What Happens to the Church When Christ is Not Central? Shame 1 Corinthians 5

What Happens to the Church When Christ is Not Central?

Shame

 1 Corinthians 5

All of us have to deal with shame

When we disobey God, we feel shame

When others disobey God, we see their shame

Some ignore shame

Some even become proud

God wired us from the beginning with shame

Shame comes when we disobey God

Because of God’s love

Jesus died for our shame

So if we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us of sin

That is the way we deal with shame

Shame

1 Corinthians 5

The Church at Corinth had

lost its sense of shame.

Shame is a wonderful deterrent.

If we can remove shame

we can be free to do anything.

It is not shameful for a

terrorists to kill innocent people.

You might think so, but the

terrorist sees it as an act of glory.

I know this illustration is extreme,

 but we, like the Corinthians,

and the Church in Corinth had  

learned to deal with their shame.

Paul addresses this lack of

shame in the Corinth Church.

Paul addresses a sexual matter taking

place in the Church that was so extreme

the people outside the church

would think it to be shameful.

So how do we reduce shame in order to find

the freedom to do what should be shameful?

In Genesis 2 we see…

The man and his wife were both naked,

and they felt no shame.

Genesis 2:25

Adam and Eve enjoyed nudity

with each other day and night.

They had no need for closets for clothes

because God had given them to each other.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed

God, they felt shame immediately.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God

as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day,

 and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

But the LORD God called to the man,

"Where are you?"

He answered, "I heard you in the garden,

and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

And he said, "Who told you that you were naked?

Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

Genesis 3:8-11

What a question…

 "Who told you that you were naked?

We have been wired from the beginning

to feel shame when we disobey.

Shame is a great deterrent.

To remove shame we must be like Adam

and Eve, we must hide from God and others.

 Living a life of hiding is no fun so we

look for ways to get others to accept us.

One of the ways we deal with

shame is to make light of it.

We make jokes and comments

that lighten the weight of shame.

After that, we begin to come out of the closet.

God always intended sex and love to be one.

A wonderful experience of procreation

and pleasure between a husband and wife.

One of the ways we have removed

shame is under the cover of love.

Paul says…

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. And you are proud!

1 Corinthians 5:1-2

If we love each other doesn’t it make it right?

NO!

America has said if a man loves a man or

a woman loves a woman they can marry.

But where does this thinking go if a man

loves his dog or a man loves children?

Where does the shame stop?

Sadly, many people in churches

today are like the Church in Corinth.

They are proud to wave the

flag of diversity and acceptance.

Paul gives us some guidelines for dealing with shame.

We are to judge it, if it is shameful we are to remove it.

We have been given a freedom in Christ but it

does not come from indulgence of fleshly desire.

Paul also says…

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?

Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.

"Expel the wicked man from among you."  

1 Corinthians 5:12-13

Paul did not make it his business

to judge those outside the Church.

But inside the Church, we judge matters.

Those inside the Church who are

doing shameful things are to be judged

and removed from the Church as

long as they maintain a shameful life.

Paul makes it clear…

 Shameful life styles are accepted in the world.

Although we and God do not approve of

sexual immorality, greed, swindling, idolatry.

Paul says to this…

I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

1 Corinthians 5:9-11

Shame is wired in us.

Shame comes when we disobey God.

Because of God’s love

Jesus died for our shame.

 So if we confess our sin, He is

faithful and just to forgive us of sin.

That is the way we deal with shame.

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 5 NIV

5:1 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. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? 3 Even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. And I have already passed judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, 5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.

6 Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast — as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

9 I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."