Become What You Are! - 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Sermon Series: Confused?

One of the more famous professional basketball players who played in the NBA when I was a boy was named Charles Barkley. Some of you may remember him from his days in the NBA and others may recognize him from some of the recent television commercials that he has starred in. In most of his current television commercials he comes across as a rather light-hearted, funny individual. That was not at all who Charles Barkley was as an NBA player though. Charles was known as a player for being incredibly rough around the edges, for having a quick temper, and for letting his emotions get the best of him. But perhaps what Charles Barkley is best known for is a comment that he made after taking some criticism about his behavior and what his behavior was communicating to all of the young, impressionable boys and girls who were fans of the NBA. Charles responded to all of the criticism by saying that he was not a role model. He declared that he wasn’t paid to be a role model, but to play basketball. Neither had he gone out and recruited boys and girls to look up to him. So he wasn’t interested in (nor did he feel obligated to) living the kind of lifestyle that good role-models were supposed to live.

While Charles may have been correct in the sense that he never asked to be a role model, he clearly misunderstood the responsibilities that came with playing in the NBA during what may have been the NBA’s greatest years. You see Charles Barkley was a very talented basketball player playing at the same time as some of the greatest NBA legends of all time, like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. It was a time in which the NBA seemed to have a greater influence than any of the other major sports, such as the NFL or MLB. The NBA was being televised almost every night and being put in front of the eyes of thousands (if not millions) of people – including young, impressionable boys and girls. So while Charles may not have chosen the ‘role’ of role model, he had certainly accepted it by choosing to play in the NBA as a professional basketball player. He was a role model! So many parents and front office NBA executives began to plead with Charles Barkley to start acting like one. They wanted him to start making choices and living publicly like responsible men in the public eye were supposed to. In a phrase they were urging him to “become what you are.”

Charles Barkley’s situation wasn’t all that different from a situation that the church at Corinth found themselves in thousands of years earlier. God, Jesus, and the Gospel had transformed the reality of who they were. Because of God’s, Jesus’ and the Gospel’s impact on their lives they had become something radically different than what they used to be – but their behavior and way of living didn’t always match up with who they had become. So in this week’s text we are going to see Paul urging the church at Corinth to “become what you are!”

A pretty significant shift takes place in Paul’s letter at the beginning of chapter 5. Up to this point in the letter Paul has been focused in on the problem of division that existed in the church of Corinth at that particular time and how the pursuit of some for worldly wisdom had gotten them to the unfortunate place they were in. In chapter 5 Paul began to address some other problems that existed in the church of Corinth and to exhort the church to correct both their misunderstanding and their wrong behavior in those areas. It is also at this point in the text that we begin to notice that the Corinthians’ confusion about how God, Jesus, and the Gospel impacted every day life went beyond their pursuit of worldly wisdom, and impacted many other areas of their lives.

Paul begins chapter 5 saying, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife” (5:1). Here in verse 1 Paul quickly identifies what the problem is. (We will see in the verses that follow that he is not going to dwell on this particular sin, but rather seek to correct the church’s response to the ongoing sin that is being allowed to continue.) According to Paul’s account he became aware of this ongoing sin because it was reported to him, although he doesn’t tell us who reported the problem to him (like he does in 1:11) or when the problem was reported. He then goes on to identify the nature of the sin which was taking place – it was a sin of sexual immorality. Sin of this nature was probably very common place in Corinth at the time and very difficult for those who had grown up in this culture to turn from. They did not grow up in a Jewish culture that had moral laws against such immorality, but they grew up in a culture where it was practiced openly and where it was even encouraged in some forms of temple worship. So for the Gentile people of Corinth, the declaration that God’s plan was for certain acts to be reserved and practiced only within the context of marriage was incredibly difficult for them to buy into. It was incredibly different from what they had grown up learning and it went against the natural desires and cravings of the flesh. Still, even in a culture that regularly practiced immorality of this kind, Paul says that what one individual in the church (who professed to be a believer in Christ) was being permitted to do was something that even the pagans did not tolerate. Paul says that he was continuously having his father’s wife. Paul’s grammar and the way he wrote the accusation give us certain clues that help a little more with the specifics. First it seems from this sentence (and clues from later verses) that only the man was professing to be a believer in Christ and that only he was a part of the church at Corinth. Second, the grammar suggests that this is not his biological mother, but that rather it was another wife of his father’s and that the father was no longer in the picture (due to either death or divorce). So there was an professing believer in Christ who was part of the church of Corinth who was having regular, ongoing relations of a sexual nature with one of his father’s wives. It was a sin of incest – a sin that Paul says was wrong by God’s standards, and immorality that not even pagan cultures considered unacceptable.

So having defined the sin, Paul turns in verse 2 to address the church’s response to the sin. We would anticipate that sin of this nature would be condemned by the church and that they would be striving to bring this individual to repentance and right living. But Paul is disturbed and frustrated by the response of the church at Corinth. “And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you” (5:2). While the reader is only given a few specifics, it is clear that the church was aware of this ongoing sin, and that rather than being broken by it, and rather than being concerned about how the individual's ongoing sin was affecting the church as a whole, they continued on in their arrogance as if the one individual’s sin wouldn’t negatively impact all that they had accomplished. Paul had already addressed the church’s arrogance, but it was shocking to him that the church could have sin that was so heinous in its midst and still have an arrogant and prideful attitude. He speaks to this with a rhetorical question that demands a positive response. Paul says, “Ought you not rather to mourn?” and the implied answer is a resounding ‘Yes!’ Sin of that nature being continually practiced within the church shouldn’t produce arrogance but brokenness and sorrow. And that brokenness and sorrow should be followed by action which is motivated to maintain the purity of the church – that individual should be removed from the church community.

Verses 3-5 are very difficult verses to make sense of. Paul says some things in these verses that we don’t exactly know how to take or understand. Fortunately, most (if not all) of the difficulties in these verses don’t impact in a major way any of the essential points that he was trying to communicate, so we don’t have to have perfect clarity on these verses in order to maintain a right understanding of the argument that Paul is making. “For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 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” (5:3-5). In the first part of this paragraph Paul acknowledges that physically he is absent from the church of Corinth. But immediately afterwards he adds that he is present in spirit. It’s hard to understand what exactly Paul meant by that because he goes on to say, “and as if present . . .” So in some sense in Paul’s mind his presence with them in spirit was the same as if he was actually present with them physically. There is no way for us to understand how exactly Paul understood that to be true, but as we just mentioned earlier, this doesn’t impact or change the significance of the point that Paul is trying to make. So let’s continue with what Paul wrote, “I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing” (5:3). Paul did what the church at Corinth had failed to do. This individual was wanting to profess Jesus as Savior and Lord but was unwilling to let loose of his ongoing, immoral relationship and behavior. His sin needed to be confronted and he needed to be removed from the church community until he was striving after holiness and purity. But the church wasn’t doing any of this. So Paul steps in and says that he has pronounced judgment. He has declared that the ongoing nature of this sin is rebellious disobedience and that he is now making it known as such so that the church will step up and do its part. What was its part? Paul clarifies that in verses 4-5. Paul says that because this individual's sin is affecting the church as a whole, the church (not Paul alone) must respond to the ongoing sin by “delivering this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.”

This statement is another very difficult statement that we cannot quickly work our way through. I think for most individuals this verse sounds like Paul is saying to the church that they ought to excommunicate the individual from the church and to do so in a way in which he is placed squarely in the hands of Satan, himself, which will result in the individual’s death and eternal destruction. But none of that lines up with any of Paul’s theology in any of his other New Testament writings. So that means we have to slow down and take a more careful and close look at what Paul is saying. Let’s take the statement apart in smaller portions. Paul says, “you are to deliver this man to Satan.” In his New Testament letter to the Romans Paul asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39). In those verses Paul makes it clear that when we come to real, saving faith in Jesus that there is nothing that can separate us from God. So Paul can’t really be saying to the church of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 5:5 to take one who has placed his faith in Jesus and now hand him over to Satan – that can’t be done. A better understanding is that Paul is commanding the church to deliver him back into Satan’s realm – the world. The church as a community was to be God’s temple (see 4:16-17) and as such they could not have those who had given their lives to the habitual practice of the same sin residing in that community. Their habitual sin would wreck the holiness of the community where God’s Spirit was to reside. So Paul says to the church, “You’ve got to get him out of this holy community and place him back into the realm dominated by Satan, where sin and selfishness reign.” The purpose of doing that (i.e. placing him out of the church and back into the world) Paul goes on to say is “for the destruction of the flesh . . .” Here is another hard statement. What exactly does it mean? While it may seem like the answer is ‘death,’ there are some clear problems with that. First, we can’t find anywhere else in the NT where Paul refers to death with the phrase ‘destruction of the flesh.’ Second, Paul goes on to assume in the verses that follow that this individual will remain alive and gives some instructions pertaining to further interaction with him. A better understanding is that Paul believes by expelling him from community with the church for a while it will aid in him putting to death his carnal side, or sinful nature (i.e. the flesh). Contextually it’s hard for us to know exactly how this would work today, when almost every city and town has several churches to choose from. In those days there was only one church in the city of Corinth, so Christian community was only found with that one particular group. Preventing this individual from being a part of this particular community was to take away his only option for corporate worship, his support system, and those who would come along side of him to help provide for his needs if he ever had any arise. Paul believed that by preventing him from participating in this community that it would serve as a strong motivation for him to put to death his carnal side and strive to live and behave in ways that promoted and proclaimed righteousness and holiness. It’s difficult for us to understand how this would be a motivating factor in today’s environment. Today, if a church was to prevent an individual from participating in their community because of ongoing sin in the individual’s life, the individual may not be motivated to repent of their sin and to correct the behavior, but would probably choose to attend another church and to find community with a different set of believers. Ultimately the reason that Paul is pronouncing judgment on this individual and encouraging the church of Corinth to prevent him from participation in their community for is “so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” Paul is calling the church to an entirely different response for the purpose of aiding this individual in his salvation. The church is God’s temple, so it must maintain its holiness; but the church also has a mission, which is to make disciples. The church isn’t helping this individual to grow as a disciple. In allowing his sinful behavior to persist they aren’t providing a place that will strengthen and grow his faith each day so that he will remain faithful and persist in his faith. Instead they are creating a place where the cares of this world, the desires of the flesh, and sin can continue to work against his faith to choke it out. In the case of this individual the Gospel may have initially taken root in his heart, but it may not have fully developed into full-fledged, saving faith in the completed work of Christ on the cross. So Paul says, “I’ve pronounced judgment, but you guys have to do the hard work of preventing him from participating in your community for a time, until he comes to a point of repentance and gives up his sinful behavior. In doing this your maintaining the holiness of the church, but you are also providing a greater service for this individual.”

In verses 6-8 Paul uses a visual image to help illustrate what he was asking the church to do and to be. “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us there fore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” It’s important, for the sake of this illustration, to make a distinction between leaven and yeast. Yeast was something that was considered fresh and wholesome, but it wasn’t plentiful in those days. Leaven was different from yeast. Leaven was a very small portion of the previous week’s dough that was held back and not baked into bread. Instead, that small portion was allowed to ferment throughout the week. Then that little bit of fermented dough that was held back was added to that week’s good dough so that it would cause the dough to ferment, giving it its lightness. Consuming fermented bread like this week after week had certain implications on one’s health, making individuals more vulnerable to infection. So from time to time Jewish individuals were instructed to clean out their homes of all leaven (see Exodus 12:14-20) and to consume only unleavened bread. But they enjoyed the fermented bread more and would only consume the unleavened bread for a time. Then from the new dough they could start the process over again by holding a small portion back and allowing it to ferment. As a result, leaven became a symbol in the NT of the process by which an evil spreads insidiously in a community until the whole had been infected by it. Paul said that the church was like a lump of good dough. By adding in even a little leaven (i.e. a little sin) the whole lump of dough would become leavened. So Paul said to the church at Corinth that they needed to clean out the little bit that had fermented so that they could be a new lump. Now stop right there for a moment! What does that sound like? It sounds like the work of the church is what makes the church righteous and new. It sounds like it is their responsibility to clean out the old leaven so that they can remain unleavened and without sin or evil. But this seems to contradict what Paul has said in the past. In the past Paul has taught that our salvation and our right standing before God isn’t the result of our works or our own efforts (see Ephesians 2:8-9). So which is it? And the answer to that question is found in the next phrase, “as you really are unleavened.” Paul says to the church at Corinth, “By definition you are unleavened!” Because the church is a community of those who have received cleansing and forgiveness for their sins (past, present, and future) there is no sin remaining in them that has not been completely paid for and satisfied. How is that possible? The answer again is in what Paul says next. “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” Cleansing of sin, the removal of evil, and being made new isn’t work that we do for ourselves – it is work that was done for us and accomplished fully in Jesus.

The Passover is an important celebration for the Jews who celebrate the feast to remember the time that God rescued the Jewish people from the worst of the ten plagues that God used to deliver the Israelites from their Egyptian captors. Moses had come to Pharoah on behalf of God to demand that Pharoah let the Israelites out of bondage. Pharaoh refused and increased the work load on the Israelites instead. As a result God sent ten devastating plagues upon Pharoah and the Egyptians until Pharoah consented and let the Israelites go. The tenth and last plague was the worst of all though – it was a plague of death, in which one night God was going to cause every first born son to die. The only way by which a household would be saved from this plague was through a sacrifice. Moses instructed the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb, whose shed blood would atone for their sins. Then they were to take the lamb’s blood and wipe it on the door post of their house. Later that night when the angel came bringing death to all the first born sons, if it saw the blood on the door posts it would know that that home was covered under the blood of the lamb and it would pass over that family, sparing the first born son(s) from death. So it was only those who were covered by the blood of the lamb that were transferred from certain death and given life. Then each year that followed the Israelites remembered God’s mercy in passing over those families who were covered by the shed blood of the lamb, by sacrificing another lamb and celebrating what they called “the Passover feast.” In verse 7 Paul calls Jesus “our Passover lamb.” You see our sin sentences each of us to death and eternal separation from God (see Romans 6:23). But God made a way for each of us to be rescued from the death that we deserved by sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sin. The Bible teaches that all of those who believe in Jesus’ death on the cross as a substitution for the death that we deserve, who repent of our sin, and who surrender control of our lives to Jesus, are covered under the shed blood of Jesus. As a result we no longer have to experience the eternal separation (the eternal death) from God that our sin deserves, but God gives to us new life through Christ. Therefore, through His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus accomplished all that was required and satisfied completely God’s need for justice to be done. As a result we can receive forgiveness for our sin, we can receive salvation from hell and an eternity separated from God, and we can receive new life in Christ because Christ defeated death by rising from the grave. All that we needed, but could not acquire and do, Jesus, Himself, accomplished on our behalf. He removed all our sin and made us, individually, unleavened.

The church at Corinth was made up of individuals who had traded their sinfulness for Christ’s righteousness, so God saw their church (as He sees ours) through the lense of Christ and sees only His righteousness and holiness. This is what God sees when He looks at us too – a new lump of dough without any sin. This is who we are! But what Paul is urging the church at Corinth to do, and what He wants from us, is that we would work and strive to become in practice what we are in reality – righteous and holy and without sin.  He wants us "to become what we are!"

For the sake of time and space allow me to quickly summarize verses 9-13 and bring this portion of our study of Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth to a close. Paul says to the church, “Don’t misunderstand what I wrote to you in an earlier letter about not associating with sexually immoral people and those caught up in other sins. Some of you have taken that to mean that you are not to associate with anyone who is practicing sin. That’s wrong! You can’t live in this world and have an influence on those who don’t know Jesus as Savior and Lord if you avoid everyone who practices sin. I want you (as a church – a community of believers in Christ) not to associate with anyone who has professed Jesus as Lord and Savior, who is a part of the church, and who is, at the same time, continually and habitually maintaining the practice of sin in his life. I don’t even want that individual to be permitted to participate in your group meals. While it isn’t our responsibility to judge those who are not believers in Christ, we do have a responsibility to hold each other (brothers and sisters in Christ) accountable. So if someone in the church is refusing to put their sin and unrighteousness behind them you have a responsibility to put them out of your community until the time that they have repented and are striving after righteousness and holiness like the rest of you” (my paraphrase). Paul wanted the church at Corinth not to be confused about the real life impact that God, Jesus, and the Gospel had had on them as a group. Jesus’ sacrifice on their behalf and their belief in and acceptance of the Gospel had radically transformed them and made them into the temple of God.

The church, in God’s eyes, is holy and righteous. God loves His church and He wants desperately for us to love it and protect it. Therefore we are to strive hard to maintain its holiness and purity. We are to strive hard to become in practice what we are in reality – righteous, holy, and without sin. By removing professing believers in Christ who are continually living in sin from the community of the church we are helping to protect and maintain the holiness and purity of the church (Christ’s bride). By God’s design we are also helping those individuals to put to death their flesh and sinful desires and to come to repentance as they realize that their behavior has taken them out of God’s community and re-introduced them into the realm of Satan (i.e. the world). Like Charles Barkley, we may not have asked to be the proclamation of the transforming work of the Gospel in the lives of sinners, but by accepting God’s gift of salvation through His Son, Jesus, that is what we became. So God’s exhortation to each of us now is “become what you are!”

Connection Point Questions for Discussion: