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When we let a little sin into our lives we run the risk of affecting the rest of our lives as well. Verse 7 says it best, Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? We need to be diligent to avoid the things that can cause small cracks in our armor. The small cracks can turn into big ones, which ultimately affect our entire lives. We will never be perfect, but we need to do all that we can to protect ourselves from allowing even small acts of disobedience turing into perpetual sin in our lives.
Could a major problem within the American church be the unwillingness to call out sin within the body for what it is? Paul gives pretty explicit instruction to pass judgement on those who, while claiming to be Christians and participating within the Christian community, unabashedly live out sin. In here he is specifically referencing sexual sin, but not to exclusion of any other “lifestyle” sins. Do we need a more cavalier mentality, deliberately weeding out the influences of sin within our communities of believers? And how is that pared with grace and mercy so it doesn’t become a control mechanism and an attempt to build a group of homogeneously behaved people?
It’s also quite noteworthy that this judgement is reserved ONLY for those who are part of the church body. This judgement toward behavior is withheld from unbelievers, because they are unbelievers.
A Christian morality and ethic only makes sense within the context of a relationship with Jesus. Not only is it unrealistic to expect those without this relationship to follow Christian standards of behavior, but it’s probably actually counterproductive because our tactics become a focus on behavior, which also causes unbelievers to focus on behavior, when behavior is only a scion of relationship with Christ.
9-13 I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn’t make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous. I didn’t mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You’d have to leave the world entirely to do that! But I am saying that you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when a friend who claims to be a Christian is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior. I’m not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don’t we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers? God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.
The Message puts it quite well and addresses Tim’s point. Paul is specifically speaking to believers because he understands this teaching would make zero sense to unbelievers. This is Corinth. The bastion do what you want, of rampant promiscuity. Being faithful to one person was unheard of in this culture. As my parent’s pastor preached yesterday, an early 2nd century historian wrote about the Christians that they were the first people to share their table with all and their bed with one. This was revolutionary. It was so counter culture. So only believers would understand this teaching within the context of a relationship with Jesus. And new believers had to be taught this because the culture taught them something completely different. I love that Paul doesn’t tell them to not associate with unbelievers. He simply tells them that God has that covered. Definitely something for the church to think about.