Letters to the Corinthians
Church discipline is not about shaming or controlling people – it’s about protecting the holiness of God’s people and calling one another back to life in Christ. When someone refuses to repent, the church must take it seriously, not out of anger but out of love. At the same time, we must always be ready and eager to restore the repentant, celebrating their return just as Jesus celebrates ours. A church that practices both correction and forgiveness is a church that is safe, strong, and a clear witness to the grace and truth of Christ. (Click here for sermon and notes)
Footnotes
- The significance of removal from fellowship as it relates to Communion. As the literal yeast was removed from the house during the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Ex. 12:15–20; 13:1–10), so that which it illustrated, sin, was to be removed from the house of God, the local church, during its “Festival of Unleavened Bread,” a continual observance for a Christian who has found in Christ’s death on the cross the once-for-all sacrifice of the Passover Lamb (cf. John 1:29; Heb. 10:10, 14). This was nowhere more true than in the celebration which commemorated that sacrificial act, the Lord’s Supper, the quintessential act of fellowship for Christians. Probably Paul meant to exclude the unrepentant Christian from this meal in particular. David K. Lowery, “1 Corinthians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 514.
- Was the person in 1 Corinthians 5 the same guy in 2 Corinthians 2? Whether he was a member of the Corinthian church or someone visiting them is not clear. Paul did, however, regard him as a Christian. What this individual did to cause grief is uncertain. In the past many writers identified him with the incestuous man whom Paul had judged (1 Cor. 5). Relatively few now hold this view because of the severity of that judgment (cf. 1 Cor. 5:5) when compared with this situation, and the unlikelihood that 1 Corinthians is the letter referred to in 2 Corinthians 2:3–4. Paul’s diffidence in this verse suggests the more likely alternative that his authority as an apostle was affronted or challenged at some point in the course of his painful visit (v. 1). The Corinthians apparently failed to make the connection between a challenge to Paul’s authority and their own spiritual well-being. They had regarded this as a personal problem requiring no action on their parts, a view which Paul had dispelled in his letter and which they now realized. David K. Lowery, “2 Corinthians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 558.
Supporting Scriptures
Exhortation for the Week
Prepare your heart to both give correction to, and receive correction from, your brothers and sisters in the church.
Prepare your heart to both give correction to, and receive correction from, your brothers and sisters in the church.