Sermon25-38 1Cor5 Guide

1 Cor 5:1-13 theme verse 1 Cor 5:4-5

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this thirty third Sunday of 2025, on Pentecost Sunday, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last week, we looked at who the offices of the church are, yet this week, we would like to look at what the discipline of the church is together.

1)    First, to look at the context of today’s text, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, after Paul heard that there were happening the conflicts between people and several problems in the church through the people of Chloe’s household who visited Paul, he wrote his counsel on these issues in chapters 1-6. And then in the remaining chapters 7-16, he answered various questions the Corinthians asked through Stephanas and Fortunatus. Specially In chapters 5-6, where today’s text was written, he tried to provide guidance on how to deal with the immoral problem of incest within the church, on the issue of lawsuit filing to the external authorities when problems arise between church members, and on the issue of church members who visited prostitutes. In these regards, Paul urges the Corinthians, who were aware of the sins within the church but were not taking any actions, to consider three points: I mean, first, How will these sins impact on the church? Second, if the church’s sins are brought to an external court, how will this impact on evangelism to the unbelievers? And finally, how will the sins of sexual immorality impact on the church, who is the body of the Lord?

2)    In response to the first question, in today’s passage, 5:1-13, Paul states that the sin of incest will ultimately weaken the church and hinder evangelism so that he provides three guidelines: First, he commands them to lament over the sin within the church. As this sin of incest was not only forbidden in Lev. 18:6-8 and 20:11 of the Old Testament, but it was also forbidden in Gentile societies, as stating, “Such fornication is not found even among the Gentiles.” He urges the church to feel shame over this sin so that he exhorted them to lament for our brothers and sisters who were spiritually dead due to this sin. Secondly, he commanded them to judge sin. Of course, as Matthew 7:1-5 and 1 Corinthians 4:5 say, we Christians should not criticize others’ motives or ministries. However, as the Bible commands, setting aside personal feelings, we have to honestly confront the sins of church members and also discipline them according to God’s commandments, I mean, excluding them from church communion and from the offices if they were involved. And even when they did not obey to the church, they had to be excommunicated, as verse 5 says, “we have to deliver this person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.” Here “to deliver him to Satan” does not mean taking away his salvation. In other words, when Christians have fellowship with the Lord within the local church, they receive and enjoy special protection from Satan. In this sense, if they are excommunicated from their church and their fellowship with God is severed, they become “easy prey” for Satan. Yet, even if God may allow Satan to attack a sinful believer, yet He uses this as the chance to lead them to repent and return to the Lord. So we can know that this will be used, in turn, to overcome their flesh, in other words, their sinful nature, and achieve spiritual restoration. And then finally, Paul states that through this process of church discipline, we have to eradicate sin within the church. As we can see in Exodus 12, in which on the night of Passover, when the Israelites were delivered from Egypt, they applied the blood of the Passover lamb to their doorposts and lintels and they roasted the meat over a fire and ate it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This leaven, in fact, symbolized sin. In other words, just as this leaven is small but powerful and works secretly to leaven and spread entire dough, the sins within the church are like leaven and defile and destroy the entire church, so it must be removed clearly.

3)    However, here, Paul clearly exhorted that through these principles, they should not judge and condemn those outside the church, because even though they were committing the same sins already, yet since they were already under Satan’s control and God will not punish them immediately in this side of the world, but will judge them on the last day. But, Paul emphasized again that the church had to be separated from the world. This does not mean that the church should be isolated from the world, rather it means that church had to be distinct from the world. I mean, since we Christians cannot avoid encounters with worldly people, yet we must avoid being contaminated by their sins. In this perspective, even though this church discipline is certainly a difficult task, but since it is crucial, so that when it is properly implemented, God can use it to correct the wrongdoings of believers and restore them for the holiness of the church.

4)    As such, regarding the discipline of the church, Belgic confession article 32 confesses that “We also believe that although it is useful and good for those who govern the churches to establish and set up a certain order among themselves for maintaining the body of the church, they ought always to guard against deviating from what Christ, our only Master, has ordained for us. Therefore, we reject all human innovations and all Jaws imposed on us, in our worship of God, which bind and force our consciences in any way. So we accept only what is proper to maintain harmony and unity and to keep all in obedience to God. To that end excommunication, with all it involves, according to the Word of God, is required.”

5)    To summarize it, church discipline, as defined by the church order of Christian Reformed Church in North America, primarily involves telling someone they should not or cannot participate in the Lord’s Supper. Yet we have to remember this discipline is not social exclusion, exclusion from worship, exclusion from fellowship and community, punishment, or subjection to the discretionary authority of the church. However, as the Lord’s Supper signifies that all who participate are one body, so to participate in the Lord’s Supper requires confession and repentance of sin. Therefore, to participate in the Lord’s Supper without repentance ultimately undermines the meaning of the Lord’s Supper, namely, the holy communion of the saints. Therefore, without discipline for sin, the Lord’s Supper can no longer be a symbol of the church, and such a church cannot be the true church of the Lord. In this perspective, this is not the problem of law, but of the gospel itself. Because not repenting of sin in this way ultimately makes the gospel a cheap grace and also it is not the gospel to welcome anyone, regardless of their actions, without discipline. That’s why Marlin Jeschke said, in her book, “Discipling in the Church,” that “Evangelism and church discipline are both acts of discipline. There are continuity, parallels, and similarities between them. Both have the same goal. Both uses They serve the same purpose and utilize the same methods: the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, whether church discipline is called admonition, exhortation, rebuke, rebuke, correction, or some other term, the initial approach in the ministry of church discipline must be a presentation of the gospel.” And also “People think that preaching opens the door to the kingdom of God and discipline closes it. However, the Heidelberg Catechism clearly states about the keys: ‘Just as the preaching of the Word opens and closes the gates of heaven, so too does discipline!”

6)    Yet, since this church discipline originated in Northern Europe and worked well in Dutch culture, it cannot be effective in all ethnic minority contexts. Therefore, changes were made in 1991 to give more flexibility. And the traditional steps of discipline were: After silent censure in which the consistory confidentially informs a person that they should not participate in the Lord's Supper, firstly the church announces this to the congregation without revealing his or her name. And then if they do not obey to the church, the second step is revealing the person's name and asking for prayer. An even with this, if they do not hear the church, the third step is announcing a deadline for excommunication, and finally, the excommunication is carried out, if they do not repent.

7)    In this way, church discipline begins with exclusion from the Holy Supper and escalates to the excommunication if they do not repent. So as seen in 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 "Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A person must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself" ultimately, we can know that maintaining the holiness of the church is its most important goal. And also the Church Order article 78 of CRCNA says that the purposes of discipline are: a) to restore erring members to obedience to God and fellowship with the congregation, b) to maintain the holiness of the church, c) and to defend the glory of God. Therefore, in this post-modern society, as the context has changed that churches have become more diverse and many so even if discipline is practiced in one church, the believer can easily move to the other church with making it secret, and in addition, recently, due to various reasons, the Communion is not celebrated frequently and regularly, therefore, rather than focusing on whether or not discipline is practiced, I think the church needs to develop a way suitable for each church, focusing on securing the holiness of the church.

8)    As such, as the Word of God aims to teach sound doctrine, rebuke errors, and train righteous conduct, and discipline wrongdoings, the church not only teaches and trains the sound doctrine and the way of life, but also has a system to reject false doctrine and discipline wrongdoings. And also since this is the character and purpose of the governance of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, the Lord, who is full of truth and grace, and God, who is light and love, therefore I pray that this year, we may all obey God, follow His sanctifying Word, and become people who firmly establish Christ's church on the foundation of holiness and love.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that in true church of Christ the evangelism and church discipline go together due to the characters of the Holy Word of God and also the holiness of Triune God. So, meditating on this church discipline and how we can keep the spirit of this church discipline, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 And, also we became to know the purpose of this church discipline is to keep the church holy, so that we have to build His church holy in the grace of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God which sanctify us. So after reflecting how we can build our church as the community of love and holiness, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.