1 Corinthians: Part 2 - Ch. 4-6

Held Accountable

As Paul moves on in his letter to the Corinthians, we see him settling down on some more serious issues through the next 3 chapters. Paul starts off in an encouraging manner as he first discusses how we are all servants of Christ and how this should be the identity of all believers. After this, however, Paul gets into the real issues that he has been hearing about sexual immorality and even lawsuits that certain believers have against others. This, of course, goes directly against being servants for Christ and especially goes against living in unity like we saw Paul note in the first 3 chapters. While these issues may not be fun to address, they must be addressed nonetheless. Church discipline seems to be something that the Church as a whole has completely dropped today. We don’t care about the sinful habits our congregation continues to live out as long as they show up on Sunday.  Paul, without question, views church discipline very differently, and so should we. As The Gospel Coalition so accurately puts it, “Churches that don’t practice discipline undermine their own preaching. For instance, they might condemn adultery from the pulpit, but if they don’t remove the known adulterer from their membership, they tell the church that adultery is not that big of a deal after all.” We can’t preach against sin and the harm and danger it can produce in our lives, all the while letting our brothers and sisters practice it whenever they want. If we truly love our fellow believers in Christ, we will call them out on their sinful practices and lead them to repentance. Not only does Paul agree with this way of discipline in the Church, but he expects it. With this in mind, let’s dive in. 

Servants of Christ

To start, Paul opens chapter 4 by discussing how the whole Church is to be servants of Christ. Paul is reminding the church in Corinth about this to warn them of the dangers of becoming ‘puffed up’ as he puts it later on in this chapter. Just look at how Paul starts this chapter in 1 Corinthians 4:1 “This is the way any person is to regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” Being servants of Jesus isn’t just how we should refer to one another in the church, but it is how any person should see us in general. Even non-believers should look at our lives and be able to tell that we are servants of Christ. This is why Paul goes even further in 1 Corinthians 4:16 and states, “Therefore I urge you, be imitators of me.” In case you don’t remember, Paul is currently a prisoner in Rome while writing this letter to the Corinthians. So, if we are to imitate Paul, it is not a stretch of the imagination to say that we should all be willing slaves of Christ to further His gospel. This is our identity as the Church. This identity that we should have in Christ should absolutely leave no room for being slaves to sin as well. This is exactly why, in this next chapter, Paul calls out the sin that the church is openly dealing with. 

Church Discipline 

Paul uses strong language and standards here in dealing with sin and doesn’t hold back any punches when describing how to deal with these sins. 1 Corinthians 5:9-11 says, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people; I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to leave the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or a greedy person, or an idolater, or is verbally abusive, or habitually drunk, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a person.” The church as a whole is to not even associate with sinners, according to Paul. Now, how can the Church have such a standard? Aren’t we all sinners? Of course, but Paul’s point here is not to distance ourselves from people who have sinned, but rather to not associate ourselves with people who continue to live in sin. It’s one thing to call out a brother and have them repent from their sin and turn back to Christ, but it’s a completely different thing to call out a so-called brother but have them remain in their sin because they love it so much. This person is clearly not being a servant of Christ and not being led by His Spirit, so therefore, we should distance ourselves from them until they come back to Christ. Not associating with active sinners is not a way for the Church to say, ‘I’m better than you’, but rather, it’s a way to communicate to the person how far they’ve strayed away from Christ. 

This is why Church discipline, while certainly not easy, is definitely a mandatory practice and requirement for a healthy church. Paul continues on with this point when talking about lawsuits that are happening in the church as well. Look at how beautifully Paul addresses this issue in 1 Corinthians 6:3-4 “Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?” I love how Paul puts this. Is there seriously that big of an issue among you that you can’t figure it out yourselves? You have to get the courts involved and make this a public issue? Now, this isn’t to suggest that issues amongst believers in the church will never arise, but when they do, hopefully, we have enough grace and leadership amongst the elders to solve this issue rather than getting the public involved. This is why maintaining our current identity as servants of Christ and applying Church discipline go hand in hand. Without discipline, we may easily fall away from our true identity in Christ. All of this comes to a close with Paul warning the church to flee from sexual immorality and to honor God with our bodies, which is what being a servant of Christ is all about. With that being said, I’ll give Paul the final word here. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought for a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

Sources

[1] Blue Letter Bible. (n.d.). Blue Letter Bible. https://www.blueletterbible.org/

[2] Leeman, J. (2024, July 11). Church discipline. The Gospel Coalition. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/church-discipline/