Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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The One True Church
Chapter 23 – Obstacles to the Progression of the One True Church
The one true church didn’t have a free ride from unrighteous to righteousness. There were stumbling blocks on the way. Like the one in the church of Corinth (in modern day Greece) described by Paul below. (1 Corinthians 5 is a short chapter, so we’re going to cover it verse by verse.)
1 Corinthians 5:1 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife.
1 Corinthians 5:2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
Paul had learned that this serious sin was taking place in the Corinthian church…and he wants the evildoer removed from the ranks.
1 Corinthians 5:3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.
1 Corinthians 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
1 Corinthians 5:5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Paul is reinforcing his point to make crystal clear what he expects the congregation to do. He himself had launched this church during his second missionary journey in the early 50s AD (Acts 18:1-18). Therefore, he could speak to them in a very personal way.
1 Corinthians 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
1 Corinthians 5:7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul further emphasizes the issue by pointing out that, if they don’t remove this evil from the group, evil will only spread to the rest of the group. It was like needing to remove a cancer before it infects the entire body.
1 Corinthians 5:9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;
1 Corinthians 5:10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.
1 Corinthians 5:11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler–not even to eat with such a one.
1 Corinthians 5:12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?
1 Corinthians 5:13 But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.
Notice that Paul clearly distinguishes the church from the broader world. People were in or out. There was no in between. Jesus was head of the church. Until the Second Coming, God would remain over everyone outside the church – as He had been since the beginning of creation.
The church was spiritual Israel, which is why Paul concludes his exhortation with a quote from the Old Testament (the ALL CAPS portion). Originally, it had been spoken by Moses to Israel, but between Jesus’ resurrection and His Second Coming, it was taken as Jesus speaking to His church – the one true church.
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