Scandal in the Church

“It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst. For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?” 1 Cor. 5:1-6

Scandal in the church is nothing new. The shocking stories we hear today were also headline materials in the Apostle Paul’s day.

What angered Paul, however, was not simply the nature of the scandal in the Corinthian church (incest) but the dull response of the believers: “And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead...” 1 Cor. 5:2. Fellow Christians can actually become prideful in such a situation by comparing themselves to the offender.

“Well, I am sure glad I’ve never done such a thing” is regretfully often the collective Christian response to gross sin in the camp. Then our sins don’t look quite so bad anymore.

Such carnal reasoning dilutes and taints the testimony of the church to the unbelieving world. If we take sin so lightly, why shouldn’t they?

Rather, Paul says that our attitude toward scandal should be one of deep regret and grief. The Greek word Paul used for mourn is the same word used to describe Mary Magdalene’s lament over the crucified body of Christ. We mourn over the iniquity of a brother or sister in Christ because we are together “the body of Christ” - and when one member succumbs to temptation, the entire church is affected.

Remember what Paul says - “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor. 10:12