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Unholy Tolerance
1 Corinthians 5:1-5
January 28, 2018
Lord’s Day Worship
Sean Higgins
Download the bulletin.
Download the Kids’ Korner.
The sermon starts at 15:50 in the audio file.
Or, Church Discipline and the Inescapability of Destruction
The Lord is serious about holiness, His own and His people’s. Christ died and rose again, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to satisfy God’s standard to to sanctify, that is, to make holy, a people for Himself. Each and every individual believer has been forgiven for his unholiness and has also been given everything necessary for life and godliness. Christians are saints; they are the holy ones.
In saying that the Lord takes seriously the holiness of His people, we must not limit this to individual members, it also applies to the group. The Lord takes seriously the holiness of the church, of the temple. “For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:17). Holiness must be considered on both levels, that of believers and that of the whole body.
The church in Corinth had some problems. Actually, they had a lot of problems. Starting in chapter 5 Paul addresses some of their shameless problems: incest, greed-driven lawsuits, and prostitution. It wasn’t merely that these things were present but being addressed with patience and persistence. These things were accepted with an arrogant apathy. I don’t believe there is evidence to argue that the Corinthians celebrated such unholiness among them (which does not say much for many churches in our day who do celebrate it), but the Corinthians had an unholy, sinful tolerance for unholy living among them. At the start of chapter 5, instead of addressing the professing Christian man in sin, Paul admonishes the congregation to humble themselves and pursue purity.
Unless we think Paul needed a running start before dealing with such serious subjects as in chapters 5 and 6 (again, the issues of sexual immorality, lawsuits against one another in public courts, and additional sexual immorality), it’s worth considering the order of Paul’s letter. Paul spent the first four chapters confronting the pride of preachers and the petty divisions among the people. Was he easing them into this more personal confrontation?
The lack of transition between the end of chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5 suggests that, while he is changing subjects in one way, in another way he’s continuing to expose the problems rooted in the same soil. They valued and pursued acceptance from those outside the church, from those in the world; how could this not lead to acceptance of worldly behavior inside the church?
And how could positioning for power and superficial manipulation among some of the teachers not encourage positioning for power and superficial accommodation among some of the flock? The leaders weren’t pursuing holiness, why would the followers care about it? If the leaders were busy building loyalty to their personal brands, how were they building the unity and sanctity of the church? The sinful relationship Paul confronts in chapter 5 is bad, but their sinful boasting was already not good (see 1 Corinthians 5:6).
So the question and threat from chapter 3 still apply. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). In the world we live in, a world full of sin and sinners, destruction is inescapable. Sinners will be destroyed by God’s judgment, or the church will be destroyed by sinners, or the church will discipline the sinners so that the sinner’s flesh will be destroyed. Patience is one thing, but inaction results in destruction; there is no rest from vigilance in this battle. The seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman are still in conflict. Unholy tolerance in the church [...]
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By Trinity Evangel Church1 Corinthians 5:1-5
January 28, 2018
Lord’s Day Worship
Sean Higgins
Download the bulletin.
Download the Kids’ Korner.
The sermon starts at 15:50 in the audio file.
Or, Church Discipline and the Inescapability of Destruction
The Lord is serious about holiness, His own and His people’s. Christ died and rose again, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to satisfy God’s standard to to sanctify, that is, to make holy, a people for Himself. Each and every individual believer has been forgiven for his unholiness and has also been given everything necessary for life and godliness. Christians are saints; they are the holy ones.
In saying that the Lord takes seriously the holiness of His people, we must not limit this to individual members, it also applies to the group. The Lord takes seriously the holiness of the church, of the temple. “For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:17). Holiness must be considered on both levels, that of believers and that of the whole body.
The church in Corinth had some problems. Actually, they had a lot of problems. Starting in chapter 5 Paul addresses some of their shameless problems: incest, greed-driven lawsuits, and prostitution. It wasn’t merely that these things were present but being addressed with patience and persistence. These things were accepted with an arrogant apathy. I don’t believe there is evidence to argue that the Corinthians celebrated such unholiness among them (which does not say much for many churches in our day who do celebrate it), but the Corinthians had an unholy, sinful tolerance for unholy living among them. At the start of chapter 5, instead of addressing the professing Christian man in sin, Paul admonishes the congregation to humble themselves and pursue purity.
Unless we think Paul needed a running start before dealing with such serious subjects as in chapters 5 and 6 (again, the issues of sexual immorality, lawsuits against one another in public courts, and additional sexual immorality), it’s worth considering the order of Paul’s letter. Paul spent the first four chapters confronting the pride of preachers and the petty divisions among the people. Was he easing them into this more personal confrontation?
The lack of transition between the end of chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5 suggests that, while he is changing subjects in one way, in another way he’s continuing to expose the problems rooted in the same soil. They valued and pursued acceptance from those outside the church, from those in the world; how could this not lead to acceptance of worldly behavior inside the church?
And how could positioning for power and superficial manipulation among some of the teachers not encourage positioning for power and superficial accommodation among some of the flock? The leaders weren’t pursuing holiness, why would the followers care about it? If the leaders were busy building loyalty to their personal brands, how were they building the unity and sanctity of the church? The sinful relationship Paul confronts in chapter 5 is bad, but their sinful boasting was already not good (see 1 Corinthians 5:6).
So the question and threat from chapter 3 still apply. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). In the world we live in, a world full of sin and sinners, destruction is inescapable. Sinners will be destroyed by God’s judgment, or the church will be destroyed by sinners, or the church will discipline the sinners so that the sinner’s flesh will be destroyed. Patience is one thing, but inaction results in destruction; there is no rest from vigilance in this battle. The seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman are still in conflict. Unholy tolerance in the church [...]