City Life Starter

The Word: I Corinthians 5:1-5

1It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.

2You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

3For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.

4In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,

5I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

By Scott Fiddler

It had been reported to Paul that one of the Corinthian church members was living in a sexual relationship with his stepmother. (v. 1). Paul characterizes the church’s failure to remove this person from the church, not as love, or grace, but as arrogance. (v. 2). It is arrogant as a Christian to not confront another Christian living openly in sin and believe God will not discipline him for his sin and us for our indifference. We are our brother’s keeper. (Gen. 4:9).

Paul then tells the Corinthians he has already judged this person and what is going to happen when he arrives in Corinth. (v. 3). As my father used to tell me, “It doesn’t take me long to look at a horseshoe.” Paul didn’t need to know if this person had an approval idol or what happened in his childhood to cause him to do this. Paul had already judged him; Paul knew there was no excuse or cause sufficient to answer the question, “Why are you having sex with your stepmother?”

In Galatians 6:1, Paul instructs the Galatians to restore someone caught in a trespass in a spirit of gentleness. Here, Paul, after rebuking the Corinthians for not having removed such a person from their assembly, says that when he arrives he intends to turn this person over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh. The distinction is probably that in Galatians 6:1 Paul is referring to one caught in a trespass, not one living in sin. Here, Paul apparently intended to call down a physical disease or affliction sufficient to cause this person to repent, “so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”  (vv. 4-5).  There is the Biblical precedent for this. See I Tim. 1:20. From this one might infer that if Paul did not turn this person over for the destruction of his flesh, he might not have retained his salvation.

Application

There are a number of different rabbits one could chase in these five verses of Scripture. Can one lose one’s salvation if he continues to live in sin? Was Paul’s calling down physical affliction on an unrepentant Christian a model of pastoral or apostolic oversight or something the Lord only entrusted to the original apostles? We don’t need to chase any of those rabbits; instead, we only need to face the 800-pound gorilla in the room, i.e. That sin is to be taken very seriously. Sin is so serious, that we are arrogant to think God won’t discipline us for continuing in it or failing to correct fellow believers living in it. Sin is so serious the Lord is willing to turn us over to physical disease or death rather than allow us to continue in sin and risk our salvation. To recognize these things is to have a healthy fear of God.