Here is a teaching on chapter 5 of the book of 1 Corinthians. If you want to check out previous Bible studies and chapters from now on, join our group here. Once you get added to that Facebook group, you can go to the "units" tab and see all the chapters and their study guides as they are being taught.
I did want to say a quick prayer... LORD, I pray that You lift up every person reading this right now. Please open up our eyes, our ears, our hearts, and our minds to You LORD. Please give us knowledge and understanding to know exactly what it is that we are reading and the wisdom to implement it in our daily lives. Holy Spirit please lead, guide, and direct us through every aspect of our lives. LORD, I pray that whatever it is that each person is supposed to receive from this Bible study they receive it and implement it in their daily lives. I love You with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen.
1 Corinthians Chapter 5:
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
Alright, so I am going to stop right there and discuss these verses with you guys here. So in verses 1-2, someone in the church of Corinth was having a sexual relationship with their stepmother. This type of incest was a crime that wasn't even heard of among Gentiles. It was just so ridiculous and these people in the church of Corinth took it so lightly. Paul wanted this man to be taken away from the protection of the fellowship of God's people but the Corinthians weren't doing this and he didn't know why.
In verses 3-5, even though Paul wasn't physically there with them he still could express his authority as an apostle. They all had the Holy Spirit within them so they were all one in Christ no matter which location they were at. Paul was still present with them in spirit because they were one in Christ. Paul wanted these people to put this unrepentant man outside of the church and into the world. The world is the devil's domain and so Paul wanted them to put this man out of the church and into the world. The reason for putting this man outside of the protection of the church was for the destruction of his flesh or sinful nature. The things that this man was doing were clearly sinful and he needed correction, but Paul didn't write him off forever. Just like he says here in verse 5, "and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord." The church doesn't grant salvation, we are only saved by Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him. So even though the church was going to put this man out into the world they couldn't take his salvation from him. In some cases, for the good of the church and for the good of the sinner, they should be put out of the congregation and that is what Paul is saying here.
In verses 6-7, yeast is consistently used as a picture of corruption and sin in the Bible. In Luke chapter 13 in verse 20, it says "it is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." Jesus says the same thing here in the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast in Matthew chapter 13 verse 33. So a little bit of sin and corruption if not being repented for and being taken care of can be worked throughout a whole congregation or a whole amount of people and affect everyone and everyone can be full of sin and corruption. So we have to stay humble and repent for the things that we've done and whenever we see things that are happening that are not okay, we have to address them. We can't just sit idly by and let these things happen without correction.
What Paul says in verses 7-8, we are made new with Christ. Jesus was sacrificed for us, He died on the cross to forgive us of our sins, and with Him we are made new. As Christians, we no longer have the sinful nature and the old yeast that is full of malice and wickedness but we have the bread of life which is Jesus Christ, and bread without yeast. As I said, yeast is consistently used as a picture of sin and corruption, so we have to have bread without yeast and the bread of life which is Jesus Christ. Jesus gives us eternal life in heaven whenever we are saved by Him and we have the Holy Spirit within us. We have to ask God to reveal the fruit of the Spirit in our hearts and portray that to others and not give in to our sinful nature.
Oh hey friend, sorry to interrupt this blog post, but I just wanted to remind you guys that "Christ Transforms Me," my 90-day journal is available in a different color. I decided to make a neutral or men's journal. The scripture and everything are still the same (except for one page that I changed because it was specifically for women) but the color scheme and design are different. To learn more about the journal or to purchase one, go to www.faithfuelsmyfire.com/journal
9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 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. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. With such a man do not even eat.
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.”
Alright, those are all of the verses of chapter 5 of the book of 1 Corinthians, but I'm going to discuss these verses with you guys here. In verses 9-11, what Paul is saying here is that the people in the church of Corinth shouldn't associate with people that claim to be Christian and claim to be a brother or sister in Christ but are full of wickedness, immoral, greedy, swindlers, and idolators. People in this world that don't claim to be Christian and don't know about Jesus or have a relationship with Christ, you can still associate with those people because we need to bring them to Christ and let them see the truth of God's words in hopes that they may be saved and go to heaven also. We don't need to associate with people that are still full of sin, corruption, and wickedness but claim to be a follower of Christ. We have to stand up under temptation and stand firm in our faith and we don't need to be around those types of people that are pretending to be a certain way when really they are full of evil and corruption and doing things that are not okay in the eyes of the LORD.
In verse 12, these people in the church of Corinth were too busy judging people outside of the church that they weren't even focused on the people inside of it. In Matthew chapter 7 verses 1-6 we can see about judging others and how we shouldn't judge or we too will be judged. In the same way that we judge others, we will be judged. The only authority that matters is the authority of God and Jesus and His judgment. But we still have to focus on correction and making sure that we are gently instructing people that are Christians and not associating with wicked or evil people that claim to be Christian and that claim to have a relationship with Christ but are not repenting or just are full of evil and wicked ways.
In verse 13, there are several verses in Deuteronomy that pertain to what Paul says when he says "expel the wicked man from among you." If you want to check those verses out they are from Deuteronomy 17:7, 19:19, 21:21, 22:21, 22:24, and 24:7. So we have to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to others and we have to love and serve others. We need to associate with people that don't know about Jesus Christ and that are full of evil and corruption because we have to spread the gospel to others, but we have to stand firm in our faith, stay humble, and let the Holy Spirit guide us. Whenever we see things happening that are not okay we have to gently instruct others and when people are being unrepentant or are just continuing to be full of evil and corruption then we can't associate with those people.
1 Corinthians Ch 5 Study Guide
What should we do whenever someone is unrepentant and continuously does evil things but claims to be a Christian? Why?
How are we as Christians all together in spirit even if we are in different locations?
Who is the only one that can save us? Why?
What is yeast consistently used as a picture of in the Bible?
Should we associate with people that don’t know about or believe in Jesus? Why?
What should we do when we see things happening that we know are not okay in the eyes of the LORD?
What is your biggest takeaway from this Bible study?
So that concludes this Bible study on chapter 5 of the Book of 1 Corinthians. Next time we're going to go into chapter 6 so make sure that you stay tuned for that.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights