All Sinners are Redeemable

1 Corinthians 5: 6-13

“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.”

A tolerance of corporate sin, calling sin anything other than what God calls it, will give way to arrogant hypocrisy.  Paul uses the word leaven we would say yeast for it is an agent to make bread rise.  But the leaven Paul is talking about is malice and evil.  A non-believer does not understand the Passover lamb, but to us who believe it has rendered us clean in the sight of the Father.  When the Father looks at us He only sees the blood of the Passover lamb, His Son, our Redeemer.

My mother and many others seem to have not read past verse 9 and have come up with a doctrine of staying clear of people who did not go to church, and especially people of low morals.  Now let’s be clear if your inner circle of friends is immoral people you have a spiritual problem, but look at Jesus, for He spent a lot of time with the social unclean when He walked on earth.

And Paul goes on in verse 10 to make sure we understand we are not to lock ourselves up in an area and not have anything to do with people of the world.  But to be the hands and feet of Jesus, to see people as Jesus sees them, for God loves people so much that He ask His Son, His only Son to take our punishment, so you and I could be redeemed.

But verse 11, is clear that we are not to have anything to do with a person who claims to be a believer and yet is openly sexually immoral, or greedy, an idolater, drunkard, or a swindler.  Now so were we, and you may not own up to it but I bet you also have wrestled with at least one of these.  So be very careful in your judgments, go to the brother/sister and pray with them, show them you care, but if they do not have a repentant heart stay clear of them for they are contagious, but continue to pray for them.

From The Back Porch,

Bob Rice