10
Spiritual pride condemns, sin is like little yeast.
Introduction
In this session, 1 Cor 5: 1-13, we will focus on understanding how some former enemies of sexual immorality followed the new converts of the new church of God in Corinth, and how to deal with it.
Objectives
By the end of this session, the learner will have:
- Understood some immoral activities within the church and how to deal with them biblically.
- Understood the Impact of unchallenged sexual sin within the church of God
Outline
- Types of Sexual immortality
- How to deal with sexual immorality in the church
- Church in the Sextualized culture
- Sexual sin as yeast
Group Study Time
1 Corinthians 5: 1-13
Connecting
- Gather with two or more people for a community discovery bible study session.
- Start with a heartfelt prayer, inviting God to guide and bless your understanding.
- Explore the passage by reading it at least twice, using different Bible versions if available, then retell the story together as a group.
- Reflect and share the challenges and blessings you experienced from the previous study.
Comprehending
- What was the second problem stated in the church of God in Corinth? And what did Paul say about it? 5: 1-2.
- What is sexual immorality? List at least 5 forms or types of sexual immorality sins today? How does the Church judge immoral behaviours today?
- What did Paul prescribe to be done for the immoral believer? 5:3-5, 9.
- Why should the church of God be freed from sexual immorality? 5: 6-9.
- Why did Paul say that the church should not associate with immoral believers and NOT immoral non-believers? 5: 9-13.
- List 5 examples of immoral activities within the church, mentioned by Paul to be judged by the church? 5: 10-11.
Committing
- Engage with the Bible—read, study, memorize, meditate, pray, listen, and live it out.
- List three lessons you have learnt as an agent of change that you would like to put into practice and teach others about.
- Take time and worship Jesus with the attributes revealed about Christ.
- Use the SPACEPETS model, to assist you in putting God’s word into practice. Look for:
- Sin to confess
- Promise to claim
- Attitude to change
- Command to keep
- Error to change
- Prayer to make
- Example to copy
- Truth to obey and
- Something praiseworthy
Communicating
- Identify one person you can connect with and share the valuable insights and lessons you gained from this session.
- Reach out to a new believer—either in person or by phone—and pray with them to support them through their challenges, including any concerns about attending church.
- Create a new group and guide others through this study to help them grow in their understanding.
Post Lesson Teaching Summary
Great job completing the study! Take a moment to listen to this summary to reinforce your group’s understanding of the text and ensure you’re all on the same page. We’re here to support your learning journey!
Spiritual pride condemns, sin is like little yeast.
1 Corinthians 5: 1-13
Audio Summary
1 Corinthians 5:1-13
Context
- Paul addresses the Corinthian church’s failure to confront sexual immorality, comparing their struggles to the Israelites’ pursuit by former enemies (sinful nature, Egyptian mentality) after leaving Egypt.
- The passage focuses on the church’s spiritual pride in tolerating sin, exacerbated by their rejection of leaders’ graces, leading to a lack of accountability.
Confronting Sexual Immorality (1 Corinthians 5:1-13)
- Spiritual Pride: The church is proud of tolerating a man’s sexual sin with his stepmother, a sin even pagans avoid, taking God’s grace as a license to sin.
- Lack of Leadership: By rejecting leaders’ graces, the church lacks judges to challenge sin, mirroring Israel’s chaos without judges, where everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
- Call to Action: Paul urges the church to mourn their sin, remove the man from fellowship, and hand him over to Satan for discipline to destroy his sinful nature and save his soul.
- Yeast of Sin: Unaddressed sin spreads like yeast, corrupting the church; removing the sinner ensures the church remains a “fresh batch” of sincerity and truth, like Christ’s Passover sacrifice.
- Judgment Within the Church: Believers must judge sinning members, not unbelievers, avoiding association with professing Christians who persist in sexual sin, greed, idolatry, or abuse.
- Excommunication: Removing the sinner protects the church’s purity and aligns with Paul’s prior warnings, aiming for restoration through discipline, not permanent destruction.
- Purpose: Confronting sin with godly sorrow, under trusted leadership, purifies the church, prevents the spread of evil, and prepares it for Christ’s return.
Application
- Mourn and confront sin in the church, honor leaders’ guidance, remove unrepentant sinners to protect purity, and live by God’s grace without pride or license to sin.