Should We Judge Other's Sin in the Church?

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. 12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.” 

When Paul says, "In my previous letter", it is clear that Paul wrote other letters to the Corinthian church.  In fact there is also another letter Corinthians included in the bible (2 Corinthians). The fact that some letters written by the apostle Paul are included in the canon of the New Testament and others are not does not pose any problem to the inspiration or authority of the bible.  

Specifically in this passage Paul is dealing with the sexual immorality that was not only prevalent in the Corinthian culture, but also had made its way into the church.  When Paul says not to associate with such people, he clarifies he is not referring to people in the world, who were not yet Christians.  He is referring to their brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

Now you might think Paul is being very harsh here.  Where is the forgiveness and grace?  What does he mean that we should judge those inside the church but not outside of it?  These are tough questions we need to answer.  

Why is a Christian held to a higher standard than a non-Christian?  Because when a person comes to faith they become a new creation in Christ and receive of the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit lives inside of us and sets us apart for God.  The Holy Spirit is the one that gives us the power to live a new life.  When a believer is commits sexual sin with no intent of repenting, they are completely blocking the Spirit's power in their lives. They are living according to the flesh not the Spirit.  There are parts of the bible that teach that this is a very dangerous place to be and calls it having a "seared conscience".  I don't believe the bible teaches that a person can lose their salvation, but it is still a bad position to be in as a believer before God. Remember God is holy and just as well as merciful.  

Then Paul advocates not associating with such a person.  What is that all about?  Well there are three reasons for what we might call the discipline of a church member in this manner.  One, by clearly and directly dealing with the behavior it is setting forth that this behavior is not becoming for a believer in the faith community.  Though it might be expected in the world, the church should be different.  Second, by allowing this behavior to continue and not confront it will likely to infect the congregation. As Paul says, "A little bit of yeast leavens the whole dough."  Meaning one person's sin can spread and affect others especially if it is deemed to be OK. Finally, and perhaps the most compelling reason to confront the sin is out of love for the person.  The goal of any church discipline is that the person will repent and come back to Christ and the Church as well.   

So though this may seem harsh, it might be the most loving thing to do for a person caught in serial sin?  On the contrary one might argue not saying anything is not truly loving?  Finally, despite these firm guidelines Paul gives the church at Corinth, we also remember that this could easily lead to a judgmental attitude.  Although there are times we need to judge certain behaviors as unbecoming of a believer and dangerous to the church, we are never the ultimate judge of anyone, nor are we called to have a judgmental attitude.  Jesus had strong words for the Pharisees who were so busy judging others when they had "hearts of coal" themselves.  Jesus also said, "Judge not lest ye be judged".  

So you can see there is balance of grace and truth here.  And it is not an easy balance to achieve. We usually error on one side or the other.  But as we keep our eyes on Christ and use the bible as our guide and are led by the Holy Spirit, we can act in love to confront sin, speaking the truth in love. If you have ever been confronted by someone in love because they really care about you it can be a meaningful expderience and actually strengthen a relationship  Not easy to do but important to follow Paul's clear guidelines here.