“Why are you permitting blatant immorality?”

1 Corinthians 5.

Today’s passage is a whole chapter. It’s short, but yep, it’s a chapter.

It’s a little controversial among certain Christians—for the very same reason Paul and Sosthenes had to write it to the Corinthians. It has to do with sexual misbehavior in Corinth’s church, which Paul felt had gone beyond the pale—but the Corinthians were tolerating it, ’cause grace. And nuh-uh; that’s not how grace works.

I’ll start with where the apostles set up the scenario.

1 Corinthians 5.1-5 KWL

1Unchastity among you is getting reported everywhere—

the kind of unchastity which isn’t even approved by gentiles—

with a man having his father’s woman.

2You people are arrogant;

and don’t, more appropriately, mourn,

about how you should remove from among you

the one doing this work?

3For I, though absent in the body, being present in spirit,

like one who’s present, have already condemned this behavior.

4In the name of our master, Christ Jesus,

when you are gathered together with my spirit,

in the power of our master Jesus,

5hand over such a person to Satan for the flesh’s destruction,

so the spirit might be saved on the Lord Jesus’s day.

I translate the word πορνεία/porneía as “unchastity,” because that’s precisely what it means. Chastity means appropriate sexual activity; porneía is the opposite. Yes, people tend to define chastity to mean celibacy—no sexual activity at all—and that’s inaccurate. If you’re a clergy member who took a vow of celibacy, as some have, that’s what chastity means for you—you gotta keep your vows! But for every other Christian, chastity just means monogamy. You and your partner only have sex with one another, and don’t deprive one another, yet don’t make your partner do anything they consider immoral or don’t want. (It’s about loving one another, not personal gratification.)

Chastity also means you can’t just partner up with anyone, like promiscuous people will. Stay away from people who don’t or won’t or can’t love you. Stay away from people who demand you prioritize them over Jesus. And of course, avoid someone who already has a partner; and no close family members, whether by blood, marriage, or adoption.

Anyway if you know the myth of Oedipus of Thebes—and of course the Corinthians knew it, ’cause Thebes was a longtime ally, and only 85km away—you’ll know it’s an icky story. The king of Thebes had a son; his son was prophesied to kill his father and marry his mother; the king was horrified and had the baby abandoned in the woods. Except the shepherd who was supposed to abandon him, didn’t. Oedipus was adopted by a different royal family, fled from them as soon as he learned the prophecy… and happened upon his birth parents, and unwittingly fulfilled the prophecy. And the gods cursed Thebes with a plague because of it—because even pagans thought that was nasty.

Yet here it was, happening right there in the Corinthian church. And the Corinthians were letting it happen.

Grace versus tolerance.

True, this man likely wasn’t sleeping with his biological mother, otherwise the apostles would’ve called her “his mother,” not his “father’s woman” in verse 1. But stepmothers are still technically your mother. It’s still nasty. And forbidden in the bible. Lv 18.8 And, I should point out, this passage doesn’t tell us the condition of the man’s father: Still alive? Still married to this woman? For all we know, probably!

The apostles were dumbfounded that the Corinthians were permitting this. They knew the Oedipus story; they knew pagans found this just as nasty as they did. What’s going on here?

Well we do teach that God forgives everything. So the Corinthians probably figured this is something he forgives too. God’s grace is infinite; who were they to say it’s not?

Now yes, God’s grace is unlimited. He can forgive all. But if people are intentionally rebellious, unrepentant, even defiant, he chooses not to forgive such people. This man sleeping with his stepmother, cuckolding his father, fully knew what he was doing defied Greek popular culture and biblical commandments. And didn’t care enough to stop. Didn’t bother to repent. Or maybe he went through the motions of repentance, like many Christians do… he acted sorry and remorseful, but never took any meaningful steps to stop the behavior. I’ve encountered such people in 12-step groups all the time: They know they shouldn’t be doing as they’re doing. But they won’t change. And don’t really wanna change.

Does God forgive unchastity? Of course. But the reason Paul called it a work of the flesh is because you’re not following the Holy Spirit when you’re living an unchaste lifestyle. You’re not practicing self-control. You’re letting your urges rule your life, not God. And those who make an idol of unchastity are not gonna inherit God’s kingdom. Ga 5.21 They’re gonna destroy themselves.

As God’s people, we can, and should always, forgive repentant people—and help ’em resist temptation whenever we can. But when they’re not repentant at all, we need to do as the apostles say in this chapter: We need to disconnect from them. The fact we tolerate their fleshly behavior, means other Christians among us are gonna think this behavior is okay. That it’s not ultimately gonna destroy them when they prioritize their flesh over God.

What Corinth needed to do here.

The Corinthians likely thought it was noble of them to permit this sort of sinner to be one of them. And it is noble of us Christians to befriend sinners. Jesus loves sinners! But sinners, once we become Christian, are meant to stop sinning. 1Jn 2.1 To make an effort, anyway. To try. Not saying it’s easy at all; just saying God wants us to make the effort, and offers the Holy Spirit’s help.

So first the apostles rebuke Corinth for not recognizing the difference between grace for sinners, and permitting continual unrepentant sin.

1 Corinthians 5.6-8 KWL

6You promoting this, isn’t good.

Don’t you know a little leaven ferments all the dough?

7Flush out the old leaven

so you might be a new lump of dough—

unleavened dough, like you are,

for Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed.

8Thus we can feast, not with old leaven,

nor with wicked and evil leaven,

but the unleavened bread of purity and truth.

Paul has used this “a little leaven ferments all the dough” saying before. Ga 5.9 He loved a good allegory, and here he compares leaven with evil, and Jesus with the Passover. Part of Passover is the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, in which you clean all the yeast out of your house, and don’t make your flatbread with it; it’s gonna be extra flat during Passover. (It’s to signify how the Hebrews had to leave Egypt in a hurry, and didn’t even have time to let their dough rise. Ex 12.39) Likewise we need to purge “leaven” from the “dough” of our church, because Jesus is our Passover lamb.

Now he talks about some instruction he gave ’em in a previous letter—which some Christians think is 2 Corinthians, and others think is a lost 3 Corinthians. (I lean towards the 3 Corinthians idea, ’cause I think 2 Corinthians was written after 1 Corinthians. But I could be wrong.) Anyway Paul warned ’em before about how they ought not fellowship with certain people, and this is definitely one of those people.

1 Corinthians 5.6-13 KWL

9I wrote you in a letter

to not keep company with unchaste people.

10Not all the unchaste people in this world,

nor the greedy, the grifting, the idolatrous—

otherwise you’d then be obligated to leave the world.

11I write you now to not keep company,

when it’s a certain person called a sister or brother,

who might be unchaste, or greedy, or idolatrous,

or abusive, or intoxicated, or a grifter—

not to even eat with such people.

12For why am I condemning outsiders?

Don’t you instead condemn insiders?

13God will condemn outsiders.

Meanwhile “remove the evildoer from among you.” Dt 17.7

Contrary to what the apostles wrote here, 1Co 5.10 there are certain churches which actually try to leave the world, like the Mennonites, certain independent Fundamentalists, and cults. They think the world is simply too wicked and corrupting; better to just cut themselves off from it entirely. This makes it extremely difficult to share the gospel with pagans. Not impossible, but not easy when pagans think you’re far too weird to be winsome. It’s why the apostles indicate we’re not to abandon the world altogether. Unfortunately those isolationist Christians are pretty sure this is a passage they can safely ignore, and they have plenty of out-of-context scriptures which tell ’em it’s okay to abandon the world to its doom.

But for those of us who know God wants us to be in, but not of, this world: Jn 17.14-16 We nonetheless gotta remain holy. Jn 17.17-19 We can’t live like the rest of the world; God expects better of us. We can’t have, as the apostles list, unchaste, greedy, grifting, idolatrous, abusive, or intoxicated people among us. 1Co 5.11 Those people need to stop, or leave.

Problem is, way too many of our churches do have such people:

• So many churches have suffered from a sexual abuse scandal, it’s become a cliché, and it should never have become a cliché.
• So many churches have grifters running them, who promise all sorts of riches and prosperity without any biblical basis for it, just to fleece people of their money.
• So many churches have joined the Donald Trump cult, and blindly, idolatrously support him despite his Satanic character.
• So many churches make millionaires of their “CEO” pastors; money they should be spending on needy people and outreach.
• So many churches never preach against unchastity or intoxication, or any other fleshly behaviors, because they’d rather be “positive” than godly.

And on the other extreme, we have churches which routinely condemn outsiders. Who rail against pagans and their behavior all the time. And like Paul said, that’s none of our business: “Why am I condemning outsiders?” 1Co 5.12 That’s for God to do, not us. They’ve not committed themselves to Jesus; they’re not trying to follow the Spirit; they’re not Christian, and we have no business trying to impose Christianity upon them, despite everything the Christian nationalists claim. Our duty is to clean house. Deal with the sinners among us, and get ’em to repent—or ask them to leave, because their unrepentant behavior will lead our people astray. It’s inevitable; we see it happening all the time.

Lastly—betcha you thought I forgot about it!—Paul’s saying “hand such a person over to Satan.” 1Co 5.5 That saying’s been abused a bunch, mainly by people who think Paul’s literally condemning this person to hell—as if Satan rules hell, like Paradise Lost claims. Nope; Satan’s wandering the earth, looking for people to devour, 1Pe 5.8 and handing this sinner to Satan means he’s been turned loose in our lost world, which will easily devour him unless he repents. Because the goal is always getting sinners to repent.

These people need Jesus! Not Christians who provide ’em a safe haven in which they can avoid Jesus. And far too many churches are exactly that. We embrace sinners… then let ’em continue to sin, never rebuke them, and they think our acceptance is endorsement. They’re gonna become those people who are entirely sure Jesus knows them, but he doesn’t. Mt 7.23 We’re helping them doom themselves. So let’s not.