As we continued our tour through 1 Corinthians we come to a passage in chapter 5 that is very disturbing. An unthinkable immorality is going on in the church and the church seems to celebrate the very thing that should shame them.
What kind of "spiritual arrogance" can create this kind of environment? It seems that the Corinthian church had great confidence in the Grace of God. They must have taken to heart that "wherever sin abounds, grace abounds all the more!" So they got their eyes off of grace and were celebrating the sin.
It is true that Jesus paid it all and there is nothing you can do to separate yourself from Him as His child. Yet this was a sin that should make you blush, but they weren't blushing at all.
Paul speaks strongly to the church:
"For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." (1 Corinthians 5:3-5 NASB)
Paul is encouraging them to
celebrate the forgiveness, but not the sin that requires it! He is desirous of repentance and a return to Jesus for this broken person. Paul knows that sin ruins, destroys, and brings death. It does have severe consequences.
We can't let sin separate us from God! That's what Jesus died and rose for--to reconcile us to God. We must continue to celebrate His forgiveness and grace, not the sin that requires it!
