The Corinthians’ failure to discipline a congregant entangled in unthinkable immorality was dangerous because it imperiled him to live sinfully without a call to repentance, while also jeopardizing the purity of the church.

At this point, Paul anticipates an objection from his audience – and perhaps from future readers, too. Because sin is everywhere, separating ourselves from sin and sinners seems like an exercise in futility. Church discipline often appears useless when we live in a fallen world.

Believers today often face similar objections. Church discipline seems ineffective because there are so many churches one might attend. If someone is going to leave the church during or after the discipline process, what is the point?

These powerful objections require a thoughtful response. Paul does not deny that ungodly people are everywhere. However, he wants Christians to understand that to be relentlessly biblical as a church, we should know how to interact with ungodly people wherever they are. The dangers from each scenario – and the requisite godly responses– are different.

To that end, Paul begins this final section with two clarifications (verses 9-11).

The first clarification concerns what church discipline is not. Church discipline is not for believers to dissociate from immoral people who are unbelievers.

Paul does not refer to the world in these verses as a physical place but as a spiritual domain. Believers should not cease their social interactions with worldly people who are sexually immoral and make no profession of faith in Christ. Paul then adds more sins that characterize worldly people, encompasses everyone who rejects the gospel: the sexually immoral, the greedy, the thieves and swindlers, and the idolaters.

The point is that Christians are not to avoid those of the world who live lives defined by sin because such avoidance is not practically possible. Entirely avoiding associations with ungodly people would require Christians to exit the world, which we must not seek to do until the Lord calls us home or returns in glory. Church discipline and separation from sinners has nothing to do with avoiding contact with unbelievers. Additionally, if believers could escape the world, we would be unable to fulfill our responsibility and privilege to be shining lights for Christ in a crooked generation.

The second clarification from Paul is what church discipline is (verse 11). Church discipline is to end association with people who are ungodly but call themselves Christians.

Paul here indicates that church discipline focuses on character more than isolated acts. When a sin is out of character for a person, love can cover that transgression because we recognize this is not a pattern. However, when people claiming to be Christians are characterized by habitual sin, Paul calls the church not to associate with them.

Furthermore, Paul is not suggesting we search for hidden sins or motivations in people, but that we base church discipline on observable behaviors that are contrary to Christ’s commands. As in the Old Testament, where a matter had to be established based on observable action by the testimony of two or three witnesses, so church discipline must be grounded on observable actions that characterize someone as witnessed by others. While we might suspect someone is an idolater at heart or covetous, for example, we have no grounds for moving ahead in church discipline on suspicion alone.

Finally, church discipline is for unmistakable sins, not matters of preference or opinion. The offense here in 1 Corinthians 5 is quite outrageous; it is not a matter of someone’s opinion or interpretation. When we look at other passages, sowing discord in the church is an observable, clear pattern of behavior (Titus 3). Ignoring apostolic doctrine and teaching contrary to Scripture is also a clear problem to address (2 Thessalonians 3).  There will be many sins in the church that are not as obvious, that may go unwitnessed, or that are internal, related to motives and thoughts. We cannot and must not attempt to discipline for these types of sins.

There are also many gray areas in Scripture. When we come to disputable matters involving Christian liberty, we are called not to judge, but to edify one another. We never want to church discipline someone for having a different opinion, preference, or conviction, where Scripture leaves room for the conscience to decide.

So, when someone in the church lives an ungodly life, Paul says we must not associate with that person. He does not want the church to learn their ways and to be infected with their sinful behaviors. Mixing with such people was certain to destroy the church, like pagan practices defiled Israel. We are not even to eat with such a person! However, church discipline does not mean that we never speak to a person who has been disciplined, but that we make it clear they need to repent. These individuals are regarded as tax collectors and Gentiles outside the body of Christ until such a time as they turn from their sinful ways.

These clarifications lead to two questions about church discipline (verse 12).

First, what do Christians have to do with judging people who are not part of the church but are of the world? The expected answer is that we have no role to play right now with these individuals. Second, what do we have to do with judging those within the church? The answer to this is that believers must confront and deal with sin that occurs in our midst.

In the contemporary evangelical universe, Christians tragically tolerate all kinds of sin in the church while speaking all kinds of condemnation of sin outside in the world. It’s always easier to deal with someone else’s sin than our own. However, we are not called to do what comes naturally, but to act supernaturally by the Spirit’s power. Rather than judging and condemning the world, we are to deal with the sin that takes place in the church.

All this leads to two conclusions (verse 13).

The first is that we must preach the gospel to the world. The church’s job is not to inflict God’s wrath on the world now, but to warn unbelievers of coming judgment. Our goal, hope, and prayer for people who do not know Christ is not that they would find themselves destroyed on the final day. Instead, it is that these individuals would immediately flee to Christ, finding themselves saved on the last day. Christians are called to preach the message of salvation.

The second conclusion is that we must also purify the church. As we have seen previously in this series, we remove wicked people from the church under the new covenant by excommunication. Our goal is to protect the church’s purity until these individuals repent.

With these conclusions, Paul satisfactorily answers the objections to church discipline. While some might say that church discipline is ineffective and pointless, Paul disagrees. When Christians understand our responsibility to relate to ungodly people in the world one way and in the church another way, we will fulfill our God-given mandate to be relentlessly biblical.

A relentlessly biblical church is a mighty force in God’s hand. This church will be mighty in preaching the word of the cross to the world, seeing sinners come to repentance and faith in Christ. A relentlessly biblical church will also live life in Christ in sincerity and truth – a true community of holiness and grace, obedience and forgiveness, and power and mercy. The Lord uses churches that are faithful to proclaim Christ to the world and purify the body to accomplish great and unfathomable things, bringing wandering sons home to their loving, heavenly Father.