How Should We Deal with Sexual Immorality in the Church?

1 Corinthians 5 I 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.”

One of the major issues in the Corinthian church, as it is today, was sexual immorality.  Earlier in the chapter, he cites an instance of incest between a man sleeping with his father's wife.  This was an issue he expected the church to deal with rather than just "letting it slide".  He expected the person would be confronted and disciplined not only for the sake of the church's reputaton in the world, but also for the sake of the person and their spiritual well-being.  

In lieu of the example, Paul tells them not to associate with "sexually immoral" people in the church  The word for "sexual immorality" is "porneia", from which we get our word pornography.  The way we use this word today gives you an idea of the type of sin he is describing.  Here is a brief explanation of the Greek word and what it meant back then, 

"Porneia” so often appears first in New Testament “sin lists,” but not because the first Christians had a lot of “hang-ups” about sex. Instead, it is because the area of sex was one of the most dramatic places where the ethics of Greek culture clashed with the ethics of Jesus. Sexual immorality was an accepted fact of life for the common person in Greek culture, but it was not to be so among the followers of Jesus."

Then, Paul makes an important clarification when he says, "Do not to associate with people engaging in these behaviors WITHIN the church."  He makes it clear that it is does not apply to how they would treat someone OUTSIDE the church.  He says sarcastically, "If this were the case you would have to leave this world."  You can see this was a major issue in the Corinthian culture, and it has seeped into the church and affected its health and well being.   

But what makes this passage even more challenging is that he adds to sexual immorality other sins like: greed, idolatry, gossiping and drunkenness.  Does this mean we are to judge and kick out of the church anyone who has or is engaged in these behaviors? If this is the case as pastors, we might have to spend half of our time monitoring our members to see if they are guilty of anything on this sin list, and to what extent. Then, the pastors and/or the council/elder board would need to decide on the consequences for each infraction. Can you see that this would lead us down the wrong road?  

So, what is Paul saying? On the flipside, we don't want to "water it down" or wish Paul had written these instructions for the early church . We believe all scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, correction and exhortation. (2 Timothy)  Let's remember that the original example Paul was citing was incestuous behavior, and the Corinthian church was not dealing with it. And in fact seems like they were joking about it. Not good!  

The bottom line is we just can't turn our eyes from really bad behavior in the church.  When Paul says "judge", I don't think he is talking about judging if someone is "saved" or not. Only God is our ultimate judge. The church is the family of God and we are brothers and sisters in Christ.  As we live in community together we are called to speak the truth in love to each other.  

This passage is not an easy one to understand, but an important one. Sexually immorality is as rampant in our society as in Jesus' day.  There is not one of us who is not affected by it.  We need to handle it with grace and truth and none of us are immune to tempation. We live in the tension between speaking the truth in love and proclaiming the forgiveness Jesus promises to all who trust in him.   But part of this process is the principle of "repentance". As we confess sexual and other sin in our Sunday liturgy we say, "I am truly sorry and humbly repent".  This means that I am willing to turn from the behavior and trust in God's provision for me in this area of my life.  It is the Good News of the Gospel, which applies to every area of our lives.