The Horrible Consequences of Accepting Wicked Professors as Church Partners

All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95)

How many churches do you know of that are filled with people professing faith in Christ, but showing by their lifestyles that they’ve yet to be born again? I’m not talking about weak believers that have sinful habits, but those people whose lives are dominated by sin. How often do our western churches tolerate people to participate in our fellowships and ministries, even though we know they have some sinful practice that characterizes them? For our Lord Jesus, this is a grievous abomination that risks the spiritual growth of His people, and the compelling preaching of the gospel to the world.

Paul the apostle is clear in his letters that no matter what excuses we may make about our toleration of sinners in our midst, we are just allowing a cancer to infect our lives. And when I say, “in our midst,” I mean in the family gatherings and mutual works of service we engage in as Christ’s body on earth. Merely to allow professing believers to be within arm’s reach of us isn’t the issue, but whether such as show themselves sinners are being treated as partners in God’s household.

This raises one disputed issue that seems to plague the thinking of many believers in the West. This is the clear distinction between saints and sinners. Never in the New Testament are those currently in Christ called “sinners,” since we’re no longer marked by our sinfulness, but by our holiness. We no longer practice sin, as the apostle John boldly and repeatedly declares in 1 John. Hence, there should be a clear distinction made between those who are ruled by the sinful flesh, and those who are led and empowered by the Spirit of Jesus to walk like Jesus.

As such, it’s the responsibility of all members of Christ’s body to vet our fellowships. When we’re gathered to mutually enjoy the blessings and privileges of our Lord’s Word and power, we must be careful that we don’t allow anyone to act as participants in the Spirit who are living as though devoid of the Spirit. But this is exactly what the textbook case of an undisciplined assembly was doing, as described in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

I’ve already dealt with the main issue of excommunication urged by Paul in the fifth chapter, but I’ve yet to linger on the harm that comes about when a sinful professor is welcomed in a fellowship as if he’s obeying God. Paul’s concluding words about the man who was sleeping with his step-mother are some of the most misunderstood and under-applied ones in the Scriptures:

“Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed . . . I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler – not even to eat with such a one.” – 1 Cor. 5:6-11

We see here that there are clear markers to determine whether someone belongs in the fellowship of the saints or not. Simply by looking at the characteristic of someone’s life, you can see if they’re clearly acting like an unbeliever. Anyone who can be identified with their distinguishing sin should be considered under the control of that sin. And other Scriptures show us that Christians are now impelled to live above their former sins, with lifestyles of obedience to Jesus. This is why Paul goes on to remind them:

“Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” – 1 Cor. 6:11

This declaration comes right after he’s given yet another list of sinful lifestyles that prove a person to be excluded from inheriting “the kingdom of God” (v. 9). He’s telling the Corinthians that they used to be “fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers,” but now they’re practicing the righteous alternatives to these sins (vss. 9-10).

One astonishing truth this brings out to us is that in spite of the Corinthians’ extreme “fleshliness,” they still were mostly spiritual people who were led by the Spirit. This is the only explanation for their ability to use the gifts of the Spirit, such as prophecy, speaking other languages, and so on. Hence, Paul pictures them as an “unleavened” loaf of bread, which has been essentially cleansed from the “leaven” of sin. However, they were arrogantly allowing much of this leaven to remain, since they were accepting the sexually immoral man as a believer.

But what’s the harm in allowing a professing believer in sin to associate with a church’s fellowship? Imperceptibly deadly harm, for all those involved. First, Paul says that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump” (v. 6). He isn’t exaggerating here because when someone is openly and unashamedly committing sin, while being considered a genuine Christian, the Lord’s redemptive power and will is slandered. What we’re saying when we allow an unrepentant sinner to continue on as if he’s faithful is that God’s grace doesn’t save us from sin, but to sin. We’re also implying that God turns a blind eye to the sins of His children, as though they’re acceptable to Him. It makes the body of Christ seem hardly different from the world.

By doing this, some believers are even deceived into believing that certain sins aren’t sinful at all, but perhaps “mistakes” or “preferences”. In short, Paul’s proverb is fulfilled when sinners are accepted as Christians, even if only tacitly:

“’Bad company corrupts good morals.’” – 1 Cor. 15:33

He then adds:

“Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God.”

— 1 Cor. 15:34

It’s those who betray themselves as not knowing God, but who claim to know Jesus, that must be “removed” from our fellowship (5:13).

How the Wicked Should Be Removed

Obviously, excommunicating someone from a congregation isn’t an act of outright hatred, but firstly an act of love. As such, we shouldn’t wish the damnation of a professor who unrepentantly associates with the ministry of an assembly. Rather, we should sorrowfully and earnestly warn such a person that he isn’t trusting in Christ for life and salvation, but is serving the devil. In the case of the incestuous man, it was already well-known to most of the Corinthians that he had been living immorally. Apparently, he must have been confronted by someone, but the Corinthians had fallen into an arrogant apathy toward his sin. It was no longer necessary to determine if the accusation of sinful living was true, since everyone knew about it.

In such a case, we must gently but sternly warn the sinner that their lifestyle betrays them as an unbeliever. They need to be told that they will henceforth be unwelcomed if they attempt to participate in the Lord’s Supper, mutual ministry, or even a fellowship meal. So long as they continue to claim faith in Christ while practicing sin, they mustn’t be given the impression that those with Christ’s Spirit live contrary to Christ’s character. This is why Paul ends the first passage quoted by reminding the assembly:

“But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler – not even to eat with such a one.” – 1 Cor. 5:11

To the world, this may immediately seem harsh, but it’s actually the most loving and Christlike thing that can be done. Professors that are clearly characterized by flagrant sins must feel that they’re not welcome in God’s family, and that they’re not embraced by God as His child. And the obvious reasoning for this is that they’re not, by all reasonable judgment. If they’re allowed to pretend as though they are, then believers who associate with them will likely “be conformed to this world,” since they’ll begin to think that sinfulness is compatible with the service of the Lord.

In all this severity, though, there is hope for such people. Paul’s main motivation for commanding the Corinthians to disfellowship the sinful man was so “his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (5:5). In a similar way, James ends his letter by assuring his brethren that

“. . . if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” – Jas. 5:19-20

But this conversion of sinners must not be carried out at the expense of the body’s purity and holiness. Saints should have fellowship, or spiritual partnership, with saints, but not with sinners, no matter how good their profession of faith sounds. And this is where the famous unequal yoke passage sums up all that’s been said:

“Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?” – 2 Cor. 6:14

The history of the body of Christ shows us that wherever bad company among churches has been normalized, the holiness, and then doctrine, of those churches have gradually been corrupted. First, people start valuing friendship over faithfulness. Then, excuses are made for countenancing the sinful people in fellowship. Third, the congregation’s beliefs about the Scriptures are slowly changed. And finally, there comes a point where the gospel itself is replaced with a man-made message that makes God out to be less than holy, righteous, and truthful. This happened with the Puritans in New England through the Half-Way Covenant; it happened with the Christians of the late Roman Empire; and it’s happened with every once faithful denomination that has now so conformed to the world that they’ve ceased to believe the biblical gospel. Let us heed the warning of James the lesser brother of Jesus:

“You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  – Jas. 4:4

While seeking the world’s eternal and spiritual blessing in love, we must not have a brotherly love for them. Godly separation from fake Christians is the only way to maintain our closeness to our Lord, and our convicting and converting power from the Spirit. Nevertheless, those who do bear the fruit of the Spirit must be prayerfully confronted when they’re found ensnared in a sin. Those we’ve found to be faithful to the Lord should be our greatest priority when it comes to encouraging ourselves toward greater obedience.