We close chapter 5 where Sundays message closed it — not with a removal, but with a destination. Everything Paul has said about facing sin, restoring the fallen, and cleaning out the leaven has been pointed at one outcome. Listen to Ephesians 4:

“We must stop acting like children. We must not let deceitful people trick us by their false teachings, which are like winds that toss us around from place to place. Love should always make us tell the truth. Then we will grow in every way and be more like Christ, the head of the body. Christ holds it together and makes all of its parts work perfectly, as it grows and becomes strong because of love.” (Ephesians 4:14–16, CEV)

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We come to chapter 5, and I will tell you plainly: this is the chapter most churches would rather skip. Here is the question Paul answers in it, and it is as delicate as it is important: what should a church do when a believer chooses to persist in a life of sin?

Not stumbles. Not struggles. Not falls and repents. Persists — settles in, decides, and stays. Chapter 5 is Pauls answer, and it is not comfortable. But I want you to hear the heart behind it before we hear a word of it: Paul is not trying to punish anybody. He is trying to save a man and protect a church.

So let us walk through it in four movements, and then land where Paul lands — on a church grown up.

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Friends, welcome back. Todays passage corrects a misunderstanding so old that Paul was already correcting it in the first century — and we still get it wrong. Listen:

“In my other letter I told you not to have anything to do with immoral people. But I wasnt talking about the people of this world. You would have to leave this world to get away from everyone who is immoral or greedy or who cheats or worships idols. I was talking about your own people who are immoral or greedy or worship idols or curse others or get drunk or cheat. Dont even eat with them! Why should I judge outsiders? Arent we supposed to judge only church members? God judges everyone else. The Scriptures say, ‘Chase away any of your own people who are evil.” (1 Corinthians 5:9–13, CEV)

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Yesterday we saw Paul honor both marriage and singleness as gifts of God. Today we take up two of the hardest questions in his entire answer to the Corinthians. What about Christians who are already married — should they stay together? And what about Christians who are married to people who do not yet know the Lord?

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Today Paul gives us a principle to live by, and he builds it out of a slogan that was apparently going around the Corinthian church. Listen:

“‘All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.” (1 Corinthians 6:12, ESV)

Those quotation marks matter. The first half of each sentence is not Paul — it is the Corinthians. They had taken the glorious truth of Christian freedom and flattened it into a catchphrase: we can do anything we want to. And Paul does something wiser than denying it. He accepts it, and then limits it twice.

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This is the final broadcast in our walk through 1 Corinthians 7. We have seen Paul give direct answers to delicate questions — marriage and singleness as gifts, married couples called to stay together, the believing spouse who sanctifies the home, the principle of staying as you were called, and the great “to marry or not to marry” question lived out in light of eternity. Today Paul addresses two specific cases — those who are engaged, and those whose spouses have died — and then he brings the whole discussion home with three big-picture truths.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 7, verses 36 through 40.

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Yesterday we framed Paul’s question — can a Christian eat meat sacrificed to an idol? And we saw that the question really probes something deeper — when my freedom in Christ might wound a brother, what do I do? Today Paul lays his first principle on the table, and it is one of the most important sentences in the entire New Testament.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 8, verses 1 through 3, in the Contemporary English Version:

“In your letter you asked me about food offered to idols. All of us know something about this subject. But knowledge makes us proud of ourselves, while love makes us helpful to others. In fact, people who think they know so much don’t know anything at all. But God has no doubts about who loves him.”

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We have seen the problem and the prescription. Today Paul explains why the church cannot simply wait it out. Verses 6 through 8:

“Stop being proud! Dont you know how a little yeast can spread through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast! Then you will be like fresh bread made without yeast, and that is what you are. Our Passover lamb is Christ, who has already been sacrificed. So dont celebrate the festival by being evil and sinful, which is like serving bread made with yeast. Be pure and truthful and celebrate by using bread made without yeast.” (1 Corinthians 5:6–8, CEV)

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