Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: 1 Corinthians 5 and Psalm 117

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul warns the Church about its tolerance of a member who was known to be living in a flagrant, unrepentant, incestuous sexual relationship with his step-mother. In allowing this man to continue as normal in the fellowship of the Church despite his unrepentant sin, the Church was not helping the man and was, at the same time, putting itself at risk.

To make his point, Paul used the image of the way a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. His point is that just a pinch of sin, left unchallenged to do its work in the community, would soon affect the whole community. As a Christian community, they ought rather to pursue the aim of being “unleavened” by sin (leaving behind all malice and wickedness) and instead be like unleavened bread seasoned with sincerity and truth (v.8).

The solution would begin with a decisive removal of the “leaven”; i.e. the unrepentant sinner. So Paul called them to publicly announce the removal of this unrepentant sinner from their fellowship. He would be barred from their gatherings for the Lord’s Supper and from their table fellowship until he came to visible repentance (i.e. until he ended the sexually immoral relationship and submitted this part of his life once more to the Lordship of Christ). This action would protect the Church. It would also open the possibility that this man would experience the sorrow of separation from the Body, be confronted with the reality of his sin and its consequences, repent and ultimately be restored. And you’ll be happy to know that when we get to 2 Corinthians we will discover that’s exactly what happened!

Life application: Are you tolerating some sin in your own life? Let the Holy Spirit convict you of it today and then extract the “leaven” of that sin from your life by confessing it, repenting of it, and receiving Christ’s forgiveness and cleansing.