1Cor 5:6-8 | KingComments | STEP | Things were not right in Corinth. In spite of that, Paul started this letter by addressing them as “the church of God which is at Corinth”. Because that was the case, Paul could and had to correct them. When they would not heed to what he wrote to them, only then would they not be a church of God anymore. That still applies to us nowadays. Only when a group of believers pay heed to what Paul has written in his letters, under the guidance of God’s Spirit, you can recognize such a group as a ‘church’ of God. Needless to say we should pay heed to the entire Bible because the whole Bible is the Word of God. Nevertheless, it is primarily the letters of Paul, from which many Christians have deviated. And from the letters of Paul it is mainly the first letter to the Corinthians to which many Christians have given their own explanation. That’s the reason why so many churches and denominations have arisen. If you want to know about what and how a church should be in our time, you should read the first letter to the Corinthians. . As it is said, it was far from ideal there in Corinth. They boasted in their blessings, while the rudest evil happened among them, without them taking any notice of it at all. This attitude is rebuked clearly by Paul in . In , he makes something else important clear to them. That too is important. He compares the evil, the sin, with leaven. To understand why he makes this comparison, you should first know what leaven is. Leaven is a piece of dough taken from a lump of bread dough and put aside. Gradually that piece sours completely. When this small piece of leavened dough is now put into new bread dough, this piece permeates the entire dough, it completely leavens the bread dough. This picture of the leavening effect of just a bit of leaven is used by Paul here. In fact, this word is mentioned more often in the Bible. And everywhere you read about leaven in the Bible, it is a picture of the evil, of sin. As it appears from the example of leaven, sin is not only something that concerns the person who sins, but it is also something that affects other people. If sin is not removed from among the church, the consequence is that God sees the whole church as a sinful church. It does not necessarily mean that the other people live in the same sin. Paul doesn’t say that everyone at Corinth has now become sexually immoral people. Because of the fact that they, however, did not deal with the sin that was found among them, he had to tell them that they made themselves one with the sin. . What did they have to do now? What should we do when sin has become apparent? The order is to “clean out the old leaven”. This means that sin has to be removed. If the person who has committed the sin doesn’t want to confess that sin, he has to be removed. If that happens, the church becomes a new lump again. After all, the church is an unleavened dough, isn’t it? That means: the church consists of believers who know that God has taken away their sins, which are judged in the work of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is presented here as “our Passover”. By this Paul reminds the Corinthians of Exodus 12. There they could (and you can) read that the Passover was a feast that was celebrated by the Israelites, right before they were delivered from Egypt. The father of the family took a lamb and killed it. The blood of that lamb was put on the doorposts and on the lintel. This was done by God’s command. God had said that He would send an angel throughout the land to kill all the firstborn. However, when he saw the blood on the doorposts, he would then pass by. There, as it were, death had already been. The lamb had died instead of the firstborn. In that way we know that “Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed”. But Paul doesn’t stop there. After Exodus 12 he also reminds the Corinthians of Exodus 13. After keeping the Passover, the Feast of unleavened bread followed. That was a feast which lasted seven days. Those seven days are a picture of the whole life of the believers. Can you somewhat see the connection? It is a fact that with Israel the Feast of unleavened bread came after the Passover. The application for us, the church, is that the death of Christ should have the effect that we do not give room to sin anymore in our entire life. But yet, when sin does enter the life of a believer, he or she is supposed to deal with it immediately and clean it out i.e. remove it. That means that sin has to be confessed before God and, if necessary, before the persons affected, and it has to be forsaken. Only then does their practice harmonize with their position. What I tried to make clear to you can be summarized in a couple of words: Christ and sin cannot go together. And what to do when a local church doesn’t deal with it in this way and doesn’t clean out evil? In 2 Timothy 2 we find the command for each believer of that local church, who wants to deal with it according to the will of God ( ). There it is said that such person himself should depart from there. He should ‘cleanse himself from’ it. Then he should seek others who have done the same, to join them in calling on the Lord from a pure heart ( ). . After the appeal to clean out sin, the appeal in comes to keep the feast. By this feast is not meant what I once saw on a T-shirt: a couple of large foaming beer glasses and below it says: ‘Life is one big party.’ That kind of feast belongs to the old leaven. We are really keeping the feast if we live for the Lord Jesus. He truly is the unleavened bread. In His life there was nothing of sin. In everything He lived for His Father and that was His pleasure. . The world around us is full of people who live in the most terrible sins. It is not possible to avoid those contacts in everyday life. You deal with them at school, at your working place, in your neighborhood. Therefore when Paul says that we shouldn’t associate with sexual immoral people, he doesn’t mean the people in the world around us. . No, by that he means “any so-called brother”, while such a person is living in sin. He calls himself a believer, and he indeed might be a believer too, but he doesn’t live accordingly. On the contrary, his life is in contrast with the Bible. (By the way, the list of sins in this , is not meant to give a complete overview of possible sins with which the church should deal. In this list you do not find for example the murderer and the thief.) We should not associate with “any so-called brother” but who lives in sin. We shouldn’t even have supper with him just like that. Therefore it is totally inconceivable that such a person should still participate in the Lord’s Supper. . We have nothing to do with the people of the world in this respect. Those people will be judged by God in His time, and in the meantime we still have the opportunity to preach the gospel to them so they can escape from that judgment. But the church does have the responsibility to judge those who are within the church. Evil has to be removed from among the church. Sometimes it is said that discipline is not to be practiced in the church. People refer to Matthew 13 to prove that ( ). However, if you read that section carefully, you see that it doesn’t concern the church, but it concerns the kingdom of heaven. You don’t have to be deceived by that. When there is real love for the Lord Jesus and for His church, we will never ever allow something in the church that dishonors Him. The important thing is that we choose God’s side toward sin. Now read 1 Corinthians 5:6-13 again. Reflection: Why is it that important that evil should be removed from among the church?

‏ 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

Remove the Wicked Man From Among Yourselves

Things were not right in Corinth. In spite of that, Paul started this letter by addressing them as “the church of God which is at Corinth”. Because that was the case, Paul could and had to correct them. When they would not heed to what he wrote to them, only then would they not be a church of God anymore. That still applies to us nowadays. Only when a group of believers pay heed to what Paul has written in his letters, under the guidance of God’s Spirit, you can recognize such a group as a ‘church’ of God.

Needless to say we should pay heed to the entire Bible because the whole Bible is the Word of God. Nevertheless, it is primarily the letters of Paul, from which many Christians have deviated. And from the letters of Paul it is mainly the first letter to the Corinthians to which many Christians have given their own explanation. That’s the reason why so many churches and denominations have arisen. If you want to know about what and how a church should be in our time, you should read the first letter to the Corinthians.

1Cor 5:6. As it is said, it was far from ideal there in Corinth. They boasted in their blessings, while the rudest evil happened among them, without them taking any notice of it at all. This attitude is rebuked clearly by Paul in 1Cor 5:1-5.

In 1Cor 5:6, he makes something else important clear to them. That too is important. He compares the evil, the sin, with leaven. To understand why he makes this comparison, you should first know what leaven is. Leaven is a piece of dough taken from a lump of bread dough and put aside. Gradually that piece sours completely. When this small piece of leavened dough is now put into new bread dough, this piece permeates the entire dough, it completely leavens the bread dough. This picture of the leavening effect of just a bit of leaven is used by Paul here. In fact, this word is mentioned more often in the Bible. And everywhere you read about leaven in the Bible, it is a picture of the evil, of sin.

As it appears from the example of leaven, sin is not only something that concerns the person who sins, but it is also something that affects other people. If sin is not removed from among the church, the consequence is that God sees the whole church as a sinful church. It does not necessarily mean that the other people live in the same sin. Paul doesn’t say that everyone at Corinth has now become sexually immoral people. Because of the fact that they, however, did not deal with the sin that was found among them, he had to tell them that they made themselves one with the sin.

1Cor 5:7. What did they have to do now? What should we do when sin has become apparent? The order is to “clean out the old leaven”. This means that sin has to be removed. If the person who has committed the sin doesn’t want to confess that sin, he has to be removed. If that happens, the church becomes a new lump again. After all, the church is an unleavened dough, isn’t it? That means: the church consists of believers who know that God has taken away their sins, which are judged in the work of the Lord Jesus.

The Lord Jesus is presented here as “our Passover”. By this Paul reminds the Corinthians of Exodus 12. There they could (and you can) read that the Passover was a feast that was celebrated by the Israelites, right before they were delivered from Egypt. The father of the family took a lamb and killed it. The blood of that lamb was put on the doorposts and on the lintel. This was done by God’s command. God had said that He would send an angel throughout the land to kill all the firstborn. However, when he saw the blood on the doorposts, he would then pass by. There, as it were, death had already been. The lamb had died instead of the firstborn. In that way we know that “Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed”.

But Paul doesn’t stop there. After Exodus 12 he also reminds the Corinthians of Exodus 13. After keeping the Passover, the Feast of unleavened bread followed. That was a feast which lasted seven days. Those seven days are a picture of the whole life of the believers. Can you somewhat see the connection? It is a fact that with Israel the Feast of unleavened bread came after the Passover. The application for us, the church, is that the death of Christ should have the effect that we do not give room to sin anymore in our entire life.

But yet, when sin does enter the life of a believer, he or she is supposed to deal with it immediately and clean it out i.e. remove it. That means that sin has to be confessed before God and, if necessary, before the persons affected, and it has to be forsaken. Only then does their practice harmonize with their position. What I tried to make clear to you can be summarized in a couple of words: Christ and sin cannot go together.

And what to do when a local church doesn’t deal with it in this way and doesn’t clean out evil? In 2 Timothy 2 we find the command for each believer of that local church, who wants to deal with it according to the will of God (2Tim 2:21). There it is said that such person himself should depart from there. He should ‘cleanse himself from’ it. Then he should seek others who have done the same, to join them in calling on the Lord from a pure heart (2Tim 2:19-22).

1Cor 5:8. After the appeal to clean out sin, the appeal in 1Cor 5:8 comes to keep the feast. By this feast is not meant what I once saw on a T-shirt: a couple of large foaming beer glasses and below it says: ‘Life is one big party.’ That kind of feast belongs to the old leaven. We are really keeping the feast if we live for the Lord Jesus. He truly is the unleavened bread. In His life there was nothing of sin. In everything He lived for His Father and that was His pleasure.

1Cor 5:9-10. The world around us is full of people who live in the most terrible sins. It is not possible to avoid those contacts in everyday life. You deal with them at school, at your working place, in your neighborhood. Therefore when Paul says that we shouldn’t associate with sexual immoral people, he doesn’t mean the people in the world around us.

1Cor 5:11. No, by that he means “any so-called brother”, while such a person is living in sin. He calls himself a believer, and he indeed might be a believer too, but he doesn’t live accordingly. On the contrary, his life is in contrast with the Bible. (By the way, the list of sins in this 1Cor 5:11, is not meant to give a complete overview of possible sins with which the church should deal. In this list you do not find for example the murderer and the thief.)

We should not associate with “any so-called brother” but who lives in sin. We shouldn’t even have supper with him just like that. Therefore it is totally inconceivable that such a person should still participate in the Lord’s Supper.

1Cor 5:12-13. We have nothing to do with the people of the world in this respect. Those people will be judged by God in His time, and in the meantime we still have the opportunity to preach the gospel to them so they can escape from that judgment. But the church does have the responsibility to judge those who are within the church. Evil has to be removed from among the church.

Sometimes it is said that discipline is not to be practiced in the church. People refer to Matthew 13 to prove that (Mt 13:29). However, if you read that section carefully, you see that it doesn’t concern the church, but it concerns the kingdom of heaven. You don’t have to be deceived by that.

When there is real love for the Lord Jesus and for His church, we will never ever allow something in the church that dishonors Him. The important thing is that we choose God’s side toward sin.

Now read 1 Corinthians 5:6-13 again.

Reflection: Why is it that important that evil should be removed from among the church?