Expel Wickedness

DEVOTION

1 CORINTHIANS

EXPEL WICKEDNESS

1 Cor 5:9-13

9 I have written 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 you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

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 man from among you."  

NIV

Surely we may well be guilty of judging those of the world, thinking how foolish they are for being so stubborn about giving up their sinful ways or for being so much in love with money, that is with being successful and acquiring wealth to squander on their own pleasures. Maybe we judge them to harshly for making idols of material things, movie stars, sports figures, or anything else of this world. Have we closed our church doors, or the door of our hearts, to the likes of them, hoping to keep ourselves isolated from their influence on our lives? It appears we would be wrong in doing so, for how do we would never be able to share the Good News with them if we were not first engaged in a manner of friendship with them. The days of standing on the street corner with a microphone and handing out tracts may well be over so we must find more personal ways to help them find Christ. But here we are not seeing just that kind of instruction about those outside, but in fact there must be people with those same kinds of behaviors right within our midst. That is quite a list of behaviors for someone in the church to be engaged in. It could be just one man who has but one of these faults, or it could mean many people all engaged in one or more of this kind of behavior. This “expel the wicked man” phrase in the original language also can mean plural, as in wicked people. Surely we think of sexual immorality as wicked, but have we lost sight of greed, idolatry slander and the rest as being wicked? Are there those among us who desire wealth before doing what is right before God? Are there those among us who idolize material things, or certain celebrities, especially the star football, baseball, basketball or whatever sporting event, player on some special favorite team? Have we those among us who gossip, which is nothing more than slander? And what about those who are drunkards and swindlers, surely we do not have any of those among us. Are we really to expel them if we determined we do have people like that in our congregation? Perhaps this is talking about those more famous people who make a living from the Gospel, taking advantage of the weak minded less mature believers who follow after them supporting their lavish lifestyles. Maybe it is those individuals we should expel from among us. In either case it would be a good thing to first judge our own hearts, and expel any of this wickedness from among us if we find any to be there.