Read 1 Corinthians 5

This short chapter discusses the difficult subject of church discipline.

The person who needed discipline in Corinth was a man in their church who was committing adultery with his father’s wife (v. 1). The fact that she is not called his mother probably means that she is a step-mother to the man. Regardless, Paul was appalled both that someone who claimed to be a believer would do this (v. 1) and that the Corinthian church tolerated this sin in their church family (v. 2).

“Tolerated” is too mild a term, in fact. The phrase, “and you are proud” in verse 2 indicates that the Corinthians celebrated this sin. It would be nice to know more about what Paul was meant. It is possible that the Corinthians saw their tolerance of this sin as some advanced display of grace, but we don’t know for certain. Regardless, Paul called on the church to remove this man from the church through church discipline as we saw in the phrase, “put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this” (v. 2b). What, then, does this passage teach us about church discipline?

First, that church discipline is public. Verse 4 told the Corinthians to handle this matter, “when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present” (v. 4). That phrase is speaking of a public gathering of the church. When someone is removed from church membership through discipline, all the other members of the church should know of his removal and why he was removed.

Second, that church discipline is for the spiritual good of the person placed under discipline. Verse 5b describes the purpose of this act with this phrase, “so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” Remember that no one should be disciplined from the church until they have been confronted with their sin and given the opportunity to repent. A repentant believer is not removed from the church because repentance is the way that a Christian should respond to sin. But a person who will not repent when sin is addressed is acting like an unbeliever. Paul is very concerned that the man described in 1 Corinthians 5 will go to hell because his open practice of sin is not consistent with the life of a believer. A main goal of removing him publicly is to shake him out of his false confidence of salvation so that he will repent of his sin like a believer should or turn to Christ genuinely for salvation.

Third, that church discipline is for the good of the church, too. Verses 6-8 compares sin to yeast (leaven). A little bit of yeast expands throughout baking dough to make the resulting bread soft and cause it to rise. The image is that the yeast grows to affect the whole loaf; likewise, sin unaddressed in the church also grows and expands until it pervades the entire body. Church discipline, then, removes the sin by disassociating the church from the person under discipline. While the people in the church might still see this man around, they are no longer to regard him as a brother in Christ who is growing in his faith. This has a sobering affect on the rest of the congregation, showing them that sin will not be tolerated in the body of Christ.

Church discipline is always a difficult thing, stressful for everyone involved. It is like surgery for the body of Christ. A surgeon wounds your physical body in order to remove or repair something that is affecting your health in the long term. Church discipline, likewise, is painful to the body, but God uses it to bring long-term health and healing to the body of Christ.

 

Read 1 Corinthians 4.

Some Christians have a regal view of the ministry. That is, they see pastors and other ministry leaders like monarchs. They look up to us, in some ways, so they think that everyone must give us honor and respect and treat us with reverence.

What nonsense.

Paul continued, here in 1 Corinthians 4, correcting the false ideas the Corinthians had about ministry leaders. Paul and Apollos were not in competition ( 1 Cor 2) with each other but instead were partners together in God’s work (1 Cor 3).

So, here in chapter 4, he says, think of us as “servants of Christ” (v. 1) who must be faithful (v. 2). Instead of living like modern day royals, Paul said we ministry leaders are “fools for Christ” (v. 10a). Instead of being put on a pedestal, we are paraded like prisoners of war (v. 9).

While some people treat us with honor and respect, that’s not the norm. Instead, people “curse” us (v. 12b) and “we are slandered” (v. 13a). People think we are the “scum of the earth, the garbage of the world” (v. 13c).

Being an elder is not majestic. It isn’t easy or particularly fun most of the time. When we are mistreated, we have to respond in a godly way, not the way we might want to. That means “When we are cursed, we bless…; when we are slandered, we answer kindly” (v. 12, 13). Most of the people in our church are kind to me. But some people have said the most unkind things to me or about me, sometimes in public meetings.

But, enough about me. Given what you know about ministry, don’t you want to become a ministry leader? That’s where Paul turned next in this chapter. Despite the pain that ministry leadership can bring, Paul wanted to build more leaders.

The Corinthians didn’t have enough “fathers” (v. 15). They needed more so Paul said, “I urge you to imitate me” (v. 16). He also sent Timothy to them to “remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.”

That’s the essence of spiritual leadership: Know the truth. Teach the truth. Live the truth. Then encourage others to do the same.

No church has enough leaders. Our church could certainly use more. Are you growing in your knowledge of God’s truth? Are you teaching it while simultaneously living it out?

None of us is perfect but, when there is sin in your life that is out of step with what we believe and teach, are you dealing with it biblically?

This is what the church needs so that the gospel can advance and people can be redeemed from this lost, cursed world. Will you step up to the need and become a spiritual father?

 

Read 1 Corinthians 3.

Back in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul expressed a great deal of confidence about the salvation of the Corinthian believers. He talked about all the ways in which God had enriched them (1:5) which confirmed their acceptance of the gospel (1:6) so that they had every spiritual gift (1:6). At the end of chapter 1 he explained that their salvation came from Christ crucified not from human wisdom and in chapter 2 he described how their faith was a spiritual work done by the Holy Spirit of God.

Here in chapter 3, he made a turn in his message to the Corinthians. Although they were saved by the Spirit, he could not speak to them as if they were spiritually mature; rather, they had to be addressed as if they were babies in Christ (vv. 1-3). This is quite a put down–not an insult but a needed adjustment to their self-assessment. The Corinthians were proud of how advanced they were spiritually–just look at all the spiritual gifts they had!

But, contrary to their beliefs about themselves, Paul told them that they were acting in a spiritually immature manner, like babies in Christ. What caused him to say that? It was the fact that there was “jealousy and quarreling” among them (v. 3). That jealously and quarreling was about who was the best spiritual leader–Paul, Apollos, or someone else (v. 4). But Paul and Apollos were not competitors; rather, they were servants of God who both made meaningful contributions to the church (vv. 5-9).

Verses 10-17 are often misunderstood in part because Paul will later in this same book talk about our human bodies as the temple of God. That’s what he meant in chapter 6, but here in chapter 3 he is not referring to the human bodies or their individual spiritual lives.

Instead, the context of verses 10-17 refer to the church itself. The foundation Paul laid is the foundation of the church at Corinth, the Lord Jesus Christ himself (vv. 10-11). Apollos, or anyone else who serves the church, is building on that foundation. But it is God who will test the quality of everyone’s work (vv 12-14). The “temple” Paul is referring to here, then, is the church itself in Corinth (v. 16) and the warning against “destroying the temple” is a warning against tearing the church apart through “jealousy and quarreling” (v. 3) or any other way that creates disunity.

What are some sins that tear churches apart? One answer is sin of any kind that goes unconfessed and unaddressed, and the Corinthian church was full of that. Just from this letter we know that the Corinthians had:

• incest (1 Cor 5)
• lawsuits among believers (1 Cor 6:1-11)
• sexual immorality of all kinds (1 Cor 6:12-20)
• unbiblical divorce (1 Cor 7)
• abuses of Christian liberty (1 Cor 8-10)
• disorderly worship (1 Cor 9:1-16)
• abuse of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 9:17-34)
• and more

The warning in today’s passage is very serious: “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple” (3:17). How many churches have been torn apart by sin–sin among leaders or sins within the body? How many congregations have been ripped apart by gossip? How many have been weakened or killed by failing to follow biblical leadership?

Understand, then, that as a church member, your choices affect far more people than just you. If your choices cause harm to the body of Christ, God promised to deal with you severely for the harm you’ve done to his work (v. 17). This passage should sober us and cause us to realize the importance of making godly choices not only for our own walk with God but for the spiritual health and strength of his church.

 

Read 1 Corinthians 2.

In this chapter, Paul explained to the Corinthians his approach to ministry. That approach was to rely on the message of Christ (v. 2) and the power of God’s Spirit (v. 4).

Verses 14-15 described the differences between those who have God’s Holy Spirit and those who do not. Unbelievers―those who don’t have the Spirit―cannot welcome God’s truth because God’s truth is spiritual by nature.

Sometimes verse 14 is interpreted to mean that unbelievers cannot understand God’s word. That is not the point of the passage, however. The point of the passage is that an unbeliever is unable to believe, to welcome, to “accept the things that come from the Spirit of God” (v. 14).

Unbelievers may understand every fact of the Gospel or every doctrine of the Christian faith or they may not, but either way an unbeliever can only believe God’s truth if God’s Spirit is within.

This is why our outreach to unbelievers should consist of the pure gospel of Christ rather than persuasive techniques, convincing arguments, or powerful entertainment. Those might bring some genuine conversions–if there is any gospel at all in them–but they will also bring many false professions.

Only the Holy Spirit’s power can change a person’s will so that that person will welcome Jesus Christ and put his or her faith in him. So stick to the gospel message and pray for God to save through his Spirit.

That is the righteous approach to evangelism.

 

Read 1 Corinthians 1.

Was there ever a more mixed-up group of Christians than the believers in Corinth?

Although they had been blessed by the ministries of several faithful men (v. 12), they could not just receive and appreciate each man’s teaching. Instead of seeing each man’s ministry as one part of God’s complete instruction to them, they took sides. They claimed to follow one of these men as if they were in opposition to each other instead of co-workers for Christ.

In addition to their divisions, they were confused about what God’s grace meant and about several points of Christian doctrine. We’ll read about all of this in the coming days, but just know or remember that the church in Corinth had a lot of problems.

Yet, Paul began his letter to them by writing, “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (vv. 2-3).

That greeting gives me great hope. It reminds me that we don’t belong to Christ because we volunteered and worked hard morally to become worthy of being his people.

Instead we are “sanctified in Christ Jesus.” Sanctified means “set apart.” In this context, it refers to our membership in God’s family by faith. It is our association with Christ—being “in Christ Jesus”—that caused us to be set apart to belong to him. It is through the gospel Jesus preached that they and we were “called to be his holy people” (v. 2).

Despite our many differences, we are one in Christ “with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours” (v. 2). Despite differences in where we live on earth, or when we live on earth, or age, or language, or anything else, if we’re in Christ, we are one. We all call on the same Lord and that same Lord is working on us, causing us to grow and become like him.