Proper Peer Pressure

Pastor Don Carpenter

A Beautiful Mess / 1 Corinthians 5:1–13

Rich Atchley says that if you went to the average university campus today, & asked students if they know a verse of Scripture, most would say that they do. If you had asked 10 or 15 years ago, most would have quoted John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Everybody knew that verse then.

But today, most would reply with, “Judge not that you be not judged.” Atchely says, “The whole focus has changed. Ten or 15 years ago the focus was on the truth of God’s love. But today, surveys reveal that practically everyone is convinced that there is no absolute truth. So the emphasis has switched from truth to tolerance.”

And that leaves us free to do anything we want without worrying about what God teaches.

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As we continue to look at the “Beautiful Mess” that was the church at Corinth, we find Paul turning from the issue of division to impurity. The first thing he had to deal with was a huge issue that had gone unchecked and was festering among the believers.

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Paul is dealing with what, for him, was a constantly recurring problem. In sexual matters, the Gentile world did not know the meaning of chastity. They took their pleasure when and where they wanted it. It was so hard for those in the Christian Church to escape the in?uence of this attitude. They were like a little island surrounded on every side by a sea of idolatry; they had come so newly into Christianity; it was so dif?cult to unlearn the practices which generations of loose living had made part of their lives; and yet, if the Church was to be kept pure, they must say a ?nal goodbye to the old ways.

1 Barclay, W. (2002). The Letters to the Corinthians (3rd ed., p. 52). Westminster John Knox Press.

There Is A Pride Problem

1 Corinthians 5:1–2 KJV

It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. 

And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

Commonly reported fornication 

– a behavior out in the open, embraced with pride not a sense of guilt and shame. It is one thing to struggle with the flesh it is another thing to call evil good.

Isaiah 5:20 KJV

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; That put darkness for light, and light for darkness; That put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Sexual immorality The Greek word used here, porneia, can refer to a number of illicit sexual behaviors. Here it refers to a specific instance of sexual immorality that jeopardized the health of the Corinthian church.

1 Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (1 Co 5:1). Lexham Press.

Incest was the particular issue

Leviticus 18:8 KJV

The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.

Leviticus 20:11 KJV

And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

The Church Was Prideful of their Tolerance

Some Corinthian believers misused their freedom in Christ to excuse sexual sin (v. 1). Members of Graeco-Roman and Jewish society considered this an abhorrent act, yet some within the church community mistakenly tolerated it because of a distorted understanding of grace (compare Rom 6:1, 15).1

1 Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (1 Co 5:2). Lexham Press.

They Should Have Been In Mourning.

Shocked as he was at the sin, Paul was even more shocked by the attitude of the Corinthian church to the sinner. They had complacently accepted the situation and done nothing about it when they should have been grief-stricken. The word Paul uses for the grief they should have shown (penthein) is the word that is used for mourning for the dead. An easy-going attitude to sin is always dangerous. It has been said that our one security against sin lies in our being shocked at it.1

1 Barclay, W. (2002). The Letters to the Corinthians (3rd ed., p. 52). Westminster John Knox Press.

There Was A Purging Problem

1 Corinthians 5:3–8 KJV

For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, 

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 

Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 

Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The judgement is self evident because the sin is public.

Deliver to Satan

Deliver such a person to Satan – remove him from the protection of the local church. This acknowledges that Christian suffers destruction when left out from under the local church.

1 Timothy 1:20 KJV

Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

John 12:31 KJV

Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

Hand over such a person Refers to expulsion from the church community—probably including their worship gatherings, their meals, and the Lord’s Supper (compare 1 Tim 1:20).

To Satan Paul is likely suggesting that those outside the community of believers belong to the realm of Satan (see 2 Cor 4:4 and note; Eph 2:2). In that scenario, Paul would be suggesting that the sinner be handed over to the realm of sin ruled by the evil one (Satan). Alternatively, he could be referring to Satan’s role as accuser; if this is the case, then Paul is using the term in the same way as the book of Job (e.g., Job 2:6). It’s also possible that both ideas are at work1

1 Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (1 Co 5:5). Lexham Press.

The Goal Is Repentance – Destruction of the Flesh

Galatians 5:24 KJV

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

But we have to note that even a punishment as serious as that was not vindictive. It was in order to humiliate the man, to bring about the taming and the eradication of his lusts so that in the end his spirit would be saved. It was discipline, exercised not solely to punish but rather to awaken, and was a verdict to be carried out not with cold, sadistic cruelty but rather in sorrow as for one who had died. Always at the back of punishment and discipline in the early Church there is the conviction that they must seek not to break but to make the person who has sinned.

1 Barclay, W. (2002). The Letters to the Corinthians (3rd ed., p. 53). Westminster John Knox Press.

For the destruction of the flesh Paul is not referring to physical death for this person since the goal is repentance and eventual restoration. Immediate physical death accompanied divine judgment for sin (Acts 5:1–11; 1 Cor 11:30–32), but this is probably not the case here. Also, Paul instructs the believers not to eat with this person, which further implies that “destruction of the flesh” does not mean immediate death (see v. 11). The purpose of this discipline is to break the pattern of sin (compare Gal 5:24).1

1 Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (1 Co 5:5). Lexham Press.

The Goal Is Also Preservation of Purity

Deuteronomy 13:5 KJV

And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

The goal is also preservation of the purity of the church. Leaven is a picture of sin.

Since Christ is our Passover Lamb, the leaven of known sin that has not been repented of should not be allowed .

1 Corinthians 5:13 KJV

But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

There Is a Purity Problem

1 Corinthians 5:9–13 KJV

I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 

Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 

For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 

But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

Christians are to be careful of the company they keep.

Psalm 1:1–3 KJV

Blessed is the man That walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor standeth in the way of sinners, Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 

But his delight is in the law of the LORD; And in his law doth he meditate day and night. 

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, That bringeth forth his fruit in his season; His leaf also shall not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

This is not an isolation doctrine, else how could the church reach the world with the truth.

John 17:15 KJV

I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

1 John 5:19 KJV

And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

Ephesians 2:2 KJV

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

This is a consistency doctrine.

If someone wears the label Christian, their life should back the label. If not, then we should not fellowship with them like the label actually was correct.

1 Corinthians 5:11–13 KJV

But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 

For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 

But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

Ephesians 5:11 KJV

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

2 John 10 KJV

If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:

2 Thessalonians 3:6 KJV

Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.

The nineteenth-century Scottish historian and moral teacher Thomas Carlyle said that we must see the in?nite beauty of holiness and the in?nite damnability of sin. When we cease to take a serious view of sin, we are in a perilous position. It is not a question of being critical and condemnatory; it is a question of being wounded and shocked. It was sin that cruci?ed Jesus Christ; it was to free us from sin that he died. No Christian man or woman can take an easy-going view of it.1

1 Barclay, W. (2002). The Letters to the Corinthians (3rd ed., pp. 52–53). Westminster John Knox Press.

Sin destroys lives. If someone is living in public, unrepentant sin, calling evil good, the church must act by removing the privilege of fellowship until that precious wayward soul is won back to the Savior by His marvelous grace. This is Proper Peer Pressure.  

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 6:52 PM March 31, 2022.