verse 5, Deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of

the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord

Jesus. What does it mean to deliver somebody over to Satan? What does that mean?

Forget about him? Don't worry about him? Not necessarily, because in 2 Thessalonians Paul

will talk about church discipline and he'll say, hey, don't treat him as an enemy,

but encourage him as a brother. 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15. So it

2 Thessalonians 3:14–15

doesn't mean necessarily forget about him, but deliver him over to Satan Paul

uses this in one other place. Go to 1 Timothy. This phrase,

1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 20, I believe

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

it is, about Hymenaeus and Alexander. This is the only other place. There are some

occasions where this kind of behavior is discussed, but this actual phrase,

hand them over or deliver them over to Satan, is found in 1 Timothy

1 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and verse 20. He's telling Timothy, hold fast to the faith. Some people

have shipwrecked. And then in verse 20, among whom are Hymenaeus and

Alexander. Who I have, what? Handed over to Satan

for what purpose? Same thing he really says in

1 Corinthians 5. This is for the good of these 2 individuals so that they'll

know better and behave in a better light. Some commentators think handing this brother over

to Satan has to do with some kind of physical torment or punishment. I don't

think that's what Paul's saying. I think Paul says hand him over to Satan,

basically let him go the way his activity is already going.

His behavior has linked him with the devil. And allow him just to go

that way and experience that. And for the whole purpose of his spirit

being saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. That's what it's all about.

You practice church discipline, at least one of the reasons is so that a

soul will be saved in the judgment. And a person will not do that.

I see your hand, Chuck. A person is never going to come to their senses

about their sin. And this goes back to the admonishing. This goes back

to the, hey, if I'm out of duty, you've got to correct me. You've got

to have the hard conversation so that my soul will be saved. How does a

person's heart get hardened to the point of, I'm practicing high-handed sin and I won't

repent? They haven't been admonished. And only at the end of the day, based on

just these verses 3 through 5, at the end of the day, only loving churches

practice church discipline consistently. You really gotta love

somebody to say, listen, you are on your way to hell, and we don't want

you to arrive there and say, I went to a church where nobody ever told

me. Nobody ever said anything to me about this. He says, you deliver them over

to Satan so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord

Jesus. Hopefully there'll be enough physical consequences in this world,

or whatever takes place with this person engaging in this activity, that they'll be shaken

back to their senses. Chuck? Well, I just think another way of saying it is

kind of the same thing that you just said, that they're— what they have authority

to do, they're removing him from the domain of the church.

Yeah. From edification, from encouragement, and so forth. So they're removing him

from the domain of the church. Church and putting him in the domain of the

world. Yeah, exactly. And I think going along with that, something that

needs to be brought up sometimes when church discipline is introduced, somebody says, well,

what if they withdraw themselves? I mean, we can't withdraw from them, they've already pulled

away. But evidently, according to Paul, it doesn't really matter if they do that.

The world needs to know the church has publicly announced,

hey, we're not in step with what this person is doing. Russell, go ahead.

I think what you're trying to do In hopes

that being separated from the body and the love of

the body, that they miss that. Yeah.

And that they will turn and learn from

their mistake or mistakes,

that they would

change their life so they could be a part of the body. That's right.

And Russell, you bring up a good point. Russell says hopefully they'll miss the body.

Learn from their mistakes so they'll be a part of the body again. I think

we talk about— what do we sometimes call this? The withdrawal of what? Fellowship.

I got to have fellowship first, though. I think sometimes church discipline, the sting

of it isn't felt because, well, you never talked to me before. You say y'all

aren't going to be talking to me anymore. What's the big deal? If there's genuine

and true fellowship, the withdrawal of such, you will hopefully

feel the sting. Another thing is this is really not the first line of defense.

Oh, you sinned, didn't repent in 15 seconds, church discipline, deliver you over

to Satan. That's really not the way it works. This is, in a spiritual sense,

a last resort for a person. A lot of talking and praying takes place before

a person is delivered over in this case. But as Russell mentioned, it's hopefully that

the removal of that relationship with the body will cause them to turn back.

Go to James 5, and then I'll get a couple of hands, but quickly just

go to James 5 and notice what James says in the last 2 verses.

And you might write this in the margin of that 1 Corinthians 5, 3 through

5. Sometimes we talk about evangelism and we say we want to save what or

who? Save souls. And that's fine,

but church discipline is also evangelistic. In fact,

the only time the phrase save a soul is found in the New Testament is

regarding this subject, and it's in James 5:19-20. I think teaching

James 5:19–20

people the gospel who have never heard it is soul-saving work, but when the Holy

Spirit uses the phrase, it's used in this context about restoring people who

have erred. Look at James 5:19-20. If any of you do err from the truth,

James 5:19–20

and someone brings him back, let them know that he that turns back or

converts a sinner from the error of his way will do what? Literally save

a what? Save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

That's where the phrase is used. And what Paul says parallels this exactly,

that his spirit may be what? Saved. Church discipline,

that's evangelism. It's soul-saving work. You'll save a soul from death,

cover a multitude of sins, and their spirit will be saved in the day of

the Lord Jesus. So the first why is to save a soul at the judgment.

Yes, sir.

Produce that godly sorrow to get to that repentance.

And it's not always easy. I mean, if you have children, especially grandchildren,

it's even harder, you know, when you have to discipline them. But we have

to remember too that we're children. We're God's children. We need to be disciplined.

That's the only way we're going to make it. That's exactly right. And by the

way, this person, just in case you're worried about happy endings, 2 Corinthians says that

this brother repented. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:10 and in chapter 2

2 Corinthians 7:10

of 2 Corinthians that this person was reconciled and brought back. Bill, go ahead.

The Hebrew writer talks about God disciplining those

He loves. And sometimes we look at discipline as punishment.

And I don't see that in the Greek. Maybe it is. Maybe you know better

than that. But it's more of an educating, training someone, helping them understand,

building them up, getting them back to where they need to be.

Sometimes when we punish someone, we just kind of leave them alone.

And I don't think that's what it means. Yeah, Hebrews 12:7-11

Hebrews 12:7–11

is about discipline, and the Hebrew writer says, No punishment or discipline for the present

time seems joyous, but afterwards it produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness

to people who are trained by it. So nothing in the present of discipline,

as was mentioned a moment ago, whether it's children, grandchildren, church matters,

no discipline for the present time seems joyful, but afterwards

it'll produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness to people who are trained by it.

We need to be thinking about the afterwards. It's unpleasant right now. Unpleasant for who?

Both the person being disciplined and those doing the disciplining,

but afterwards it'll produce the precious fruit of righteousness. Second reason why we practice

it, is to protect the church. That's in verses 6 through 8. Look at these

verses again. Paul says, your boasting is not good. Do you not

know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? And so he says,

hey, you're arrogant about this, your boasting isn't good. And then he says, you're— a

little leaven leavens the whole lump. This is a phrase used a couple times in

the New Testament. Here's one place, and then Paul mentions this in Galatians

5 and verse 9. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. What do we

know about leaven, especially from a New Testament perspective. How was leaven used or

described in the Bible? What does leaven do?

Infiltrates, influences. Is that good or bad?

Either way, yeah. In Matthew 13:33, Jesus talks

Matthew 13:33

about leaven and he says, the kingdom's like leaven, which a woman hid in a

couple of measures of meal, and then it produced this great batch of bread.

The kingdom is like that. The gospel would start in Jerusalem

with a small nucleus of disciples, And like leaven, it would spread and eventually

swallow up and conquer the entire Roman Empire. But most times leaven is used

in the New Testament to speak specifically about bad behavior and/or

false doctrine permeating the people of God in a bad way.

Jesus would say, beware of the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees, which is

hypocrisy, Luke 12:1. Beware of the leaven

Luke 12:1

of the Pharisees and Herod, Mark 8:15. And here he's saying, if you

Mark 8:15

don't engage in this, a little leaven leavens the whole lump, everybody will be contaminated.

So, a second reason to practice church discipline is to protect the church. Have you

ever heard this? Somebody says, well, we can't practice church discipline. They'll never

come— what? They'll never come back. First of all, we don't know that.

But second of all, church discipline isn't just about the person who's

being disciplined. It's also about preserving the holiness

of the body. And one thing— Kevin, go ahead.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. It's not optional. And sometimes

we'll say when a person's restored, Yes, like in 2 Corinthians.

Yes, it worked. It doesn't work because they come back. It worked because

we obeyed. Whether they return or not, like, that's always the hope.

The Luke 15 prodigal son reunion, that's what we always want. That's what

God wants. But it's not like, all right, God, well, we're going to give this

a try, but I'm telling you right now, man, if people don't come back behind

this, see, I knew that wouldn't work. It's a failed system. Now they're there.

Church discipline doesn't work because people return.

It works because This is what God says, and he's always right about what he

says. And he says, a little leaven leavens a whole lump. In verse 7,

Christ is our Passover Lamb who's been sacrificed for us. Now Paul's doing

a little bit of like riffing on Exodus 12 and looking back into the Old

Testament and reminding people about the Passover. In Exodus 12, verses 1

Exodus 12:1–6

through 6, ancient Israel was told, hey, you're supposed to

sacrifice a lamb on the 10th day of the first month to prepare for Passover,

which would be 4 days later. But then in Exodus 12:14-20,

Exodus 12:14–20

he says, hey, observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread before that and get all leaven

out of your house. And Paul's saying that about the church. He's saying, hey,

clean out the immorality. Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us,

and you need to practice church discipline to keep the church pure, to protect God's

people, and to purge out the old leaven from among you. And this has already

been mentioned several times, but it's about the holiness of the church. Nobody in

this auditorium, including the person teaching this lesson, is perfectly pure.

Nobody's perfectly getting everything right, but church

discipline comes into play when a person says, I'm not trying to do this anymore,

I'm walking my own way. And Paul says, you can't let them contaminate

the entire body. In verse 8, he says, don't celebrate— let us celebrate

the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but instead

with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And so he's saying,

I want you to be people that truly care about people enough to

do something and not just be polished nice. And I think this goes back to

the boasting, Chuck. I told you we would get to this. He says your boasting

is not good. Maybe they're boasting because, as you mentioned, their tolerance— like, hey,

we're a church that doesn't do that, we're a church of love and mercy and

grace. But maybe it's also because they're thinking in their mind, well, I mean,

hey, these people have been baptized, and sometimes baptism solves this

sort of thing and washes it away, and you can continue in it. But Paul's

saying no, baptism holds you to a higher account, and you should purge this out.

Last thing on chapter 5. Church discipline is to be practiced so that

we properly judge and identify God's people. Look at verses 9 through 13,

starting in verse 9. I wrote to you in my letter not to

associate with sexually immoral people, not at all meaning sexually immoral people

of this world, or with the greedy, or with swindlers. So Paul says in verses

9 and 10, this is not about people out in the world.

It's not about people that aren't Christians. He says, I didn't write to you about

that. And this is important because sometimes as the church we

can practice greater discipline on the world than we do people

in the church. I mean, sometimes people— well, I'm not going there, they practice that.

And I think there's right— it's right to have scruples, it's right to practice discretion,

it's right to remove ourselves from obviously sinful situations. But Paul

says if you want to get completely away from that, you're going to have to

go where? Out of the world. And that's exactly what Jesus

prayed that we would not do. In John 17:15,

John 17:15

he says, I pray not that you take them out of the world,

but that you would keep them from the evil one. God has us right where

he wants us, and that is in the midst of people that aren't doing the

right thing so we can point them in the right direction. Paul says, I know

you live in Corinth. Nicole mentioned all the immorality that's in Corinth,

the Temple of Aphrodite, all the wickedness that was taking place.

Paul says, I know right where you are, and I'm not saying that this whole

don't deal with anybody who practices this sexual immorality applies to everybody

in the world, or you wouldn't be able to deal with anybody. But in

verse 11, he specifies, I'm writing to you not to associate with

anyone who bears the name of, what? Brother, meaning if

a person is a Christian, claiming to be a Christian, obeyed the gospel among the

people of God, then it's those individuals that you practice this with so

that you can keep the church pure. In verse 12, what have I to do

with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

God judges those outside, Purge the evil person from among

you. Paul says God is going to eventually judge and

deal with people that are not Christians. Jesus promises God's given all judgment

to the Son, John 5:22-24. But he says among us,

John 5:22–24

we're supposed to be practicing this judgment, this discipline,

this admonishment, so that hopefully we can help each other

not fall into God's judgment at the end of all things. All right,

any questions on 1 Corinthians 5 before we move forward?

All right, chapter 6. Go to 1 Corinthians 6

and notice verses 1 through 20. 1 Corinthians 6:1-20. I'll read

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

the first 8 verses. Paul kind of continues his idea here, his theme about

sexual purity and how the Corinthians were to behave, and also just

other sins they're engaged with among themselves. Now, some people think

what's taking place in chapter 6 is really a carryover. When Paul starts talking about

lawsuits and taking each other to court, some people think this is following

the whole issue about the brother and sexual immorality in chapter 5. Maybe, maybe not,

but either way, the principles still apply. Look at the first 8 verses.

When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law

before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the

saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you,

are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know

that we are to judge angels? How much more then matters pertaining

to this life? So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before

those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame.

Can it be that there's no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute

between the brothers? But brother goes to law against brother, and that before

unbelievers. To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you.

Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong

and defraud even your own brothers. So, the first thing he says here is,

handle internal issues internally. The Corinthians

were taking each other to court. In the Roman Empire, there was a lot of

litigation. People would take people to court for literally everything, and Paul's saying

here, I hope this isn't happening among you. Would you take a brother to court

over a matter that— he's saying you all can't settle this even in the local

congregation? Again, remember what kind of place Corinth is. What kind of judgment

do you think they're going to get in the public court in Corinth? Paul's saying,

is there anybody among you that can handle these matters?

In verse 3, when he says, don't you know that we are to judge angels?

How much more then matters pertaining to this life? Paul is saying you all

are going to do some very special and amazing things in the judgment, and you

ought to be able to evidence that. The high calling of Christianity means you ought

to behave and conduct yourself in such a way that when there are issues among

one another, you can solve them without going outside

of the body of Christ to people that aren't Christians. Now, I don't think this

passage is saying you can never take another Christian to court. I think there would

be times, and you could think of some, we don't have to get into them,

where it would be wrong not to involve law enforcement. Paul does this.

Paul would appeal to Caesar in Acts 25:11. But Paul's

Acts 25:11

saying, hey, there are some trivial petty things among you that you all

ought to be able to settle among yourselves. And at the heart of

this is really not about the legality of it all. Paul's really not interested in

who wins the case and who solves it. The heart of what Paul's saying in

this section, I think, is in verse 7. To have lawsuits at all with one

another is already a defeat for you. Can't you suffer being mistreated?

And that's the challenge, isn't it? Like, you wronged me and I want what?

I want justice. I want you to be called out. I want things to be

made right. And Paul's saying, none of you can say at all, you know

what, you did that to me, but no big deal. I'm not going to treat

you differently. I'm not going to make a big deal about it. I'm just going

to let this go. And Paul says, that's the heart. But high calling of Christianity

means we handle issues internally. What's wrong with going to

the courts over trivial matters? What do you think Paul's worried about?

The church is what? The church's reputation.

Yeah, I mean, if the world sees this and then at the end the courts—

you do all of this stuff, you fight amongst one another, you're suing each other,

and then at the end you tell the judge, and by the way, we worship

at 9:30 and 10:30 on Sunday. I mean, what kind of evangelism is that?

Paul's saying, I want you to be— in fact, this comes up with God in

Exodus 32 and in Numbers 14. God says, I'm going to destroy all the Israelites,

and Moses says, God, you can't do that, you got a reputation. What if the

Egyptians hear it? That's what Moses says. What if the Egyptians hear it? And God

actually says to Moses, you know, you're right, Moses, I won't do it. And so,

our reputation, that's part of it. The second thing Paul says in this section

is, remember the change conversion has made in you. Verses 9 through 11,

or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, idolaters,

adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves,

nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit

the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you were washed,

you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and

by the Spirit of our God. So Paul says, hey, just remember, unrighteous people won't

handle the— won't inherit the kingdom of God, and you used to be like that.

And you could think about a lot of things we could say about verses 9

and 10, our society, the world we live in, and all that's true,

but that's not really Paul's main point. Like, look at how sinful the world is.

Paul's saying You used to be like that. Look at verse 11. That's his

punchline. And such were some of you, but you've been washed,

sanctified, and justified. Question, when did that happen?

When they were baptized, when they obeyed the gospel. This goes back to 1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1:2

1:2, the church of God at Corinth, which is

sanctified. He's saying your whole life was changed, and that should

be reflected in the way that you behave. The high calling of Christianity

remembers that, hey, we used to be a certain way. Paul was saying,

I could expect you to take each other to court if you were the old

you, but you've been washed and sanctified and justified.

And as a result of that, you're supposed to be different people. The last thing

in this chapter is he's saying, as vessels of the Holy Spirit, sexual immorality

is forbidden. And in verses really 12 down through 20, I have

14. Oh no, 12 down through 20. All things are lawful for me, but not

all things are helpful. This all things are lawful, your translation might even have

it in quotes. Because that's probably what the Corinthians said to Paul. So, it's in

quotes because the Corinthians probably were saying to Paul, we can do whatever we

want. But Paul says, not everything builds up. Not everything's helpful.

All things are lawful, but I won't be dominated by anything. And then in 13

down through 20, Paul just works through why sexual immorality

is such a bad thing. And as much as we might think, this is a

pretty kindergarten practice. Everybody should know that adultery,

fornication, sexual immorality, all sinful, all bad in

the first century and in the 21st century, not everybody gets that lesson.

And Paul says it's bad for Christians because our bodies are

indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, and that should make a difference. And he

uses Genesis 2:24, the one flesh argument, to say,

Genesis 2:24

hey, when you engage in sexual intimacy, you become one flesh. Are you

going to engage in sexual immorality while indwelt with the Holy Spirit?

Look at verses 19 through 20. Or do you not know that your body

is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, who you have from God?

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God

in your body. And some translations have at the end of that, in your body

and in your spirit, which are God's. And Paul's point is God

has saved you, God has sanctified you, and you've got a responsibility

to live up to the high calling of Christianity. This goes with chapter 5,

specifically dealing with the person in sin, But broadening out from that,

Paul says, this is about every one of us. And because we're Christians,

we ought to deal with our issues internally and be at peace among one another

and practice holiness so that we don't defile the temple of God.

And temple of God is used in 2 ways in the New Testament. In chapter

3, it's about the church as a whole. In chapter 6, it's about your

body and my body as people that are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Next week,

Neil will pick up in chapter 7 and begin the now concerning

section where the Corinthians had asked Paul certain questions And now Paul is

going to answer those questions with his inspired instruction. Thanks for a

good Bible class.