Quiet Moments with God: Daily Devotions for Serenity

SUNDAY, 28 APRIL 2024

TEXT: 1 CORINTHIANS 5:1-13

1: It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.

2: And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?

3: For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this.

4: 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 for the destruction of the flesh,[b] so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

6: Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?

7: 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.

9: 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.

12: What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?

13: God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

(New International Version Holy Bible)

TOPIC: DO NOT CONDONE IMMORALITY

The Corinthian church was so overconfident of possessing spiritual gifts that she easily overlooked the sin of a brother who ought to have been rebuked or even excommunicated. It appeared the brother had been tolerated for a long time.

Paul chastised the church this way: "Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast as you really are." (vs 6, 7).

It shows that the general spiritual health of the church was being compromised by not disciplining the brother an action capable of contaminating the whole body of Christ.

Church leadership must uphold discipline among members to prevent others from following bad examples. Are such immoral acts found in some churches today? Do we tend to compromise like the Corinthian church?

QUESTION: What roles can I play to keep today's church free from immoral acts and compromises that can ruin its spiritual health?

PRAYER: Guide me dear Lord, so that I do not condone a life a sin or overlook it whenever it shows up around me, in Jesus name. Amen.