Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindlernot even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! (2 Corinthians 9:10-15) You declare the Lords death until He comes. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him. So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, Behold the man! When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, Crucify him, crucify him! Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered him, You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Behold your King! They cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him! Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, Do not write, The King of the Jews, but rather, This man said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written I have written. (John 19) When A Fellow Christian Chooses To Live In Sin The Problem: Sexual Immorality (1 Cor. 5:1) Paul is shocked! A member there had his fathers wife! Corinth was a city full of idolatry. Aphrodite was the major goddess. Sexual immorality a common part of their religion Sexual immorality was normal in their culture. Many of them had very immoral lives before Christ (1 Cor. 6:9-11) Even the pagans wouldnt tolerate this! If the world can see something is immoral, what about Gods people? When A Fellow Christian Chooses To Live In Sin The Churchs Response: Bizarre Pride (vs. 2, 6-8) Would seem the church would be ashamed and humble, but there is apparently no remorse over the state Proud of what? Possibly prided in the presence of spiritual gifts and ignored sin. Possibly prided in their love, unity, and acceptance and ignored the sin. A false sense of strength! Should have mourned: The man and the church over his sin, his state, and their condition (James 4:9) Their lack of action put the whole church at risk It only takes a little leaven to leaven the whole. Contagious influence! Vs 7-8 They should resemble their memorial unleavened Remember Thyatira which suffered from a womans influence God called Jezebel? Sin must be stopped (Revelation 2:20) When A Fellow Christian Chooses To Live In Sin Pauls Solution: Withdraw Fellowship (verses 3- 5,7, 9, 11, 13) He was to be delivered to Satan Allowed to go down sinful path in hopes he would return after tasting its results Cleanse out the old leaven Some sort of removal happens No longer associate with him There is a loss of fellowship. Could not go on as if nothing happened. They were not to even eat with him anymore. Sin destroyed their fellowship Know that the discipline worked! The brother did repent in genuine remorse (2 Cor. 2:5-8) Jesus instructed such action (Matt 18:15-17) and Paul told the church at Thessalonica to do it as well (2 Thess 3:6-15) How was the carried out? See some steps, but no details. When A Fellow Christian Chooses To Live In Sin The Application: Church Discipline An unpopular topic. But this is a Biblical practice and thus Biblical churches will practice it when the situation arises. Cannot avoid it because we dont think it will work, because we worry it will make others mad, or because we do not like to do it. Remember Ananias & Sapphira? (Acts 5:11, 14) When done, he is still your brother! Dont withdraw and erase from memory. Act with love and kindness. Just dont treat as though you still had fellowship. Admonish! (2 Thess 3:15) What kinds of sins? Not a person who is weak, struggling, or working through doubts. One willfully living in sin. What if the brother isnt withdrawn from? Look back at Pauls instructions to Thessalonica not strictly a collective church action. I can still do something. (1 Thess 3:6-15) When A Fellow Christian Chooses To Live In Sin The Application: Church Discipline What if a person withdraws themselves? The members of the church still need to know. Still admonish. Still change our relationship with him because fellowship is still lost. What if it is a family member? This complicates things. A husband or wife still has duties. A child or parent still has duties. Whatever is done, we cannot act toward them in a way that leaves the impression we still are in fellowship POINT: When a fellow Christian chooses to live in sin, we cannot ignore it. We must reach out to them to seek to bring them back to God. If they will not turn away, our fellowship must be removed in hopes of saving their soul! Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? David said, To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be averted from the people. Then Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king. And Araunah said to the king, May the Lord your God accept you. But the king said to Araunah, No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. (2 Samuel 24:21-24) God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. (Romans 5:8-9) all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith (Romans 3:23-25) Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1-2) There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. we are children of God, and if children, then heirs heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Rom 8:1-2, 16-17) When People Of The World Choose To Live In Sin Wrong Conclusions: What About Withdrawing From The World? (I Corinthians 5:9-10) Previously wrote not to associate with sexually immoral Instead of withdrawing fellowship from their brother, they broke off relationships with people of the world! If they were consistent in their misapplication, they took on an impossible task. Would have to withdraw from ALL! Why miss what Paul was saying? Unrighteous judgment, held self to different standard than the world. Gave their brother a pass the world didnt get. (Romans 2:1-4) When People Of The World Choose To Live In Sin Gods People Have No Business Judging Those Who Are Outside (I Corinthians 5:9-10) Judge can have multiple ideas Common to hear Dont judge me! meaning condemn lifestyle or choices. Context determines meaning Had been discussing church discipline, withdrawing fellowship. That he means this is clear by the second half of verse 12. A specific action taken! You cant withdraw fellowship if you dont have fellowship they had to quit distancing themselves from the world Dont take Pauls words out of context. He isnt giving carte blanche permission for unrestrained relationships with sinful When People Of The World Choose To Live In Sin Pauls teaching greatly mirrors the desire Jesus had as He prayed for His disciples (John 17:14-20) A difficult reality A sanctified life in a sinful world while fighting against Satan. Jesus understands our battle! Its not the will of the Lord that we be removed from the world. He wants us there. We are SENT. Theres purpose. The struggle is how can we live in the world without becoming of the world. We are to influence without being influenced Remember what Jesus is praying for Our SANCTIFICATION! As we examine our relationships with sinful people we must make sure those relationships are not destroying our sanctification. If they are, dont try to reason them away! When People Of The World Choose To Live In Sin We cannot throw caution to the wind in our relationships with the world: 1 Cor. 15:33; 2 Cor. 6:14, 17; 1 Pet. 4:3-4; Prov. 22:24-25 In our relationships we cannot pretend nothing is wrong. Something is very wrong. Diff values, ideals, and purposes Does Paul mean we are to never judge lost people? You cant follow these verses without some judgments. Everyone is okay with some level of judging. Judging isnt the real issue. Jesus did NOT condemn judging. He condemned the wrong heart in judging (Matt 7:1, 5-6; Matt 7:15-16, 20; John 7:24) When People Of The World Choose To Live In Sin Relationships with the world A necessary evil, a license to be worldly, or an opportunity to shine? Worldly people will act like worldly people. Sin will plague our relationships. Dont forget that the world is the world. Who is the world? Yes, the grossly immoral. But also the seemingly moral but without Christ. Also those in religious error. The world is those outside fellowship with God What do we do? We cant pull away from the world. God wants us in it influencing the world (Phil. 2:14-15) Our relationships must not leave the impression that we condone their sinfulness and lifestyles (Rom. 1:32) Balance is crucial. Where do you draw the line? Cannot adequately address it. But be willing to draw lines. But also be willing to show mercy and grace. Teach. Influence. Lead.