WHAT BLATANT SINS ARE WE TOLERATING?

1 Corinthians 5:1-3

1Co 5:1 It is actually being heard that there is sexual sin among you, and such extreme sexual sin that is not even tolerated even among the Gentiles, because a man is having sex with his father’s wife.

1Co 5:2 And you are being arrogant about it! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been expelled from among you?

1Co 5:3 Because I, even though absent in body, am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who has been doing such a thing.

prideful porneia

Paul confronts the situation in Corinth with a level of urgency that reflects the seriousness of what is happening. A case of porneia—a sexual sin so egregious that even the surrounding pagan culture would have condemned it—is being openly tolerated within the fellowship. A man is engaged in a sexual relationship with his stepmother, and the congregation knows it. Instead of grieving, they appear almost proud of their tolerance, as though permitting such behavior demonstrates spiritual maturity or a superior grasp of Christian liberty. Their attitude suggests that they believe grace means permissiveness, and that accepting scandalous sin somehow proves they are enlightened.

Paul is outraged, not because the sin shocks him—though it certainly does—but because the church’s response reveals a profound misunderstanding of the gospel. Sin is not a curiosity to be observed or a badge of tolerance to be displayed. It is rebellion against Christ. When a believer chooses a lifestyle of deliberate, unrepentant sin, the issue is not merely moral failure but spiritual defiance. Paul does not need to deliberate or gather evidence. The situation is clear, and the appropriate response is equally clear.

He tells the Corinthians that their reaction should have been grief, the kind of grief one feels at a death. The presence of such unrepentant sin in the fellowship should have broken their hearts. Instead of boasting, they should have mourned. Instead of tolerating, they should have acted. Paul instructs them to remove the man from their midst—not out of cruelty, but out of fidelity to Christ and for the sake of the man’s own soul. Expulsion is not vengeance; it is a severe mercy intended to awaken repentance.

Paul’s reasoning is rooted in the nature of the church. The church is the community of those who have submitted to Christ’s lordship. It is the place where holiness is nurtured, where sin is confronted, and where repentance is expected. There is no room for a lifestyle of willful rebellion within that community. To allow such behavior to continue unchallenged is to deny the transforming power of the gospel and to endanger the spiritual health of the entire congregation.

Paul’s response is therefore both pastoral and protective. He refuses to let the Corinthians redefine grace as indifference. He insists that love includes discipline, and that the purity of Christ’s church matters. In confronting this sin, he calls the Corinthians back to the seriousness of their calling and the holiness of the One they serve.

LORD, wake us up to what our rebellion means to you.  Purge us of our prideful toleration of sin.