Issue 16 - Day 1

1 Corinthians 5

1 Corinthians 5:9-11
9)  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10)  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11)  But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

Judging others is not generally speaking a good thing. Indeed God usually instructs us not to judge others as we will be judged ourselves, however in some situations it is needful.

There is also no call here to avoid spending time with sinners, and indeed as Paul himself says, to do so would necessitate leaving this world entirely. Jesus was maligned by the religious authorities for associating with publicans and tax collectors, the scum of society at the time. Of course we need to spend time with these people, or how will they hear the gospel and come to know the Lord? However, if someone in the church, a fellow believer, is indulging in any of these sins we should not entertain them. elsewhere we learn the ways of discipline, and cutting off contact with someone is the last resort, as first everything should be done to bring that person back to follow Christ. Also, although sexual sin was the problem in the Corinthian church, I would not call this a definitive list either.

Do you know that a brother or sister in the church is sinning? We owe it to them to help them stop. Maybe they do not realise the sin, or maybe they do. Either way, confront them and challenge them with God’s word. Maybe you will have to take it as far as cutting them out of your life, if they fail to repent as this passage says, but pray that you will not have to get this far.