Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: 1 Corinthians 5 | Date: February 8, 2026 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, please, to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. I’ll be reading through the entire chapter, just 13 verses.

“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. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 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. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 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. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 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? God judges those outside. Purge the evil person from among you.”

Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we come to the conclusion of this series of studies that we have been giving attention to, in which we try to learn the right ordering of this, your church. We come now to this subject of church discipline. We pray that you’ll give us a healthy understanding of it, but not only an understanding, but a right appreciation for it—appreciation of its necessity. Give us a commitment to it for the honor of Christ, we pray. And we pray, Lord, that through it you will keep us from sin, that we may honor you in every way. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

The Ordering Of The Church

As I mentioned, we are coming then to a close of the series of messages on ordering the church. We began with a study of the foundation of the church, that is the apostolic foundation of the church, and we saw that the Lord Jesus himself, being the chief cornerstone foundation of the church, has set apostles over the church, and through them gives his will to the church. We then are a people under orders to follow the word of Christ come to us by his apostles. That was their appointed role, and it is our role then to follow their instruction.

In that instruction, the apostles give us not only the gospel itself and not only teaching on how we ourselves are to live individually and think and talk and all of that, they also give us instruction on how to shape the church as well. And so we’ve called this series, “The Ordering of the Church.” We saw then the offices of the church.

There are a number of what have been called the marks of a church. Ever since the Reformation time, that has been an important point of discussion among theologians, recognizing the Roman Catholic Church was not a true church. What then is a true church? And there are a number of marks of the church that have been settled on as recognizing what are essential to making up a true church.

One is the offices, the biblical offices of the church. The first one, of course, is the preaching of the gospel and its purity. That’s the first mark of a church, and we take that under the first topic that we looked at, and that is the apostolicity of the church, the apostolic teaching, and so on. But also there are some offices that the apostles have ordered to be in the church, specifically elders and deacons—or elders or pastors or bishops, same office being referred to—and deacons.

We took time with that to look at what membership entails, what church life should look like. Another mark of the church is the observance of the ordinances. And so we saw baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to see what they symbolize and what these dramas are intended to symbolize and remind the church of. Well, that leaves one remaining mark of a true church, and that is that of church discipline. You should not conclude, by the way, that on this coldest day of the year, those who did not show up are the ones that I’m preaching about, that they are the ones to be under church discipline.

There are a couple of types of church discipline. There are various senses in which the word “discipline” is used in the church as well as in the family. Broadly, there are two dimensions of it. One is formative, and the other is corrective. Formative church discipline has to do with the teaching ministry. It’s the same in the family. It’s teaching, exhorting, instructing how to live and what to believe, shaping the behavior of the church, and so on.

I’m glad to say today that I don’t come to this subject for any immediate reason; there is not a particular disciplinary issue that we as a church need to address. I’m very happy to be able to say that, and yet this is part of the formative discipline of the church when the apostles give us these passages that shape not just individual lives and individual thinking, but they shape—and they’re intended to shape—the corporate life of the church and our responsibilities corporately in given situations.

This is one, and that is in response to sin in the congregation. So we have formative discipline where we’re teaching and exhorting, instructing how to live, shaping behavior, shaping our conscience to understand responsibilities, and so on. And then there’s what we call corrective discipline as well, just like in the family. And in the church, it is the church’s corporate response to sin from within the congregation—taking measures to correct, hopefully resolve, and bring to repentance.

Now there are various steps involved in church discipline at that level. There are private exhortations, there are admonitions, cautions, and warnings. It culminates in—and this is generally what we refer to as church discipline—it culminates in, finally, if those exhortations are not heeded, an excommunication from the Lord’s table, but also from the church life as well. There’s to be a dimension of social ostracism imposed upon the offender. We’ll see that as we go through.

Now there are a number of passages in the New Testament that deal with this subject, and in fact, there are more passages dealing with this than you might expect. It’s an impressive number. There are about five passages that we would call primary passages dealing with church discipline. One, of course, is Matthew chapter 18, dealing with private offenses. Another one is here in 1 Corinthians 5; this is the most extensive and the most pointed.

There are others: Romans 16:17–19 and 2 Thessalonians 3 has several passages. These deal with people who create dissensions in the church, people who have false teaching in the church, conduct of some kind that’s unbecoming to the gospel. Titus chapter 3 deals with those who create divisions and factions in the church. Then beyond those passages, there’s a dozen or so that we might call secondary passages that reflect on it briefly in some way.

The offenses involved in church discipline that make it necessary in the church life are many. There are personal offenses of various kinds. That’s Matthew chapter 18. There’s been a personal offense that needs to be addressed. That’s a broad range of sins that could be taken under that. There’s also divisiveness—it comes up quite a bit—those creating factions in the church. False teaching is one that comes up often in these passages. Paul here mentions sexual immorality, but he also adds to that idolatry, those who revile and argue, the drunkard, swindlers, dishonesty—any of these kinds of scandalous sins, of course, would fall under this, anything of a scandalous nature.

The Specific Offense

Now here in 1 Corinthians 5, we have, as I say, the most pointed and the most extensive passage in the New Testament dealing with the subject of church discipline. So we’re going to look at that today. In verse 1, Paul identifies the specific offense that gave rise to his writing this chapter, and that is sexual immorality in the congregation.

Corinth, as you know—and it’s common knowledge among those who’ve been to church more than even a little while—Corinth was a notoriously wicked city. There was practiced ritual temple prostitution, and in fact, there was a term that was coined, “a Corinthian girl,” which was a euphemism for a prostitute. That society had become so dominantly sinful and sensual that it ended up impacting the church. It began making its way and showing up even in the life of the congregation.

We see that same thing in 21st-century United States as well. Look back even in my lifetime: the things that are allowed and considered normal in terms of moral and ethical behavior today would have been unimaginable even a couple of generations ago. The society slips further and deeper into sin, and that just can’t help but show up sometimes in the congregation of the church as well.

Well, Paul identifies it here in verse 1. It’s not just sexual immorality, but a specific kind. Verse 1: “a kind that is not tolerated even among the pagans. A man has his father’s wife.” Incest. His father’s wife—is that his mother or stepmother? Some discussion. I don’t know that we can decide that. Was this just once and done? Or was this a continued living situation? We’re not told that either.

But this kind of sin was prohibited both in Moses’ law and even in Roman law. This was prohibited. This was considered disgusting. It was a scandalous behavior on the part of someone in the congregation. Now the question often comes up at this point: was this man a genuine believer? And it’s a good question. I’m pretty well convinced that in this specific case, we can’t answer it with any certainty at all.

Verse 1, certainly this man has been considered one of them. He’s called one “among you.” So he’s considered to be one in the church, a believer. But verse 5, at the very least, raises the doubt: “Deliver this man unto Satan.” And if that means anything at all, it means consider him to be an outsider. Verse 11 refers to him as one who “bears the name” of brother. But the whole presupposition of the passage is that he’s behaving in a way that is entirely contrary to what a brother in Christ is.

Christians don’t behave this way. A Christian may fall into sin, of course, but by very definition, Christians are a people who have bowed to the Lord Jesus Christ and their lives then are being shaped accordingly. And so long as this man is living in this kind of condition, we have no ground to assume that he’s a genuine believer. He may or may not have been. We don’t know the outcome of this. There’s a hint maybe in 2 Corinthians that maybe this was the man who was restored to repentance through the activities of the church, but we can’t be sure.

The point is then, as far as I can tell, there’s no way to assume that this man is a genuine believer. He’s called one. He’s been assumed to be one, but his behavior is entirely inconsistent with it. And so we can’t assume. In fact, we must be willing to consider him an outsider.

What’s important to notice here, though, is not that question. What’s important to notice is the focus of Paul’s concern in this chapter. The focus of Paul’s concern in 1 Corinthians 5 is not the immorality of that man. The focus of Paul’s concern in this chapter is the non-response of the congregation to that man who is living in sin.

He’s horrified at the scandal, of course. It’s a terrible thing. It’s the kind of thing that even the pagans don’t allow. But he’s more concerned at the non-response of the congregation. In response to this man’s sin, the congregation has done nothing. They’ve taken no steps at all. And so in verse 2, Paul shames them in the strongest kinds of terms. “You are arrogant! Ought you not to be mourning?” So what do you think? That Christianity is a mere verbal profession? And once you’ve made a profession with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” that that’s all there is to it? And there are no entailments, no corresponding responsibilities? You don’t need to address this problem on a corporate level?

He says they’ve been boasting. It’s hard to know what’s going on. Twice he talks about that here. They’re boasting. It makes you wonder, what are they saying? “We’re safe in Christ. Sin doesn’t matter. We’re the church of Jesus. A man has sinned; well, he’s got grace, too.” Paul condemns them for their boasting and says instead you ought to be mourning.

So lesson number one, coming from 1 Corinthians chapter 5, lesson number one is the church cannot be indifferent to sin on the part of its members. That just lies on the surface of the passage. It may be inevitable, because of the declining morals of our society, it may be inevitable that that kind of immorality will show itself on occasion within the congregation. But the church, when it does, the church cannot be indifferent to it. They must find it as horrifying, and they must find it as intolerable.

Verse 2, the end of the verse, presses the responsibility in brief: “Let him who has done this be removed from among you.” Excommunication. Some will say what that means is he’s to be excluded from the Lord’s table. I think it’s at least right, but does it mean more than that? I’ll let you see that as we go through here. I think it’s pretty clear that it is—that this man is to be excluded from the life of the congregation. First off then, immorality may be normal on the outside, but here it’s intolerable. You’ve crossed the line. We preach a gospel of rescue from sin, and it can’t be allowed to go unchecked.

Delivering This Man To Satan

Now verses 4 and following explain more specifically what all is involved. Verse 4: “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, 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.”

To deliver over to Satan, it’s pretty clear, I think, easily enough understood, at least in general terms. Hand him back to the devil. That’s where he came from. That’s where he’s chosen to live. Hand him back. Give him back to the devil. Declare him to be no Christian. Declare him to have no part in this Christian assembly. He doesn’t belong to the church. Return him to Satan’s territory. Don’t allow him to feel that he’s one of you. Force him to live on the outside without the comforting assurance that he belongs on the inside of the church. Make him know that he doesn’t.

And then notice verses 9 and 10. Here he tells us, “don’t associate with him.” Don’t treat him as one of you. Don’t allow him the comforting assurance that, well, he has sinned, but he’s one of us. No, don’t let him feel that. Don’t associate with him. Now verse 11: “don’t associate with him, not even to eat with such a one.” So he’s socially ostracized. Don’t even invite him to dinner. He’s been disfellowshipped in every sense.

So here’s a person who has sinned in a grievous way. The church then is responsible to respond by saying, “you are not one of us, and you will not be treated as one of us.” He may be a friend. Hopefully you still love him. But you’re no longer one of us. You have declared you are living in Satan’s territory. We hand you back.

Now in verses 9 and following, Paul makes an important distinction, and that is between those immoral in the world and those immoral in the church. He said, “I’m not speaking with reference to those on the outside, or you’d have to go be hermits somewhere. Obviously I’m speaking,” he says, “with regard to those on the inside.” They claim to belong to Christ, and yet they live like they have never come to Him at all.

Now notice verses 4 and 5, that the entire congregation is responsible to be involved in this. There’s no question here, the leadership of the church, the elders are responsible to lead the congregation through that and all of that. But the congregation itself is responsible to be involved. “When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus,” put him out. The entire congregation is responsible to carry this out. Verses 9 to 11, don’t associate with him. Don’t even eat with him.

Now here in 1 Corinthians 5, we have an established scandal, and so Paul is calling for immediate, decisive action. In Matthew chapter 18 there’s a personal offense involved, not a public scandal, a personal offense, and so there’s a prescription of a process. You go to him, you warn him, you take witnesses and you warn him, and finally at the end of that then other steps are required: public exclusion from the assembly. It’s hard to see that that would not be involved in this as well, but when Paul writes, it’s already been established.

If someone in the congregation here, for example, were to involve himself in some scandalous sin, the first step is not going to be, “let’s put him out.” The first step is we’re going to go to him and exhort him and try to bring him back. But very quickly into that, if there’s refusal, the church then is responsible to do this.

In Romans 16, it helps give another dimension to understand the dimensions of this excommunication. In Romans 16 verses 17 through 19, here he’s speaking of those who create dissension in the church, especially with regard to false teaching. Paul just says, “avoid them. Stay away from them.” In 2 Thessalonians 3, you have the problem there of a busybody, a lazy gossip in the congregation. Paul says, “keep away from him, have nothing to do with him, warn him.” In Titus chapter 3, again, the problem is that of divisiveness in the congregation. Paul says, “give him two warnings. After that, reject him.” Reject him as warped, he says, and sinful and self-condemned, but he says explicitly, “have nothing to do with him.” On the outs, he’s no longer part of the congregation. He may be a friend, and you may love him, and I hope you do. But Paul says, to feel the sting of this punishment, he must know that he’s no longer on the inside. He needs to feel that he’s on the outside.

So the bottom line then is the church is responsible to disassociate itself from those in continued unrepentant sin. We are to make it clear he is not one of us. We are not like that. We preach a gospel of rescue from sin, and we can’t have this in our congregation confusing matters.

All right, that sounds harsh. So let’s ask the question: why? Why would we do this? What’s the motive behind it? Look at verse 5. Notice the purpose clause. This is not spiritual snobbery. It’s not prudishness. It’s a love for the person with ultimate concerns in mind. Exclude him from Christian fellowship so as thereby to pressure him with whatever leverage you have—to pressure him to repentance so that, so that in the last day he’ll prove to be one of the redeemed and not one of the lost. So use whatever leverage you have, apply whatever pressure you can, don’t allow him the comfort of being one of us. Make him know that he is in fact, by his behavior, declared himself to be on the outside.

Now these steps are unpleasant for all sides, but it does have a goal in mind, and that goal is a happy one: repentance and restitution. This is a common theme in many of the passages dealing with church discipline. In Matthew 18, “if he listens to you, you’ve gained a brother.” In 2 Thessalonians 3, “have nothing to do with him so that he may be ashamed”—that is, that he may come to repentance. And then in 2 Corinthians 2—I alluded to this a little bit earlier—in 2 Corinthians 2, verses 5 and following, we have a record of someone in the congregation who had been disfellowshipped like this, and the actions of the congregation had in fact brought the man to repentance and fellowship was restored. Many have conjectured that’s the man here in 1 Corinthians 5. It may well be; I don’t know a way to prove that, but it may well be the case. But that, in any case, is the motive behind it. This is not being snobbish, it’s not being prudish, it’s not being self-righteously indignant. It is with hopes to restore them to Christ and to our own fellowship.

The Degrading Influence Of Sin

Now verses 6 through 8 then, Paul explains in terms of deeper considerations. Verse 6 has to do with the degrading influence of sin. “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”

Now, I have no experience with this at all. This is out of my wheelhouse. I’ve never baked a loaf of bread in all of my life. My wife does quite a bit. For years, she would make bread the old-fashioned way—kneading the dough, put it in the oven, and do all that. And then, oh, this has got to be 30 years ago now, someone introduced Kim to the bread machine. She still makes bread for us. We have wonderful homemade bread all the time, but she does it the easy way. I have no experience with doing it, but I do know that proportionate to the size of the loaf of bread, the amount of yeast is really very little. And yet, when the loaf comes out baked, to use the language here, the leaven has leavened the whole lump, the whole loaf.

So that’s what Paul is referring to here. It’s pervasive; it permeates. It’s the old “one rotten apple in the barrel of apples” metaphor. That’s what he’s playing on here: the degrading and pervasive influence of sin. He’s trying then to guard the congregation from going into further sin. What will come of a congregation that tolerates that kind of sin on the part of one of its members? If he can act like that and still be one of us, well then, what is it we can’t allow? You remove the ground for any kind of standards and any kind of discipline at all. And so Paul is trying to protect the congregation. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. You let this guy go and it’s going to have a pervasive further influence in the congregation and only draw the congregation down further into sin.

Gospel Realities At Stake

Now verses 7 and 8 then, he goes deeper, and here he speaks of some gospel realities that are at stake. Verse 7: “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.”

Now here he’s referring back to the Jewish celebration of the Passover and the feast of unleavened bread that followed. On the eve of the Passover, which was the first day of unleavened bread, the Jewish families were responsible to remove all leaven from the house. Sweep it out, remove from the cupboards, get all of it out. No trace of leaven in the house. And now make a new loaf of bread, a new lump of dough without leaven, without any yeast in it. And then from that lump of dough, you make loaves of bread to be eaten during this feast of unleavened bread during the holiday time.

There’s so much of interest going on here. This is one of those passages that you would like in a seminary classroom to take a few hours and unpack. How does Paul get where he is from the text that he gives us? This brings us into the discussion of typology. You remember that? A type, a biblical type, is a biblical pattern. So, for example, an individual in the Old Testament stands as a pattern pointing us to Christ—a type. An institution in the Old Testament stands as a pattern or a type pointing us to Christ. Or an event in the Old Testament can stand as a pattern or a type pointing us to Christ.

So Adam, Paul tells us explicitly in Romans chapter 5, is a type of Christ. He foreshadows Christ. You were in Adam under sin; now you’re in Christ and under grace. David was a type of Christ. David points us forward to Christ—the king, the king par excellence. The priest points us ahead to Christ. The temple, the place of the meeting between God and men—that points us to Christ who is the place of meeting between God and men. The priest himself who makes intercession—he points us to Christ who is the one through whom we have access to God. The sacrifice, the means by which atonement is made, points us ahead to Christ through whose sacrifice we have access to God.

Jonah—three days and three nights in the belly of the whale. Such a pattern that Jesus can point to and say, “it speaks of me. I’ll be three days in the heart of the earth.” These kinds of patterns and trajectories show us that in the old covenant, God was establishing people, institutions, and events. The Exodus itself, the deliverance of the people from Egypt, is a picture of the greater deliverance God would bring from Babylon, and then the greater deliverance is deliverance from sin.

These trajectories all through the Old Testament show that God was giving this extended drama pointing ahead to what he will accomplish in Christ. I’ve said it before that it’s just the opposite of what we do. We have a great event; after the fact, we create a movie to commemorate the event. God ran the movie ahead of time. For centuries, this long extended drama pointed ahead so that when Christ comes, we have the categories for understanding.

Well, that’s what’s going on here, and specifically, a couple of things. One, he speaks of the leaven. The leaven in the Bible is often—not always, but often—representative of sin. So when the people left Egypt, they left the idolatry and their slavery behind them, and their sweeping out of the old leaven in their houses was representative of leaving that life behind. And so it becomes representative of sin. These are now a new people. The sin is left behind and we are new people living unto God. Paul then here is playing on that in verses 7 and 8. He’s saying, just as they then left that old life behind, so in coming to Christ, we’ve left the life of sin behind us and we are a new people in Christ.

More importantly and more specifically, verse 7, he speaks of the Passover. That, Paul says, was prospective also. Here we have glimpses of Christ. Verse 7: “cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened.” That is, we really are what that old purging of the leaven pointed to. How is it we became what that represented? Answer, verse 7: “for Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

Well, you remember the event: Exodus chapter 12, major event of the Old Testament. Children of Israel in Egypt, in slavery, God says, “I’ll bring you out.” The night of the Passover, God says, “I’m going to send an angel. He’ll come over. And the firstborn in every house is going to be killed. You want protection? Here’s how. You’ll slay a lamb. That lamb you can eat. But the blood you take and you smear it on the doorpost and over the top on the lintel. When that angel of destruction comes to your house, those houses with the blood on the doorpost will be spared.”

Paul says all of that is just prospective. Judgment of God is coming, and there is only one escape from the judgment of God, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ standing in place of his people and bearing their sin. So here we have a greater deliverance by Christ, a greater lamb is offered, a greater sacrifice is given, and his people then are saved.

Paul just draws the conclusion, and that is we must then leave that life of slavery to sin behind us because we really are unleavened, redeemed by Christ. We’re a new people. We must go on now to live in obedience to him.

This really is Paul’s custom in giving exhortations to believers. He grounds his commands—this is important—he grounds his commands in the realities that we already enjoy in Christ. When Paul gives his commands, it is not mere moralism: “behave this way.” He grounds it in the realities of the gospel.

So for example, maybe most famously Romans chapter 6: “shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” No. Why? because I said not to? No. “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” No. Why? Because you’ve died with Christ and you’ve been raised with him to newness of life. That’s what’s pictured in your baptism. You’ve been buried. The old life is gone. And in Christ, you’ve been raised to a new life. That resurrection in Christ will come to its final fruition in bodily resurrection. But even now you’ve been raised to a new existence in Christ. You have been freed from sin’s grip. It was that you were in Adam and under sin. Now you’re in Christ and under grace, and sin’s grip has been broken.

Paul’s whole exhortation in Romans chapter 6 is, you don’t have to sin anymore. It was that you were enslaved to sin, but you’ve been freed from that, raised with Christ to a new life. Sin no longer has dominion over you. He grounds his commands in gospel realities. Another famous one is Colossians chapter 3: “If you then be risen with Christ, who is seated at the right hand of God, well then think like it, and act like it, and live like it.” Live out the reality of who you are. Paul’s regular command is, “be what you are.”

And here it’s the same thing. Christ, our Passover, has been slain for us. We’ve been redeemed by him out of the slavery of sin. We’ve become a new loaf of bread entirely. And that has implications, not just individually. That has implications corporately as well. The old leaven has to be put out.

And then it’s interesting, verse 8. Paul tells us in verse 8 that we are to continue to observe the Passover. Did you know that we Gentile Christians are to observe the Passover? Well, that’s what he tells us in verse 8. We continue to observe the Passover only in its fulfillment. “Let us therefore celebrate the festival. Not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” We are the fulfillment of what that pointed to. We’ve left the leaven of sin behind us, and corporately, that means when a member is in unrepentant sin, verse 2, he’s got to be removed.

And notice verse 8 again: “Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” What a sham it would make of our profession of Christ if we allowed, as a church, sin to go unchecked.

Well, I know that this is the passage of Scripture and the topic that everyone was dying to hear about this morning when you come to church. But to take this tour of broadly outlining God’s—Christ’s—ordering of this church, we can’t leave this out. We must remember that we are Christ’s church, and that carries responsibilities with regard to faithful living, carries responsibility with regard to those among us who cease to be faithful. We cannot—and this is implicit throughout the passage—we cannot profess to relish the glories of Christ while at the same time tolerating open sin.

Five Reasons For Church Discipline

As I’ve said, we love our fellow members, and that should never stop. But we must be willing to take these steps as a congregation. Why? Let’s remind ourselves of it.

Number one, why do this? Number one, because we are a people under orders. This is what Christ has prescribed for us through his apostles. And we must be willing to carry through with this, lest we ourselves then incur guilt.

Why do this? Number two, because of our concern for the professing brother in sin. We must be willing to use whatever leverage we have to restore that man to repentance and to fellowship with Christ and fellowship with us as well. That’s verse 5: “Deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”

A third reason, this is verse 6, to deter such behavior on the part of others in the congregation, remembering, verse 6, that a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

Number four, we do this to preserve the honor of Christ in his church. That’s verse 7: “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed.” If we fail to carry through on these kinds of responsibilities, the church corporately will reflect poorly on the Savior that she professes. If we fail to do this, we fail to be what Christ has called us to be.

And then number five, why do this? And that is simply to live up to our identity in Christ. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. We really are unleavened. And if we really are unleavened, that has to be evident on a corporate congregational level.

Well then, for all of these reasons, church discipline has been recognized as a necessary mark of a true church. We’ve had to take these steps in the past. You may pray that we never have to again, but we must be prepared, fulfill our responsibilities once again. The reasons? For the sake of the one in sin, for the sake of our own faithfulness, for the honor of Christ, and to live up to who we are in Christ. Amen.