1 CORINTHIANS 5
Read 1 Corinthians 5:1-13
We have seen that Paul has been criticising the Corinthians for several reasons, but all are really to do with not being mature Christians. They are still in thrall to worldly values, and the aspect that he turned to next was that of sexual immorality. Corinth was a seaport and there was a lot of coming and going of visitors from overseas and it had got a reputation for being a place where sexual liaisons of every sort were easily come by. Thus, it was easy to see how such worldly standards could find their way into the church.
Paul spoke generally about sexual immorality but with a specific example of a man having relations with his step mother; the assumption is that the mother is still alive and in that case the relationship would be considered incestuous and be an outrage even in secular society. What compounded the sin was that there being no sense of shame by the man; he was proud of his actions and so was the church. Rather than condemning the action of this man, the church was not at all concerned and happily allowed and celebrated it.
Paul was concerned about church discipline here. The man who has sinned so arrogantly and deliberately should be taken out of the worshipping community. There is no mention of the woman in this case, possibly because she was not a Christian and thus outside the scope of church discipline (“what business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?” asked Paul (v12)). We note that Paul is addressing the whole Corinthian congregation here. It is not just a leadership problem; it is a whole church problem.
There have been many instances in recent times of people within the church, even within the leadership of the church, who have acted in a sexually immoral way. Sometimes they have been expelled from the fellowship; sometimes they have left a fellowship voluntarily. In some cases a church has followed the example of Corinth and endorsed the behaviour of the person concerned. This lack of consistency has left the church unsure of what to do in such circumstances and presented mixed messages to the world at large.
Note, too, that Paul never suggests that such an immoral person has lost their salvation. His hope would be that the individual would repent of their sin and re-join the faithful community and no more associate with bad influences. True repentance involves more than simply saying that one is sorry. It involves a change of lifestyle, turning away from deliberate sin and turning towards the lifestyle advocated by the Lord in the Bible.
Remember that Paul is speaking here about flagrant, deliberate sin within the fellowship. That should not be tolerated let alone celebrated. And Paul sets all of this in the context of Jesus and his sacrificial death for us on the cross. Given what Jesus has done for us, his people have a responsibility to stand against the sinful nature of this world.