1“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.  6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.  9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. 12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” 

In any place, in any structure of the society or a team, a family, a business, a community or a country, for it to flourish, for it to progress forward, there must be discipline. Without a form of discipline, things will be chaotic. There will be no order within the society. And if there is no order within the family, there will be chaos and there will be destruction. The same goes for the church as well.

This morning we are going to discuss rather a very important and serious topic. In fact, it is sadly most neglected in the churches, especially in the contemporary Christian churches. And the issue with that is discipline in the church, and especially the discipline of the member, who is continually and openly sinning.

We saw that the church in Corinth, last week, had a lot of problems. One of the major issues they had was that they were dividing themselves based upon the personalities of the leaders and the people that are around them. Paul had called them as ‘carnal Christians’ because of the divisions that they had. A carnal Christian is the one that is dividing the church. 

Not necessarily the one that does not know the word, not necessarily the one that does not come to church, not necessarily the one that is living a life that is of sin, but one who comes to the church, and causes divisions in the church. Paul has called them as carnal Christians and as babies and not as mature people.

And this morning, he addresses another problem that was there in the church. A major problem they had in the church was that there was a man in the church that was either having a relationship or he got married to his father’s wife, probably to his stepmother. Some people even speculate that it was his aunt but he was married to a person that he wasn’t supposed to be married to. Now, within the Bible, any kind of relationship between close relatives is absolutely forbidden. Now we have those passages in the Book of Leviticus, which goes into detail  regarding what kind of relationship a man or a woman must have, especially in the Old Covenant. And there are laws based upon that.

So Paul is addressing something that was happening in the church, that was really, really wrong. In fact, it was so wrong that it was illegal even among the Romans. Now, I thought about whether I should go ahead and share this message in church considering that we have more of a younger, unmarried crowd in our church. So I was considering whether I should have actually shared about these things and be open about this. 

I prayed, and then I thought that it is correct that the church addresses these things, especially issues regarding sexual immorality. They must be addressed from the church and it is important that you hear these things in the church. All the young people that are here should hear these things in the church first, rather than hear it outside, maybe at school or through movies or through some other means in the world. 

Because if we address it in the church, I think it’s the best advice that you will get. The word used for sexual immorality here is the Greek word ‘porneia’. It’s also where we get the English derivative for the word ‘porn’. 

And in this case, there is definitely a narrowing down of this particular man, that Paul was addressing, who was having an illicit and illegal relationship with his step mother. All right, he’s definitely addressing that. But in terms of practicality, in terms of applying the scriptures to our lives, we want to look at it with a  broader perspective. 

The sin this man was committing was so wrong that it wasn’t named among the Gentiles and even the Romans! The Roman people, the empire, the kings and the society had laws that were very promiscuous. There were a lot of immoral sins happening within the society. But Paul was saying, this particular sin was even greater. 

Even the Gentiles, even the outside world wouldn’t be committing these sins. And such perverseness had entered into the church. Paul goes on to say in verse two, “You are puffed up, you have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from you.”

We see very clearly here the main purpose of why God has called the church; He called them to holiness. In 1 Corinthians 1:2, it says we are called to be saints. The church is called to be saints or people that are set apart, people that are representing the holiness of God. Now, God’s holiness basically means He is set apart from everything else. There is nothing that could malign him, or that could put a spot on Him. 

So the church should have been set apart by people, people who are saints, people who are living a lifestyle that is holy. But Paul is saying here that the church had become so polluted they became worse than the world that was around them. 

There are three important lessons that we can learn from this passage. 

NUMBER ONE Paul tells them is that they must be mourning over the sin. In verse two, he says, “You are puffed up, rather you have not mourned.”

Somehow the church thought that they were no longer under the law. The church at that time consisted of people from the Gentile world, for example the Romans. They didn’t necessarily come from Jewish backgrounds. They became Christians and they said, “You know what, we are Christians now, we are no longer under Roman law. We have freedom in Christ.” 

You heard that before? You have freedom in Christ, right? They thought that freedom in Christ meant that they could do whatever they wanted with their lives because they weren’t bound by any law. To which Paul replied saying you’re rather puffed up, you’re boasting in your freedom. The word for ‘puffed up’ is actually the word boasting. You become very boastful about the freedom that you have in Christ, rather than being sorrowful and mournful towards the sin that’s happening around you. The word used here for mourning comes from the Old Testament and it’s for when somebody repents by tearing their clothes and putting ashes on their head.

Sometimes we think that Christian life is simply a feast. It is true in a way. Christian life is a feast, it is joy, it is fellowship, it is communion with the Lord.  In that way, yes it is a feast, but sometimes Christian life can become a funeral. 

The sin of sexual perversiveness is so contrary to God’s design. There are two important downfalls throughout the history of the church. Right from the first century of when the church started till today to the modern times, whether it is the leadership,  the members or the church as a whole, there are two important sins that always have their downfall. Number one is sexual immorality, number two is greed. You look through any split in a church, any downfall of a leader or a Christian, the cause is most likely one of these reasons. 

When there is overt sin, the church must be in mourning. Now in this case, this person is living with his stepmother and everybody knows about it. It’s an open sin. People are talking about it and discussing it, but no one’s addressing it. 

No one’s saying, “Hey, this is wrong, this shouldn’t be done. This is in fact, even illegal based upon the law that we have in our country.” No one’s addressing that. Paul is saying, you should be crying and mourning this issue. That overt sin should shock us, make us go down on our knees, sit in ashes and cry for this person. Paul says that the offender should be removed from church.  We should say, “Oh we’re going to put this person out of the church.” They should be mourning about that. We will come to those things a little later. 

NUMBER TWO Paul says to the church in Corinth is that they should be judging this sin in verses 3 – 5. Now we saw last week that Paul himself is saying, ‘I’m not going to be judged by you. I don’t judge myself, but I’m not going to let you judge as well. I’m gonna let Jesus Christ judge me.’ That’s what Paul said. 

But in this passage, here, he’s saying that the church must judge. It is true that we must not judge a person’s motives or ministry or certain personalities or have a certain expectation of conduct. You know, some people are very outgoing, some people are very reserved. Paul himself was much more of a reserved person. His writing was strong but when he spoke, he wasn’t so eloquent. And people were judging him on that. 

We all have different outward aspects in our personality. Some people are much more vocal, some people speak softly. Don’t judge based on those criteria. Let God judge how each person is building the church, let God see the hard work.  We saw last week that your faithfulness to God is much more important.  

A lot of times people talk about Matthew 7:1-5, where Jesus Christ is saying that you should not judge because the same judgement that you judge your brother with, will also be judged to you. Why are you looking for that little speck in your brother’s eye when you have a log in your own eye? People take all these verses and say, “We must not judge at all.” Now, that is not true. As a Christian, you must judge. In fact, every time you’re sitting in this church, and you’re listening to the messages, you must judge, you must judge the person that is preaching. 

Not in terms of my personality, don’t judge me based upon whether I tucked my shirt properly or whether I stood or held the mic properly or if I helloed you or not. You know people judge these silly things. But true things that are spiritual, the church must judge. Especially things that are sinful, the church must judge. And that’s what he’s saying. You should have judged the sin in a way that would have removed the person out of the church. Paul uses very strong words in verse two, saying he should be taken away from you. In verse five says, deliver a person like that to Satan. Verse seven, he says, purge out. Verse 13, he says, put away. This is something that is traumatic, it is not something that is easy to do. But all these must be done in the authority and in the name of Jesus Christ.  

NUMBER THREE we see that the sin in the church must be purged. Paul goes on to talk about leaven. Now leaven is something that we find in the Old Testament as well. There are a lot of instructions regarding that. Leaven is basically yeast. When you put yeast in dough, what happens? The dough puffs up. Leaven or  yeast is so small, yet it makes the entire dough sour and kind of ferments it. Now there shouldn’t be any fermentation in the church. The church should be fresh, it should be clean, it should be without any sin. And even the smallest of leaven is going to rot the whole church. Paul says you must purge the sin out. You must take away the leaven. 

It is an old Jewish saying to take away the leaven. Even Jesus Christ uses that same phrase. But in our modern times, we also have a similar saying; one bad apple rots the whole basket or the whole barrel. A small leaven entering into the church is going to completely destroy the entire church. There is nothing you can do about it, other than just cutting it off, and keeping it outside. 

Paul isn’t saying give them some time, give some patience, and let it be tolerated for a little longer. He’s saying, no, when it is small and it’s in the church, you must completely cut it off and keep it out. 

So these are the three important lessons we find in this passage. Number one, the church should be mourning over sin. Number two, the church should judge the sin. And number three, the church should purge the sin. Now, as I said, one of the most serious offences that could come into the church is that of sexual immorality. The second is greed. And this happens in the church. My friends, if it ever happens in this church, we must be so united in getting rid of that. It doesn’t matter who it comes from. As a church, we must do everything in order to get rid of that leaven or that yeast from our church. Many times a lot of churches put everything under this carpet called grace. 

Whatever sexual sins that occur or whatever greed or corruption that happens in the church is all pushed under the carpet called grace. “Shush, don’t talk about that.”  “We want to protect the privacy of the person who’s involved.” But everybody knows this is happening. There are churches that I have seen and have been part of as well previously, where the pastor’s own son was having an affair with one of the members in the congregation and everything was kept under the carpet of grace for many, many years. And what happened? It spread and got rotten and puffed up to the point it became stinky. And the whole church split down right in the middle. The church broke into so many fragments and broke so many people. It was such a shameful downfall of that ministry.  

My friends, we must not tolerate any form of sin that would come into this church, especially in leadership. Now, what happens is that when a person is in leadership; is in a position of counselling somebody; is in a position of exercising some kind of authority over people, is when a lot of abuse happens. 

I don’t know, if you have heard this. There was this one pastor that just a couple of months ago made national news in America. Because when he was probably in his 30s or 40s, he had a relationship with a 17 year old girl in his church. Now he’s in his late 60s. For almost 30 years, it was just kept under the carpet. Just never repented. That Sunday morning, he got up and he shared. And at the end of the message, he had the audacity to say, ‘I’m very sorry, church, I have not been very faithful to my wife.’ And that’s all he confessed. I mean, it’s there on the internet. It’s just ridiculous how the entire world was mocking the Christian community because of the sin of this pastor. It is so sad. I don’t think this only happens in the West. My friends, it happens a lot more here in our country, but nothing is reported. 

We, in our church, want to be very, very clear about these things. We want to set boundaries within our church. If there is a small amount of leaven that comes into this church, we must make sure that it is removed. There is no other way of dealing with it other than removing it. If you have cancer in your body, what do you do? You try to get rid of it and remove it. If you have gangrene in your leg, you cannot try to save anything. You got to take it out, cut it off. 

In the same way. Paul is saying that we must cut that off. Now, regarding this point, I want to share a bit more because it is important that we understand that there is discipline in the church. The church that does not exercise discipline is a church that is bound on very loose terms. Being a disciplined church doesn’t mean that we all become pious judges of everybody and anybody that is there in the church. We don’t go around and become pious pastors judging everybody. That is not what we are talking about. 

But when there is sin, we must deal with sin. Jesus Christ gives us clear instructions on how to deal with a situation like this. In Matthew 18:15, it says, “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.” 

So the first step is to go to him alone and tell him what his fault is. That, my friends, is the right way of approaching it. You go to that person and talk to him alone and tell him, “Hey, listen, what you’ve done is wrong. This isn’t supposed to be done this way. What you’re doing is sinful.” You want to speak to him like that. Now, if he hears you, then you have gained your brother. If he says, “Yes, I’m sorry, I’m sinful. I repent. Please forgive me. Give me another opportunity”, you have gained your brother again. 

Matthew 18: 16 “But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ ” Now, if he does not listen to you, if he says, “No, I’m not going to repent. I don’t think that is sin,” Then you take two or three people as witnesses, so you can put your accusation against that person in front of those two or three witnesses, and they will judge and they will say, ‘Yes, this was sin, you must repent of it.’

If that person does not repent, then you go to the next step. And if he refuses to hear yet, in verse 17, tell it to the church. There should be a formal announcement in church. Ladies and gentlemen, if a person is caught in sin and he is living in sin and he has not repented of his sin despite being approached personally and then with two or three witnesses and has not yet repented, you must tell it to the church. 

Now the church is going to discipline that person. The church is going to tell that person, “Hey, what you have done is wrong.” We will talk about the discipline of the church a little later. 

In verse 17, ‘And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.’ 

He says let him be like an unsaved person. Let him be like a person that is not part of the church anymore. Jesus says the same thing. In verse 18, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ 

This verse is so abused by a lot of people. They think somehow, this verse is about binding other things. This verse talks about binding a person to the church or setting them loose. Whatever you bind is going to stay together. As a church you have that authority to bind a person or to let go of them. And whatever you bind as a church, will be bound in heaven. And whatever you let go of as a church, will be let go of in heaven as well. That is the authority and duty of the church that they can exercise. 

That is why church membership is so important. People think that church membership is something like this. “Today I don’t feel like going to this church so I’ll go to another church. They keep going here and there, just jumping around. People think like that. But church membership is super important. Because as a church when we get together, Jesus says in verse 19, ‘Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.’ 

When the church comes together in unity and pray for a person, God is going to answer that prayer from heaven. Verse 20, ‘For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.’ 

Again a verse that is often misquoted. In this context, Jesus is talking about church discipline. When the church gathers together to discpline a person and says, ‘This brother  is committing sin and we are going to release him from this church. He’s going to be put out.’ And guess who’s there with us when we do that? Jesus Christ.

And that’s exactly what Paul is saying when he writes to them in the church. He’s saying in 1 Corinthians 5:4, ‘In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. 5 deliver such a one to Satan’ What did Jesus say? ‘When two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.’ Paul is also saying that he is there with them in spirit. 

So when the church exercises discipline, guess who is with us? Jesus Christ is in our midst. With the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, we as a church can put a person out and deliver that person to Satan. Now that’s powerful.

Now having said all this, I want to say that this power is being abused in the churches too. There are so many times and so many people that I have seen; I’ve been a part of those meetings and have been been on the receiving end of these things as well. This power is abused by the church and especially by the leadership. ‘Oh I don’t like you, and you don’t like me. You don’t do everything that I tell you to do.’

So many times people use these passages in order to discipline where it is not meant to be disciplined. But where discipline is required, they do not discipline the person. As a church we want to learn and understand the seriousness of this matter. Paul gives us clear instructions about how to discipline and in which context, which place, what criteria and how and when exactly we are to put a person out of fellowship. 

Romans 16: 17, it says, ‘Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. 18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.’

I want to tell you that there are so many people around who talk to you with flattering and smooth words and they deceive you. ‘I will pray for you okay? Don’t worry, I’m always there with you.’

They smooth talk you into deception. People who do that cause divisions and offences. They want to make their own factions. They want to make their own small clique of people that they somehow keep control of. These guys are basically control freaks that form their own groups. They try to lord over these people. 

Paul says to mark those people that cause such divisions and avoid them. 2 Thessalonians 3:14 ‘And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed.’

Again Paul tells us to note the person that is living contrary to the word that is revealed.

In this context of what Paul has written, this particular person was not working. Paul goes on to say, “If you don’t work, you don’t get food. You are not eligible to eat.” 

If you want to eat, you must work hard. These people are simply freeloaders. They come to church only to deceive. Paul is saying that they have become busybodies. They were not working. They somehow thought that the church should be sponsoring everything. ‘The church should sponsor my food, shelter and everything that I am doing.’ And what do you do? ‘I’m a busybody, I go and deal with other people. I’m busy finding out and gossiping about other people.’ 

Paul is saying to mark such a person and stop having fellowship with them that they may be ashamed. Verse 15, “Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” Paul tells us not to put that person out of the church but to admonish him as a brother. 

There are clear instructions as to when and how and in what situations a person must be put out of the church. The last time I preached about this, a couple of months later I found myself being put out of the church. And it wasn’t done correctly either because of other issues. As I said, they were judging based on petty issues that were there. So, you have to be careful. In our church, we want to be people that are serious about church discipline.

Several times you want to give that patience to that brother, As Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 3:15, we do not count a person who is not exactly following that is being said. We want to treat him as a brother and have that patience, show them kindness and give them an opportunity to work and do things. But at the same time, when it becomes infectious and becomes yeast-like; a sin that is so overt and blatantly against the scriptures, we must take that person out of fellowship. 

And the form of discipline is warning, admonishing, withholding of fellowship, abstaining from association. We also see excommunication. In 1 Timothy 1:20 Paul says he has put some people out and given them over to Satan. So what does this mean, giving someone over to Satan? A lot of people have said a lot about it. However, we do not have a very clear definition about what it means to be handed over to Satan. But this is where I am at, and I am open for further discussion on that. 

When you are in the church, there is protection around you. The body of Jesus Christ, when we all gather together, there is a protection within the church. As long as you continue to fellowship in the church, you are being protected in this fellowship. But when you step out, it’s like you have been handed over to Satan. You no longer have that protection. When a person is put out of the church, they are handed over to Satan.

Now that is a scary thing. That’s why it’s very important to be a member in the church. It all goes together. Unless you have the covering and protection of the church, you will be susceptible and will have to face Satan’s authority himself. He might destroy you. As Paul says that his body might be destroyed, but his spirit will be saved. Another difficult way of explaining what it means for the body to be destroyed. Some people speculate that a person is going to physically die because he is no longer under the protection of the church. Some physical harm is going to befall this person and he will die. 

Other people speculate that the person will learn a lesson, like through a physical ailment, but his spirit will be saved. Now a lot of theology has gone into this but we won’t get into that because it takes away from what Paul is actually saying. We want to stick to the context. And in this context Paul says that when you deliver a person to Satan, you can expect some kind of a punishment coming over that person. So the privilege that you have of being protected comes from the church. 

A lot of times they say the spirit will be saved. But this doesn’t necessarily mean the spirit of the person but the spirit of holiness. Some people look at it that way as well. Because Paul does talk about the body and spirit in a figurative manner. We can have this discussion later but for this morning, we are talking about church discipline. So, it’s super important that the church keeps itself holy and doesn’t let sin come into the church. 

Thank God that so far, we haven’t had to do something like this in our church where we had to discipline a person. And I believe that it’s important as instructions come in many forms in the church. Instructions come from a Sunday morning message, from when we gather together etc. In many forms we get instructions and are being discplined. In a way, it’s a passive discipline. That’s why when you come to church, hear the word because it’s a passive way of discipline. But sometimes you do have to have an active way of disciplining. Paul talks about disciplining sin. He says one who is immoral must not be associated with. In fact when he writes to the church in Corinth, he mentions that he has already written them a letter. But they have misunderstood that.

They thought that they should not keep company of those people who are in the world, who are outside. Paul wrote to them saying not to keep company with immoral people, covetous people and extortionists. The church took it as not keeping company with anyone outside of the church. Paul had to write to them again to tell them that they misunderstood what he first wrote. If how they interpreted his letter was true, then we’d have to go to another world where these people don’t exist and it’s all perfect. 

Paul cleared it in 1 Corinthians 5:11. “But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.” So these are the sins which are explained to avoid. If somebody commits these sins, you must put him out of the church.

• The one who is sexually immoral and given overtly to sexual sins. Again the word used here is ‘porneia’. 
• The one who is covetous. Now covetousness is greed and is closely related to idolatry as well. It is the second leading cause for the downfall of many people. Somebody who just wants more and more.  
• The third is idolatry. Idolatry is anything that you worship and give your allegiance to. If somebody worships anybody other than God, you don’t want to fellowship with them.
• The one who is a reviler is one who abuses others and is always cursing and talking bad about them, trying to destroy their character.
• The one who’s a drunkard. This means somebody who’s intoxicated with strong drinks. It could mean alcohol but in our case, it could also mean drugs and other things. 
• The last one, he talks about is somebody who’s a swindler or somebody who’s an extortioner. This is somebody who cheats other people out of their money. 

With such people, what does the church do? You have to put that person out. Paul says, don’t even eat with that person. Now, eating probably meant communion and having a meal together. He’s saying, no, let not that person come within the church in the fellowship. You got to put that person out. 

So these were very, very clear instructions about the kind of people that we must put out of the church. And I want to close with this. What Paul wrote to them was something really extraordinary. It was written in such harsh words yet the church received it with meekness.  In fact, we see that this person that Paul wrote against who was having an illegal, illicit relationship with his stepmother, he had actually repented when his sin was addressed and when he was put out of the church. He actually repented.
This is something that we must understand when we talk about church discipline. Church discipline must be restorative. 

Church discipline is not saying, “Get out from here. Go! We don’t want anything to do with you.” That is not church discipline. 
“I want to put him out of the church and I don’t want to see his face ever again in my life.” That is not church discipline. That is arrogance. There’s another term that John writes about to describe those people who like to puff themselves up in the church, so they can have preeminence over everybody. That is abuse of authority. Church discipline must be 100% restorative. If it is not for restoration, you have no business dealing with church discipline. 

If you cannot help that person repent before the Lord and restore him back, you cannot have nothing to do with church discipline. 

In 2 Corinthians 2:3 – 8, this is the second or third letter in our scriptures that Paul is writing and he’s saying, “3 And I wrote this very thing to you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. 4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. 

 5 But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent—not to be too severe. 6 This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, 7 so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. 8 Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.”

Paul mentions that the person he so strongly wrote about, finally confessed and repented. He became sorrowful, changed his ways and stopped his sin. Paul is saying, “Listen, I didn’t write to you simply to cause you grief. I want you all to have joy for the one who has repented. I want you to go out and forgive and comfort that person by going out of your way to reaffirm your love towards him.” 

Now, church discipline must always follow these steps to be restorative.  We’ve said this many times in our church, the one who does not know to forgive the sins of  other people; the one who does not know how to love a person, isn’t a Christian. If you don’t know how to forgive a person, you are not a Christian. As simple as that. Because the very premise of Christianity, the very fundamental belief about being a Christian is that your sins are forgiven. Jesus Christ taught us again and again and again about forgiving those people who sin against us. Jesus Christ Himself forgave people and he had taught us that if you don’t forgive, your Father in heaven will also not forgive your sins. 

This is what we want to do as a church. So this is the whole complete picture of church discipline. When there is something sinful, you want to take it out and put that person out. And that should grieve us. If we ever have to discipline a brother or a sister and tell them that we are going to put them out of the church as a part of discipline, we should all be crying about it. Tears should be rolling down our cheeks because we are putting a brother out. It’s as if you are going for a surgery and the doctor tells you, “I’m gonna cut your hand off.” Would your response be, “Yes, yes, please cut it.” No! You’re gonna cry. 

The doctors give you some time to weep and mourn for the body part they are going to amputate. You’re going to cry over the part that you will no longer have right? In the same way, if a person who’s a member of the body has to be cut out and put outside, we all should be crying and mourning over that. That is the right attitude to have. We should not be rejoicing over it but be mourning over the sin of a person. 

Thank you for listening and I hope you’re blessed.