In yesterday's study Paul was shocked that the Corinthian church was not dealing with a matter of incest by one of their members. A member of the congregation was having an affair with his step-mother. Today Paul talks about nipping immorality in the bud before it has a chance to be a bad influence on the whole church. He makes a puzzling statement that we will look at in-depth as best we can.
"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." (1 Corinthians 5:3) Jesus never told us not to recognize sin and to judge it as sin. When Jesus spoke of not judging others (Matthew 7:1-5) He was speaking to hypocrites who were judging others for committing the same or lesser sins than they themselves were committing. They were judging others in a spirit of condemnation while failing to consider that they were sinners themselves. They should have recognized sin as sin but should have treated the sinner with compassion in an effort to bring about repentance by lovingly confronting the sinner with his sin. If their compassion did not bring about repentance, there were other methods they could use to help the sinner, but at the same time they should be examining their own lives for sin and should be repenting of any sin they become aware of.
Paul is saying today that he has already judged the sin as a sin. As an apostle he has the authority to judge sin as sin, and as one who is not committing incest himself he has the authority to judge that such a thing is wrong. After all, in yesterday's study he pointed out that even pagan cultures consider incest a sin.
Now he makes a puzzling statement. "So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 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." (1 Corinthians 5:4-5) In yesterday's study we found Paul advising them to put the man out of the church, so we can assume that excommunication is what is intended by Paul's statement. This man, who apparently is not repentant at all, is to be told to leave the church so that he might suffer the effects of losing the fellowship and the protection of the church. Hopefully such a situation will make him long for the wonderful friendships he enjoyed in the church and will make him confront the fact of his sin head-on. It seems clear from Paul's words "that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord" that the excommunication is intended to bring about repentance so the man can obtain forgiveness from the Lord and not have to give an account of his sin on the day of judgment.
Some scholars believe that while the man is excommunicated the Lord may take a measure of His protective hand off him and allow Satan to afflict him physically for a season. They believe this because of Paul's words "for the destruction of the flesh". Sometimes the Lord takes a measure of protection off of believers for one purpose or another. Job is an example of this. The Lord allowed Satan to afflict Job. In Job's case the purpose may have been for spiritual growth, although even the best Bible scholars can't give us a precise explanation for Job's suffering. In the case of the man involved in incest, the affliction would be intended to bring about repentance.
We will all encounter afflictions in life. Sometimes afflictions come simply because the world we live in is fallen and things go wrong in in and lost people treat us poorly in it. Sometimes the Lord allows affliction because He intends to bring about great spiritual growth through it so that after the period of affliction is over we will abound in faith and will be able to do more things for His kingdom. Sometimes He allows affliction because we are not dealing with sin in our lives.
I don't know for sure whether the Lord allowed physical affliction in my life during the past couple of months because of sin, but I can definitely say it caused me to think about and repent of some attitudes that were wrong. I needed to repent of a spirit of unforgiveness, bitterness, and contempt toward some people regarding something that happened in the past. The Lord also used my affliction to answer a prayer I have been praying about my marriage, for He certainly brought me and my husband closer during my time of affliction. Being sick in body is not the method I would have chosen to have this prayer answered, but His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. (Isaiah 55:8-9) My affliction made many of my friendships stronger, because I am blessed to have some wonderful and true and faithful friends who have really been there for me during my time of trouble. Another thing the Lord brought to my attention is that I need to pray for others who are sick in the way I'd want others to pray for me. I would often pray for a sick person a time or two and then get caught up in my own busy life or in my own personal problems and forget to keep praying for them. My affliction has enhanced my prayer life, which is always a good thing for anyone. It looks like right now that my physical affliction is going to go away, and I certainly hope so, but I believe I will always be able to look back on these problems and say that the Lord did good things for me through them.
Have you ever looked back and thanked God for a time of trouble in your life because He did such awesome things through it? There have been several seasons in my life that I wouldn't want to endure again for anything in this world, but God did some awesome things for me in those seasons. This is what Paul wants for the man in the Corinthian church who is living in sin. Because this man is in an unrepentant frame of mind, Paul wants him to go through a season of trouble (which could be mental, or physical or emotional or all three put together) so that spiritually he can be healed. Paul wants him to make things right with the Lord and to turn away from his sin so he can rejoin the congregation at Corinth and sing songs of praise to the Lord in a spirit of thankfulness.
No comments:
Post a Comment