In preparing for this morning, I was thinking about my life experiences. If you’re unaware, I was an atheist for most of my life, not really sure if God was real. I just didn’t see the way that He was interacting with the world that we lived in.
In the later parts of my undergraduate years, I started studying philosophy and world religions and was overwhelmed with the amount of evidence for Christianity.
My mind was bought in at that point. But, when I started attending Pillar of Fire Fellowship in Fredonia, a recovery church, my heart was bought in. Why? Because my father struggled with alcoholism, and I felt hopeless that that could change.
When I saw former addicts living completely transformed and resurrected lives, I knew in my heart that God was real and could take us out of death and into life through His grace. I had seen the greatest miracle there was; broken people living a new and upright life with God. That was only possible because of His grace.
What is your view of God’s grace this morning? Is it cheap grace? Does it just give you a license to do whatever you want? Or is it more powerful than that? Is it a grace that has the power to resurrect our lives from death to life?
There’s a common saying in Christian Churches nowadays “Come as you are.” I think we’re all on board with that, and I believe that God is too. But the full picture of that that I’ve gleaned throughout my life experiences and through God’s word is that a more biblical phrase is: “Come as you are, but don’t leave as you came.”
This morning, we will be in 1 Cor 5, and in Corinth, Paul was writing to a church that was struggling with buying into the belief of cheap grace, that it was just a license from God to do whatever we want with. I invite you now to turn there as we start to read this short chapter from verse 1 and see a much more powerful view of God’s grace in our lives.
5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3 For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh,[a][b] so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 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. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister[c] but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
So to start, when Paul says that ‘it has been reported’ that there was sexual immorality in the church in Corinth, it literally means that he heard about it. Wherever he was, this deplorable situation was so bad that word spread to him as far away as he was! He even mentions that this kind of incest, a man sleeping with his stepmother most likely, wasn’t even tolerated in the Greco-Roman world.
And this Roman world was very lax on social behavior. There was all kind of nastiness that they were participating in, but even this was too much for them, and as we see, this behavior had invaded God’s household.
What’s worse for Paul, this congregation of Christians were celebrating the wickedness of this man. He says that they were proud of what he did!
Looking at the historical context of the Corinthian church, we know that they were buying into a lot of different false beliefs. One of these beliefs was that their bodies and what they did with them didn’t matter, and that in Christ, they could choose to do whatever they wanted. Nothing was off-limits!
Paul argues against this cheap grace that we see throughout the letter up until now. Yes, there is a forgiveness that happens at baptism, but it is also a calling out of the darkness of sin and into the light of righteousness. God’s grace should impact and transform every area of our life!
This idea isn’t just found in the letter to the Corinthians, for example, he mentions this at the start of his letter to the Philippian Church.
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Christ has begun a good work in us and is faithful to see it through to completion, but the word began is interesting. That means something that has started but is not done yet. The work of Christ in our lives is not yet finished. We are called to faithfully follow Him in self-denial until he makes all things new when He returns again.
What I hope you’re seeing here is that Christ doesn’t just forgive you of your past sins, he is also working right now to transform you into a righteous person that looks like Him! (SLIDE 13) Christ invites you to come as you are, but He won’t let you leave as you came (x2)!
In verses 6-8, Paul starts talking about leavened bread and yeast, and that can kind of be confusing to us today. What is Paul getting at here?
Well in the Passover celebration among the Israelites, they were called to purify their homes and temple of all leavened bread. This was bread with yeast. (SLIDE 14) Yeast in the OT was a common metaphor for sin.
Paul’s point is that this proud boastful and unrepentant sinning that we see in Corinth can work its way through the whole church and become intertwined with it. We can be drawn to it.
Imagine someone wearing a bright white dress shirt, but it has a big stain on it. As great as 99% of the shirt looks, you can’t really help but have your attention drawn only toward the stain. We notice it and are drawn to it.
Also, the world notices the stains and the blemishes of the church, and so how we are living sends a powerful message to them.
Paul’s warning is that the stain was making it’s way through the whole church and becoming the point of focus. The members of the Corinthian church were obviously being drawn to it because they were celebrating the sin of this man!
So, okay Paul, we get there are a lot of problems here, but what is the solution? Well, It’s easy for us to think that his solution is uncomfortable, but I think it’s only uncomfortable because of how we’ve been conditioned by the culture around us, and how we’ve come to misunderstand it. It’s this idea of excommunication or disfellowshipping.
First, let’s be clear on what he’s not saying here. He is NOT saying that we should stop engaging with the people around us. All people have an eternal value to God and are to be loved. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, and therefore, so should you and I!
Second, he is telling us that for those who are blatant, proud, unrepentant sinners, and claim to be a member of Christ’s body, people that are unwilling to change unhealthy behaviors, people that are proud of their wrongdoing, that we should separate ourselves from them at least for a time. This man was doing evil and had no remorse for it. More than that, he was proud of it. Keep in mind that that is the context of Paul’s instructions here.
Most people will check out at that point because it doesn’t match their view of who Jesus is, but Jesus calls us to a standard of living when we follow Him. Jesus wants to do everything possible to rescue us from darkness because He loves us! In Matthew 18, Jesus offers this teaching that Paul is referencing:
“15 “If your brother or sister[b] sins,[c] go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”
Look, the whole point of this process is to rescue those trapped in sin, it’s to restore them, not to punish them. It makes me think of my father again and his struggle with alcohol. Our family wanted nothing more than for him to get the treatment that he needed. We didn’t think the person was the problem, we thought the behavior was the problem.
First, my mother approached him. Then her and my sister and I approached him. When he refused to listen, we had to start telling others about it to get him to wake up. By living alongside him and enabling him, we were telling him that his behavior was okay.
And he eventually chose to go to rehab. Our love for others should surpass our discomfort. We should do and want to do whatever it takes to help someone be restored to a righteous and abundant life that God has for them.
First, when it comes to holding a brother or sister accountable for unrepentant sin, it’s to help rescue them from harmful behavior that’s killing them. The Bible says that when sin is fully grown it gives birth to death! It’s less about finding a way to kick them out of the church, and more about finding every possible way for them to stay. The problem is not the person, it is the sin. We want to rescue the person from their sin.
Some of my least favorite memories in life come from my time at clarence middle school. Even mentioning the name now I have a bit of a gag in my throat. One of the rules that we had to obey was showing up to class on time.
When leaving one class for another, if we knew we were going to be late, we could ask for a late slip from our teacher. The idea is that this would be a one-time exception to the rule of being on time for class. Bookmark that for a second.
In an amazing act of grace and mercy and kindness, Jesus forgives an adulterous woman. This story comes from John 8 where it says,
“2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
In expecting to receive condemnation and hatred, this woman was given love, mercy, and kindness. However, a lot of times when this story is talked about, we end it before verse 11.
Jesus’ tells the woman that He doesn’t condemn her, therefore, she should go and leave her life of sin. Earlier in John 5 after healing an invalid, Jesus tells him, don’t sin again or something worse may happen to you!
Clearly, God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness wash away our past mistakes, but it is also powerful enough to transform us out of a life of sin and into a life of righteousness. When I talked about the late slip earlier, I mentioned that it was meant to be a one-time exception to the rule of being on time for class.
We weren’t supposed to seek it out so we could keep being late to class. Instead, we were supposed to be grateful for the opportunity to show up to class and learn, even though we were late.
Even though we’re late, that we’re not who we’re supposed to be, that we’ve fallen, we are still given forgiveness and the opportunity to learn and grow at the feet of Jesus! God’s grace empowers us to come as we are, but not to leave as we came.
In applying what we learn from Paul here to our lives today, we should start with a question: (SLIDE 28) What is your view of God’s grace? Do you think that God’s grace is a license to do whatever you want? Like the Corinthians did? Or is your view of Grace that it is the living power of God actively transforming our lives?
If we want to hold that second view, then we have some action steps that we need to take. First, you’ll notice that throughout this message I’ve been careful to use the language: unrepentant sin. That’s what was being celebrated and promoted in Corinth.
We have to be careful not to abuse God’s grace and become a person who celebrates sin. And once again, the reason I’ve been careful to use the language unrepentant sin, is because I think we unnecessarily read our lives into this text and unique situation far too often.
In a war, there isn’t one single battle. Instead, there are many battles that make up a war.
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[a] you want.
When Sean Jordan and I were at the Renew conference in Indiana the other week, we heard a speaker mention this verse when he was talking about living life by the Spirit of God. When he was younger in his faith, he would read this and think “Well I must not have the Holy Spirit.”
However, he said that it wasn’t until an older brother in the faith pointed out the language of verses like this to him that he felt confident in his walk with the Holy Spirit.
The word gratify that Paul uses literally means “to make peace with”. Even if you lose a battle or two, if you are still committed to fighting in the war, you are not in a state of unrepentance. If you aren’t okay with your sins, then you have not made peace with your flesh!
Whether it’s the struggle to trust in your own resources like money, a struggle with anger, pornography or other sexual sin, alcohol, anxiety, ungodly fears and worries, gossiping, slander, laziness.
No matter what, as long as you are committed to winning the war, even though you might lose a battle or two, you are not making peace with your flesh and are earnestly seeking the life of God.
Following Jesus is a life-long process of relying on God’s grace to come as we are, but not leave as we came. Keep fighting, and don’t give up.
Second, in our relationships with others, we also are called not to make peace with the ways of this world.
I want you to imagine that I’m going to a Bills game and I’m bringing my friend who is a die-hard Patriots fan. They have an understanding that the stands will be a sea of red-white-and blue Bills gear, even though he’s more than welcome to wear his Patriots gear.
I am welcoming to him and am still going to support him as my friend. But I will never ever ever cheer for the Patriots to make him feel better. I want him to change his mind and change fanbases!
A simple rule of life is that what is celebrated is repeated. When we celebrate the sins of others, they will never find life. It might be tempting to do that in a culture where celebration and acceptance are everything, but it’s not right.
If I really love someone, then I have to point them away from the behavior that is killing them, so that they can find life in Jesus. Even if that means that I might upset them.
Celebrating sin is the easy choice to make, but real self-sacrificial love is what we’re called to. The good news we should call others to is for them to come as they are, but not to leave as they came!
Come as you are, but don’t leave as you came. This is the picture of God’s grace that we see in scripture. And now I ask you: why not today? Just as you are, come to Jesus for healing through the waters of baptism, and be risen into a new life that is full and true.
If that’s a step you’ve already taken, then I invite you to trust in the true picture of God’s grace.
It can be tempting to think you’re stuck, but God is still working on you.
It can be tempting to give up the fight, but God empowers us through the war against sin.
It can be tempting to view grace as a one-time forgiveness. But forgiveness, yesterday, today, and forever has been bought by the precious blood of Christ. Rely on that grace and find transformation into a full an abundant life with Jesus.