The Scandal of Tolerance: Church Discipline as Spiritual Warfare Text: 1 Corinthians 5:1-5
Introduction: A Church Allergic to Purity
We live in a time when the highest virtue in the evangelical church is being nice. The greatest sin is being judgmental. We have traded the sword of the Spirit for a foam noodle. We want a church that is a soft, therapeutic, welcoming space, a spiritual waiting room with comfortable chairs and soothing music, where no one ever feels confronted, challenged, or, heaven forbid, excluded. We have become so terrified of offending the world that we have become experts at offending God.
Into this timid and compromised landscape, 1 Corinthians 5 lands like a meteor. This passage is an absolute embarrassment to the modern churchman. It is severe, it is authoritative, it is exclusive, and it is utterly intolerant of open, unrepentant sin in the camp. Paul does not suggest a dialogue. He does not recommend a counseling program. He does not form a committee to study the issue. He commands, with the full authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the church in Corinth perform a spiritual amputation.
The issue in Corinth was not merely that there was a gross sin in their midst. The far greater issue was that they knew about it and were doing nothing. In fact, they were proud of their inaction. They mistook their cowardice for grace. They thought their tolerance was a sign of spiritual maturity, when in fact it was a sign of terminal spiritual disease. This passage forces us to ask a fundamental question: What is the Church? Is it a loose affiliation of spiritual hobbyists, or is it the embassy of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, a holy nation with a holy king who requires holiness in His courts? How we answer that question determines whether this chapter is a dead letter from a bygone era or an urgent and life-giving command for us today.
The Text
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. And you have become puffed up and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. For I, 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 our Lord Jesus, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
(1 Corinthians 5:1-5 LSB)
A Flagrant Sin (v. 1)
Paul begins with the raw, undeniable facts of the case.
"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife." (1 Corinthians 5:1)
The sin is not a secret. It is "actually reported." This is public knowledge, a known scandal. The word for sexual immorality is porneia, from which we get our word pornography. It is a broad term for all illicit sexual activity. But this was not just any porneia. This was a specific, aggravated form of it: a man was in an ongoing sexual relationship with his stepmother. This was incest, a sin explicitly condemned in the Levitical law (Leviticus 18:8).
Paul's standard of comparison here is crucial. He says this behavior "does not exist even among the Gentiles." Corinth was a notoriously licentious port city, a cesspool of pagan debauchery. Yet even by their degraded standards, this was beyond the pale. The church, which was called to be a city on a hill, a light to the nations, was tolerating a darkness that even the pagans found repulsive. When the church's standards for conduct are lower than the world's, the church has ceased to be the church. It has become a mockery. The salt has lost its saltiness and is good for nothing but to be trampled underfoot. This was a public relations catastrophe for the gospel. The name of Christ was being dragged through the Corinthian mud because of this open defiance.
A Perverse Reaction (v. 2)
The true crisis, however, was not the sin of the one man, but the sinful reaction of the entire congregation.
"And you have become puffed up and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst." (1 Corinthians 5:2)
Instead of being horrified, they were arrogant. "Puffed up" is Paul's signature description of the Corinthian attitude. They were proud of their knowledge, their spiritual gifts, and, it seems, their radical "grace." They likely saw their tolerance of this man as a sign of their sophisticated, non-legalistic freedom in Christ. They were the original "hate the sin, love the sinner" crowd, except they had defined "love" as "do nothing that might make the sinner feel uncomfortable." This is not love; it is sentimentality, and it is a damnable lie.
The proper, godly reaction to such a brazen sin in the church is not pride, but grief. Paul says they should have "mourned." Why? Because sin is a spiritual cancer. It is a defilement of Christ's bride. It is a grief to the Holy Spirit. It is a destructive force that, if left unchecked, will spread and destroy the entire body. A healthy church weeps over sin in its midst. It mourns because a brother is in the grip of death, the church's witness is compromised, and the honor of Christ is stained.
And this mourning is not a passive, hand-wringing affair. It is a grief that leads to action. The purpose of the mourning was "so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst." The goal was excommunication. The health of the body required the removal of the cancerous limb. Their refusal to act was a refusal to love the sinner, a refusal to love the church, and a refusal to obey God.
An Apostolic Judgment (v. 3-4)
Paul, seeing their failure to act, steps in with his apostolic authority.
"For I, 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 our Lord Jesus..." (1 Corinthians 5:3-4)
Paul is not there physically, but his authority is. He has "already judged" the matter. This is not a suggestion; it is a verdict. But notice how this verdict is to be carried out. It is not a unilateral act by Paul. It is to be executed by the church, "when you are assembled."
This is a formal, corporate, ecclesiastical act. Church discipline is not the pastor's private business or an elder meeting held in a back room. It is the public business of the covenant community, gathered together as the court of King Jesus. The authority for this action comes from one place: "in the name of our Lord Jesus" and "with the power of our Lord Jesus." The church does not act on its own authority. It is merely the bailiff, carrying out the sentence of the King. When a church faithfully excommunicates a member according to the Word, it is not just the voice of men speaking; heaven is ratifying that decision (Matthew 18:18).
A Severe Mercy (v. 5)
Finally, Paul gives the specific sentence, which is both terrifying and profoundly hopeful.
"...deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." (1 Corinthians 5:5)
What does it mean to "deliver such a one to Satan?" The church is the visible kingdom of God, a colony of heaven, a place of spiritual protection, grace, and fellowship. The world, outside the church, is the dominion of the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4), the kingdom of darkness. To excommunicate someone is to formally remove them from the spiritual protection of the church and put them back out into the world, which is Satan's territory. It is to say, "You claim to belong to the world by your actions, so go and experience the full consequences of that citizenship without the grace and covering of God's people."
The purpose of this is "for the destruction of his flesh." This does not mean to kill him physically. The "flesh" (sarx) here refers to his sinful nature, his rebellious disposition, the arrogant principle of sin that has taken root in him. The hope is that the shock of this discipline, the pain of being cut off from the body, will act as a spiritual chemotherapy. The goal is that being exposed to the harsh reality of Satan's kingdom will break his pride, kill his arrogance, and lead him to repentance. It is a severe mercy. It is a painful, medicinal act designed to bring about healing.
And the ultimate goal is glorious: "so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord." Church discipline is never an act of vengeance. It is not about "getting rid" of problem people. It is fundamentally a redemptive act. It is the last, desperate, loving attempt to rescue a soul from hell. The church is willing to take the drastic step of cutting a man off in the here and now in the hope of seeing him restored for all eternity. This is true love. It is a love that cares more for a man's eternal soul than for his temporary comfort or the church's public reputation.
Conclusion: The Courage to Be the Church
A church that refuses to practice biblical discipline is a church that has forgotten what it is. It is a city without walls, an army that welcomes traitors, a body that cherishes its diseases. The Corinthians' tolerance was not love; it was a selfish and cowardly abdication of their duty. They were more concerned with their image of being an "open" community than with being a holy one.
We are faced with the same choice. Will we obey the clear commands of Scripture, or will we bow to the spirit of the age that despises all authority and mocks all moral distinctions? Restoring church discipline is not a matter of being harsh or unloving. It is a matter of being faithful. It is loving to the unrepentant sinner, because it is his last hope of salvation. It is loving to the church, because it protects the flock from ravenous wolves. And it is loving to God, because it upholds the honor of His name and the purity of His bride.
May God grant us the courage to mourn over sin once more, to take up the keys of the kingdom He has given us, and to be the holy nation He has called us to be, for our good and for His glory.