Face the Sin in the Church

After Pentecost (IV)

1 Corinthians 5

I took many years of piano lessons. I had wonderful and experienced piano instructors who taught me how to play the piano. I cannot forget one of the remarks one of my teachers made before the concert. She said, “Nerses, concentrate. You have practiced; you are ready. Now you will go out on the stage and play. You will make mistakes. Do not worry about them. The wise player is the one who knows how to cover his mistakes and continue as if nothing happened.”

It was wise instruction for piano lessons. But unfortunately some of us take life in a similar way. Today we are moving to the 5^th chapter. Paul is facing very a tough situation. He needs to address it.

“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. ²And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?” (1,2)

Two issues:

1- A man was with his stepmother. Married? We do not know, but they lived together.

2- The Corinthian church was proud of it.

In the previous weeks, we spoke about unity, the Holy Spirit’s visibility, and servant-steward characteristic of a believer. Today, Paul goes further in addressing sin that is not confessed and not dealt with.

In the dictionary, sin is described as “a transgression of divine law.”

Sin in Greek is amartia, which means to miss the mark. When we sin we miss the mark that God intended for our lives.

We don’t like the word “sin.” We even don’t want to address sin. It is not a pleasant topic to talk about. Usually people think, “I did not sin, I just made a mistake.” Mistake sounds better than sin. Why? Everyone makes mistakes. We like the word “mistake.”

What is the definition of mistake? “A mistake is an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning.”

You see we can hide behind these words, “Oops, I made a mistake, sorry, I am not perfect, OK, let us continue with our lives…”

Most likely the Corinthians thought, “Well, it is not end of the world. He lives with his stepmother; it is his problem; let us go on; it is just a mistake.

I think there is a major difference between mistake and sin. If we are just “mistakers”, that means we are not sinners. And if we are not sinners, we don’t need a Savior. The “mistakers” try harder not to make mistakes. But you see our life is not just full of mistakes, our life is full of sins, which separate us from God and from each other. We cannot change our sinful nature by doing good works, or trying to change our character. We all are fallen; we all sinful. When there is a sin that is not dealt with it becomes a rotten apple is the box that can destroy the whole box.

Many churches don’t like to talk about this issue. “Let us just be a positive thinkers. Do not address sin. Do not address controversial issues. Just be positive thinkers.” There is nothing wrong in being a positive person in facing negative and painful issues. Listen now, I look at the Bible, and the Bible is my source. We are in the 1^st Corinthians letter. Paul is addressing an issue that needs to be addressed. Behind the sinful life, there are church people who refuse to face the sin. That is the reason I chose the sermon’s topic: Face the Sin in the Church. Where should we face it? Everyone is free and responsible for his/ her life. Am I the keeper of my brother?

Yes, we are if we belong to the body of Christ that is called the church. Look at the sermon title again. Face the Sin in the Church, not outside, in the church. If the church is a community, if the church is a family, if we belong to each other, which we do, we should face problems and with the help of God, we should work for the building of the body of the Christ: the CHURCH.

We will continue in English.