It’s been said that when you come to Christ, it’s not that you no longer sin, but rather you no longer chase after sin. Despite this fact, sin still chases after you.
People who have received Christ, and follow him, are prime targets of the devil’s work. He still comes after us, and chases us right into God’s churches. And even though Jesus offers complete healing, as we spoke of last week, people inside the church are still sometimes very ill.
Now, that in and of itself, is not a bad thing. Because the church is in many ways like a hospital.
And what is the primary purpose of hospitals? Put simply: to help sick and injured people get better.
Therefore, the most important feature of a hospital is not the attractiveness of the building, or the college degrees held by the staff, or the large amounts of hi-tech equipment.
The true measure of a hospital is its ability to make hurting people better. If a hospital doesn’t do that, everything else is a waste of time.
Now it does seem that people spend a lot of time trying to making hospitals look all fancy and inviting, but I don’t know anyone who goes to a hospital for fun and games or to admire the architecture. We don’t go there for a good time.
Everyone I know who goes to a hospital has this question: “Can you tell me what’s wrong, and fix what’s wrong?”
That’s the same with a church. It is called to open its doors to people who are sick with sin, addictions, burdens, and hurts. We are welcome to come into the church because it is God’s hospital. And God’s ministers are practitioners of the soul, operating under the direction of the Great Physician.
And that’s an important lesson from our readings in 1 Corinthians. We are not the doctor ourselves. Jesus alone is the great Physician, and we must remember that. Special care must be taken to not blur that line.
To help understand this truth, I’ll continue the medical analogy. In the early 1970’s they started the EMT program. It was called the paramedics program at the time, and it was a truly innovative and life-saving new idea, but many in the medical profession were strongly opposed to it.
Do you know why?
It was feared that the paramedics would start thinking they were qualified to do more than they were. They would start thinking they were doctors themselves.
So a strict set of rules was developed to make sure that each paramedic was well trained but also had to consult with a doctor before doing certain types of things. They had to get a prescription for each procedure, or new course of action, if you will. It could be by telephone, but they must consult the physician before acting.
It’s a very apt description of what we, a practitioners of Christ must do. We must consult the Word careful before acting.
We must listen carefully, and pray diligently and then, and only then, act with confidence.
And for those who need care, we must pray that they are be willing to receive it.
We all know the evil one can get us in a pretty bad shape sometimes. And again, that’s one of the great values of fellowship. Sometimes we don’t know we’re sick, and if we do we don’t know how bad it is, or what to do about it.
And yes, Jesus can heal, and yes, we can be his instruments. .
But not everyone who comes together as the body is willing to receive this. We’ve all seen it, people who get mad or defensive at even the slightest suggestion of a problem.
Which is odd because if you go to see a physician, and he or she diagnoses a disease in your body, and tests show that you are indeed suffering from a serious problemj, you wouldn’t get mad at the physician if he has to operate.
That is what physicians are supposed to do. It’s why you went to see him.
And it’s one of the reasons we should come to church. To find out what’s wrong, and get some healing.
But again, people who come to church often don’t want to receive treatment for something they are suffering from. They want to hear the music, maybe a joke or two, and be entertained by a good show. And yes, they want to hear the doctors talk about the situation, in other people, but they don’t want to go into surgery themselves.
We like to hear things like “Other people are sick you’re okay, I’m okay. Everything’s Fine!”
But I don’t know about you, if I have something truly life threatening, I don’t want to hear a bunch of nonsense like that. I want the doctor to get in there, and if necessary …operate — and quickly — and completely!
And our great doctor can heal quickly, and completely, if we let Him.
So we’re going to talk about this a bit today, as we delve into 1 Corinthians Chapter 5. This chapter, and the ones around it, gives some instructions to we the practitioners of Christ in how to operate.
And the first order of business of any medical practitioner is to “first, do no harm.”
You’ve heard that before? It’s the Hippocratic oath that medical professionals are bound by, and it’s very biblical. We do not love our neighbors, if we harm them.
And our actions should be from a place of concern, and care, and desire for wholeness and wellness.
And like I said, we get some instruction on that, but most notably this chapter is one a few places in the bible in which two very serious procedures are dealt with.
Removal and Quarantine.
Every doctor has to deal with these eventually. But no sane doctor enjoys it.
Eventually he will face the situation in which the disease is particularly vile, and insidious. Many treatments have been tried, but the flesh eating infection is spreading at a rapid rate. Quick action must be taken, or death will occur, either by the patient, or many many people around them.
So he has a choice, he can either remove the offending body part, to save the whole, or quarantine the whole patient until healing can occur and infection is less risky.
It’s one of the most difficult, or at least should be, directives of the bible.
In Matthew 18:15-17 Jesus says, “And if your brother sins, go and reprove him in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax-gatherer.”
So for further insight into this we read 1 Corinthians Chapter 5
1 I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you-something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.
3 Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit.* And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church.* I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. 5 Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed* and he himself* will be saved on the day the Lord* returns.
6 Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.* 8 So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread* of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread* of sincerity and truth.
9 When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. 10 But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. 11 I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer* yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.
12 It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. 13 God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”*
Like I said, we will rarely see this. Just like people rarely encounter vicious flesh eating viruses, this type of grievous infection with sin rarely takes hold in a congregation following Jesus. But it does happen. Satan is that powerful.
A pastor online wrote that in the 50 years of his churches existence, this type of public discipline was exercised only 4 times.
But here in Corinthians, the church was facing just such an issue. And it seems the church leaders there were unwilling to do anything about it.
And although I’m sure Paul could relate to the peoples reluctance to confront such a difficult thing, he pleaded with them for the sake of Christ and his church.
Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase The Message amplifies this in plain language:
“I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn’t be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother. And you’re so above it all that it doesn’t even faze you! Shouldn’t this break your hearts? Shouldn’t it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn’t this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with?
Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it’s anything but that. Yeast, too, is a ‘small thing,’ but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast.
I wrote you in my earlier letter … I didn’t mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. You’d have to leave the world entirely to do that!
But I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when one of your Christian companions….. [behaves like this (new paraphrase added by me for emphesis)]
You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior.
Now, keep in mind, sin is sin is sin. There is no worse sin than another. The man’s sin in this passage is seen as particularly grievous, but Jesus will forgive it.
His salvation is not lost, even though he has seriously lost his ways. It’s not a matter of whether Jesus still loves him, even though he has wandered astray. And we also are not talking about deciding God’s reward or judgment for this man actions. This is in God’s hands alone.
The reason II say this to differentiate the teaching we read of here from any ideas of “excommunication”.
Excommunication is the pronouncing a separation from God, which I believe and the bible tells me we have no power to do.
Each of us deals with God directly, and so will this man. So this disciplinary action is really not about the offender, but the Body as a whole.
It comes up when we ask honestly ask, “what about the rest of the congregation?” What about those who have gathered but have yet to accept and trust Christ? What about the world that is watching?
Will there be people who remain among the lost, because of this man’s outrageous behavior?
And in these serious cases the answer comes back “Very likely yes”. And that’s the real issue.
Other translations refer to the man having sex with his father’s wife. Not an ex-wife, mind you, but a current wife. Sleeping with her, living with her, carrying on in public with her. Even today, with our excessively tolerant society, this would be shocking and unacceptable by most everyone.
And although a few weeks ago I made a point that we are a church who welcomes sinners, because there is no one that needs Jesus except sinners.
There are public sins that are so invasive, and persistent, and socially unacceptable that the testimony of Christ is damaged and destroyed by them.
If you remember also from a few weeks ago, we spoke of how God loves and welcomes all sinners, including prostitutes. And this is true. We read of God’s using Rahab, and saving her from death when she turned to him.
And even though that might make some of us uncomfortable…. I would encourage us to welcome those who have engaged in prostitution, or any other type of sexual immorality or any sin for that matter to come and worship with us, and receive Christ’s forgiveness, His grace and His mercy. Jesus would want anyone has trespassed, no matter how seriously, to join the fold of God.
But then again….what if this same person, insisted on soliciting sex for money, right after church, right out at the street corner next to our church sign, every Sunday after worship?
After two or three of the elders have spoken with them privately, they continue. It is brought to the whole of the elders, the whole church, who also try to reason with them. In spike of that, they continue.
Then what?
Can a member of the church, continue in membership, while they also sell their body publicly for all to see?
Unfortunately, they cannot.
This is an extreme and yes, very unlikely circumstance, but these things do come up on rare occasion. The unrepentant abusive husband who come to church with his regularly battered and bruised wife and child. The publicly drunk or drug abusing (even at church) individual. The flagrant public womanizer. A person who physically intimidates, threatens or fights with other members in an ongoing manner. A person who uses the church to promote and support their sinful behavior and bring other people into it, such a a pimp, drug dealer, or a gangster.
Now again, these are ultra rare, circumstances, and not a complete list, but the bible does tell us what we must do, and most importantly what we must not do…nothing.
Sometimes things have gotten to such a point that we must ask, even tell, someone among us to separate themselves from the rest of the Body. Sometimes the infection of sin is that deep and that damaging. So we must do this painful thing.
And the bible tells us there are a number of important reasons.
To glorify God. Sometimes our actions and those of others bring dishonor to God’s name. The church should always bring glory to him, and this extends to all it’s members.
To purify the church. Sin is a spiritual cancer that spreads when it is allowed to grow. Public sin that is not dealt with can corrupt the entire church.
To restore the sinning believer. Church discipline should always focus on restoration, not judgment and condemnation. A separation from the church body should never be seen as a permanent condition but one that leads to healing and reunification.
To deter the church from sin. The discipline of an individual reminds everyone that sin is a serious matter and it can be significant deterrent to these same sins by others.
To maintain a credible witness before the world. The world observes the behavior and life of the church. When the church acts no differently than the world it loses its credibility.
And that last one is a big one. How can we preach a gospel that encourages others to embrace the true savior. One who transforms completely, when we show no transformation ourselves? The gospel of Jesus Christ should be clear and evident in the lives of His followers and when it is not, the fold of Jesus Christ suffers greatly.
You know that non believers are always shouting “hypocrisy!” And when we fail to disciple ourselves and hold ourselves accountable, they can rightfully say this.
(pause)
There should be no denying that we are sinners, every last one of us, but there could also be no confusion that we are people who are trying to follow Jesus is his way.
The bible doesn’t talk about this serious topic very often, and rightfully so.
Because nothing can separate us from the love of God, and that should be at the forefront of all our interactions with each other, and all our preaching, and all our prayers.
God never abandons anyone. And this talk of asking someone to leave the congregation can give that VERY WRONG idea.
Jesus still loves us, no matter what. And he’s always waiting for us to come back to him when we stray away.
And asking someone to leave should NEVER be an easy choice or one that is considered until it is the only choice left. And as such, it should almost never happen.
Jesus, our savior, is in it for the long haul with us. He has paid the price, in full, for any transgression we have committed or will ever commit. And he wants us to be whole, and at peace in Him.
And in Him, you have that forever.
His church is to stand forever as a place of healing and truth.
It’s something to take very seriously.
Sometimes, I’m not OK, and you’re not OK…and that IS OK….
In Christ, through His Power, we can be healed…completely.
Amen
©2011 Timothy Henry