1 Corinthians: Not in VainSample

'Scandal in the church!’ 

We’ve all seen depressing headlines along those lines. Similarly, in Corinth the word has got out that a church member is having an on-going sexual relationship with his stepmother. Even in licentious Corinth, non-Christians would have been raising their eyebrows at this (v. 1b). 

However, the surprise is that Paul says the individual concerned isn’t the real problem. The truly worrying aspect is that the church itself isn’t even bothered. In fact, as hard as it may be to believe it, the Corinthian Christians were proud. They should have been ‘mourning’ such sin (v. 2), but their departure from God’s ethics seemed to have become a badge of honour. Maybe they believed themselves to be so ‘spiritual’ that their church was above bodily restrictions, or perhaps they boasted in having a view of God that was this inclusive. Of course, when we start to ponder this, we realise it’s not too dissimilar from our situation with the church in the west. 

Paul explains that the truly loving response is to exercise church discipline, excluding the unrepentant man from the fellowship and denying him the privileges of meeting with God’s people. It’s a way of demonstrating to the individual the serious trajectory of his behaviour: ultimately he is acting like an unbeliever, so he should be temporarily treated as one (hence Paul’s phrase, handing him ‘over to Satan’). The goal is to wake the man up to the reality of what he’s done, so that he might be ‘saved on the day of the Lord’ (v. 5b). 

But discipline is also about protecting the church. The imagery of breadmaking reminds us that tolerance of sin can spread and ultimately impact upon a whole congregation. In referencing unleavened bread, Paul is making the point that God’s people have a new identity. This was the meal that Israel ate as they were rescued from Egypt (Ex. 12:17–20); Christ, our Passover Lamb, has died so that we might now live purified lives free from sin. 

Reflection

How does today’s reading challenge your attitude to the behaviour of those outside the church? Do we lean towards judgmental pride or Christ-like compassion?