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Paul wrote to the Corinthians urging them “not to associate with sexually immoral people”, but he qualifies that statement to say that he is “not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters since you would need to go out of the world”. (1 Corinthians 5:9-10) Thus, Paul clarifies by adding “not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler – not even to eat with such a one.” (1 Cor. 5:11)

Paul is obviously making a distinction between people in the church and people outside the church, Christ followers and non-Christ followers. This distinction is something we have generally glossed over in the modern church today, and it seems to me that we have gotten these instructions from Paul to the Corinthians exactly backwards.

I think of the Moral Majority with which I grew up in the faith when I say this. I think of more modern efforts of Christians fighting in the “culture war” to try to impose Christian values on our world. I used to be wholeheartedly behind those efforts, but my reading of what Paul said in his first letter to the Corinthians has caused me to rethink.

Jesus did not lead a political party or advocate that His followers should take positions in the Roman government. Jesus did not align with the Jewish parties (the Pharisees, Sadducees or or Zealots), and didn’t encourage his followers to vie for spots on the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious council. Jesus didn’t instruct His followers to spread the Gospel through the arm of the government, but by the feet of His individual followers – like you and me- who lived as salt and light in the world in the communities in which they lived.

I am not suggesting that Christians should not get involved in politics or government structures. I do think, however, that political and government involvement is not the primary way that Jesus modeled for the church.

One of the problems with the orientation of the modern American, Evangelical church is that we have increasingly turned to politics and government as a primary focus. We have engaged in judging the world and attempting to bend the will of the world to Christian principals and values through our political and governmental involvement.

At the same time, we tend to think that as long as someone professes Christ nothing else matters. As long as someone speaks our language and nods in our direction, we can call them “brother”. As long as they join us, or support us, or allow us to circle our wagons against the onslaught of the world, they are friends – and everyone else is enemies.

Jesus painted a very different picture when he told the church at Laodicea, “you are neither hot nor cold”; “you are lukewarm”; therefore, “I will spit you out of my mouth.”[1] I wouldn’t be surprised if God can tolerate an honest atheist more than a professing Christian who continues to embrace sexual immorality, greed, idolatry and taking advantage fellow human beings.

I say this not out of any self-righteousness. I feel the weight of the words of Paul. I see within me, the roots of these things that I have not yet completely eliminated from within the soil of my own heart.

The nation of Israel, when God instructed them to drive the Canaanites out of the land, every last one, did not do it.[2] Contrary to God’s instruction, they allowed some to remain. Those who remained became stumbling blocks for the Israelites in later years, as the Israelites adopted their idolatrous practices, including the horrific practice of child sacrifice. When we allow sin to remain in us and in our churches, it hinders and frustrates the work that God desires to do.[3]

Speaking for myself, but assuming that I am not alone, we are all guilty of this to one degree of another.

Going back to Paul, he concludes this passage with some rhetorical questions that are key: “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is not those inside the church whom you are to judge?” (1 Corinthians 5:12) And he adds pointedly: “God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you.'” (1 Cor. 5:13)

Instead of applying Paul’s words in the direction he applied them (to the church), we have mistakenly applied those words in the direction of the world. We have weaponized them turned them outward, rather than inward. We have tolerated evil within ourselves and within our church walls, while we focus pour attention on judging the world around us.

I dare say that we in the United States of America have made the arrogant mistake of believing that we are the equivalent of the nation of Israel, which God called, for a time, as his own people and to whom he uniquely revealed himself. God now calls all men and women everywhere to follow Him and reveals Himself to those who do, but we feel as if God’s call on the United States of America is uniquely worthy.

This is God’s heart – to have the Gospel (which is the Good News) preached to the world. A large segment of the American Church, however, seems to have abandoned the command to go into all the world and preach the gospel.[4] 

Instead, we have become entrenched in the posture of the culture wars, preaching judgement instead. We have done that while we have ignored serious sin within the Church, but judgment begins in the house of God. (1 Peter 4:7)

This is not to say that things like sexual immorality, idolatry, and greed are okay or acceptable to God. They are not, but the world who does not know Christ. The world does not have forgiveness of sin or the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin. The one who is within the walls of the church, who claims to know God and to have fellowship with the Spirit, who practices these things, is far more dangerous to the work of God then all the heathens in the world.

Jesus was judged by the religious for having the indiscretion of eating and spending time with sinners.[5] This is a picture of church outreach to the world. When Jesus came upon the woman caught in adultery about to be stoned[6], he was protecting the world from the the leaders of God’s own people. When Jesus told the woman, “I don’t condemn you; go and sin no more”[7], this is how a person is to be welcomed into the church.

The church is made up of saved sinners who were washed, sanctified and justified.[8] If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has passed away, and the new has come.[9] We should be working out our salvation with fear and trembling as God is working in us.[10] We need to work out the sin that remains in us as God works in us the power to overcome that sin.

The parable of the speck and the plank is the example of judgment for the church to follow. First we need to take the planks out of our own eyes; then we can help our brothers take the specks out of their eyes.[11] Once we have dealt with our own sins and failings, we can turn with love and compassion to our brothers and help our brothers with their sins and failings.

These instructions are couched in terms of our brothers -people in the church – not in the world. Jesus does not tell us to attempt to judge the world in this way, perhaps, because they have not (yet) subscribed to the Lordship of Jesus; because they don’t (yet) now him as Savior.

Who will give them the good news that Jesus takes away the sins of the world, if not us? Jesus came not to condemn the world, but to preach good news to the poor, and he told us to go and do the same.

Jesus didn’t tell us not to judge; He told us to “judge correctly”.[12] It seems that we would rather make broad, sweeping judgments of the world from afar, but the picture of the kind of judgment God asks from us requires us to be close to the people we judge – like brothers – to be able to take out the specks in their eyes. It requires relationship and love. This can only happen in the body of Christ.

Ultimately, God doesn’t judge anyone from afar. He knows the innermost thoughts of our hearts.[13] His judgment is more intimate then our judgment could ever be.

The gospel message is what should be blasted from the mountain tops to the world, but we also should not remain distant. God’s desire is always to get intimate. Jesus demonstrated this by spending time and even dining with sinners. He did this with grace and compassion. This is our example to follow in the way we should relate to the world.

Now is the time for the Harvest. The Judgment comes later.

What business is it of ours to judge the world for its sins? The world has a judge.

We allow far too much of the world in the church, and we spend far too much time leveling judgment at the world. Within the church we should be working on the planks in our own eyes and helping our brothers with the specks in their eyes. Meanwhile, our attention on the world should be focused on preaching the gospel because God has entrusted to us the “message of reconciliation” to reach the lost. (2 Corinthians 5:19)

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[1] “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.’” (Revelation 3:14-17)

[2] See, for instance, Joshua 16:10

[3] See They Did Not Drive Them Out posted online at http://www.learnthebible.org.

[4] Matthew 28:19; and Mark 16:15

[5] “Later, as Jesus was dining at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Him and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked His disciples, ‘Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’” (Matthew 9:11)

[6] John 8:1-11

[7] “[H]e stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ 11 She said, ‘No one, Lord.”’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’” (John 8:7-11)

[8] “But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers! Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:8-11)

[9] “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19)

[10] Philippians 2:12

[11] “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5)

[12] John 7:24

[13] Psalm 139:2