Good Tuesday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Here’s an important question: How do you think God views a person who claims to have been saved from their sin condemnation, by their trust in Jesus Christ, but is living in unrepentant adultery. or a similar sin? Notice important keys in my question.
First, I’m asking what you believe would be GOD’s view of this person and upon what Scripture truth are you basing your belief?
Second, notice this is a person who CLAIMS to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and therefore is an authentic, Holy Spirit, indwelt Christian.
Third, notice this person is living in UNrepentant adultery. It means they know adultery is wrong and abhorrent to God, but they are actively living in that sin with NO intention of repenting of their sin.
If you were with me yesterday, as the apostle Paul was writing his first letter to the Christians in the wild city of Corinth, in 55ad, we saw Paul had dedicated his entire 5th chapter to this situation. This was not a hypothetical situation, it was very real and had been happening for some time, involving one of the men among the Christian group in Corinth! (1 Cor. 5:1,2)
Paul was furious that he heard the Christians in Corinth were not only silent about this travesty, but some were also even proud of their tolerance of this gross sin, perhaps thinking it showed God honoring grace and mercy, rather than judgment or condemnation.
Paul was very clear: “I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So, when you are assembled…and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” (1 Cor. 5:3-5) Yesterday we began looking at this very powerful statement, so if you missed it, I urge you to go back and work through our study yesterday.
For today, let’s keep digging deeply into this important declaration from Paul. May I point out several more things.
First… Notice Paul’s assumption that when these Corinthians Christians gather together for prayer and worship, ‘the power of our Lord Jesus is present.’
That means the Holy Spirit, who indwells each Christian, does a special work of drawing God’s people into a closeness with their Savior Jesus Christ, during their worship gatherings. Pause. Do you sense that work of the Holy Spirit when you gather together with your Christian friends? Remember Jesus promised: “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am with them.” (Matt. 18:20)
Second… notice Paul’s directive that within the context of that Christian gathering, when ‘the power of our Lord Jesus is present’, these Corinthian Christians should act decisively in taking their stand to honor the Holiness of God.
Because this sinful man refuses to repent of his sin, his rebellion must be met with rejection and expulsion from these holy gatherings. As we saw yesterday, not only was this man defiling these holy gatherings with his unrepentant rebellion against God, he was bringing dark kingdom demonic forces with him when he came into these gatherings!
Now don’t misunderstand. Christian gatherings should be open to non-Christians who are spiritually interested, for the Holy Spirit may draw them to Jesus in those gatherings. The expulsion of this man is because he refused to repent! He continued actively in his sinful adultery, and at the same time, he came into the worship gatherings expecting the Christians to overlook his sinful rebellion.
Third… by expelling this man from any and all gatherings of these Christians, Paul knew the man should expect the demonic strongholds in his life would intensify rapidly which may lead him to self-destructive behavior, like the man possessed by the legion of demons who cut himself with stones. (Mark 5:5)
What would such self-destructive behavior look like in our time, my friends? Well, how about the destructive abuse of alcohol or drugs, or a deeper addiction to pornography, or cutting himself or plans for suicide etc.?
Fourth, notice Paul assumes this man was a legitimate, born-again Christian, who had turned away from Jesus and was living in unrepentant sin.
But if expelled by the Corinthian Church and if his destructive lifestyle actually ended in death, do you notice Paul declared: ‘his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord”?
Paul is declaring this man’s sinful lifestyle had NOT undone his salvation. His unrepentant sin was separating him from God and drawing him deeper into demonic bondage. But his spirit was still ‘born-again’ and at the time of his death would be saved from eternal damnation!
That is very important because it confirms again that the work of our spiritual salvation is entirely a work of God, in response to our repentance of our sin and our full trust in Jesus Christ to be our Savior. Once our salvation is accomplished by God, we cannot undo it, nor can demonic forces take our salvation from us! (John 10:28,29)
Now do you see Paul’s final words on this matter? “God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked brother from among you.” (1 Cor. 5:13) The term ‘outside’ means those outside the family of God. Those who have NOT trusted Jesus for Salvation or been redeemed by His blood.
Paul’s declaration for expulsion of this unrepentant sinful man is NOT intended to be permanent, but only until he repents of his sin, and turns away from his sinful behavior, and turns back to Jesus. Then, of course, the church should enthusiastically welcome him, pray with him and disciple him in understanding and living God’s Truth for God’s glory!
Now we need to pause again here to be sure we understand 1 Corinthians 5; thus, I urge you to read it again, every verse, perhaps several times. Then look closely at the “lessons learned’ notes at the link below, and worship with the wonderful song I found for us today, and I’ll meet you here again tomorrow as we continue with the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 6.
Today’s Scripture: 1 Cor. 5
Choose below to read or listen.
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Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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