Expel the Wicked Person From Among You

In one paragraph

This message worked through 1 Corinthians 5:1-13, Paul's instructions to the church in Corinth about a case of open, unrepentant sexual sin in their midst. Pastor John used the image of a hospital to frame the whole discussion: the church is the place where spiritually ill people come to get well, which means it has to take sin seriously rather than ignore it. Paul opens the chapter by noting that...

Read together

1. 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 the main text of the sermon, about sexual immorality and church discipline in Corinth
2. Matthew 18 cited as the context for 'wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst,' connected to church discipline
3. Exodus 12 the Passover story used to explain the leaven metaphor, Israel told to remove all leaven from their houses before leaving Egypt
4. Philippians 2 the humility of Christ, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped
5. Jude cited as saying 'you will be snatching people from the fire' in connection with restoring the unrepentant
6. Isaiah 6 Isaiah confronted with God's glory says 'woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips'
7. James cited as saying when lust conceives it gives birth to sin and sin's ultimate end is death

Talk about it

1. The pastor described the church as 'a place where people who are spiritually ill go to get well.' What does that picture of the church mean to you personally, and how well do you think it matches your experience of church life?
2. The pastor said the congregation in Corinth was being called out not primarily for tolerating the immoral man, but for being proud about it. Why do you think pride is harder to see in ourselves than more visible sins, and what might pride look like in a church today?
3. The sermon pointed out that the goal of handing someone over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh was restoration, so that his spirit may be saved. How does that change the way you think about church discipline, and does it change how you think the process should feel?
4. The pastor drew on the Passover image of removing all leaven from the house, and Paul's command to 'be what you already are.' What does it mean in practical terms to live out who you already are in Christ, rather than treating holiness as something you are still working toward from scratch?
5. The sermon ended with a distinction between judging those outside the church and those inside it, and argued that expecting the world to act like it knows Christ is unreasonable. How should that distinction shape the way we talk about people and groups outside the church, and the way we talk to one another inside it?