“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you.”
1 Corinthians 5:1
If your sexual sin became known to the members of your church, what would happen? Would you be mortified? Probably. Would the congregation be scandalized? Maybe. But would your church do anything about your sin? Probably not.
We live in the age of Christian liberty, where brothers and sisters are reluctant to expose the sins of others in their fellowship. We live, in short, in the Corinthian Age. The church in Corinth had a man in their fellowship who was having sex with his step-mother. This sin was so wicked that even unbelievers viewed it with abhorrence. Gentiles never approved of incest of this kind, or tolerated it, or allowed it. But the church at Corinth did.
The members of this church allowed this brother to worship with them, pray with them, celebrate holy communion with them, as though nothing was amiss. Paul says they were puffed up. That is, they were proud of their wisdom and knowledge, arrogant concerning their Christian liberty. They tolerated a sin that even unbelievers refused to tolerate.
Notice what their response should have been: mourning and excommunication. They should have lamented over this brother’s sexual immorality. They should have grieved. The mood in the church should have mirrored that of a funeral, not a wedding. And they should have put the man out of the church. They should not have allowed this wicked man to remain a member of their church as long as he remained unrepentant.
Mourning and excommunication. These are two consequences of sexual sin that you won’t find in the church today. Roughly 60% of Christian men admit in surveys to watching pornography in the previous month, yet the church remains silent on the topic. Pastors don’t preach against pornography. And brothers don’t stand up during church services to confess this sin. The church today looks away while its members practice sexual immorality. The church prides itself on its programs, worship, and growth. It boasts when it should be mourning.
There are some sexual sins that are so bad that Christians should mourn over anyone who commits them, so bad that the offender must be put out of the church and delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. The church in Corinth didn’t think so, but they did after receiving Paul’s letter. After this rebuke, they grieved, and they expelled this “evil person” (1 Corinthians 5:13) from their congregation. Would your congregation do the same if they discovered your sexual sin? Why not assume that they would? Then act accordingly, of course.
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