Read 1 Corinthians 5
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you,
and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man
has his father’s wife. And you are proud!
1 Corinthians 5:1–2
The people at Corinth were boasting of the fact that their church
was so “open minded” that even fornicators could be members in
good standing! A professed Christian (and church member) was living with his stepmother in a permanent alliance. This kind of sin
was condemned by the Old Testament law as well as by the laws of
the Gentile nations. Paul shamed the church by saying, “Even the
unsaved Gentiles don’t practice this kind of sin!”
While Christians are not to judge one another’s motives or ministries, we are certainly expected to be honest about one another’s
conduct. In my own pastoral ministry, I have never enjoyed having to
initiate church discipline, but since it is commanded in the Scriptures,
we must obey God and set personal feelings aside.
Paul prescribed here an official church meeting at which the
offender should be dealt with according to divine instructions. The
sin was not to be “swept under the rug”; for, after all, it was known far
and wide even among the unsaved outside the church.
Something to Ponder
If you had been a member of the assembly at Corinth, how do you think
you would have been affected by the blatant sin within the church?