Bible Studies for Life Sunday School Lesson

When immorality comes to church

• 1 Corinthians 5:1-2, 9-13; 6:15-20

Lee Turner, member, Watson Chapel Church of Pine Bluff

I wonder sometimes about the woman at the well from John 4 and the experiences she might have had with the local church. Did the fact that she’d had five husbands ever come up at the beauty shop? As a Sunday school teacher, I have joked tongue-in-cheek about the reports on CNN (the Church News Network). However, my teaching objective is that gossip in the church is a deadly serious matter.

Apart from the pain gossip causes, it produces an insidious numbing effect that compounds the issue of immorality in the church, making dealing with immorality even more difficult to address. Sometimes inaction by church leaders is the result of a Mexican standoff where neither side can win. Vindictive “CNN news anchors” and their disregard of facts in pursuit of the scoop intimidate vulnerable leaders. The healthy church must use God’s Word to strengthen leaders and surpass the enemy’s intimidation in order to correct immorality in the church.

In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul deals out a lesson in tough love that successful pastors and churches eventually face. In the body of Christ, no sin can be considered an isolated event. Every sin, public or private, published or secret, affects the spiritual fabric of the church. We say we ought to love the sinner and hate the sin, and this is certainly a true saying. But in the Body of Christ we must not tolerate sin that is open, recurrent and unrepentant. If we don’t attempt correction, can we truly say we love that individual? Can we truly say we love and respect Christ’s church?

1 Corinthians 6 reminds me of my first assignment as a born-again believer. I was a church youth worker. God used the teachings and discipleship of a godly young minister of youth to remediate me while I served as chaperone, referee and chauffeur. The minister required students to memorize Scripture to qualify for certain activities, and I felt obliged to do the same.

“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Cor. 6:18-20, NIV).

It is time once again, to review our Corinthian heritage.