“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.”
– 1 Corinthians 5:7
Here’s a picture of God’s grace in the middle of this chapter on church discipline and removing those who are living in unrepentant sexual sin from the church. So let me expand a little bit on that phrase that I’ve used on numerous occasions, in this particular just praying through 1 Corinthians 5. The whole picture here is not just, okay, when somebody sins, they should be removed from the church. Oh, no. None of us would be able to stay in the church. I wouldn’t be able to stay in the church. You wouldn’t be able to stay in the church. Clearly, that’s not what the Bible is saying, and it’s not what Jesus teaches in Matthew 18.
Pulled Back Into the Arms of Christ
The whole picture is, when someone is walking in sin and continuing in it, then you go to that person. This is really simple, in a sense. It’s not always easy to do by any means, but it’s simple in a sense. If I am living in sin and continuing in it, I want somebody who loves me enough to come and tell me that, pull me back to Christ. If you see me walking toward a cliff and you’re like, “That’s his deal, not going to bother with that. It’s his choice.” You’re not my friend. You do not love me.
No, if somebody sees me walking to a cliff, they’re my friend, they love me, they’re going to be like, “Don’t go there.” He’s going to come running after me. “Don’t go there.” That’s what we’re doing when we see somebody, a friend, a brother or sister in Christ in the church. We’re responsible for doing this, 1 Corinthians 5:1. When we see someone in sin, we go to them. We say, “Hey, I see this.” There’s all kinds of things, like how to go to them graciously, patiently, gently? Galatians 6:1-2 speaks to this.
1 Corinthians 5:7 Thanks God for His Love and Compassion
But in the Spirit of Christ, in love, in compassion, understanding, having examined our own hearts, so many different things, we go to them and we say, “Hey, I’ve seen this in your life. I’ll encourage you, come back to Christ.” If they say, “Thank you so much for showing me that. Yes, I want to come back to Christ and repent of this.” They repent, and maybe they go back go again. They’re like, “Oh.” But you’re helping them, and they’re pursuing Christ, they’re trying to follow Christ. They’re just struggling with that sin. Okay, that’s one thing. That’s totally different.
I’m talking about a situation where somebody says, “No, I’m not going to turn from that sin. I’m not going to follow Christ.” Then you take somebody else along, Jesus says in Matthew 18. You say, “Hey, come back to Christ.” They say, “No. No, I’m still going to continue to sin. I’m not going to come back to Christ.” The whole church is saying, Matthew 18, “Come back to Christ.” They say, “No, I’m choosing this sin over Jesus.” It’s that point where the church says, “Okay, this person doesn’t have a desire to follow Christ. He’s not showing they’re a follower of Christ. We have no choice at this point, based on God’s word, but to excommunicate them,” again, with the hope, 1 Corinthians 5:4-5, that they will see the seriousness of sin and be drawn back to Christ.
Christ our Passover Lamb
Why is all that so important? Because of 1 Corinthians 5:7, “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” Jesus has paid the price for sin. Those who follow Christ, those who trust in Christ, don’t have to live in bondage to sin anymore. We are not just forgiven of sin, we are free from sin, free to live differently. What we do in the church is we help one another to live differently. We help one another to follow the Christ we’ve trusted in, to experience the life he’s called us to. So that’s the heart here, the gospel of grace. But if someone says no to that grace, if someone says no to Christ, “I’d rather choose sin than follow Christ. I have no desire to follow Christ,” that’s when you remove someone, after these steps that Matthew 18 outlines.
1 Corinthians 5:7 Prays for God to Help Us Live in Freedom
So God, so much we’re wrestling through, thinking through as we pray through this chapter. Today in particular, we pray that you would help us to treat the sacrifice of Christ as supremely precious in the church. We pray that you would help us not to minimize his sacrifice by treating sin lightly or to minimize his sacrifice by saying, “Oh yeah, you’re forgiven, even though you’re not free from that sin.” Praise you, Jesus, you’ve freed us from sin. You’ve made us a new creation. You’ve given us new lives, and we confess we still struggle with sin and we don’t like that we do.
We don’t want to struggle with sin, so we pray that you’d help us, help us to live in the freedom you’ve bought for us. Help us to spur one another on in this freedom you’ve bought for us. Then in these circumstances when someone is denying you, help us to do what you’re calling us to do when someone’s denying what you have done in the cross for our forgiveness and our freedom. Oh God, please help us. Help us to treat the sacrifice of Jesus as precious in your church. In Jesus’ name we pray. In his name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
