Kicked out, Left out and Left alone... the story of 1 Corinthians 5.

"KICKED OUT"

(Part 1 of a 3 part series on 1 Corinthians, chapter 5.)

You know what I love about being a believer?

I love to love people. Laughing, crying. listening.... loving.

You know what makes me cringe about being a believer?

People don't think that we love people. Always regulating, criticizing, yelling... rarely loving.

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35.)

Guess what.... they don't know.

1 Corinthians 5 is often used as ammunition for regulating, criticizing and yelling. It gets a lot of credit for all of the things that we're "known for". If you take a quick scan, you can see why. Paul is instructing the young church at Corinth to kick someone out of the church.

Kick... someone... OUT. (Not really a 'seeker friendly' move.)

"Let him who has done this be removed from among you." (1 Cor. 5:2)

Ugh. That doesn't sound inclusive. That doesn't sound accepting. That doesn't sound... loving. Can we do ourselves a favor and NOT share this chapter with the rest of the world? I can see the church parking lots filled with picket lines. I can already hear the outcry for the excluded. I can hear talking heads on news networks debating which side has the higher moral ground:

"Is the church being true to it's roots or is the world calling for an enlightened view? Tune in tonight for an opinion from our panel of experts." (Did I mention, 'ugh'?)

I can almost see it trending on social media right now... This won't go well for us.

Can we just rip that chapter out of our bibles?

Breathe.

Deeply.

Remember who wrote the book.

God is love. (1 John 4:7-21)

God loves us. (Isaiah 54:10)

God instructed us to love one another. (John 13:34)

So... Part of sharing the immeasurable love of God that has been poured out on us is to kick people out of church?

So... Yes.

Wait for a second there I thought you said.... wait.... What?

I know that this is love because I trust the Bible and I know that there is truth in it. I know that there is truth and I know that truth brings freedom. (John 8:32, Yeah... That's from Bible- 'The truth will set you free'.)

The central key to the whole thing? Remember that 'The Truth' is a Jewish carpenter whose Dad created the Heavens and the earth.

Because I know 'The Truth' personally, I know that The Truth is love. And because I know that He is Love, I know that there is more to this story than ammo for anger and fuel for fear. In truth, Paul is telling the church to LOVE someone. The truth is, throughout the whole chapter, Paul is instructing... No- that's not strong enough... Paul is demanding that the church love. He tells them to love a person who is trapped hopelessly in sin.

Check your preconceived notions at the door, throw your pride out the window and buckle up as the Turkish madman, Paul of Tarsus, throws down the gauntlet of loving at all cost.

"These are the facts of the case and they are undisputed."

The 'sinner' in question was actively participating in a sexual relationship with his mother in law (5:1). A sexual relationship... with.. his... mother-in-law. (Awkward family reunion?) And here's the kicker: The church was not doing or saying anything about it. (1 Cor. 5:2).

You may say, "Well that was a long time ago.. it's probably just what the culture did back then." You would be wrong. And you would be a little weird. Seriously, that's weird. Why would you say that? This was not a common, cultural practice of the time or the region. (5:1). It was clearly a sin. And it was an act that would then, just as it would now, absolutely destroy a family, leaving nothing in it's wake but the charred remains of broken hearts and shattered lives.

I love my kids. I may not always like what they do, but I love my kids. Because I love them, I will confront destructive behavior in their lives whenever it presents itself. If they are headed down that path, I refuse to sit silently by without saying a word. I can't and I won't. More than that- you can't stop me from doing it. I'm going to embrace that kid and we are going to walk through it together, but before we can walk through it together, we have to face it head on. We have to talk about it and turn away from it. Together.

That is an undeniable trait of love: Be attentive and be present. The church was not actively engaged in either.

The church was not walking together with the sinner. The church was avoiding the problem. They were accepting the sinner, but they were not loving him because they were silent about the sin. They were accepting the sin... and feeding the pain. A family was being destroyed, hearts and lives were melting away into charred ash and the church stood silent, patting them on the back as if nothing was wrong while their friends were dying. They were watching and smiling as a family slowly burned to the ground.

Paul screamed into the darkness, "STOP THIS FOOLISHNESS!"

The affair, this twisted relationship, had gone on long enough and Paul knew that drastic action had to be taken. But no one cared enough to take a stand.

No one cared enough to step down into the middle of the mess.

It would be heavy. It would be exhausting. It would be taking on the brunt of defensiveness, self absorption, survival and pride. It would mean taking a kick to the teeth in the form of a last gasp of reputation-saving-slander and hurt. It would mean being called insensitive and out of touch, even cruel and misguided. Paul buckled his chinstrap and went in headfirst.

The man caught in sin was convinced that it was okay. After all, he still went to church, he was still a respected member of a group that was committed to God. Let's be plain, he was still a member of a group that leaned on the promise of heaven and the hope of salvation. If the church was okay with God and this man was okay with the church... well, was the problem really the bad? You see the problem with not addressing sin head on? He was hoping for salvation by association, but he wasn't associating with the one from whom salvation flows.

So Paul took away his justification. The sinner was no longer able to numb his conviction by way of acceptance within a community of believers that acted like nothing was wrong. The Turkish madman took the full force of the blow:

"When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 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." (5:4-5)

The story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) tells the story of a young man who was intent on the enjoyment of things he knew to be wrong in a world that treated him harshly, rather than enjoying his father's love in a home that valued him. In the end, he grew sick of the world. Tired, hopeless, unloved, undervalued... He realized that home was where his father was and his heart ached to go home.

The man in the Corinthian church was so blinded by sin, so wrapped up in his actions, that the only way for him to see the love of home was to see clearly, the destruction of the world. So Paul said they had to let him go. They had to force him to leave so that he could see home more clearly.

Paul loved him. And he was the only one who loved the man enough to do something about it.

Spoiler alert. It worked.

In Paul's second letter to the Corinthian church, it is clear that the man had been kicked out. It is also clear that this same man had turned away from his sinful life. He had repented of his sin. He wanted to come home.

"...so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. (2 Cor. 2:7- 8)

In an unsurprising twist, Paul had to instruct... No... Paul had to demand, that the church take this man back in and wrap their arms around him... to continue to love him. Isn't that just like us... Just like the church? After doing nothing to push his sin away, they then had to be told to let him back in!

Unfortunately we are often slow to confront sin and even slower to embrace forgiveness after the fact.

Thank God that the madman from Tarsus knew how to live out the love of a Holy God. May we all have a little madness still left in us.

Let's be clear. As a friend of mine would say: "Clear Expectations." Clearly, we are instructed by God in His Word, to advise, to regulate, to be critical, to be passionate. The Bible directs us to take our faith seriously, to follow as He would lead and to never compromise the truth. Thankfully God has given us a most effective tool in order to carry out that command. Want to live your faith seriously? Bring love. Bring it when you feel like and in particular, bring it when you don't feel like it.

The only way to effectively change the world is to love.

Correct, rebuke and reprove responsibly. (2 Tim. 4:2)

Love endlessly and unconditionally. (1 Cor. 13:4-7)

We seem to live under the impression that we must choose only one of these truths. Either compassion or correction. Embracing or exclusion. Reconcile or rebuke. And this misrepresentation of the truth either looks like yelling at the world for not adhering to the truth (We can yell in picket lines or on social media posts) or it looks like silently, apathetically stroking sin's ego while hearts are crumbling away.

Stop it. Please.

We are not given two truths that can not to be reconciled. On the contrary, we have two truths that can only be fully accomplished when they are working together as we fix our eyes on the giver of all truth. They are in fact, two truths that must be intertwined, connected, woven together. Only then can we effectively live out the gospel of love in a world that desperately needs Jesus.

On second thought.. let's show the world that chapter.

Next, Part 2, the "left out"

See more blogs and videos at cross2community.com