Passage: 1 Corinthians 5

The Big Idea

God is holy and loving, and His church is meant to show the world what that looks like. So when a believer openly and unrepentantly lives in serious sin, the church can’t celebrate it. Paul calls for loving discipline, not to punish, but to protect the church’s witness and to lead the person to repentance and restoration. We don’t judge the world; we love it. But within the family, we help each other live out who we really are.

The Slap Heard Round the World

You probably remember it: at the Academy Awards, actor Will Smith walked onstage and slapped the host, Chris Rock, in front of the whole world.

The next day Smith publicly apologized, calling his behavior unacceptable and inexcusable, and saying he was out of line and wrong.

But the damage was done. It wasn’t a story of mercy or grace. It was a story of consequences, because our world really does believe in punishment. Smith resigned from the Academy and was banned from its events for years. The Academy even admitted it could have handled the situation better in the moment.

That’s a real-life parallel to what Paul addresses in 1 Corinthians 5: the purity, or integrity, of the church, and how to protect it the right way.

Seeing It Through Grace Glasses

We’re going to look at this through grace glasses: how people have done it wrong, and how it should be done for God’s glory and the honor of His name.

Yes, God’s name is to be honored, because He’s perfect in every way. He’s pure and holy. And through the gospel we’ve been adopted into His family and made as holy as our Father.

So His thoughts become our thoughts, and His opinions become ours. We learn His ways and His heart by the Spirit He’s given us. And all His ways are love.

So we’ll see how to be most loving to each other, honoring each person with the love and respect God has for them. That love is revealed in our relationships. If we don’t honor each other in our relationships, we confuse the love of God with something that stings. Like a slap. Something that hurts instead of heals.

A different kind of community

An ancient Greek orator once summed up his culture’s view of relationships this way: mistresses for pleasure, concubines for daily care, and wives to bear legitimate children.

Jesus and His church changed all that. Jesus says that isn’t love. It doesn’t communicate God’s faithful love to women, or to men.

So the integrity of the church matters, because God is holy and loving, and we’re the ones meant to show that to the world. That’s why there sometimes has to be discipline in the church, when a believer refuses to agree with God’s family plan. The church has to represent its Head.

This isn’t about punishment. It’s about helping the person recognize how serious their sin is, and hopefully leading them to repentance (verse 5). The goal is to protect the church’s witness and to encourage the person to return to a life consistent with their identity in Christ.

Two lessons:

The church should reflect the holiness and love of Christ.
The church should extend grace and seek restoration for those who have fallen into sin.

A Shocking Report (1 Corinthians 5:1)

Paul says it’s actually being reported that there’s sexual immorality among them of a kind not even tolerated among pagans: a man is living with his father’s wife.

Remember the last chapter: pride is the root of the problem. Now Paul shows a specific place where pride has led to sin.
Sin is anything that misrepresents and dishonors God.
This man was a believer. But he wasn’t choosing to honor God by believing his new identity in Christ.
Instead he was doing whatever he wanted, with no regard for who it hurt. Is that love?
He hurt his father.
He hurt his stepmother.
He hurt his entire family.
He disregarded all of them for what he wanted.
That isn’t love. Self-love isn’t real love. True love is self-sacrificial.

Puffed Up Instead of Grieving (1 Corinthians 5:2)

And they were proud! Shouldn’t they have mourned instead, and removed the man who did this from among them?

Being puffed up with pride is the opposite of humility and faith.
The church had chosen pride instead of humility and grief.
They celebrated this man instead of mourning. It’s like an awards show handing out a trophy right after someone slapped the host.
Paul lays out a simple path of humility and faith: if you do something unloving, and you refuse to repent, agree with God and make it right, the church has to ask you to step away. We can’t be part of unloving behavior. We can only represent love.

Handed Over to Satan? (1 Corinthians 5:3-5)

Though absent in body, Paul says he’s present in spirit and has already judged the man who did this. When they gather in the name of the Lord Jesus, with Paul present in spirit and with the power of the Lord Jesus, they’re to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

“Doesn’t Jesus say not to judge?” Not exactly. He warned against hypocritical judgment and told us to judge rightly (Matthew 7:1-5; John 7:24).
This man was clearly a problem. If Paul heard about his behavior all the way across the sea, he wasn’t embarrassed by it. He was flaunting it.

What does “hand over to Satan” mean?

In the church family, we’re protected from much of what Satan wants to do to ruin people’s lives.
Outside that fellowship, living however your flesh tells you to, you face the natural destruction and consequences of sin over and over.
The church isn’t meant to punish people with cruelty, the way some have done in church history.
The purpose of putting an unrepentant person outside the fellowship is so they’ll realize they’ve chosen the life Satan inspires instead of what Jesus desires inside them.
There’s no life outside of following Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).
And the goal is always salvation and restoration: “that his spirit may be saved.”

(It seems this man may later have repented, and Paul urged the church to forgive, comfort and reaffirm their love for him; see 2 Corinthians 2:5-8.)

A Little Leaven (1 Corinthians 5:6-8)

Their boasting wasn’t good. Don’t they know a little yeast spreads through the whole batch of dough? So clean out the old yeast, so they can be a new batch, as they really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. So let’s celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

They didn’t care about the integrity of the church. And they were proud, thinking they were the best church around.
If they didn’t care about love in one area, that attitude would spread through the whole life of the church.

“As you really are unleavened.” That’s their identity! Paul reminds them again. They already are pure, and they want to be loving. But they allowed this one unloving thing in, and it would confuse everyone about who they really are. Are we about pure love or not?

“Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” Get your eyes back on Jesus. He was sacrificed for us. So keep the feast: celebrate His life.

Malice and wickedness: self-seeking pleasure.
Sincerity and truth: purity. I’m pure inside, so I act pure outside. That’s faith.

Inside and Outside (1 Corinthians 5:9-13)

Paul had written before not to associate with sexually immoral people. But he didn’t mean the immoral people of the world, or the greedy, swindlers or idolaters, since then they’d have to leave the world. He meant not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral, greedy, an idolater, a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. Don’t even eat with such a person.

In that culture (and many today), eating with someone expressed friendship and partnership. Paul is warning that the church can’t continue close Christian fellowship with someone who openly lives in serious sin while calling himself a Christian.

What business is it of his to judge outsiders? Isn’t the church to judge those inside? God judges those outside. “Remove the evil person from among you.”

We never need to go around telling the world how they don’t represent God’s love. We’re called to love the world.
Representing love rightly is our family business.
But in our relationships inside the church, we’re called to be loving according to God’s heart. His family should always live, move and speak with His heart.
So if a believer chooses evil and refuses to agree with God’s Word, we can’t keep enjoying close fellowship with them as if nothing is wrong.
Some situations clearly call for this, such as the abuse of children or other sexual abuse or misconduct. Those require both protecting the vulnerable and involving the proper authorities.

When Is This Needed?

It’s important to take the church seriously. Sometimes we have to ask people to step away from the fellowship. Key factors include:

Unrepentant sin. The person is openly engaging in sinful behavior with no sign of remorse or desire to change. This isn’t about someone struggling with sin and seeking help, but someone who refuses to repent and may even boast about it (verses 2, 6).
The seriousness of the sin. It’s the kind of sin that could damage the church’s reputation and misrepresent the gospel to the world. Paul didn’t want the church to be seen as endorsing behavior that contradicts the teachings of Christ (verses 6-8).
The impact on the community. The behavior risks influencing others in the church and leading them away from the truth. Like yeast, unchecked sin spreads through the whole batch (verse 6).

Grace Takeaway

Real love doesn’t slap, and it doesn’t shrug. It grieves over sin, protects the family, and pursues the wanderer with the goal of restoration. You are unleavened in Christ, our Passover Lamb. Let the church reflect that holiness and that love.

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Don’t Slap Like Will Smith