Grace to you and peace in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We are continuing our deep dive into this subject of Confession. As we do this I want you, if you care to, open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 5 and follow along. I want to explore four points with you as we look into this:

1. The Sin Confronted

2. The Steps Required

3. The Preservation of the Sacred

4. The Separation from Sin

Today we will look at the first two. The remaining two we’ll actually tackle next week.

1) The Sin Confronted

In 1 Corinthians 5:1-2 see how the sin is confronted. Paul begins by pointing out the sin of the congregation, not the sin of the individual. He does this because the congregation has failed to confront the sin. The chapter begins with words of accusation:

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans…¹

Although Paul addresses a specific sin in Corinth, any openly tolerated sin reflects on the whole congregation. No one in the Body of Christ is an island.² Tolerated sin damages the Church’s reputation and weakens its witness to the community, making it harder to draw people to Jesus.

When the outside world looks in and sees sin, worse than anything they would endure, being openly tolerated it drives them away from Jesus.³ A wise man said it this way:

The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and then walk out the door denying Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.

If such things are not endured among godless heathens, they certainly should not be endured in the Church. We should look better. To do otherwise is to believe there is no consequence for sin. It is to publicly proclaim and teach God is a joke. God’s Word is a joke. It is to sow the seeds doubt in God’s Word, God’s presence, and God’s power. It is to teach there will be no harvest.

Look in your Bibles at 1 Corinthians 5:2. There Paul points directly to the problem in the church at Corinth. He says, “you have become arrogant.” You have become comfortable. You have tolerated, even celebrated, sinful conduct for the sake of peace. He is pointing out they have not dealt with sin in their church because they care more about a false sense of peace and false unity.

We would expect Paul to say the one who has remained in unrepentant sin is arrogant. That is not what Paul says. He points to the congregations sin. It is the sin of allowing one to become so self-righteous and comfortable in their sin, they feel above the very Law of God. This is exactly the problem with the Scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23, Mark 11 and John 8.

Paul asks in verse 2, “Ought you not rather to mourn?” They should be weeping in prayer, yet they stand in cooperative defiance with the sinner. They attack the one bringing God’s Word. They did not mourn, they did not suffer, over such sin. Where they did not grieve, we can be certain the heart of God did. The Bible says:

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
by whom you were sealed [branded]
for the day of redemption.⁴

The day of judgment will come. The Last Day will come. It is an undeniable truth: the Blood of Jesus has paid the debt for the righteous anger of God the Father toward sin. Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.⁵ That wondrous and precious gift is offered to all. There is no god like our God.⁶

Yet God is grieved over our sins. Sin in the church should be confronted as a loving parent confronts sin in a loved child. This is a sacred and holy treasure. This is about protecting the flock, who have been purchased with the very precious Blood of Jesus. There is a Christian and Biblical way to confront sin. That bring us to the second point.

2) The Steps Required

Here one would expect to see Matthew 18 quoted, as it often and correctly is, but I want to look at this through what Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians, and compare that to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 18. Paul gives the steps that must take place. When the disease is discovered, failing to treat it leads only to its spreading. Paul prescribes the cure. In the middle of verse 2 he says:

Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

That is strong language. This one is to be treated like cancer in the body. It must be cut out. Those persistent in sin and unrepentance must be removed from the Body of Christ, and from fellowship of the congregation.

Verse 7 reads:

Cleanse out the old leaven
that you may be a new lump,
as you really are unleavened.

Verse 13 reads:

Purge the evil person from among you.

This is actually describing the fourth and final step of Church discipline, as laid out by Jesus. Why is Paul so harsh in these verses? Is it to foster hate? Is it to bring guilt and judgment? No! The congregation should have followed Jesus’ Words. They should have been faithful Christians respecting and caring about their brother or sister in Christ; caring about their soul; caring about their salvation. Paul is following Jesus’ outline in Matthew 18.

Jesus said:

If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private. If he listens to you, you have regained your brother.⁷

What if he will not hear you?

If he does not listen to you…”

If he fails to examine himself and look inwardly and humbly; If he does not ask, “Lord, is this true in my life?”

If he does not listen to you, take one or two more witnesses. So that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed.⁸

The point here is not to gang up on them. The point is to gently bring a sense of heightened accountability. The point is to explain the sin, and for two or three to add weight to the situation, and to witness or watch the response of the sinner.

Is there any soul searching? Is there humility? Is there any regret for even a perceived misunderstanding? Is there any sorrow? Is there a desire to make it right? Is there a “Zaccheaus moment⁹”?

If so, if there is repentance. Then you have won them back. Praise God! What a blessing!! What a glorious ministry for the life of the Church! To be embraced in Christian love and overflowing forgiveness! To be called a fellow brother or sister in Christ. To support and defend each other so the world, sin, and the devil don’t come pouring into the life of the Church or any one of its members. It is all of us standing guard over all of us. Just hear the excitement in Jesus’ Words when He explains:

I tell you, there is joy before
the angels of God
over one sinner who repents.¹⁰

…but, what if they still won’t listen? Then Jesus says:

If he refuses to listen to them,
tell it to the Church.¹¹

This is the point where you need to go public. This is the most difficult point, but understand this is not about public humiliation. This is not about getting them and getting them out. This is a desperate call to the sinner come back. The goal is to call on the whole congregation to pray for this member, (or as St. Paul put it, “so-called member” at this point.) It is now the responsibility of the whole congregation to urge repentance, in a spirit of Christian respect and love, and in a gentle spirit of firm and resolute warning.

If they continues to throw off all correction:

If they refuses to listen, even to the Church, let them be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.¹²

This is, and should be, the point of great sorrow because it is time to remove them from the fellowship of the Church. It is to put them on the outside looking in. They must be cut off from the privileges and blessings of the people of God, and the people of God are to withdraw their fellowship from them and to leave them to their sin.

This is done in the loving and prayerful hope this will bring about a sober mind and bring them to the realization of their sin and bring repentance and a return to the God.¹³

Again, very strong words from the Apostle Paul. The words need to be strong because what is at stake has eternal consequences for this individual. Also at stake is the very holiness, purity, unity, and peace of the entire fellowship of the church, and the Church’s reputation and effectiveness in the community to bring people to Jesus. No one ever sins alone. One person’s sin affect all the others.

Verse 5 is the most difficult to read. If this were not in the Bible we might find it hard to believe. There should be some sense of shock and awe in all faithful hearts.

Paul says, “You are to deliver this one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” That’s a sobering sentence. It is not done in cruelty, but in prayerful hope that hitting rock bottom may lead to repentance and salvation before the day of the Lord. Paul proclaims at the end of verse 5 to figuratively grab them and shake them, to demand their attention, before the sin drags them to Hell.

As Charles Spurgeon once spoke at a funeral:

If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. If they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them not to go. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled against the teeth of our exertions, and let no one go unwarned and unprayed for.

Paul continues in verse 5:

“…so his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”

Church discipline is never about punishment—it’s about loving someone enough to warn them. We cut off fellowship not to shame, but to awaken. We build speed bumps to slow their rush toward destruction. We pray that the Gospel would one day take root in their heart, before the day of the Lord. If we truly love our neighbor as ourselves, and if we share God’s desire to bring all people home, then we will also share His urgency in confronting sin.

If the Gospel messages of salvation is important; if we truly love our neighbor as our self; if we share God’s desire to get all people home,¹⁴ we should share God’s disdain for sin and sin’s affect and help our brothers or sisters in Christ, by loving them. May God help us see such wisdom. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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