When we begin to look at a specific sinful situation within the church as not only being a problem for the individuals involved but for the whole church, we begin to have an uneasy sense that we are describing a lot of what goes on in the Christian Church today. It may not be this particular offense. But there are certainly other significant and public violations of the moral law of God in churches, and there is a tendency to say, “Well, you mustn’t be judgmental. After all, you mustn’t hang out the dirty laundry for everybody to see. You must be loving in these situations.” And so no action is taken. When sin is treated that way, the holiness of the church is called into question, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is slandered.
I suspect what Paul has in mind, by referring to the image of the leaven, is that this is the kind of thing that spreads. Leaven is a symbol of evil in the Bible. Yeast is what you put into dough, and if you leave it overnight, it does not take very long before it spreads through the whole batch of dough. Everyone who read Paul’s letter would understand what Paul means. If the church in Corinth is going to tolerate this offense, that same failure to act righteously is going to allow them to tolerate something else, and then something else, and then something else, and pretty soon there is not going to be anything unique about the church in Corinth at all. It is going to have the same values, the same morality, the same standards, and the same priorities as the culture around it.
Now it is important that we pay attention to what Paul is saying here. He writes in verses 3-5, “Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our 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.”
Those are obviously strong words. And then lest we misunderstand what he is saying, at the very end of the chapter he brings his judgment in again and makes quite clear what he is talking about. He orders them in verse 13, “Expel the wicked man from among you.” What he is talking about is some form of excommunication. It may have operated in a slightly different way than we do today because he is not spelling out all the details of how this happens. But he is saying very clearly that Christians must not associate with one who calls himself or herself a believer in Jesus Christ, and who nevertheless in an open way lives contrary to Christ’s commandments because such a thing is a scandal and a denial of the Gospel.
He then goes on to give two reasons for why this is true. The first reason is for the good of the individual involved. We find it hard to understand that because our ideas of discipline are so lax. We think that the worst possible thing you could do to somebody is embarrass them, or put them on the spot, or make a judgment that perhaps they are doing something wrong. But Paul teaches that when there is open and flagrant sin, such sin must be confronted and must be done so for the benefit of the individual involved. This is why he directs the church to turn the man over to Satan for the salvation of his spirit.
