Two Reasons for Church Discipline (1 Corinthians 5)

1 Corinthians 5:2,, 4-5, 6-7a,13  

 

2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

 

4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

 

6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump,

 

13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

 

            1 Corinthians 5 is a passage that shows us church discipline at work.  What caught my attention as I read the passage this morning was the two purposes for discipline which we see displayed in the various sections above.  While some are eager to discipline and some are unwilling to obey this command, we need to see what God has called us to do and especially why God has called us to do so.

 

            The first reason that you can see for church discipline of a wayward and sinful member is found in verses 4-5.  Paul talks of handing the sinner over to the devil for the destruction of his flesh.  Why?  Paul talks of doing this for the ultimate salvation of the man’s soul.  Paul is saying that the church needs to discipline the man, putting him out of the fellowship, in order that he might feel the consequences of his sin and repent.

 

            The first reason for church discipline in this passage, then, is the purpose of repentance.  A sinful person whose sin is ignored or tolerated with no rebuke whatsoever may indeed not feel the need to repent.  While telling someone that they are no longer a part of the fellowship might be very hard to do and indeed quite hurtful to the one disciplined, the purpose is always to allow that person to feel emotional pain and to then see the horror of their sin.  We never discipline simply to get rid of somebody we don’t like.  We always discipline because we want to see a person turn from sin, feeling the godly sorrow that brings about repentance (cf. 2 Cor 7).

 

            The second reason that this passage gives for church discipline is found in verses 6-7a and 13.  Paul calls the church to remove the unrepentant sinner from the fellowship for the purpose of the spiritual health of the body.  The sin of the sinner, if tolerated, carries the risk of corrupting and confusing believers.  Paul says that they must remove the danger of the unrepentant sinner for the sake of not allowing him to leaven, not allowing him to infect, the rest of the body with his sinful practice.

 

            Nobody should enjoy church discipline.  While this process can be beautiful as it leads others to repentance, it is a hard thing to do.  Church members should rightly pray, grieve, and weep over the unrepentant sin of brothers and sisters in Christ.  We never consider this as if from a position of superiority.  All of us have sin.  All of us need to regularly repent.  Thus, we should participate in church discipline with fear, trembling, sorrow, and humility.  But, God has made it plain that church discipline, rightly handled, leads to the repentance of a sinner and to the purity of the local church.  Thus, we also must not neglect discipline lest we do harm to the body of Christ.