1 Corinthians 5:12-13 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.” These verses speak of an unrepentant person who lives in sin as if it is acceptable behavior. Following Christ’s guidelines in Matthew 18:15-20, unrepentant members should be put out of the fellowship (1 Corinthians 5:2) of the congregation to protect the community of believers as a whole and in the hope that the unrepentant person will experience Godly sorrow leading to repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10). The desire to avoid conflict and unpleasantness is perhaps the main reason congregations struggle with an unrepentant member. But not withdrawing fellowship from the unrepentant person is a direct violation of what God has commanded concerning the local church. As we have seen in our previous two lessons there are right and wrong ways to do this but if the situation arises it must be dealt with according to the Scriptures.
In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul, inspired by God, explained what to do with unrepentant immorality within the congregation. Paul’s exhortation not to judge outsiders in 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 now becomes a hook to which he connects his next point, that Christians should not allow outsiders to judge them. 1 Corinthians 6:1 If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people?
Paul is just as upset with this issue as he was with the Corinthians apathy towards the open immorality discussed in chapter 5. Christians should not allow “outsiders” to judge disputes among members of the “body” for any number of reasons but Paul, inspired by God, gives a few very strong reasons in the first eight verses of 1 Corinthians 6. This week’s lesson will focus on 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 and what these God inspired words have to teach us about settling disputes among the Lord’s people. Praying everyone has a blessed week.
In Christ,
Gary T.