1 Corinthians 05 Round Two: You Hangin’ Out With Who?!

A church can’t be healthy if it applauds what harms it. We open 1 Corinthians 5 and meet a community tolerating a scandal so blatant that even Corinth’s pagan neighbors would blush. Paul’s response is not a rant; it’s a roadmap. He draws a sharp line between struggling with sin and celebrating it, and he calls the church to act—not to shame, but to rescue. That tension between conviction and compassion becomes the heartbeat of our conversation as we trace why boundaries protect the flock, preserve witness, and make restoration possible.

We unpack Paul’s yeast metaphor and how culture spreads through what a church normalizes. Then we tackle the oft-misquoted “don’t judge” idea with clarity: we don’t judge motives, we do evaluate actions; we don’t police outsiders into acting like believers, we do call insiders to live the faith they profess. Along the way, we talk about church discipline as a redemptive practice, not a power move, and why the door that closes under arrogance must swing wide under repentance. We also confront legalism that refuses to forgive, showing how 2 Corinthians models a return to fellowship when a heart turns.

This is a candid, practical guide to holding truth and grace together: creating a community where holiness feels normal, repentance feels possible, and restoration feels expected. If you’ve wrestled with when to confront, how to love without enabling, or what it means to welcome the repentant without papering over harm, this conversation gives language and steps rooted in Scripture. Subscribe, share this with a friend who cares about church health, and tell us: where do you see the line between compassion and compromise?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Set Up And A Family Story
• 2:27 Corinth’s Chaos And Paul’s Mission
• 3:50 The Scandal In The Church
• 6:10 Discipline, Purpose, And Restoration
• 8:00 Yeast Metaphor And Holy Identity
• 9:15 Who To Judge And Who Not To
• 11:15 Repentance, Legalism, And Grace
• 13:20 Freedom From Sin, Not For Sin

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, 1 Corinthians chapter 5. I'm going to give this one a title. Imagine, imagine a lady who's got teenage daughters. She's got her hand on her hip and she's snapping that finger and saying, You hanging out with who? And I'm going to tell you exactly why that's the mental picture that comes into my mind when I read this chapter in just a moment. But if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, subscribe to the YouTube channel. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast. You are my favorites. Also our rallying point, Facebook discussion. Make sure that you are going there and you are reading those devotions. They're amazing. And I want to hear from you. What is the most trouble you ever got into as a kid when you were a kid? If you can say it, all right. If it's PG or G, tell us. If it's worse than that, we don't want to know. What's the worst trouble you've ever gotten into? I want to know in the Bible breakdown discussion today. What this makes me think of is while you're getting your Bibles open to 1 Corinthians 5, I'm going to change the names to keep the innocent. This was a long time ago. I was a teenager. And one day, I'd gotten home from school on the bus. And at that point, both of my sisters were driving. I wasn't quite old enough yet. So when I got home, there was an argument that had already been happening between one of my sisters and my stepmom. And this wasn't new. You know, a family of five, somebody's mad at somebody all the time. And so I'm going to my room. I'm not paying attention. And all of a sudden, I hear you hanging out with who? And then the sister that got in trouble, I couldn't tell what she said, but all of a sudden, I could hear her voice pattern pick up. And I think she didn't mean to say what she said. And then she started to try to spin a web to get herself out of trouble. And it wasn't happening because she done said the wrong thing. All I can say is epic. What came next was epic, and I ain't gonna get into it. But that's the mental picture I'm thinking about when I get into this. Paul, up to this point, if you remember, the theme of this is a divided church is finding harmony. It's almost like, can't we all just get along? And the answer is no. Because Corinth is like Las Vegas. It's just a hodgepodge at this seaport town of all these different nationalities and all these different things. And on the surface, it's probably looking like a fun time. Everybody's having fun. It's great. Underneath the surface, it's chaos and division. And Paul is having a family therapy session. Man, he's like, everybody come into my office, have a seat. We're gonna fix this. And for the first four chapters, he's laying the groundwork. He's saying, listen, we got to rally around God. We got to make sure we're not rallying around other leaders. We got to make sure we get spiritual mentors in our life. And we got to make sure we're going the right way. And remember, I'm gonna tell you some stuff because I'm your spiritual father. Okay. Like, like I'm gonna love you like a father would. So I'm gonna tell you how it is. Well, he has been doing all of that, and now he's gonna get to business. He's gonna say, hey, look, Chloe's family told me there's some shenanigans going on around here. We're about to get to the bottom of this. And so he starts getting to the bottom of this. So we're just gonna jump in and just imagine, once again, imagine this, imagine a mom, hand on her hip, snapping her finger, saying, You hanging out with who? That is what I see Paul doing. Because Paul, most likely in all this, he wrote with an amenuensis. That's someone who would dictate while he would talk. So, Paul, I always have in my mind, Paul's pacing back and forth while this person is writing down as fast as they can. And in my mind, Paul's been talking about pleasantries. He's like, you know, I love you. I'm your spiritual daddy. And he starts pointing that finger. Let me tell you something. So, so here we go. Paul's got his hand on his hip, other finger pointed right at that poor guy who's writing this down. And he says this in verse one. I can hardly believe the report about what? The sexual immorality going on among you. Lord help us. Something that even pagans don't do. Paul, what they do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. Pause. What did you just say, Paul? Let me rewind that. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. Verse 2. You were so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship. Paul. How could you remove him from your fellowship? Yep. Pause for a moment. There is a difference between someone struggling with sin and someone who is actively celebrating their sin. And what Paul is saying is Broski's not struggling. Brosky's celebrating. So no, no, no. If he is gonna make a mockery of the church, out. He is out. And that's what and that's what we should do. It's different between struggling and celebrating while claiming to be a Christian. Verse three, even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in spirit. And as though I were here, I am all I have already passed judgment on this man in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed, and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns. So pause again. What he's saying is that you're gonna throw him out. And the hope is that throwing him out will bring him to his senses so that he can receive forgiveness. Now, spoiler alert, we can find out in 2nd Corinthians, they do this, and guy gets up, he tries to come back in. And Paul has to say, okay, bring him back in if he's willing to be repentant. Okay, so okay. Verse six, your boasting about this is terrible. Don't you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. So let us celebrate the festival not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth. When I wrote to you before, that's how we know this is not the first letter that Paul wrote to them. This letter is probably the second. So we said, When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn't talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin or the greedy or cheat people or worship idols. You wouldn't have to leave this world to avoid people like that. This is so good. Listen to this. I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer, yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don't even eat with such people. Whoa. It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside, but scripture says you must remove the evil person from among you. That is a bombshell. So let's break that down real quickly. First things first. Well, guys, what do you think? You know, Jesus said, Do not judge, and you will not be judged to you, for the same measure in which you judge others will be judged back to you. Is that not different? No. Jesus is saying you don't judge the motives of people, but you definitely can judge what they're doing to see if it is sin or not. The difference is, is I am not impugning upon your character. I'm just seeing what you're doing. And that's what Paul is saying. This is where it divides right down the middle. And can I tell you, some of you probably listening to this, this is going to be offensive to you, but it's the truth. And so here we go. What Paul is saying is it is unfair for you to want to make Christian non-Christians act like Christians. Non-Christians are going to do non-Christian things and you shouldn't hold that against them. If you want to be away from people who do those kinds of things that are not Christians, you're going to have to leave this world because non-Christians are going to do what non-Christians do. They're non-Christians. They're the ones we're here to reach. So, yes, go hang out with them for the purpose of reaching them. The difference is someone who claims to be a Christian, but then openly accepts, and he uses the thing, sexual sin, greed, the worship of idols, that's putting anything above Christ, or is abusive, is a drunkard, or cheats people, dishonest. You know what he says? If people claim to be Christians, I'm a Christ follower, I love Jesus, I go to church on Sunday, I do these things, and they indulge in sexual sin, greedy, putting anything before Christ. They're abusive, they're a drunk, or they cheat people. You know what he says? Kick them out. Can we let that settle for a moment? Kick them on their ear. Don't even eat with such people. Now, here's the problem. There are some people who get into such a legalism that they will divide over this. They'll say, I can't even eat with you because this was you. That's what repentance is for. If someone does something wrong and then they repent of their sin, it is then wrong for you not to let them back in. That's that's the thing. Once they repent, any of this stuff, that's what repentance covers. Well, what about if someone has an affair and then they get divorced, you know, and they shouldn't do that, but then they repent. Well, then they need to be able to come back into the church. Yeah, but they got a divorce. Yeah, and then they repented. So we have to be careful that we don't, as they say, throw the baby out with the bathwater. This is someone who is actively indulging. Two wrongs don't make a right here. So if they repent of their sin, then they're no longer guilty of sexual sin and greed and idle worship and abuse and all this stuff, we let them back in. But Paul is saying if they're celebrating these things and not walking in repentance, then don't. You know, don't, don't, don't even associate with them because it brings a bad name on the church. But once again, with the caveat that if they repent of these sins, you invite them back in. That's hard, but can I tell you, I've been around people like this. I've been around people who say, Well, you know what, I gave my life to Christ, so now I have a license to sin. Well, that's a really shallow thing to think. My Jesus didn't die so that you could sin without fear. You know, thinking it doesn't matter anymore, so I'm gonna go do whatever I want to do. If you think that that salvation means that you can sin now without the fear of hell, then I think that you've really not realized what Jesus did for you. That if you truly understood what Jesus went through and how much God loves you, it'd be the opposite. Now I'm free not to sin because I'm able to live in the kingdom of God. That doesn't mean you're gonna be perfect. It just means that I'm no longer bound by those things. And then the problem becomes is when people just celebrate their sin, those people, Paul says, don't associate with them. But let me make sure on the other side then that there's also grace. If someone does do these things, but then they repent, you know, then you receive them back. I've known people who would not even eat with people because there had been a problem, they got a divorce, and then they get remarried and they're trying to live the right way. They go, nope, because you got divorced, you can't. If that's the case, then if Jesus forgave them, why can't you? But the reality is this is for people who walk in open sin. That's a hard one, but man, it's good because it lets us know where it is. And that's what Paul is saying. It's like we got to get rid of this division and let's find truth. And it's the truth that sets us free. And that is that if you're gonna be a Christian, then act like one. And if you're not, then get out. That's hard, but it's good. Let's pray. God, thank you for your word because you don't mess around, you tell us how it is. And I'm thankful for that, God, because that lets us know where the line is so we know if we're gonna cross it or not. I'm thankful for you, and I'm thankful for your word. I pray, God, that we'll hear the truth, but we'll also hear the grace of your word as well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, first Corinthians therapy session is over, and God's word says in 1 Corinthians 10, whether you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for the next family session for 1 Corinthians chapter 6.