Vs. 1, “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.”  Question: What is going on here?  Almost all biblical scholars point out that a “man’s father’s wife” is referring to his stepmother.  In this particular instance, she might have been significantly younger and this might have led to the immorality.  In fact, this kind of sexual immorality was even frowned upon by a very sexually immoral culture in the Greco-Roman world.  God had made it very clear in Leviticus 18:8, that this type of sexual immorality was forbidden.  To make matters worse, the church in Corinth handled it incredibly poor.  There was pressure in this young church to conform to the pattern of the world.  Question: How do live pure lives in an immoral world?  Paul’s charge for the Corinthians to hand this man over to Satan (vs. 5) can be a confusing one.  In Paul’s time, the world was considered Satan’s territory, so in essence, Paul was saying let this man go back into the world.  What we are seeing here is church discipline.  Question: Why should we cast out a Christian who is sinning?  Because, Jesus gave us this very mandate (Matthew 18:15-20).  Church discipline is done not for condemning, but rather to bring this person to a deep repentance.  This sexual sin became quite public and the Corinthians didn’t want to do anything about it.  In many ways, the church was prideful and thought that they were exercising their freedom and love in Christ by not disciplining their brother and being open to any type of wayward life (vs. 6-8).    In the last part of our passage (vs. 9-13), Paul is exhorting the Corinthians to have nothing to do with professing Christians who deliberately live a public sinful life.  Notice, it’s professing Christians.  We are to reach out to a sinful world who needs to know Christ.  The issue here was that in order for the church to be a light to the world, we cannot be sinning in ways that even the world would find offensive.

Regarding application…Do Something.  Vs. 12, “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.”  It’s interesting to note that when it came to divisions in the church, people were doing something about it, but when it came to sexual immorality, no one wanted to respond.  By not responding, the testimony of the church in Corinth was at a huge risk!  The unsaved world is living by their old nature of sin.  When the church lives in the same way, it is a very serious thing.  For some, it almost seems like the bible is contradicting itself regarding judging.  But the distinction is important because we are to exercise discernment and judgment in the church, but it is not our role to judge the world (Matthew 7:1).  I’ll give a hypothetical situation: There is a deacon in the church who is very influential and serving very faithfully.  However, it becomes a very public thing to the church and the community of a sex scandal where he has committed adultery with several women.  The church takes all the steps mandated by Christ to help reconcile this man back to repentance, but he refuses to change his lifestyle.  It is at this point that it is appropriate to do something about it.  In the end, if the deacon leaves the church and over a few months of sinful living realizes his situation and comes back with a repentant heart, the church should absolutely accept him back into the fold.   This was a very difficult passage today, but I encourage you to realize that God has a purpose for His church!  We must be loving and obedient in all that we do with the full intention of bringing people back into a relationship with the Lord.  The more we know God’s word, the better testimony we have as a church to the world that God loves so much!