1 Corinthians 5:9-13

Scripture: 1 Cor. 5:9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—

1 Cor. 5:10 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.

1 Cor. 5:11 But now I am 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, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

1 Cor. 5:12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

1 Cor. 5:13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Teaching: Paul begins to shift his admonishment from how the Corinthians accepted the sin within their church to a second related point: how to judge rightly the sin both inside and outside the church. Paul echoes Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:1-12, where Jesus gave teaching on how to righteously judge. A key point in that passage is Matthew 7:6: “Do not give to dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” What Jesus is saying in this verse is this: do not try to give Christian wisdom on obedience to Christ, Christian living, righteousness, etc. to unbelievers before they have accepted the Gospel. Before coming to faith in Christ, this wisdom and obedience to Christ is at best a recipe for a works-based Gospel (and thus, a false gospel devoid of faith), and at worst, reason to attack Christians for forcing their way of living upon those who do not believe Jesus is Lord. Paul, here in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, makes a similar point (as we see in verse 9, picking up on a previous point that he must have written in a previous letter to the Corinthians). Even though Paul is instructing them to cast out the man in question in this chapter, he is not instructing them to refuse fellowship to anyone who practices the same behaviors, because as he says in verse 10, they would need to go out of this world to find those who do not behave this way (a way of saying that they’re never going to find perfect people!).

The difference between whom they should associate with and whom they should cast out is found in the person’s profession of faith. If one professes to be a “brother” (i.e. brother in Christ, believer), but is persisting in sexual immorality, or the other sinful behavior – the Corinthians should not fellowship with that person (just like his advice to begin this chapter). Paul finishes his point in verses 12-13, saying that the Church should not be involved in judging the world of unbelievers – they are going to sin because they are sinners by nature who do not yet know Christ as Lord. Should we expect holiness and righteousness from them? Of course not. However, for those who profess Christ as their Lord and Savior (i.e. part of the Church), do open themselves up to judgement by the Church, and if found to be unrepentant and stubborn in their sin, should be broken off in fellowship for their own benefit and the Church’s. As his point has been all through this chapter, when the Church accepts sin, it invites a cancer into its body that will grow.

Takeaway: Matthew 7:1-12 is the teaching from Jesus that Paul is standing on in this chapter, and particularly verse 6 in this section. As a church, saved and redeemed by faith in Christ, we recognize the wisdom of God’s Word, its power in our lives, and the nature of sin. But before coming to faith, the Bible seems like an enormous list of rules and practices to make oneself righteous – this is the same perspective as the Pharisees of Jesus’ day! Thus, it is not for us to judge the sin of an unbeliever, nor offer Godly wisdom as a solution. The solution to sin is the Gospel, and from belief in it, comes an acceptance of God’s wisdom, the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, and a life lived for the Lord. We can’t put the cart before the horse though! In the same way, Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:3-5 reminds us that we each should have much more concern over our own sin, removing the log from our eyes, before inspecting specks in others. In this way, we do not hypocritically judge others, instructing them on righteousness while ignoring our own sin. When we take all this into account, there does come a time when the Church must act in order to protect its own from unrepentant sin and, hopefully, by drastic action, cause the unrepentant but believing person to reconsider their sin in new light. This is what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13, in not judging the world of unbelievers but rightly judging those in the Church. There is a world of difference between one who does not know the Lord and thus, naturally, rejects His Word and one who does know the Lord but rejects His Word because of his own desire to continue sinning. The former should always we welcomed and delivered the Gospel, shown the love of Christ in hopes that they would come to Christ. The latter should be loved like Christ, too, but with doing what is necessary to encourage Christ-likeness as the expression of that love.