Separating the Sinner from the Saints

Date: 8 June 2025, 9.30 am

Speaker: Ps Luwin Wong Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

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TRANSCRIPT

When I was in Bible College, I had to write an ethics paper on the Pink Dot movement, which had just started at the time. Pink Dot is Singapore’s most visible LGBT movement. They gather annually at Hong Lim Park to create awareness for the movement and to champion for LGBT rights. The 17th edition of Pink Dot will be held on the 28th of June.

As I was writing my paper, it struck me as odd that the sources on which I relied to write about Pink Dot came primarily from Christian churches and organisations writing opinions and editorial about Pink Dot, and from newspaper reports about them.

I thought to myself, if a member of Pink Dot was tasked to write about the Christian Church in Singapore, and all they relied upon as sources for the paper were the opinions of the LGBT community about the church, and from newspaper reports of the church, I would be pretty appalled. I would have advised them to speak to actual Church leaders instead.

And so I took my own advice. They had a Facebook page, and I reached out to them, saying: “I’m Bible College student, who would like to know more about Pink Dot, will you be interested in meeting with me over a meal?” And they responded. And so we did.

I met with two of their committee members, and we spoke about many things, and one point I said, “social scientific studies have shown, that children benefit from being raised within a family with input from a father and a mother, a paternal and maternal figure, and that these roles aren’t easily interchangeable. When a child is sick, for example, they tend to seek out their mother and for rough and tumble play, they go to their father. What do you make of that?”

And one of them said, “Well, in reality, what is happening in Singapore is that typically, both parents are working, and children are being cared for by grandparents and domestic helpers.” They said, you don’t have to worry, children of LGBT couples will have grandparents too, and we can hire domestic help as well.”

And then they added, “If the church is so concerned about children actually being raised in a nuclear family, why don’t they start doing it instead of pointing fingers? So many heterosexual parents are so caught up with their work they barely have time for their children. Wouldn’t you agree that greed and materialism is the bigger problem here when talking about parenting? And that’s a problem that present the in church as well isn’t it? We just don’t hear you guys talk about it as much as you talk about homosexuality.”

I was like, “Huh, are you guys judging the church? You’re the sinner here, we’re the good guys. Let us do the judging, if you don’t mind. Let’s restore some order here, shall we?”

What that conversation taught me was while it may be more convenient to isolate and highlight a particular sin, the church should take a more holistic view. The problem, after all, is sin, not just of a particular kind, but in all its various manifestations.

And that’s what we see the apostle Paul doing in this chapter. He opens with a particular sin within the church.

1 CORINTHIANS 5:1-2 1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

The sin in question is sexually immoral sin of incest, a man sleeping with this father’s wife. And the command is to remove the sinner from among you – to separate the sinner from the saints.

But though Paul begins with this specific sin, he generalizes the application of separation to a range of other sins found within the church. Let’s take a look.

1 CORINTHIANS 5:1, 9-11 1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you…

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters… 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler - to not even eat with him.

The catalyst was the report of sexual immorality, but the application in v9 extends to the greedy, the swindler, the idolater, and in v11, he adds on the reviler and the drunkard.

He could list more if he wanted, but he’s made the point.

In a nutshell, Paul doesn’t isolate incest as the problem, rather, sin, in all its various expressions, is the problem to be tackled here. You may not be sleeping with your mother, but no one is exempt here, all are included.

Now, the instruction here, is to deal with sin by excommunication. Removing the sinner from the saints, no have no association with him, to not even eat with him.

Now, if we do this for every sin, there will be no church. All of us sin in various times and in various ways. We’ll have to separate everyone from everyone, Paul is not encouraging this.

This separation by excommunication applies to not any particular sin, but to a particular kind of sin.

Firstly, the sin is public knowledge. It is known by the church at large. Paul doesn’t even have to specific the individual, he merely makes reference to the case, knowing that the church is aware of it.

Second, it is flagrant. It is of serious nature. Paul says even the pagan Corinthians, even with the liberal sexual morality, do not condone incest.

Third, the sin is ongoing. Although it has been reported, it has not be reproved, nor resisted. Instead, it is not just tolerated, but celebrated. The church is arrogant about it, they are boasting about it.

When all three elements come together, the remedy must be as severe as the sin, it calls for separation via excommunication.

Now, you may ask, how can it be that the church is boasting about the sin of incest? It is possible, when the culture of the world invades and permeates the church.

Corinth, as we know, is a thriving, cosmopolitan port city, much like Singapore. And Corinth was infamous for its immorality.

The NIV Study Bibles notes, “So widely known did the immorality of Corinth become  that the Greek verb ‘to Corinthianize’ came to mean ‘to practice sexual immorality.’

Pastor Charles Swindoll says: 'It was a sailor's favourite port, it was a prodigal's paradise, it was a policeman's nightmare, and it was a preacher's graveyard'.

How did it Corinth come to be associated with sexual immorality? Well, being a port city, it welcomed sailors who have travelled a long time without female company and far away from their wives.

And to add to that, a prominent temple in Corinth is the temple of Aphrodite – the goddess of love and lust and pleasure and desire. When you worship love and lust and pleasure and desire, then you are only a stone’s throw from celebrate incest. Being arrogant and even boasting about it.

If you have told someone in the West in 1950, that one day, the world will be devoting 1 month each year to celebrating lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders, and multinational corporations will be supporting it, schools will be observing it, the public will hold parades for it, they would think you a lunatic.

They would say, everyone knows that such things are sinful, it’s shameful, why would we celebrate it? Why would the world be proud of it?

Well, here we have it. Pride Month.

A celebration, an arrogance, a boasting of sin. And for the record, there are churches across the globe who will be supporting and celebrating Pride month. This month.

This is what happens to a culture that worships Aphrodite. The Goddess of love and lust and pleasure and desire. Sexual morality is turned upside down.

Well, a church like Hermon is not yet in danger of celebrating Pride month, much less incest. Perhaps that is because the prominent temple of Singapore is not the temple of Aphrodite. Perhaps our temple looks more like this.

Materialism, luxury, fine-dining, travelling in style, living large, wearing brands.

Could it be that greed is the sin we not just tolerate, but even celebrate in community of the saints? No doubt we would keep it on the down low if we were involved in incest or adultery or premarital sex. We are not the sort of church that tolerates that.

But perhaps we have grown too comfortable with the sin of greed, perhaps it has become what Jerry Bridges calls, a “respectable sin”. So we buy branded, travel exotic, dine fine, live in luxury and we are almost proud of our consumption. Flaunting it on social media even.

I once attended a pastors-church leaders conference, and I was waiting at the lobby, and one of the attendees of this pastors-church leaders conference showed up in Rolls Royce. No rebuke, no reprove, no shame. Maybe some envy?

Like, at one point does it become greed? Are Christians in Singapore able to point out the sin of greed when we see it? Or have we become like fish unable comprehend what wet means, because water has been their innate environment?

Perhaps the Singapore church has come to regard materialism and greed as a badge of pride.

As God’s holy temple, let us be watchful about the temples of our culture and resist from worshiping in them.

So what do we do, if someone is engaging in public, flagrant and on-going sin, be it sexuality immorality, drunkenness or greed?

We separate. We do not associate. We not partake of the Lord’s Supper with them. We do not have Christian fellowship with them. We purge the evil person from among us. We separate the sinner from the saints.

Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

That sounds really harsh. That sounds brutal. I mean, we are removing people from our membership roll who have not worshipped with us for 7 consecutive years, and even that feels harsh to some. What happened to steadfast love, what happened to amazing grace? This feels mean.

Yes. Excommunication does seem harsh. And it can even appear as unloving, until we see the motivation for separation. This separation of the sinner from the saints is motivated by love. It is motivated by love for the sinner and the saint.

And here we come to point 2: Separate the Sinner for his Salvation.

1 CORINTHIANS 5:3-5 3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4 When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,  5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

There are two operative realms in the Christian worldview. The kingdom of God where the church dwells, and the domain of darkness which is world beyond the church. They operate with different value systems because they are ruled by different Lords. One is redeemed under the Lord Jesus. The other is doomed under the snares of Satan. One is the kingdom of light, one is the domain of darkness.

Now, note this: the reason we deliver the sinner to Satan is not in order to punish him but to save him.

so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

In other words, Paul isn’t pronouncing a curse on the sinner, he is prescribing a cure for the sinner. He is purpose for the separation isn’t retribution, it’s redemption and restoration.

The destruction of his flesh does not refer physical punishment but to a destruction of his sinful nature, his sinful desires, so that his spirit may be saved.

I saw a YouTube video online of a 3 year old who was upset at his parents and decided to leave home, it took him 5 steps from the porch to notice how dark and cold it was outside, and he ran back home to where there was light and warmth.

Separating the sinner from the saints is meant to the same. The purpose is to show how dark and cold and ruthless and loveless and joyless a life apart from Christ and his kingdom can be, and so cause him to forsake the darkness and repent of sin, and to turn around and come home.

Delivering him to Satan is sending the Prodigal Son to the pig sty, to come to his sense and then to come home to a loving Father waiting to embrace and bless him.

This excommunication is not a picture of hatred, or harshness or punishment, it is a picture of love, of redemption and restoration.

This is why the whole church is involved in excommunication, the Corinthians, Paul in the spirit, in name and power of the Lord Jesus. All are involved in the separation because all must seek the salvation and restoration of the sinner.

In the second letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes to the church concerning someone who had been excommunicated, clearly because they applied his instruction in the first letter. And in this second letter Paul writes:

2 CORINTHIANS 2:5-11 6 For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, 7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. 9 For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. 10 Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

If the sinner turns, turn to forgive and comfort him, lest he be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

Reaffirm your love for him. Forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive.

Why? Verse 11,

11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the unity the church. To divide the church is the design of Satan.

Paul says, don’t be fooled by Satan, don’t be outwitted by him. Don’t be ignorant of his design.

Satan schemes to break up the church. To divide the church, to separate Christians.

And if we are not mindful, the way we conduct church discipline can serve the purposes of Satan rather than that of Christ, whose death has saved us, whose cross has united us.

This is where were would do well, once again, to be reminded of the Gospel as the Word of the Cross. The Word of the Cross that speaks better than the letter of the Law. The Word of the Cross that brings comfort to the sinner.

For the Cross does not say: “hopeless, condemned, failure, unwanted”. No, the Cross proclaims, “ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven”.

It causes our souls to sing in response:

O mighty cross

O Christ so pure

Love held him there

Such shame endured

His sacrifice on Calvary

Has made the mighty cross

A tree of life to me

So why do we separate the sinner from the saints? The first reason Paul gives us is this: we separate the sinner from the saint for the sake of the sinner.

We deliver him Satan so that he will repent, and so that he may be saved, and when he turns, turn to him. Restore him. Forgive, comfort and reaffirm your love for him.

That is the character of church discipline that is guided by the wisdom of the Cross and so is not outwitted by Satan.

The first reason for separating the sinner from the saints. We separate the sinner from the saints for the sake of the sinner – for his repentance, salvation and restoration.

The second reason Paul gives for separating the sinner from the saints is for sake of the saints.

1 CORINTHIANS 5:6-8 6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I don’t know much about baking bread, but apparently, leaven, or yeast, is what causes the dough to rise. So you get flat breads without leaven, and fat breaks with leaven. But the look and shape of the bread is not what Paul is concerned with. He is concerned with the effect of leaven on the bread. A little leaven, affects the whole dough.

Perhaps a more familiar analogy is our Circuit Breaker during COVID. Quarantine, isolation and safe distancing was the name of the game. Why? Because COVID was highly contagious and deadly.

And so is sin. Sin is infectious, it has the tendency to spread. And once it’s common enough, we become oblivious to it, and then it has the power to debilitate the body of Christ over time.

When sin is tolerated, it can spread, and once its common enough, we lose sight of its evil nature. Our consciences are seared by the community itself, because our defense is, well, no one else seems see a problem with it, maybe it’s no problem at all.

Consider for example. The practice of apartheid within the church. Blacks not being denied entry to a white worship service, or asked to seat separately from them. We think it ludicrous today, but it wasn’t obvious that it was wrong to the average church goer back then. If you were a church member back then, you might have thought the segregation by race in the church was God’s will. After all, everyone else didn’t seem to have an issue with it. It was accepted practice.

When a sin is tolerated within a community, it can grow to become accepted by the community, and once accepted, it might then even be celebrated.

Paul warns us, don’t let leaven in, don’t allow it to permeate the lump of dough. Keep sin separated from the church. Practice spirit hygiene, safe distancing from sin.

Why?

1 CORINTHIANS 5:7-8 For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

This is the tomb of Martin Luther King Jr. He was the leader of the Civil Rights Movement in America, and despite receiving multiple death threats, he persevered in the leading the fight for Civil Rights for the black community.

He was assassinated on April 4th 1968. Usually when you kill the leader, the movement fades, but MLK’s death had the opposite effect.

The New York Times wrote: “Dr. King’s murder is a national disaster.” President Lyndon Johnson declared a national day of mourning and lowered American flags to half-mast. 

As a result of his death, riots erupted in over 100 cities across the US, expressing anger and grief over his assassination. Rather than defeating the Civil rights movement, King’s death energised galvanized the movement, it led to a surge in activism and led directly to the passage of the Civil Rights Act by President Johnson just 7 days later.

MLK’s death meant something for America. It meant something had to change. It meant the system was broken and needs fixing. It meant that people had to step in to fill the gap and step up to lead the movement for Civil Rights.

Which is why he is entombed in the National Historical Park in Atlanta, where visitors can pay homage and remember his death. His death meant something to the United States.

Paul reminds the church, Christ’s death means something.

1 CORINTHIANS 5:7-8 For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the -unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The Passover event marks a new beginning for the nation of Israel. It was the night they freed from slavery and death in the domain of darkness to begin their journey into the Promised land where God will dwell in their midst. That night, everything changed for them. They were going to a new land, they were going to receive new rules for life, they were going to dwell and worship a God who calls them his own.

And this was made possible by the sacrificial blood of the lamb. The blood that rescued them from death, and brought them out from slavery in Egypt.

That sacrificial death of the Passover lamb changed everything about OT Israel, and it points towards the death of Christ on Calvary, which likewise changed everything for the NT church of God.

The death of Christ, the Cross of Christ has united people who were once divided, it has forgiven the enemy, it has reconciled sinful humanity to a holy God, it has delivered us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his Son.

8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

1 CORINTHIANS 5:6, 3:16-17 6 Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Do you not know, Paul asks, that public, flagrant and ongoing sin has a corrupting influence on the church? If so, let us remove it.

And why is this important? Because do you not know that Word of the Cross made us together a Holy Temple by which the Holy God dwells by his Holy Spirit?

So saints of God, keep the temple Holy, by separating it from sin. And remember that because the Holy God is a God whose name is Love, remember that separating is done in love, for the good of the sinner and the sake of the saints, and for the glory of our Holy God.

Reflection Questions:

• In the list of sins listed in this passage, which one(s) are you most susceptible to indulging?

• How has this passage taught us to respond to various sins that run the risk of permeating and influencing the church?

• How might the word of the Cross shape our approach towards handling public, flagrant, and unrepentant sins in the church?