1st Corinthians 5:1-13
Up to this point, Paul has been addressing a general attitude within the Corinthian church. There is pride that has led to boasting, but this pride runs far deeper than we have yet seen. Paul shifts to a specific sin that is prevalent in the church, and shockingly one that has been accepted and embraced. There are a few verses that are a bit complicated, so we are going to move slowly and deliberately through it together. We will read the passage fully, but then walk together, verse by verse, to make sure we understand what Paul is saying, and what he’s not saying.
Read 1st Corinthians 5:1-13
BIG IDEA: Church discipline is a necessary part of discipleship to ensure a healthy church.
There is some context that I think will prove helpful as we begin to break this down. Jesus gave a blueprint for what we call church discipline in Matthew 18:15-17. As we turn there, I want to make sure we understand the purpose of church discipline. The goal is always restoration. The goal of accountability in active and unrepentant sin is repentance and restoration. Restoration into relationships, and restoration into fellowship. One pastor rightly said, “Evangelism ministers to those outside the church who are in bondage to sin. Congregational discipline ministers to those within the church who are in bondage to sin.” With that in mind, listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 18 (Read Matthew 18:15-17).
4 Steps of Church Discipline according to Jesus:
1. Go individually to the brother/sister caught in sin. If they listen, praise God. If not…
2. Take 1 or 2 with you so that they can provide testimony to the sin. If they listen, praise God. If not…
3. Bring it before the church. If they still don’t listen…
4. Treat them like an unbeliever. (Deep implications that we can’t dig into today, but it doesn’t mean you give up on them. It means a break in Christian fellowship.)
It would appear in our text that Paul, in 1st Corinthians, jumps straight to step number 4. We’ll see the reason why, but let’s walk through this together.
The Sin (vs. 1)
Plain and simple, there is a man in their midst who is sleeping with his step-mother. Based on context, by Paul referring to her as his “father’s wife,” this would not be his biological mother. Also, based on context clues, like in verse 2, it would seem that this woman was not a part of the church, because Paul only calls on the removal of the man.
This was such a disgusting sin, that even the sex-crazed culture of Corinth looked at it as a disgrace. What an interesting thought. A culture that had become known for its sexual debauchery looked down on the sin that the church had embraced. And the tense that is used would tell us that this wasn’t a one-time thing, but was an ongoing sin in this man’s life.
The Wrong Response (vs. 2)
Even though Paul is saddened by this man’s sin, he is more concerned with the response of the church, and spends the rest of his time addressing their errors.
What seems to be happening is that this church had embraced this man, had embraced the freedom of their Christian liberties, and had become proud of being such an accepting and affirming church. Welcome to 2025. I like what Danny Akin has to say on this. He says, “A sin-sick church will boast, “We are affirming and accepting.” A gospel-filled church will mourn, “We are sinful and undone.” “Why aren’t you mourning?!” asks Paul. This man’s sin should trouble you to your core. It should break your heart. It should grieve you. It grieves the heart of God! Yet you continue in fellowship with him, and not only that, but you are proud to celebrate him! You should remove him from your fellowship.
And this is where we get a hint at why Paul skipped to step #4. It was apparent that they wouldn’t be going to him to call him out for his sin. The church had embraced him.
The Right Response (vs. 3-5)
As an apostle of the Lord called by Jesus Christ, Paul’s authority does not cease in his absence. He is still an apostle. And the authority that comes to them through this letter is as good as him being there to deliver the words himself. This is what it’s believed he is implying; his “spirit” being expressed through the letter. Paul has heard about what’s been going on, and he personally has already placed judgment on this man. He has pounded the gavel and declared the verdict. This man must go. And so, by the authority given to Paul, he tells this young church what must be done.
Gather the church. Gather in the name of Jesus, make sure he’s at the center of your meeting. And with my spirit present, in other words, when you read my instructions from this letter, “deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” We’ve got to unpack what Paul is saying here.
Deliver - “paradidomi” - to give one over to the power and authority of another. Give him over to the power and authority of Satan. Walk it out a little bit more. Where does Satan hold limited power and authority? The “world.” The world being the metaphor for that which is sinful and in opposition to the Lord. Jesus said we “are in the world but not OF the world.” As Christians, we don’t belong to the world anymore, because we belong to Jesus. So Paul says to remove this man from their fellowship, and release him back to the world.
And then he says, “for the destruction of the flesh,” which sounds really harsh, and it is. It might be helpful to take our minds back to the story of Job, which is the only place in all of Scripture where the same phrase is used; “handing someone over to Satan.” In Job 2:6, the Lord says to Satan, “Behold, I hand him over to you. Only spare his life.” So Satan left the presence of the Lord and inflicted Job with sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. Listen to what Job says at the end of this whole experience. Job 42:5-6, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
This is the end-goal in church discipline. That our eyes are opened to the beauty of the gospel, we recognize our sin, and we are brought to repentance. And sometimes it takes getting to a really low point in life for this to happen. And this is what Paul is getting at when he says “for the destruction of the flesh.” Biblically, when we talk about our “flesh,” we are referring to our sin nature. It is those desires in us that go against the Lord. It is the full body of sin present in our lives. The purpose then, of handing someone over to the world, is for the full body of sin to be finally and totally destroyed. Think about the prodigal son, who left his father and squandered his entire inheritance on gross sinful behavior, and it wasn’t until he was at his absolute lowest that he understood his sin, and returned to his Father.
And while this may be hard to watch, or hard to fathom sending someone out into, the hope and prayer, every single time, is that when they reach their end, their soul will be saved.
We have to be careful here not to think of this as an act of condemnation or even damnation. In fact, this should be a difficult, heartbreaking thing to do. In 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15, Paul says that we should admonish the person as a brother or a sister. We should plead with them. We should love them enough to tell them the truth, but we should plead with them, and warn them of the consequences.
Illustration (vs. 6-8)
Paul then uses an illustration that is meant to show the danger of their inaction. He talks about something that they all would have been familiar with, the Passover celebration. Leaven is an ingredient that is used in baking bread to cause the dough to rise. A little bit of leaven will affect the whole loaf. Back in Exodus 12:15, God tells Moses, “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.”
So Paul is using a common requirement of the Passover festival to prove a point. On the first day of the celebration, you are to remove all the leaven from your house. This removal was a symbol of repentance. We could say that they were “cleaning house.” And this is what Paul is saying. You, as Christians, are unleavened. You have been saved by the Passover Lamb, Jesus. And as so, you must remain unstained from the world. Continuing the analogy, you must eradicate the leaven in order to remain unleavened. You must remove the sin from your midst to remain pure. If not, the whole church will be infected.
Paul’s Instruction (vs. 9-13)
We don’t know much about this other letter that Paul wrote, only that he wrote it. And apparently in that letter he has already addressed the Christian’s response to those living in sexual sin, but the church didn’t quite get it. So he clarifies, “when I told you not to associate with sexually immoral people, I wasn’t talking about unbelievers. In fact, no matter the sin, whether sexual immorality, greed, robbery or idolatry, you don’t exclude the unbeliever from your life.” Quite the opposite. We are supposed to be enough in the world that those who don’t believe see the beauty of the gospel through our lives. We don’t condemn, we love. I think sometimes we get it backwards in our churches. We condemn those outside the walls but look past the sins of those inside the walls.
“But now,” says Paul, “I am writing to you again and hopefully this time it will be more clear. If you consider someone a brother, or a sister, and they are guilty of unrepentant and continual sin, whether it be sexual immorality or greed, or idolatry; whether they be a reviler, a drunkard, or a swindler…if they refuse to listen to correction, and refuse to repent and turn from their sin, you break fellowship with that person.”
And Paul ends by quoting Deuteronomy: “Purge the evil person from among you.”
Application
When we read passages like this, and they can be difficult, and harsh sounding, we have to take a step back and look at the whole picture. We have to look at the complete picture of church discipline as we see it in Scripture.
BIG IDEA: Church discipline is a necessary part of discipleship to ensure a healthy church.
The Goal: Restoration. Restoration in personal relationships. Restoration into fellowship with the church. Most importantly restoration with the Lord. The goal is that in the midst of difficult conversations, the person would realize the damage that their sin is causing. Through gentle confrontation, they would see the error of their ways. This goal doesn’t change. Even in the most extreme situations, where it is required to remove someone from fellowship, as Paul infers, the goal is that they will eventually hit a point in life where they have no choice but to look to Jesus. And then, slowly, carefully, but joyously we bring them back into fellowship with the family.
This is one of the more difficult conversations around church health. If we believe that the church is the primary means by which the Lord wants to reach the world with the gospel, we have to make sure that we are a people of integrity. We have to make sure that we are loving one another enough to call out sin when we see it. The church in America has gotten in so much trouble, and has lost so much of its saltiness, because too often the sins of those within its walls are overlooked, ignored, or even covered up. Shame on us.
Listen, the bottom line is this. We need to take our sin seriously. If we want to be a force for the gospel, us, Family Church, then we need to take our sin seriously.
We believe that the Lord has laid out this process for the good of His church. We pray against church discipline ever getting to the point of what we see from the church in Corinth.
