“Sins’ Shame”

(part 3)


“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. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?”
1 Corinthians 5:1-2

In 1 Corinthians 5, the Apostle Paul is forced to address a situation affecting the church in Corinth. A grievous sin has been exposed within the church that the believers in Corinth have failed to address. Paul rebukes them for their lackadaisical attitude towards the issue and admonishes them to put this man out of the fellowship because of his lack of repentance:

“When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.”

1 Corinthians 5:4-5

Did this man create his own problem? Absolutely! Was his sin exposed? Yes! Was he repentant? Well, no…not at first. In fact, after his sinful behavior was known, he continued in his sin, and the church did not do anything to confront him. As I shared before, you cannot deal with the issue of shame until you deal with the problem of sin. This man felt no shame over his sin and so he continued in it. So, just as God put Adam and Eve out of the Garden…Paul admonished them to put this man out of the fellowship. They could not allow his sinful behavior to infect the body of Christ:

“Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast- as you really are.”
1 Corinthians 5:6-7

However, Paul leaves the door open for restoration. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes to them about how they should respond when someone they have had to discipline repents:

“If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent-not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”
2 Corinthians 2:5-8
Forgive! Comfort! Reaffirm your love! These words are blankets of grace that need to be cast over many hurting people. People who are living lives “overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.” Consider today what you can do to help someone whose sin has long been atoned for, but is still steeped in shame.


Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com