(continuation from Meditation 87)
How does the apostle Paul deal with this case of
sexual immorality (a Christian living in sin with his father’s wife, see 1
Corinthians 5:1-2) in the Corinthian church?
The apostle writes: “Shouldn't you rather have been
filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?
Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have
already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present.
When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in
spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to
Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the
day of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 5:2-5)
In his way of dealing with this case, Paul mentions
the following aspects:
a.) “Put out of your fellowship the man who
did this” (1 Corinthians 5:2)
b.) “Passing judgment on the one who did this”
(1 Corinthians 5:3)
c.) “When you are assembled in the name of our
Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit...” (1 Corinthians 5:4)
d.) “When ... the power of our Lord Jesus is
present...” (1 Corinthians 5:4)
e.) “Hand this man over to Satan, so that the
sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 5:5)
We saw in Meditation 87 that, according to the Mosaic
Law, incest was a capital offence. God had ordered that such a man should be
expelled from His people and punished with death.
The apostle Paul bases his way of dealing with this
case on Jesus’ own directives. Since the Messianic Covenant (New Testament),
capital punishment is no longer God’s order for His people. The most severe
punishment is now expulsion from the local messianic community (the church)
which is a manifestation of Christ’s universal Body.
Therefore, when Paul commands in 1
Corinthians 5:2: “Put out of your fellowship the man who did this”, he
follows Jesus’ order in Matthew 18:15-17: “If your brother
sins (against you), go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If
he listens to you, you have won your brother over. If he will not listen, take
one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the
testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it
to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you
would a pagan or a tax collector.”
Surely, the first directives of Christ (see Matthew
18:15-16) had already been followed up in this case. Therefore, the apostle
ends the declaration of punishment with the order: “Expel the wicked man
from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:13)
What is God’s reason for such a severe sentence? Paul
explains that when he continues to say: “Your boasting is not good. Don't
you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a
new batch without yeast--as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has
been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast,
the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of
sincerity and truth.” (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)
The apostle says that from God’s point of view, the
local church is like “a new batch of dough” (i.e. its new Christlike life),
because of the sacrifice of Christ, the true Passover lamb, and the gift of
God’s Spirit. Now every local church should also learn to live up to its new
Christlike identity and become like bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity
and truth. For that very reason every local church should get rid of the old
yeast of malice and wickedness. Only then will a church be able to truly
celebrate the Passover Festival of freedom from the bondage of sin. That is the
only way to pursue Christlike holiness.
God and his ambassador, the apostle Paul, have first
of all in view the Christlike holiness and purity of the local church, its
witness in the world and its preparation for the wedding feast of the
Lamb. Therefore, a deliberate, sinful
lifestyle of church members needs to be addressed and, if needed, punished with
expulsion from the local church fellowship.
Secondly, the severe punishment of expulsion is also
meant to be God’s wake-up call to the rebellious sinner aiming at his or her
repentance and return to the Lord.
In this serious case of incest, Paul orders the church
to punish this rebellious fellow Christian not only by expelling this man from
the local the church. The apostle writes: “When you are assembled in the
Name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord
Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be
destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” (1
Corinthians 5:4-5)
Under the powerful presence of Christ’s Spirit (see
Matthew 18:20!) the united church, under the apostolic authority of Paul,
should hand this man over to Satan for the execution of God’s punishment. In
practice, this might have consisted of sever bodily suffering or even death.
However, the aim of this punitive measure is not his final destruction, but his
ultimate salvation! In the end he remains a child of God, saved by the blood of
Christ.
On reading this story, the punishment of Ananias and
Sapphira in Acts 5 comes to mind as they were lying to God’s Spirit, to the
apostle Peter and to the church.
In fact, one can wonder if the apostle in his second
letter to the Corinthian church does not have the ruefulness of this man in
mind when he writes: “I am not overstating it when I say that the man who
caused all the trouble hurt your entire church more than he hurt me. He was
punished enough when most of you were united in your judgment against him. Now
it is time to forgive him and comfort him. Otherwise he may become so
discouraged that he won't be able to recover. Now show him that you still love
him. I wrote to you as I did to find out how far you would go in obeying me. When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive him (for
whatever is to be forgiven), I do so with Christ's authority for your benefit,
so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are very familiar with his evil schemes”
(2 Corinthians 2:5-11). It seems that the apostle also wanted to
show here that Satan as executioner of God’s decree should not have more power
than Christ allows for executing this
sentence.
The apostle Paul mentions another similar sentence in
the first letter he wrote to his co-worker Timothy: “Timothy, my son, I give
you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so
that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a
good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.
Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be
taught not to blaspheme” (1 Timothy 1:18-20).
The question is if taking such a disciplinary measure
of handing a rebellious child of God over to Satan was a responsibility that
only belonged to Paul’s apostleship or if it was a customary discipline that
the churches practised in severe cases. It seems that the first was the case.
Nowhere in the New Testament do we read of other instances where local churches
(without the apostle’s involvement) handed its unruly members over to
Satan.
However, the local church in New Testament times was
charged by the apostles to deal severely with church members who did not pursue
Christlike love, humility and holiness and did not want to follow Christ and
obey God’s Word.
Following Jesus’ directions in Matthew 18:15-17, the
apostle Paul wrote to the church in Thessalonica concerning those who disobey
God’s Word: “Take note of those who refuse to obey what we say in this
letter. Stay away from them so they will be ashamed. Don't think of them as
enemies, but speak to them as you would to a Christian who needs to be warned”
(2 Thessalonians 3:14-15).
Earlier in the same letter, Paul had already addressed
those Christians who lived idle, disorderly lives: “Dear brothers and
sisters, we give you this command with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Stay away from any Christian who lives in idleness and doesn't follow the tradition
of hard work we gave you” (2 Thessalonians 3:6).
At the end of his letter to the church in Rome, the
apostle Paul writes about church members who sow dissension or introduce false
teaching: “... I make one more appeal, my dear brothers and sisters. Watch
out for people who cause divisions and upset people's faith by teaching things
that are contrary to what you have been taught. Stay away from them” (Romans 16:17).
Paul further teaches the local church in Corinth on
this matter when he writes: “I have written to you in my letter not to
associate with sexually immoral people -- not at all meaning the people of this
world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case
you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must
not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral
or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a
man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the
church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside...”
(1 Corinthians 5:9-13a).
The apostle Paul instructs his young co-worker, Titus,
concerning church discipline in accordance with Jesus’ directives in Matthew
18:15-17: “If anyone is causing divisions among you, give a first and second
warning. After that, have nothing more to do with that person” (Titus
3:10).
To the churches in Galatia (modern Turkey), Paul puts
emphasis on a Christlike attitude of love, humility and compassion towards
disobedient fellow-church members: “Dear brothers and sisters, if another
Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly
help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the
same temptation yourself” (Galatians 6:1).
The same Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica: “Brothers
and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are
timid. Take tender care of those who are weak. Be patient with everyone” (1 Thessalonians 5:14).
The apostle John warns the local church not to
associate with those who want to introduces false (unbiblical) teachings in
their Christian community. He writes: “If someone comes to your meeting and
does not teach the truth about Christ, don't invite him into your house or
encourage him in any way. Anyone who encourages him becomes a partner in his
evil work” (2 John 1:10-11).
We started this meditation with the way the apostle
Paul dealt with the case of incest in the Corinthian church. After that we
reflected on Christ’s directives for disobedient and rebellious Christians and the way the
apostles Paul and John applied these directives to the first century churches.
So, what might
God want to say to my church today through the directives
He and His apostles gave to the New Testament congregations?
I think that first of all my church needs to ask
itself if it shares God’s vision concerning His church. In Meditation 47 we saw
that God
- Father, Son and Spirit - prepares Christ’s universal church for the glorious
end-of-time wedding feast of the Lamb. He does that on a minute scale: one
local church at a time within its own geographical and cultural setting!
Furthermore,
we saw that the apostle Paul disclosed to the church the reason for his
commitment to their church. He wanted to prepare them for that future wedding
celebration of the Lamb: “I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. For I promised you
as a pure bride to one husband, Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2).
To
prepare itself for that future wedding feast, every local church needs to
pursue Christlike love, humility, compassion and holiness! Therefore, it needs
also to discipline those members who don’t want to join these wedding
preparations and therefore don’t pursue a Christlike life.
--
So, does my church know that God wants to prepare it for the future wedding
feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7)? Is my church actively involved in these
preparations? How?
--
Do I know that God wants to prepare me for the future wedding feast (Revelation
19:9)? Am I actively involved in these preparations? How?
--
I think that especially under the influence of God’s Word [the Bible], incest
and related issues have been formerly taboo in most parts of the world.
Nowadays, there are forces that aim to push back these boundaries and make
incest morally acceptable. If this movement grew stronger in my country,
would my church ‘go with the flow’ or would it act upon God’s Word and take a
stand against the erosion of this taboo?
--
How would I respond personally to such a potential development in my country?
--
However shocking it is, we know that incest is a frequent phenomenon. It does
not only occur in society as a whole, but also in local churches and even
amongst church leaders. In local churches it might hardly come to light,
because of its moral rejection in Christian circles. As many of these cases
remain unnoticed or covered up, the agony of victims often remains
indescribable.
--
Is my church community aware of a covered-up incest case in their midst? If
yes, why does my church not take action in accordance with God’s Word?
--
Do you know of such a case in your church? If yes, why don’t you bring it to
light in accordance with God’s Word?
1
Corinthians 5:2-5, Matthew 18:15-17, 1
Corinthians 5:13, 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, 1 Timothy
1:18-20, 1 Corinthians 5:9-13a are quotes from the New
International Version. All other quotes are from the New Living
Translation.
(to be continued)
