9I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10not 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. 11But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sisterc but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
12What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
(1 Corinthians 5:9-13)
(1 Corinthians 5:9-13)
Thoughts: So Paul says, :Do not even eat with such people" meaning the sexually immoral in the church. There is something stomach turning about someone who rejects the purity of Christ. In my own church, Lake Murray Presbyterian, there was a previous minister who famously fell. He took the church out of the larger denomination because it ordained women- splitting the church, but then a few months later it was revealed he had an affair with his secretary. He was defrocked from his new denomination as he would have been from the old. But it was especially detesting that someone who claimed purity was in fact wallowing in the mud of sexual immorality. There certainly is a place for church discipline. If we cannot preserve discipline we are in trouble. Knox called discipline one of the marks of the true church (though Calvin only had the Word and Sacraments).
Again, it is important what Paul did not say. He did not say here to divide the church if they could not discipline the sexually immoral. He did not encourage the sexually pure to go out and start another church- only to purify the church from within. The church models the division of the world if she cannot stay together to work things out. The love of Christ shows itself not when all is going well and people are in obedience. But the love shows itself when we continue to care for the hurting and those different from us even if it means a cross for us. Discipline is always for God's glory and so that the person may be helped and the church may not be corrupted.
Division and schism clearly show we do not care for one another or cannot find the grace, patience and love to overcome differences. The true church is never one denomination-- whether it is a newly created one that has not had a chance to mess up- or an older one that can be manipulated to mess up again and again. There is no biblical example or command to divide the church even when heresy or idolatry become an overwhelming majority. There are many examples- [Moses and the golden calf, Elijah and the Baal worship, Josiah, Jehosaphat, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Danie] where people were called to witness in the midst of the whole people (or nation) going astray without dividing. The concrete example of the Essenes who went off to form their own community is not a good one- for they went into radical cult-like worship and thought. The call is always to love one another and stay together. When the people who hold to scripture are in a minority while the majority is even in open rebellion- the minority is called to be remnant-missionaries. The remnant must rely on God's grace to keep themselves disciplined, focused, and pure and gracious in thought, word and deed.
Prayer: Help me, Lord to be a remnant-missionary wherever you call me and providentially place me for such a time as this.
Cain expelled.
Again, it is important what Paul did not say. He did not say here to divide the church if they could not discipline the sexually immoral. He did not encourage the sexually pure to go out and start another church- only to purify the church from within. The church models the division of the world if she cannot stay together to work things out. The love of Christ shows itself not when all is going well and people are in obedience. But the love shows itself when we continue to care for the hurting and those different from us even if it means a cross for us. Discipline is always for God's glory and so that the person may be helped and the church may not be corrupted.
Division and schism clearly show we do not care for one another or cannot find the grace, patience and love to overcome differences. The true church is never one denomination-- whether it is a newly created one that has not had a chance to mess up- or an older one that can be manipulated to mess up again and again. There is no biblical example or command to divide the church even when heresy or idolatry become an overwhelming majority. There are many examples- [Moses and the golden calf, Elijah and the Baal worship, Josiah, Jehosaphat, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Danie] where people were called to witness in the midst of the whole people (or nation) going astray without dividing. The concrete example of the Essenes who went off to form their own community is not a good one- for they went into radical cult-like worship and thought. The call is always to love one another and stay together. When the people who hold to scripture are in a minority while the majority is even in open rebellion- the minority is called to be remnant-missionaries. The remnant must rely on God's grace to keep themselves disciplined, focused, and pure and gracious in thought, word and deed.
Prayer: Help me, Lord to be a remnant-missionary wherever you call me and providentially place me for such a time as this.
Cain expelled. 
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