READING IN 1 CORINTHIANS FIVE
READING IN 1 CORINTHIANS FIVE
In our day apostolic authority is lacking, but this chapter teaches us that evil cannot be countenanced among the people of God, whatsoever our weakness. First he says: “Ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned”. We can do that, we can mourn, we can be humbled about the thing.
Delivering to Satan was by apostolic authority. No one could assume to do that now. If we come together in repentance the Lord would come in. If we are exercised, and humbled, and mourn, the evil person would be taken away; that is, the Lord would act Himself and take away the wicked person from among the saints, or the Lord would help us to clear ourselves, for we cannot go on with sin The first great point to see is that the evil must be dealt with. That is most important. If we have not power to deal with the sin, we should be humbled about it; but we must never allow the idea that it can be left alone. Sin must be judged, and the guilty person, if he does not judge himself, must be refused. That is the ground we take in our souls.
Paul says, “When ye are gathered together, and my spirit with [p. 49] the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan”, etc.. This involves administrative prerogative in the assembly, augmented by the apostolic rod, only you have delivering to Satan, which, as far as I know, is limited to apostolic authority. The assembly does bind on earth, and what is bound on earth is bound in heaven, but delivering to Satan seems to be an apostolic prerogative. Paul speaks in 1 Timothy 1: 20, of doing it himself without reference to the assembly. He puts the “ye” first here in verse 4 of our chapter. “The power of our Lord Jesus Christ” connects with the assembly. We have not the apostle’s spirit now, but we have the Holy Spirit, and so “the power of our Lord Jesus Christ”. They are distinct things. “The power of our Lord Jesus Christ” would be ever available to the assembly, but here the saints are augmented by Paul’s authority, because the case was so serious.
It is hardly in keeping with our circumstances to assume the power to deliver to Satan now, although this passage remains as light. It is better to be humble and recognise that there are many Christians who are not walking in fellowship fully, and yet you cannot assume that they are wicked persons. The conditions in which we are today are different from those at Corinth. Sin must be dealt with, as we said; and this scripture shows the mind of God as to it. It is a question of how the discipline is to be executed; that is, whether now it should not be by an action of withdrawal from wickedness, or a wicked person as Paul indicates in 2 Timothy 2. Is not this the principle that should govern the saints now rather than formal excommunication; that is, “put away” which involves the assumption to have authority. Verses 4, 5, 7, and 13 involve assembly action, only verse 4 emphasises the power available to execute the discipline. “Taken away from among you”, in verse 2, is not the same thing as “put away from among yourselves”, in verse 13. The former would be the Lord’s direct, or indirect, action; the latter the assembly’s which as expressed in this passage involves authority for public administration.
While judging sin according to the holiness of God, even as at the beginning, and refusing to walk with a wicked person, it seems that humility in us in a day of brokenness would avoid assuming public authority now. Still, the person convicted of sin, which he has not judged and forsaken, must be told that he is unfit for Christian fellowship, and that the saints can no longer walk with him. Undoubtedly [p. 50] the Lord confirms such an attitude on the part of His people, and the effect in result will be the same as it was at Corinth. Indeed, the Lord’s discipline goes on constantly with us according to the state of our hearts. If a man eats the Lord’s supper, unjudged in his own soul, he comes under judgment from the Lord. The saints may not discern his state, because his outward demeanour may be quite correct, but his inward state being wrong the Lord deals with that. We must deal with overt acts. The Lord cuts an unjudged person off, as Paul says, “for this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep”. It is an exercising thing to be made sick, because the Lord may be dealing with us. Some are cut off; that is, by death.
2 Timothy is, of course, quite in accord with the teaching here, but in it the Lord provides for the altered conditions in which the saints find themselves in the last days. To the Corinthians Paul said, “Do ye not judge them that are within?” That word “within” referred to the Christian profession then. The Christian profession comes under the eye of Christ, and God judges in it. You will find eventually that Christendom will be judged. The Corinthians should then have done it, but we cannot do it now. We judge Christendom in a way, but we have no power to change it. All you can do is to set yourself right in regard to what is unclean, and to walk with those who are clean. We know that when the Lord Jesus comes the thing will be dealt with. The addresses to the seven assemblies show what He thinks about things. At the same time, you enjoy the light of 1 Corinthians. In the last chapter of the Old Testament the word is, “Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments”; the whole law. The whole New Testament holds good in the truth of it now.. We have the light [p. 51] of it, only we are regarded as children of wisdom, and so able to act wisely. We do not act pretentiously; a few such as we are now cannot assume to act as the assembly did before the breakdown occurred. Yet as said already, we must not tolerate sin.