Sunday Praise & Worship 10:00
Christian Education - 10:00 - Casual Dress - Loving Childcare
|
|
|
|
Scripture quotation taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright© 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Last week, we heard Paul tell the Corinthians not to judge. Yet, this week, in chapter 5, Paul urged them to stop the sin among them. Aren’t these two instructions contradictory? Not necessarily. In chapter 4, Paul warned the Corinthians not to judge a person’s motivation or heart. However, we are still called to love each other. Paul did not define love in terms of warm feelings toward another, but in terms of action. When we love someone, Paul believed that we would want what was best for them, which sometimes meant we would have to confront them in love about sin in their lives. Paul gives us a concrete example of that kind of love in the passage we read today. From his response, we learn that one of their members continued to sin, living in an immoral relationship with his stepmother. (Paul used the Greek word “porneia,” which we translate as “immoral” to describe this relationship. We get our word pornography from this Greek term.) Everyone in the Corinthian community knew about his immoral behavior and no one did anything about it. Instead, the community boasted about their spirituality, essentially ignoring the problem. For Paul, ignoring the problem of sin among them would destroy the whole community. If the community proclaimed the life-changing power of Jesus Christ, and yet refused to allow that power to work in the lives of their own members, they would not be able to convince anyone else of the truth of Jesus Christ, including themselves. Eventually, their faith and the community would die. To avoid that certain death, Paul gave the Corinthians (and us) a difficult task of tough love. When we see someone in our midst who is sinning, hurting both themselves and others, Paul tells us to confront them in love, and set boundaries where appropriate. Paul instructed the Corinthians to set a harsh boundary of removing that man from the fellowship of the body. Paul had previously written to the Corinthians that they were to confront this man, but they ignored him. Now, Paul told them to set a definite consequence to the man’s behavior. By giving him a consequence, the community would help the man experience the pain his behavior was causing. By avoiding setting a consequence, they would doom the man to God’s judgment. Which is the more loving thing to do? Although it is the most difficult path, setting consequences for people demonstrates more love than the easier choice of ignoring the behavior. Paul’s goal for setting the consequence is salvation and reconciliation. He hopes that by removing the man from fellowship, the man will see the error of his ways and change his behavior, bringing himself back into a right relationship with God. Paul also argued that setting a consequence would return the community to a right relationship with God. If we allow sin among us to continue, we prove that we do not trust God. Let’s trust God as a community and work toward helping both our Skyline community and individuals within it to have a good and right relationship with God through the saving work of Christ. Questions for Reflection
For further study: The Greek for this passage talks about yeast leavening the whole loaf of bread. One person’s sin acts as yeast affecting the whole. Paul then goes on to remind us to celebrate the Passover feast. Read Exodus 12 and 13 to learn about the meaning of Passover. For next week: Read 1 Corinthians 15:51-58. As we enter the season of death, where plants die and trees lose their leaves, what promise do you find in this passage? How does it change your understanding of death? |
|
