Church Discipline (1 Co 5:6)

Jimmy Lau


1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? 

In this chapter, Paul mentions a specific moral issue happening in the church at Corinth - someone was having his father’s wife; he was sleeping with his stepmother (v.1). Paul calls it fornication.
 
What did the church do about it? They bragged about it! “And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you” (v.2).
 
The attitude of the Corinthians was they “were puffed up”. The words seem to indicate that they were encouraging the sinner in his sinful way. It’s like giving him a thumb’s up and saying: “Wow, you got class.” Instead of being humiliated and covered with a sense of shame, they were encouraging it. Paul was flabbergasted. He said such kind of incestuous relationship would be considered taboo even by the world, yet the Corinthian Christians seemed accepting of it.
 
What should the church do? Paul said they should discipline him: “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (v.5).
 
“Discipline” as the word implies, is like a father chastising his son. This is what church discipline is all about: making correction through chastening in hope of restoring good behaviour. Church discipline is not a police and thief work. A policeman is only interested in putting the thief in prison. Church discipline is getting the sinner out of the prison of sin.
 
Why Must The Church Practise Church Discipline?

1. Save The Sinner: “Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
2. To Keep The Church Pure: “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” (1 Corinthians 5:6).
3. To Glorify God: “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you” (Romans 2:24).
4. To Obey God’s Commandments: “Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person” (1 Corinthians 5:13).

What the church at Corinth is doing is encouraging the sinner in his sin and damaging the image of the church and the name of God. The church is supposed to be a congregation of holy people. The Christians are supposed to be a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9). And, God is holy (1 Peter 1:15, 16). What would the world think of the church and her God if such sin is allowed within her?  How could the church convert the world?
 
Therefore, Paul has this sharp rebuke to the church: “Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” (v.6).
 
Those who bake would know: A small quantity of leaven or yeast is all that is needed to pervade the entire mass of flour, or dough, and diffuse itself through it all. The analogy Paul used is saying if sinners are allowed to keep their sins, it will encourage others to sin likewise. Before long, the whole church would be involved in committing all sorts of sin.
 
Solomon wrote a long time ago: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11).
 
Failing to enforce discipline will send a wrong message to other members that the action is not sinful and will cause them to commit the same sin.
 
The church cannot change the world if it is like the world. Therefore, we must practise Biblical church discipline towards professing Christians who persist in sin. May God give us the courage to enforce church discipline.