How you doin? 1 Corinthians 5 is a hard chapter to reconcile in my mind. I believe that the 2nd part of the greatest commandment is to love my neighbor. This chapter seems to contradict that commandment. However, God does NOT contradict Himself. So therefore there must be something my human understanding is missing. This chapter clearly speaks of a list of sin that should lead to separation.
Verse 4-5, "So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord." This is difficult language to understand. "hand this man over to Satan". This statement goes against everything I believe to be true about my expected conduct with my neighbor. I've been praying for revelation of the meaning of this verse since last Friday (11/15). It came to today.
My Bible defines "day" like this, "day light; a 24-hour period; a specific time or period in the distance". This would take WAY to long to explain in this email, so I need you to just know I'm right. The "day of the Lord" in this case refers to the end of the old covenant. The old covenant identifies and speaks to the "sinful nature". The day of the Lord refers to the end of the old covenant and the beginning of the new covenant.
Verse 7-8, "Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." AWESOME!!!!!!! These verses make me think of Matthew 9:16-17, “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.17 Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Out with the old and in with the new. Christianity allows for sin... following Jesus does not. The only time Jesus was around sin was when he was around unbelievers.
Verses 9-11, "I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people." Sin is like the old yeast mentioned in verses 6-8. It will spread.
Part of my sobriety testimony is that my addiction separated me from everyone and everything I ever loved or loved me. I do not refer to or see my addiction as a disease. It was sin. My experience with this level of separation caused by sin was what catapulted the life saving change that took place in my life. I could never explain to you in words the amount of loneliness and separation I felt in the last years of my drinking career or my sin-full life. I believe we all have a massive desire to be accepted, a part of something, respected, and most of all loved. I believe we are wired to desire a relationship with our Creator. I'll never forget the day I realized that I was separated from my heavenly Father. It was the day that I knew for sure that my life was never going to be the same. It was after I had been sober (without drugs or alcohol) for about month. The Holy Ghost had already entered my body, soul, and spirit. It was the revelation and conviction of the Holy Ghost that made it possible for me to know that I couldn't be separate from God. It was the part of me that God built in me to receive and here His signal and call. At the end of verse 7 it reads, "- as you really are". I can reconcile this 5th chapter in 1 Corinthians, because I've experienced the separation from God that sin causes. It's an injustice to the sinner if we allow sin to be acceptable in the fellowship. The fellowship that we long for by nature. Separation from God was by far more painful then anything is world had to offer. By disassociating with a believer because of their continued conscious sin will allow their sinful nature to be destroyed. It did for me and countless other people. Satan wants us to believe that accepting sin into our fellowship is from God. It really just allows for "the yeast of malice and wickedness" to spread through out the body of Christ. Then again Satan thought that killing Jesus was a good idea for his cause.
I'm think that more is coming about what happen here this morning. I'm completely undone. Shaking and weeping. I'm head over heels in love with Jesus. I can never be separate from Him. He promises me so. Love the sinner, hate the sin today.
PS Accepting sin is an enabler for Satan to keep us from a close relationship with God.
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