1 Corinthians 5 - A Little Yeast Can Be a Bad Thing!
1 Corinthians 5
Dealing With a Case of Incest
5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3 For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
Paul talked last chapter about the dangers of worldly thinking, and in this chapter he warns against worldly behavior. There was a lot of sexual immorality in the Corinthian culture, and in this case a man in the church was sleeping with his father's wife. I.e. stepmother. This was a behavior that would have been condemned in the world, but the church not only didn't confront this man, but were prideful about it. I.e. Seemingly accepted it.
Though Paul was not present physically, his condemnation of this act was just as efficacious. Then he recommends them to do something unusual. When they are together in church they needed to hand him "over to Satan". Paul is not saying they should condemn him to hell, but discipline him, so that he would reach his bottom and repent. When God's hand is withdrawn from our lives, it gives Satan the opportunity to do his work. Sometimes things have to get so bad that a person remembers the joy they had when they were right with God, and a part of the fellowship.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul uses the metaphor of unleavened bread to point out the danger of allowing even a little bit of sin into the church. During the Passover time, the Jews got rid of any yeast in their house. Yeast represented sin and the effect it can have as it works its way into the church. When we allow sin into our lives, it can have a leavening effect. It can affect our relationships with God, our family, our church, and our friends. It can bring bad things into every area of our lives. Sometimes we pass sin off as no big deal, but then it becomes a big deal as it grows and multiplies.
When Jesus died on the cross for us, He purified us from our sin. In essence he took all of the leaven out of our lives. But when we return to sin, we invite the leaven back in our lives.
Is there an area of your life where you had allowed a sinful behavior to come back into your life? Maybe this is an area that was operating full-throttle before you came to Christ?
9 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[c] 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.”
Paul tells the Corinthians not to associate with brothers and sisters in the church who are practicing sexual immorality. But this does not apply to those in the world. While it is sinful either way, these Christians should know better. They have been delivered from sin, and they are going right back in bondage to it.
Why does Paul tell them not to associate with people like this? Doesn't this seem a little harsh? My assumption would be that these people had developed a pattern of this behavior. Meaning they didn't just begin this lifestyle. If they did I, am sure Paul would have advocated for them to encourage this believer, speak the truth in love to them in order to get them to repent. But once someone's heart has been hardened, there is not much one can do.
While we are never to judge those outside the body of Christ, as fellow believers we do have the right to call out sinful behaviors in our other brothers and sisters' lives. When a person refuses to listen to the church, or repent from their behavior, Paul tells them they should remove this believer from the body of Christ. They have become like yeast whose sinful behavior could affect the whole body of Christ.
Instead, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17
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