Give Him the Boot!

 Read 1 Corinthians 5

I love this quote. Courage is knowing this is probably going to hurt but doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. That’s why life is hard.

It is by Jeremy Goldberg, or at least, it is attributed to him. I don’t follow this guy, but this quote popped up in some search I was doing, so I checked him out. He seems to be a good person with good intentions: My mission is to make kindness cool, empathy popular, and compassion commonplace.

Why is the preacher delving into this secular stuff?  I thought you told us to trust God!

God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. We are to use our sound minds.

One of the things our Bibles tell us is to no longer conform to the patterns of this world but to be transformed by renewing our minds. I like to examine thinking and logic. I look for logical fallacies when I encounter a new thought or approach.

If it holds up through that, then I see how it aligns with scripture. If it doesn’t, I’m through with it for the most part. Sometimes, I feel the need to confront if it looks like it’s leading Christians to wickedness.

With my retirement from this pastorate on the near horizon, I have thought about what might be next for me in ordained ministry. Perhaps it will be a season for confronting this wickedness. If I believe it will produce a good return, then look out.

Back to my quote. Courage is knowing this is probably going to hurt but doing it anyway. Stupidity is the same. That’s why life is hard.

What in life is hard?  Paying bills? That’s not a lot of fun, but it's not that difficult. Budgeting so we can pay our bills is more complex, and many succumb to stress or anxiety.

What in life is hard? Reading my Bible?  Reading is not that difficult. Surrendering to God, trusting him over our own understanding, and putting his words into practice is sometimes difficult.

What in life is hard? For some my age, remembering why I walked into this room can be challenging. I remember the law of cosine from high school. I never needed it once but I remember it. And for those who don’t know this law, it has nothing to do with getting mom or dad to sign a car loan with you.

But why am I in this room?

Let’s get down to the rat killing. This is difficult in local church bodies. Telling someone who is practicing wickedness without remorse the need to confess his or her sin and fix this.

That’s tough, especially when we anchor ourselves to the verses about not judging. But sometimes, something has to be said or done, not in condemnation but in love.

Somebody needs to say, “That dog don’t hunt,” and do it in love.

Locally, we have dealt with this once in this century when close family members displayed romantic practices in the worship service. This was the early service, so most were unaware. We love children coming into the church building; we just don’t want to conceive them there.

The session met and dealt with it and the family kept coming.

But somebody had to talk with them.

It was a challenging matter to address, but we did it and kept the believers in the body. Often, people converse with their feet and stop coming.

What exactly did Paul tell the church in Corinth to do?  Kick a guy out. Why?

He was sleeping with his father’s wife. Most think that this was his stepmother or possibly there was plural marriage, and this was a wife who was not mother to the man in question.

It could have been a trophy wife. In the spirit of full disclosure, I will tell you that I am a trophy husband. It’s a participation trophy, but a trophy nonetheless.

I will have to figure out how to take that one with me when it’s my time. You all don’t like my singing voice, but I’m doing the song.

…and my trophies at last I lay down.

Corinth was in Greece, but this was not an episode of Oedipus the King by Sophocles.

We are most likely talking about a stepmother. Paul noted that even the pagans don’t put up with that!

So, Paul told them to boot this guy out of the fellowship of believers. If he wants to be a pagan so much, give him what he wants and have nothing to do with him.

That doesn’t only mean that he can’t come to the worship service and Bible study. Don’t go to lunch with him. Don’t connect on social media. Don’t go over to his house.

How mean!

No!  Let’s go with how merciful. Why did Paul say to do this? Do this so that his soul might be saved on the Day of the Lord.

What?

Give him the boot so his flesh may be destroyed, and he will be saved.

What?

We need to understand the Greek word for flesh. It is sarx.  Here are the typical translations. This is from Strongs (4561).

- The physical body or human nature (e.g., John 1:14, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us").

- Human nature in its frailty and susceptibility to sin (e.g., Romans 7:18, "I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh").

- The sinful nature or the aspect of humanity that is opposed to the Spirit (e.g., Galatians 5:17, "For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit").

I want to give you all three if you want to dig down more, but I think in this case Paul is talking about what is opposed to the Spirit of God.

Why does it matter?

I think you will find that we all fall short. We give into our human nature.

But we do not all take up arms against the Lord. We don’t all oppose him.  Understand, I am talking Christians here.

Paul noted that he wasn’t going down the rabbit trails of what the pagans do. That’s between them and God.

Paul was writing to those who have declared JESUS IS LORD!

Paul was talking to those commissioned to make disciples, baptize, and teach.

Paul was talking to the body of Christ.

Paul was talking to those who should have spoken the truth in love to this man instead of boasting about it. Yes, it seems that the congregation was having a little lockerroom banter about this, bragging, if you will.

The ability to speak the truth in a spirit of love is one mark of growth and maturity in believers.

How does any of this apply to our lives?

·       We got through our chapter for the week. Let’s go with that.

·       Consider our sinful nature that rebels against God and wickedness, which actively fights against the Spirit of God. Now dig down.

·       When it is the sinful nature at work in our brothers and sisters, pray for them, encourage them, walk with them, challenge them, support them, have fellowship with them, and love them as your own.

·       When it is wickedness, stand firm in opposition. Be strong. Hold your ground.

The good news is that most of the time, we work on our own failings, pray for and encourage others as they do the same, and fellowship with others who are also failing—there are many of us.

But we don't give an inch when it is time to hold our ground. When we are up against wickedness, we might be mistaken for mean people, but we won’t budge

So, what do we do here?

Let’s scour the ranks of the congregation for wickedness and run it out of town. Let’s leave no stone unturned. Let’s be like Saul heading to Damascus.

Or not. Wickedness usually rears its head all by itself. We don’t need to launch a purge. We don’t need to be on a mission to kick people out of this congregation.

We all fall short. We are not all in league with the devil.  When wickedness comes, we hold our ground.

So, as far as wickedness goes, we don’t need to do anything most of the time? Are you letting us off that easily? Really?

Yes, we can kick people out of the body, but we have plenty to do working on ourselves most of the time. Do you remember commit, learn, and grow? We are working on ourselves, knowing that we will reach our destination because God said he would finish this work.

Does anyone remember make disciples, baptize, and teach? That’s what we do.

It is 2025, so I get a new quota for my military analogies.  Here it is.

We, the body of Christ, are the active duty forces. We are always on alert. We are growing nearer to God and making disciples while still working on ourselves.

We are also the reserve forces. We respond when called. We battle evil and wickedness when they try to penetrate our lines.

How do we discern the two? I’m going to use a phrase from a fairly well-known case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States regarding hard-core pornography. Potter White wrote in a concurring opinion, “I know it when I see it.”

 

As far as wickedness goes, if we stay tuned in, connected to, and engaged with the Spirit of God, we will know evil and wickedness when we see it.

Most of the time, we work on ourselves. Those within the family of faith should know fellowship and deny it entirely to those set against the Spirit of God—those who have declared war against God by their words and deeds.

Anything else aids and comforts the enemy. The common term for that is treason.

This whole chapter speaks of God’s mercy, even the expulsion and cold shoulder approach to the one allied with the enemy.

For those in the body, commit, learn, and grow in God’s grace as we make disciples, baptize, and teach.

Life can be tough, but it doesn’t have to consume us. We are on call to defend this body. We are always working on ourselves and sharing the good news with others.

Some of you might still want to do a purge. I get that, and I am willing to go along with it, well, with one condition. What condition?

For every person you want to kick out, bring in 12 more who are just as bad or worse. What? They will take over.

In a secular organization, you would be correct. But we have not had a chance to share the gospel with these new folks we call wicked.

We have not talked with them about the love of God that we know so well.

We have not read the Bible with them and dug deep for understanding that can be implemented.

If they hold fast to the flesh—to the point they are at war with God’s spirit—kick them out as well.

But let’s do what we are commissioned to do before giving them the boot.

Let me put it this way. If we are hunting down evil and wickedness so we can kick it out, how are we keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus?

We will stand and hold our ground when it’s time to fight evil in our midst, but that is not number one on our list of priorities.

·       Love God. Love one another.

·       Commit, learn, grow.

·       Make disciples, baptize, teach.

We are always ready to fight evil, but God gave us higher priorities for most of the time.

For today, eyes fixed on Jesus and growing in our discipleship will be enough.

Amen.