So that his spirit may be saved
Sat, 18 February, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.
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 has his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
3 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. 4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 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.
Paul doesn’t waste any time in getting down to the big problems in the Corinthian church. To this point he has been dealing with factions within the church. Now he turns to their tolerance of blatant and heinous sin. The sin is bad, but Paul’s bigger concern is how the church has failed to deal with it. In fact, the church is proud of the fact that they are tolerating what even the pagans from outside the church find shockingly immoral.
What do we learn from this?
Sin is bad, and open sin within a church is a terrible thing. But it is a much worse thing for the church leadership to know about the sin and to not act.
The church that doesn’t act to maintain discipline is saying that God’s commands do not matter. It is saying that our conduct isn’t important. Live how you want. Your vow of membership in which you state your intent to forsake sin doesn’t matter. Obedience to God’s word is optional. In a word, a church that fails to discipline its members despises God’s word.
More than that, such a church is declaring that it doesn’t care about the salvation of the offending member. Notice that Paul’s concern is for the salvation of the person who was involved in the sin. If we have a person in our church who is living in open, unrepentant sin, we should be deeply grieved for their soul. We should desire to call him back to repentance and restoration to full privileges within the church body. If we as a church refuse to discipline the member who is in open sin, we are declaring that we don’t care if they go to eternal punishment or to eternal bliss.
Where is Christ in this passage?
Paul tells us that when we gather to worship on Sunday, we are gathering in the power of Jesus Christ. Our worship is in the presence and power of Jesus Christ, and at such a time we must confront open, unrepentant sin in the congregation. We are preparing the sinner for the day of the Lord when Jesus Christ will judge everyone. Those who are in Him, are saved based upon His own work applied to them. Those who are not in Him will be judged according to their works, and damned accordingly. And so in confronting the sinner, we are calling him to repent and come to God by faith in Jesus Christ.
