Sermon Podcast

How could the Corinthian church that is filled with the Holy Spirit & operating in spiritual gifts manifest such a lack of holiness? The reason was that they began to slacken in upholding the standard of holiness, and slowly began to accept sin as a norm – in fact, they were “proud” (5:2) of their ‘extraordinary’ incestuous affair, and did not treat it as sin at all.

Just like Corinth, the church today has also let down its guard against the sinful influences of culture & society, and begun to normalise what is sin in the eyes of God (e.g. extramarital affairs, premarital & casual sex, pornography, entertaining sexual jokes, and suggestive dressing).

But unlike the Early Church, which could accept excommunication as the standard, the church today views it as a forbidden practice that is inconsistent with ‘love’ & ‘compassion’. But was Paul advocating that the Church should not love sinners and expel all instead? No. Paul who praises love in 1 Cor 13 also maintains that holiness of the Church must be intact before it can truly love sinners; otherwise, it can only be corrupted.

By right, excommunicating a sinful member is not a stage that a church should arrive at, because the Church’s holiness should overpower any unholy influences inside it. But the Corinthians have come to the point that excommunication is the only option.

What is excommunication? It is done not because we want to give up on souls. Rather, it is out of consideration for the soul to be given an opportunity to realise sin & repent. Only through “handing the soul over to Satan” (5:5) – thus removing the covering of the church from the believer – and inevitably allowing him to suffer (physically), can the believer have a chance to ‘be saved on the day of the Lord’ (5:5). As such, excommunication is an act of love for the good of both the believer & the community. Because, if the believer continues to remain in the Church, he will only be deceived to think that this lifestyle is OK, and eventually forfeit his salvation.

Paul uses the parable of the yeast/leaven (5:6-8) to emphasise the impact of sin, that demands such action. If one hint of sin is allowed in, it will soon multiply & affect every facet of the community. Just like it is impossible to extract the yeast once the bread has leavened, it is hard to salvage the situation at that point.

As the solution, Paul points us to Christ as the Passover Lamb (5:7), whose blood enables us to fully eradicate the ‘leaven’ in our lives. Just as the Passover (symbolising salvation) leads to the 7-day Feast of Unleavened Bread, it suggests that an ‘unleavened’ lifestyle is the expected outcome of every saved believer. Hence, there is a need for every believer to combat sin daily, so they can confirm themselves as the ‘unleavened bread of sincerity & truth’ (5:8).

The conditions for excommunication are not limited to the sin of incest alone. Paul includes all the sins listed in 5:11 – greed, idolatry, slander, drunkenness & swindling – as well as all other sexual sins, as equally lethal & destructive to the Church’s holiness. As such, dealing with such sinful behaviour must be deliberate & severe – to the point of not even eating with such believers or acknowledging them as brothers or sisters (5:11), treating them like pagans (Mt 18:17).

While the church has authority to excommunicate (Mt 18:18-19), it should not conduct it haphazardly, nor should it be the first & only option. The Church should diligently defend the boundaries of holiness at all costs, and let what that is the norm be the norm (e.g. it is normal for the believer to live a holy life) and what that is abnormal be abnormal (e.g. it is abnormal for the believer to be drunk with wine cf. Eph 5:18). The Church must be ruthless & not humanistic in dealing with the smallest hint of sin, before it grows into full bloom & it is too late to remedy it.