I Corinthians 5:6-13: "Avoid Contamination Part 2"
Paul continues his discussion with the believers at Corinth regarding their allowing gross and unrepentant sin to remain in its presence. He strongly has urged them to clean out their church and disassociate with anyone that is in unrepentant sin. He continues to exhort them, "Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?" Paul confronts the main issue which is their pride. Their pride had allowed them to forget about obedience to God's Word and follow in their own ways. This had lead them to look past sin and turn a blind eye to blatant sin that was destroying their church. He warns them that allowing sin in the church, no matter how small affects the whole congregation. MacArthur explains, "Leaven in Paul's illustration, as throughout Scripture, represents influence. Usually it refers to the influence of evil, though in Matthew 13:33 it represents good influence of the kingdom of heaven. In this case, however, evil influence is in view. The whole lump of dough is here the local church. If given opportunity, sin will permeate a whole church just as leaven permeates a whole loaf. Sin's nature is to ferment, corrupt, and spread". If you found cancer in your body you wouldn't think, "oh, it's small, I don't need to worry about it". NO - you would rush to get it out of your body immediately. So it should be with unrepentant sin in the church, it should be removed from the church immediately before it begins to spread and eventually lead to spiritual death. Paul continues, "clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened". Here Paul continues the lump of dough illustration, to exhort his readers to separate themselves from their old sinful ways, and from those who continue in their sinfulness. This carries with it the idea of cleansing and making new. Paul is reminding them that when they became saved, they were a new creation, cleansed by the blood of Christ. They were not to live in the same way as they did before their conversion. Paul explains this, "For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth". Our protection and guard against sin is focusing on the ultimate sacrifice of Christ which cleansed us and made us new creations. We should celebrate and live constantly with this as a reminder to us. MacArthur writes, "The perfect unleavened bread He desires us to eat is that of sincerity and truth. Sincerity is the attitude of genuine honesty and integrity, from which truth results. In this context, those two words are synonyms for purity, the purity of the cleansed new life in Jesus Christ- which has no place for the leaven, the impurity, of malice and wickedness".
Paul concludes this section summarizing his main point, which is to dissociate yourself with those who are in the church and living immorally. Paul writes, "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world". Paul had previously written them a non-canonized letter, which apparently warned them not to associate with immoral people. However, here Paul clarifies that he was not referring to the lost. We obviously live in a world with many lost souls who do not know Christ. If Paul were saying not to associate with them, we would have no outside interaction, and in fact, would never be able to evangelize. This may have been a problem in the Corinthian church where their previously mentioned pride and arrogance were leading them not to associate with those who were not of the church. This is never God's command for Jesus spent much of His time here on earth ministering to those who were immoral. Christ said in Matt. 9:12, "But when Jesus heard this, He said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick". To convict them of what they were letting happen in their church Paul explains, "But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler". Because this was the very thing that was going on in Corinth, Paul wants to remind them that the real sin is allowing the rank, immoral lifestyles of so-called believers to dwell among you, not associating with those who do not proclaim Christ. These so-called believers were contaminating the church and reviling the name of Christ, and the Corinthians were just as guilty for not excommunicating them out of the church. If any church member claims Christ, they are an example and an ambassador for Christ to the outside unsaved world, and to immature believers in the faith. If they are bringing contempt onto Christ's name and bringing impurity into the church, it is the church's obligation to disassociate themselves from this individual that he may not continue to be the "example" for Christ. Paul even goes so far as to say, "not even to eat with such a one". We must not encourage the fellowship with this individual in any way.
Paul continues, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?" MacArthur comments, "We have no responsibility for judging outsiders. We are to witness to outsiders, but not judge them. We cannot chasten them, and no remedial steps will alter the sin of the ungodly. Those who are outside, God judges. But we do have a responsibility to judge those who are within the church. We must remove the wicked man from among ourselves". This may be a difficult thing to do. This may even be our friend, family member, etc. However, we must not let our feelings get in the way of what God has called of us. We cannot allow ourselves nor others to be contaminated by those who are immoral. We are not to worry ourselves about those who do not claim to be saved, but rather, those who claimed to be saved. Do not let our pride get in the way of doing the right thing, even though it may be hard. To close, MacArthur writes, "It is not that everyone in the church must be perfect, for that is impossible. Everyone falls into sin and has imperfections and shortcomings. The church is in some ways a hospital for those who know they are sick. They have trusted in Christ as Savior and they want to follow Him as Lord-to be what God wants them to be. It is not the ones who recognize their sin and hunger for righteousness who are to be put out of fellowship, but those who persistently and unrepentantly continue in a pattern of sin about which they have been counseled and warned".
Paul concludes this section summarizing his main point, which is to dissociate yourself with those who are in the church and living immorally. Paul writes, "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world". Paul had previously written them a non-canonized letter, which apparently warned them not to associate with immoral people. However, here Paul clarifies that he was not referring to the lost. We obviously live in a world with many lost souls who do not know Christ. If Paul were saying not to associate with them, we would have no outside interaction, and in fact, would never be able to evangelize. This may have been a problem in the Corinthian church where their previously mentioned pride and arrogance were leading them not to associate with those who were not of the church. This is never God's command for Jesus spent much of His time here on earth ministering to those who were immoral. Christ said in Matt. 9:12, "But when Jesus heard this, He said, "It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick". To convict them of what they were letting happen in their church Paul explains, "But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler". Because this was the very thing that was going on in Corinth, Paul wants to remind them that the real sin is allowing the rank, immoral lifestyles of so-called believers to dwell among you, not associating with those who do not proclaim Christ. These so-called believers were contaminating the church and reviling the name of Christ, and the Corinthians were just as guilty for not excommunicating them out of the church. If any church member claims Christ, they are an example and an ambassador for Christ to the outside unsaved world, and to immature believers in the faith. If they are bringing contempt onto Christ's name and bringing impurity into the church, it is the church's obligation to disassociate themselves from this individual that he may not continue to be the "example" for Christ. Paul even goes so far as to say, "not even to eat with such a one". We must not encourage the fellowship with this individual in any way.
Paul continues, "For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?" MacArthur comments, "We have no responsibility for judging outsiders. We are to witness to outsiders, but not judge them. We cannot chasten them, and no remedial steps will alter the sin of the ungodly. Those who are outside, God judges. But we do have a responsibility to judge those who are within the church. We must remove the wicked man from among ourselves". This may be a difficult thing to do. This may even be our friend, family member, etc. However, we must not let our feelings get in the way of what God has called of us. We cannot allow ourselves nor others to be contaminated by those who are immoral. We are not to worry ourselves about those who do not claim to be saved, but rather, those who claimed to be saved. Do not let our pride get in the way of doing the right thing, even though it may be hard. To close, MacArthur writes, "It is not that everyone in the church must be perfect, for that is impossible. Everyone falls into sin and has imperfections and shortcomings. The church is in some ways a hospital for those who know they are sick. They have trusted in Christ as Savior and they want to follow Him as Lord-to be what God wants them to be. It is not the ones who recognize their sin and hunger for righteousness who are to be put out of fellowship, but those who persistently and unrepentantly continue in a pattern of sin about which they have been counseled and warned".
posted by amesfam | 4:37 PM
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