1 Corinthians 5:9-11 We Shine For God In Darkness!

1 Corinthians 5:9-11  I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — 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.  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.

Paul addresses a people who lived in a very licentious city.  The people of Corinth worshipped many Greek gods, and the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was a primary structure in this city.  This was a place where many prostitutes both male and female worked their trade.  Because of the prevalence of sexual immorality within the community of Corinth, Paul accentuated the wrongness of this wanton sinfulness to the Christians and its negative effects upon the church of God.  He wanted them to separate themselves from people who still practiced this kind of lifestyle, yet claimed they were followers of Jesus Christ.  He wanted the church to know, of course, they could not leave this world completely, for they had live peacefully in the community, and they had to make a living.  He realized they had to associate with the world, so they could carry on with their daily lives, but he did not want them to connect themselves with people who brazenly lived the lifestyle of the sinners around them: 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.  He knew this nascent church must represent a different lifestyle, a different purpose for living, than the community around it.  He wanted them to do exactly what he told the church at Ephesus: So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.  They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.  Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.  (Ephesians 4:17-19)  If they did not reject this wayward living, they would be assimilated into the sinful environment in which the Corinthians Christians found themselves embedded.  Their testimony of the Light of Christ and his righteousness would disappear within the darkness of the Corinth world if they continued to compromise with sin.

A manifested and openly glorified lifestyle of profound licentiousness or self-gratification cannot be allowed within the community of believers.  We know that Christ came for the sinners of this world, to redeem them to a righteous God.  The Bible tells us all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  (Romans 3:23-24)  We cannot approach God with our own righteousness; therefore, we need a savior, an advocate, before the Father God.  But, we cannot claim to be brothers and sisters IN CHRIST if we brazenly involve ourselves in debauchery, lying, deceitfulness, drunkenness, thievery, brutality, and the like.  If we participate in these sinful activities or if our minds are filled with thoughts of the spirit that rules the flesh and the world, we must question whether we are truly saved, truly committed to Christ and his life.  Paul knew an immoral, unregenerate life would eventually lead to destruction, death away from God forever.  Therefore, he wanted the church to separate themselves from sin and to put out from their community anyone who was practicing openly the old Corinthian lifestyle of wickedness.  He wanted the act of ostracizing people from the community of believers to bring them back to repentance, so that their souls might be saved from eternal perdition.  In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul asked them, For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?  Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?  He goes on to say, As God has said,  “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.  Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.  I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”  (2 Corinthians 6:14 & 17-18) 

We know Jesus associated himself with sinners and seemed more comfortable with them than with the outwardly righteous religious leaders.   While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and “sinners” were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.  When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the “sinners” and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”  On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  (Mark 2:15-17)  The Bible says Jesus came into the world to save people from their sins, not to condemn them.  He wanted lives to be changed, changed from the natural pattern of sin to lives acceptable to God, relying upon the works of Jesus Christ and his righteousness.  Jesus was and is the Light of God, shining in the darkness.  He brought this light into every environment He entered.  We read in the New Testament that Jesus fulfilled prophecy when He walked this earth as the light of God to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”  (Matthew 4:14-16)   Jesus brought healing, forgiveness, grace, and mercy.  The people knew that no man since the beginning of time did the marvelous works HE did.  They had to say, "This man is different from us; He performs acts beyond what any of us can do."  Many listened to his message, for He must be of God.  Paul, in his warning to the Corinthians, reminds them that this man, Jesus, is different, and He requires a different way of living from his followers, a separation from the world's mindset.  We live in the world to survive, but we are not of the world.  We were purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, so we remind ourselves to  carry ourselves every day in such a way that people will recognize us as children of God, joint heirs with Christ Jesus.