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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday November 19, 2017
PAUL
CONDEMNS SPIRITUAL PRIDE
1
Corinthians 5
The major responsibility of the
Christian Church is to show the world, through our behavior, that Christianity
really does produce the best men and women. In order to achieve this goal,
everyone in the congregation must exercise a high level of “self-discipline”
(“engrathia” in the Greek) at all times, and this is especially true for the
leadership under CHRIST, who are the “watchmen” for the people of GOD, here on
earth.
The only way a Christian can make the world
a better place is through, his or her, own lifestyle and behavior before
unsaved humanity. We must fashion our lives according to the way JESUS, the
HEAD of the Church, fashioned HIS when HE lived as a 100% human being here on
earth, and, we must also be able to focus on HIS instructions as to how we are
to be rightly related to GOD and HIMSELF, to Christians, and, to the world at
large (John 15:1-16:4).
In 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the Apostle
Paul turns his focus to “Church discipline” and how we as Christians are
expected by GOD to watch over, and help preserve and protect each other’s
“spiritual well-being”, which is constantly under attack from satan. The very
purpose of Church discipline is to preserve the moral purity of the
congregation, and sometimes that may require cutting off the sinning believer
from fellowship for a while (v.9).
Jeremiah 21, verses 8-10 kind of helps us
to understand the concept of Paul’s belief as to how we have to maintain the
purity of the Church by cleansing it of sin, and then, letting the guilty
party’s sin run its course ( pay the consequences) before bringing them back
into the fold.
In the Old Testament, concerning GOD’s
handling of Israel regarding their sinful behavior, HE would have to, from time
to time, remove them from the Holy Land (i.e. to Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon),
so that their sins of disobedience could run its course, through various forms
of oppression and servitude, before returning them back to their homeland.
While they were away, GOD would perform a
“spiritual cleansing” of the land, freeing it from the curse of disobediences, such
as giving worship to demonic idols that should have only been given to GOD,
sexual sins, etc. . Once GOD had finished HIS redeeming work on the people and
the land, HE would reunite the “purified repentant people” back into the
“restored land”.
That is the same concept that Paul is
stressing here to the Corinthians. In the Old Testament, the land of Israel was
“set apart” for the people of GOD, and the people of GOD were responsible to
keep it holy under GOD. In the New Testament “Church Age” the Christian Church
is “set apart” for all those who choose to come to CHRIST and wish to maintain
and live lives that are pleasing to GOD. The only way to please GOD is by showing
that you have the faith that allows you to be obedient to HIM at all times.
Without that faith and trust, it is impossible to please HIM, and when a person
become too prideful to live in obedience, say, in the fashion that Lucifer did
before he was expelled from Heaven, GOD expects that person to be removed from the
congregation. Any and every person that is guilty of practicing ongoing sinful
behavior in the Church, has to be removed from the congregation, before their
behavior affects others, and so that the
Church can be restored to purity, and remain pure.
Here Paul says that he could hardly believe
the reports about the sexual immorality (incest – having sexual intercourse
with a close relative) that was going on inside the Church at Corinth. A man
who was a member of the Church was “shacking up” (living together while
unmarried) with his father’s wife, who apparently wasn’t a member of the Church,
because no recommendation of discipline was leveled at her by Paul, only the
man in this situation.
“Incest” was something that wasn’t even tolerated
in most of the pagan world in those days, for it was something that was illegal
even in the Roman Empire. Yet, the Corinthian Church didn’t even seem to give
it a second thought. In fact they were still strutting around, proud of
themselves for the spiritual advancements they believed they had made in the
LORD since the Church was established five years earlier. And so, while resting
on their own laurels, satan was getting ready to take over the congregation
with his initial application of “evil yeast” that would threatened to ruin the
whole local Church at Corinth.
In Matthew 18:15-17 JESUS suggests a
process by which we can approach a wrongdoing believer in the Church, for the
purpose of correcting him or her, so that Christian relationships can get back
on the right track following a sinful interruption. There JESUS states that, if
another believer sins against you, you should meet privately with the wrongdoer
to try and work it out to a GODly conclusion. If the wrongdoer listens, and
confesses to his or her fault, the relationship can be restored.
However, if the first attempt at
reconciliation is unsuccessful, then the next step should be to meet again with
the wrongdoer, this time taking one or two others with you to act as witnesses
to verify your earnest attempt at reconciling the relationship. If the person
still refuses to listen and repent of their wrongdoing, then, the matter should
be taken to Church. If the church rules in your favor in the matter, and yet,
the wrongdoer still does not accept it, you should, from that point forward,
treat that person as one who does not wish to conform to the Christian
lifestyle, and disassociate yourself from them.
The rationale behind this process toward
discipline and correction is to give a person who has made a mistake, every
opportunity to repent of their wrongdoing. It serves as a way to establish
whether or not a person’s wrongdoing is unintentional, intentional, or just a blatant
disregard for what is right or wrong.
True believers in the body of CHRIST must
be able to realize that even if one person in the Church violates the will of
GOD, by showing blatant disrespect to GOD and his or her fellowman, and is not
disciplined accordingly, then the door has been left opened for satan to
overcome and affect everyone else in the congregation over time (v.6). Paul,
who is acting under the authority of CHRIST says that a person of such
wickedness must be immediately removed from the Church in order to preserve its
purity (v.7).
Corinth, whose very name is derived from
sexual misbehavior (“korinthiazomai” in the Greek, which means “fornication”),
was a place that was particularly mired in sexual sin when Paul first arrived
there to teach the Gospel five years earlier. He admonished those who chose to
join the body of CHRIST, not to continue to indulge in their sexual promiscuity
and sinful lifestyles. He reminded them that he was not talking to those who
didn’t want to commit to the Church, but rather, he was speaking to those who did
wish to commit to the Christian lifestyle.
Paul goes on to tell the Church at Corinth
that it was not his responsibility to judge unbelievers (“krino” judge –
judgment of condemnation), but rather, it is his responsibility was to judge
believers (“diakrino” judge – judge using the Word of GOD as your guide)
(Vs.9-11). And not only was it Paul’s job to judge believers in the Church,
Paul says that it is the responsibility of everyone in the Church to do so
(v.12). “Spiritual Pride” will cause a person to sin, and, it will also cause a
person to ignore the sins of others, even inside the walls of the Church, of
which we pledge to CHRIST, to preserve its purity.
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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