Christian Standards

Christian Standards

“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.  
And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?  
Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present.  
When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” 
1Corinthians 5:1-5
Paul here notes that there are people within the church at Corinth that are sexually immoral. That they are doing things that even the pagans don’t do. Not only that they are proud of it instead of being filled with grief.
This person was apparently committing incest with his stepmother.
According to Cicero the Roman orator, incest was virtually unheard of in Roman society yet here was a person calling themselves a Christian that was doing so.
Apparently he was doing it with a distorted idea of grace. That grace gave him freedom to sin with impunity.
In Romans Paul warns against such thing writing,
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  
By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” 
                                                                       Romans 6:1,2 
Paul although not present has already passed judgment on the person and urges the Corinthians to do so. Not only that he tell them to hand the man over to Satan.
Interpreters disagree some say it meant he should be cast out of the congregation of believers that no one should have anything to do with him. That in ostracising him in such away he will repent.
An other interpretation is that he would be cast out and Satan allowed to bring physical affliction on the man.
Either way he is to be cast out.
This is what we should be doing in our churches today. We should be holding people up to the highest standards.
People looking at the church should be seeing a pure spotless church that holds its members accountable.
One of the things I’ve always heard through the years is “why should I come to your Church. I know those people and they are no better than me. In fact I’m better than most of them.”
This shouldn’t be happening. We should live up to a moral standard that exceeds that of the world around us.
Think about it.