1 Corinthians – Chapter 5

…you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 5:5 – During the time Paul was ministering, Corinth was a massive trade city, and with all this wealth it was a hub for all sorts of sexual immorality. Prostitution was seen as religious activity, to “corinthinize” was synonymous with being sexual immoral. Here in chapter 5 we have a man in the church having an ongoing sexual relationship with his step-mom, and the Corinthian church not only was fine with it but proud of it! Paul, seeking to speak some sense into the church he planted, tells them to “deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.” Now this sounds intense. Is the heart of Paul here saying that when someone sins like this in the church we should cast them out, tell them they are going to Hell, and never speak with them again? Absolutely not. What Paul is telling the church is if this brother is choosing to remain unrepentant of this sin, to for a time disassociate with him by removing him from the church. The purpose of this would be that he would see through this process the wrong of his sin, finally repent, and destroy the fleshly choices he was making. Then healing and reconciliation back with the church could take place. Our aim with non-believers is to help them see the wrong of their sin and to have them turn to Jesus. Our aim with believers in sin is to help them see the wrong of their sin and to have them turn to Jesus. While this process of church discipline is not easy, if the end result is the individual turning from their sin, following Jesus, and healed with the church, then it’s all worth it. Be willing to follow scripture even if the process isn’t easy, for if it brings someone back to the Lord, what could be better than that? I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3112

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (v.7) Brandi and I have been hooked on a newer show called “Fixer Upper.” Simple theme of the show is this handy couple is given the task of transforming houses from the worst house on the block to the one everyone stares at (in a good way!). What is so appealing about the show is this couple’s vision. They see things, possibilities and potential, that normal people like me would have never seen and because of that they can transform this fixer upper into a magazine cover house. When I see a passage like this one, my heart connects stories like this show and the story of Christ. See Christ loves you enough for you to come to Him as you are, but loves you enough to not leave you that way. He see the possibility and potential in you and isn’t afraid of coming into the life of a “fixer upper.” He knows what you could be if He was able to get involved into your story and knows the ending is something people will stare at in amazement. So what’s the catch? Nothing, except you have to be willing to let Him enter into your story and clean out the “old leaven.” Clean out the stuff that got your life to the stage where it needs a fixer upper. That takes trust in Him. Trust that what He’s doing in you is for your good. Trust that the pain of the removal is worth it in the end. Trust that He knows what He doing, even in the rough times. Just know if God is willing to love and accept you in the stage you are at now, He must know something about your future potential that is worth investing in. If He was willing to sacrifice the most precious thing to Him to have this chance of being in your story, let’s trust He knows what He getting into. – Daily DEVO 8

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 1 Corinthians 5:9-12 – This passage certainly challenges many Christian’s way of viewing the world. We tend to lean on the idea that the sinners of the world are those we need to keep distance from yet Paul here tells us a different type of person to lean away from. The “brother” in Christ who is content living in sin and refuses to change, that’s the person we need to watch our relationship with. It would be impossible and contradictory to the great commission for us to isolate ourselves from the sinful world, and we must be careful about our time with Christians who refuse to let go of their sin. While I feel this passage has a lot of depth to it we could discuss, let’s begin with just checking ourselves as to who are purposely trying to keep away. We are to share God’s love with the broken sinner and that takes a closeness to them. Be careful not to push aside who God is wanting you to bring close. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 707

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 1 Corinthians 5:1 – What we see spoken of is within the church there was a sinful thing being done and the church wasn’t addressing it. What I find unique here is that Paul even describes this sin as a sin that even pagans, those not following God, would consider disgusting and evil. Hopefully the church today would step up if we saw this sin spoken of in the passage taking place and not sit idle, but is there sin in the church that even those outside the church sees as wrong? How about apathy for the poor? How about how we speak of each other behind closed doors or behind a screen? We could go on but dwell on this fact for a moment. If someone who doesn’t even follow Jesus recognizes these sort of things shouldn’t be in their life, why should we think it’s okay for them to remain an unaddressed thing within our church family? Gossip, pride, and apathy can steal, kill, and destroy just as easily as “big” sins like the ones in our passage. Pray today on how you can make sure in your own story you aren’t adding to the wedges that seek to tear at the church. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1772