1 Corinthians Commentary- Chapter 5 - THE CASE OF A SINNING CHRISTIAN

[Dr. Henry, President of the AOCI]

CHAPTER 5: THE CASE OF A SINNING CHRISTIAN

v. 1 A man was openly living with his father’s wife, his stepmother. It is likely that she left the father to cohabit with the son and this is forbidden even in the Law of Moses (Lev. 18:8; Deut. 22:30; 27:20). This sinning Christian was misinterpreting his freedom from the Law to mean he could break some of the fundamental principles established for the strength of the family. LIBERTY DOES NOT MEAN LICENSE TO SIN.

V. 2 instead of recognizing the sin and repenting, he became arrogant about it. The people in the church where boasting of their liberty in Christ. The church tolerating this sin was just as guilty of sinning since they where condoning it. Paul tells the church that they should have put away this mean man from the fellowship and no longer have a table of fellowship in the church.

v. 3-5 Though Paul was not physically there, he was with them in spirit and had already decided what to do with him. Paul decided that the church should take responsibility of maintaining discipline and hand the man over to Satan which means the kind of permission that God gave Satan to accuse Job (Job 1:12; 2:6). In doing this the church was to refuse to have fellowship with him until he repented. This discipline was to be remedial, not judgmental. The man in sin would reap the consequences of his sin when the church separated him from the protection of the fellowship.

Vs. 6-8 The arrogance of the Corinthian church was infecting the entire assembly. Paul tells them to get rid of all the sin (wrong attitudes) so they can live as true born again believers. Yeast produces fermentation so the Bible often uses it as a type or symbol of spiritual or moral corruption of other types of evil that spread throughout the church and ultimately kills the church’s witness to the world. A little tolerance of sin works like yeast in that it spreads through the entire batch of dough. Christ is the fulfillment of the Jewish Passover (feast of Unleavened Bread (yeast free). The Passover is a memorial Jewish feast remembering what God did in delivering Israel from the death angel and from Egyptian slavery. Christ then delivers believers from spiritual death and from slavery to sin. Through Christ, God makes believers a holy people (1 Peter 2:5
Vs 9-13 Paul says here that Christians are not to mingle with Christians who are practicing sin. The Bible wants us to see the seriousness of sin (Rom. 6:16; Gal. 3:22; James 1:15; 1 John 3:6). Paul did not consider it his business to judge unbelievers, those outside the church but it was his business to judge anyone within the church (that is that local assembly) who was destroying the purity. The application here is not to share in fellowship or mingle socially with persistent sin in a person who claimed to be a Christian. On the other hand, we cannot change sinners nor should we judge them. We are to present the Gospel and the word of God in an effort to lead them to Christ. Conviction of the unbeliever often follows prior to conversion. Paul knew that Christians would be around wicked people as long as we are in the world, but he warned the church not to allow people who claimed to be a Christian who practiced sin to remain in the church.

[Dr. Henry, President of the AOCI]

LOL! Yeah, Sproul is not only a really nice guy, he is one of my favorite, masterful and few reformed theologians that I not only admire but have great respect for. In the final analysis, I believe both schools of thought or both approaches are orthodox and evangelical. In addition, each has a wonderful perspective of the Creator of the Universe....and after all, who can know the mind of God? Blessings my brother....PS. I do miss you being more involved in the Association but I surely understand about time restrictions and priorites. One of the biggest mistakes any clergy man or women can make is to work hard and long in the ministry at the expense of Family and Relationships. In our family we vowed that our priorities would always be and still is: God, Family, Ministry. It has been the cornerstone of our success both within our family and the ministry.

[Christopher R. Dockrey]

Excellent, Dr. Henry! I'm looking forward to the rest of this series and your separate one on Arminianism. I still haven't finished that book. I have this problem of reading like five books at a time. But I'll finish it hopefully within the next two weeks. I may write a review of it when I finish it.

As far as that thing about whether the man in 1 Corinthians 5 was in leadership, I too think that there is some speculation with that idea. But in all fairness to the person I heard talk about this, I don't think he was making any attempt at exegesis. He was just saying that this was one historical view. Personally, I can't agree with either because it isn't in the Bible, and I doubt that he would really stake anything on it either.

As for Sproul, he is a great guy. Like you I disagree with him on this and many other things, but I try not to allow myself to disagree with him (or anyone else) until I have finished hearing him out and then I formulate a list of objections based on Scripture. Sometimes this takes me a while, sometimes it doesn't. But when you have someone who lays out a very complex argument, no doubt because of his experience in anticipating the counter-argument, it can take me a little longer. When I wrote that review of Chosen by God, I was intentionally passive about his views because I was trying to be fair and I had not yet formulated a response to very many of his arguments. Plus I was getting over a prejudice against Calvinism.

Personally I think it helps to have someone to disagree with as long as people honestly disagree and aren't just disagreeing just because. And if you're going to disagree with someone, who better to disagree with than R.C. Sproul? He just seems like such a nice guy.

[Dr. Henry, President of the AOCI]

1. The intention and design of all church discipline is to be "restoring" or to restore a person to right relationship with God. Just to cover a base here: We know that we are not all perfect and that we do sin as the bible declares that if anyone says they have no sin, then the truth is not in them. However, this does not mean that we "practice" sin. In other words, continue in sin. So restoring a Christian means that they have an honest, humble approach to God, acknowleging their sin and hypocrisy, and headed to the cross. The key to all disciplen then is to restore our praise to God again where our conscience is clear before man and God and we are quick to confess our sins and repent from all sins of commission and omission.

2. The "turning over to satan for the destruction of the flesh" is the by product of the judgment of this individual (which by the way, scripture says nothing about him being in leadership so I cannot endorse this view from those scholars). Once this man was put out of the church (or covering) he was open to the judgment through satan allowed by God and this includes his consequences. For example, a person may rob a bank or kill someone and then become a Christian but this person must still face the consequences of his acts even though they have been born again and on their way to heaven. So consequences and judgment are synonymous.

3. Yes, I believe this man's eternal destination was contingent upon his repentance toward God and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe you already know my stance on the "once saved, always saved". For starters that's not even taught in the Bible, secondly, the phrase that "God is unconditional" is not a biblical concept and should never be used (by the way, Dr. R.C. Sproul would even agree with me on this point). I will be writing more on this subject soon on a separete blog because I feel this subject needs more attention and the scope of my answers will not allow me to elaborate more thoughrougly here. The blog will be titled "CLASSICAL ARMINIANISM AND THE WORD OF GOD". This will be a head turner and I imagine will be just enough to choke some of our brethren...LOL. Pls pardon my dry sense of humor here.

4. Lastly, I have answered the question above as to "If this person was in leadership". Scripture mentions nothing about this and these theologians are simply speculating which is dangerous and erroneous exegesis. Theologians who speculate do "VIOLENCE" to holy writ.

FINAL THOUGHTS: I pray something I said is helpful and will help prepare you to give an answer for the faith. God bless you my brother and God's bountiful blessings to you, your family, and your ministry. Selah.

[Christopher R. Dockrey]

Dr Henry, thanks again for posting this series. I want to ask you a few questions about your commentary on verses 3-5.

...Paul decided that the church should take responsibility of maintaining discipline and hand the man over to Satan which means the kind of permission that God gave Satan to accuse Job (Job 1:12; 2:6). In doing this the church was to refuse to have fellowship with him until he repented. This discipline was to be remedial, not judgmental. The man in sin would reap the consequences of his sin when the church separated him from the protection of the fellowship.

First, can you elaborate a bit on what you mean by the "discipline was to be remedial, not judgmental"? (I think I know what you mean, but I don't want to assume.)

Do you make a distinction between the turning over of this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh and judgment? Or to put it another way, do you see his reaping the consequences of this sin as something to be distinguished from judgment?

Do you think this man's eternal destination was contingent on his repentance? I realize verse 5 doesn't explicitly mention repentance, but I wonder whether you think it is implied.

This is somewhat unrelated, but do you have an opinion as to whether this man was in church leadership? I heard one theologian explain that the severity of his being excommunicated may have been due to the fact that he held a position of leadership, and that had he not been in authority another approach may have been taken.

Thanks in advance of your response!

Chris