Are there some people whom we should kick out of the church?
Hi, and welcome to today's Little Lesson.
For the past two Little Lessons, we've been talking about biblical shunning.
And it is biblical, and we've looked at the one key scripture in Matthew chapter 18, Jesus'
three steps towards confrontation that are ever-increasing, one person, then two or three
people.
And then the whole church, that is the whole house church, the whole small group within
the big box church, whatever you want to call it, and then the ultimate thing is if you
can't get this guy to repent, then let him to be to you as a gentile and a tax collector,
so there's obviously shunning going on there.
But I said, that's not the only verse in the Bible, right, there's other verses that have
some bearing on the whole concept of shunning, and that is, we are to do everything we do
in love.
We are to our love our neighbor, as ourself.
We are to love our enemies, right.
Okay, so shunning is not quite the extreme thing that some people think it is and practiced
in some quarters, to these extremes where there doesn't seem like there's any love.
Okay, so now in today's Little Lesson, we're going to look at another key passage of scripture
relative to the concept of shunning, and that is in Paul's letter to the Corinthians.
His very first letter, and he tells the church to kick out a guy from the fellowship, and
to shun him.
So we got to get the context of this.
Paul writes in I Corinthians chapter 5, right in the very first verse, "It is actually reported
that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not even exist among
the Gentiles."
Whoa.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
This must be some pretty heavy duty immorality.
I wonder what it is because the Gentiles practice some pretty immoral stuff.
And of course, this is all, he's talking about sexual stuff here.
And the Gentiles in Corinth, holy schmoly, that was one of the most immoral cities in
the ancient world.
There was fornication going on, on a massive scale in the temple.
The Pagan temple there in Corinth, and no doubt, of course, there was adultery, as well.
But here is what Paul describes this guy, "It doesn't even exist among the Gentiles."
Someone has his father's wife, and so it's obviously couched in some bit of vague terms,
but everybody in Corinth knew what he was talking about.
I think we can figure it out pretty much, too, this is an immoral sexual relationship
that somebody has, either with his stepmother, because he calls him his father's wife, or
worse.
Oh, my goodness, his mother, which certainly, you don't often find that amongst the Gentiles.
You don't find sex with the stepmother too often, either.
And so Paul corrects them.
"You have become arrogant and have not mourned in the stead, so that the one who has done
this deed would be removed from your midst."
In other words, I shouldn't to be telling you this, guys.
This guy should have already been removed.
Now why didn't Paul say, "Take this guy through the three steps of confrontation, as Jesus
prescribed in Matthew chapter 18?"
Well, it's because Paul didn't believe that this instance was applicable to what Jesus
said, or to what Jesus said was applicable to this situation.
Why?
Because we'll see, that Paul is certain that the Corinth were not, Corinthian Christians
were not dealing here with a wayward brother, if your brother sins, go to him.
They were dealing with a phony believer, whose facade is exposed by his gross immorality,
and so you don't need to take this guy through the three steps, as a brother in Christ, to
try to bring him to repentance.
This is a guy that shouldn't be anyway associated with the church, treat him, this is an insider
that ought to be an outsider.
He should be treated like an outsider, so he should have been removed.
"For I," Paul writes, "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.
In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with
the power of the Lord Jesus, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his
flesh."
Now listen to this hopeful thing, "So that his spirit may be saved."
See, Paul didn't believe that this guy was on the road, the narrow road to everlasting
life.
No, no, no.
This guy was in darkness, total darkness.
He had not been born again, he was not a true believer in Jesus Christ.
He had no rights to be making a profession of faith in Christ.
And so he ought to be pushed out of the church.
And again, but shunned, yes, excommunicated from the church, but shunned entirely to the
extreme that some people advocate?
No, no, no.
We want this guy's spirit to be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus, so after we get him
out of here, we're going to evangelize him because nobody gets saved without hearing
the gospel, and having somebody present the call of God to repent and believe in Jesus.
So we're hoping this guy will ultimately be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus.
That's going to require the sharing of the gospel, but get him out of the church.
He doesn't belong there.
So then Paul, I'm skipping over some stuff.
I wrote to, he's now giving the rationale for his instructions, "I wrote to in my letter
not to associate with immoral people."
Now here's the clarification, "I did not at all mean with the immoral people of the world."
And then he lists some of the other ones besides the immoral, "Or with the covetous, and swindlers,
or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world."
I mean, you can't escape those kinds of people.
"But actually, I wrote to you," now listen closely, "Not to associate with any so-called
brother."
Not a real brother, so-called brother, a phony Christian, "If he is an immoral person, sexually
immoral person.
Or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard," so now he's adding to the
previous list there.
"Or a swindler, not even to eat with such a one."
So there's no personal fellowship interaction, casual relationship stuff.
It's this guy is not one of you, get him out of there.
He's a stain and a reproach to the church, outsiders will look at him and say, "That's
a Christian?
Goodness gracious, he's living with his stepmother in an immoral relationship.
Or, if he's living with his mother, perhaps," that's not a good representation of what it
means to be a follower of Christ.
So Paul continues with this theme of you're supposed to be judging those within the church.
"For what have I to do with judging outsiders?
Do you not judge those within the church?"
That's a rhetorical question.
The answer is, "Yes, you should be judging everyone within the church."
But those that are on the outside, Paul says, "God judges."
Now here's the instruction.
"Remove the wicked man from among yourselves."
Not remove the wayward brother, remove the wicked man, the so-called brother.
He's not a true brother.
And in our next Little Lesson, I'm going to go a little bit deeper into the next chapter
of I Corinthians, where Paul then drives this point home, people who are immoral sexually
immoral, no matter what their claim, they are not believers in Jesus Christ.
Okay.
Out of time for today, hope to see you next time.
God bless you.