1^st Corinthians 5:9-11

I have written to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

Where do we find the balance between judgment and grace?

When I am reading this chapter it almost sounds harsh. Instructions such as, expel the immoral, and don’t even eat with that kind of a person, sound really harsh. In the culture of the church today we seem to really struggle with confrontation, even over sin. We tend to focus more on grace than judgment.

I think the distinctive here is really important. This is talking about someone who “calls himself a brother”. This is not talking about someone who has realized their failures, confessed their sins and is seeking healing, etc. This is a person who is still putting on in their life as if their testimony is pure and yet underneath the surface there is unconfessed sin and immorality taking place.

You know, there are probably people that know the truth, and when they see the church doing nothing it looks as if the church is condoning the sin by ignoring it.

What does this do to the church? Paul says here “that a little yeast works through the whole batch”. Ignoring sin among people who are claiming to be our brothers and sisters, dumbs down the severity of sin. Suddenly sin just isn’t quite the same big deal that it really is! I ask myself this question often, “Have we lost the seriousness of what sin really does to the lives of people?”

So, what should we do?

I think scripture gives us some pretty clear instructions…

Galatians 6:1, “If someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.”

In Matthew 18…

Go to your brother or sister and seek to understand their fault, just between the two of you. Many times issues could be resolved at this level—but far too often we don’t go to our brother or sister, we go to everybody else with this “hot nugget of gossip” about someone else’s faults.

If step 1 doesn’t work, go back and take someone else with you. So that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses

If that doesn’t work then the matter needs to be brought before the church. Remembering always that the intention in this matter is restoration, not destruction. We are not here to cast stones. We are here to extend grace.

Does the church do a good job at this generally? What say you?