Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (Part 2)

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“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. . . .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.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

So in the last note, we talked about the fact that there are times and situations when it is right and appropriate for the church to remove an incorrigibly errant member from its fellowship.  I said at the end that there is another part to Paul’s argument here.  Verse 11 (the focus of part one) is surrounded by verses dealing with this other part.  The ratio is 4:1.  Why so much more on this here than that there?  Because Paul likely understood that our temptation would be to get his intention in v. 11 backwards (boy was he right!) and he wanted to try and keep us from doing that.   Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 (Part 1)

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“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.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This is tough stuff!  Let’s just lay bear what Paul is saying here: If someone insists on claiming the name of Christ, but is also incorrigibly committed to a lifestyle of sin, we are to kick them out of the church and not even be willing to fellowship with them.  Can you imagine anything that would so fly in the face of our culture or be so inviting of a lawsuit today?  Why would Paul call us to such a thing?   Read the rest…

You Can’t Judge Me!

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One of the charges often leveled against Christians today is that we are a judgmental lot.  And the truth is…we can be.  Folks will point to one of the many passages that call Christians not to judge others and accuse us of hypocrisy.  And the truth is…sometimes they’re right.

But, before we lean too hard into the charges and move to the place that some have gone of refusing to pronounce any behavior or attitude wrong, we need to clarify some things.  In the New Testament there are two different kinds of judgment.  One is not good and we are told over and over not to do it.  The other is actually one we are specifically called and even encouraged to make.  If we get these mistaken, we can wind up doing or allowing more harm than good.   Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Proverbs 19:17

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“Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.”  (ESV)

Have you ever wasted money and you knew it?  That’s a frustrating feeling.  Maybe it isn’t at the time (or else you probably wouldn’t have done it!), but eventually that little nagging sense of regret develops and you have to decide you’ll ignore it or else find a way to make amends.   Read the rest…

A Vibrant Realism

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This Sunday we kicked off a brand new teaching series called, “A Word on Reality.”  For the next few weeks we are going to be working through 1 John and taking a close look at his invitation to be a part of the real world and what it looks like when we do.  In this first part of the series we talked about what needs to happen before any movement in this direction can take place.  Keep reading to find out what this is.

 

A Vibrant Realism

Have you ever tried to teach someone who thought they knew what you were talking about better than you did?  How’d that go?  It was pretty frustrating, wasn’t it?  You probably kept trying to tell them one thing or another, but you could tell they weren’t really listening.  Maybe they were hearing, but not listening.  Then, when you sent them out to put whatever it was into practice they failed.  Miserably.  But then, instead of getting mad at themselves for not being a very good student, they got all upset at you for not teaching them well enough.  The problem was: While they thought they were living within the bounds of reality on whatever the issue was, you knew they weren’t.  But, because of their deeply ingrained false belief, they weren’t willing to listen.  Have you ever been there?   Read the rest…