27 1 3 Through the Bible with Les Feldick, Problems and Consequences of Carnal Believers: 1 Cor 4

I Corinthians 5:3 "For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, (Paul says that although I'm not with you in body, but I am in the spirit, I) have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed," Paul is telling them there is no room for argument, you have to deal with it. This is what we have to realize that even in our own society we are fast becoming not much better than Corinth. Isn't that right? Our whole moral fiber is just simply falling away. It is just simply rotting away from under, and these very same acts can take place in local churches, and no one thinks anything of it. I've had people call from various states that ask the question, "Well what are we supposed to do? This couple is living in sin, they are open about it, they walk in church as though nothing is amiss." Hey that's not the way it is supposed to be, and this is what Paul is having to deal with. If there is gross immorality, or a gross act of covetousness, and so forth, then the Church has to make a point of it. And you can't just turn your eyes, and say, "Oh well let them live, because it's a free country." Not in the realm of the Church it isn't supposed to be. So Paul is telling us the remedy. You have to take this couple, confront them with it as a Body of Believers. And then in verse 4 we find. I Corinthians 5:4,5a "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, (you see this is a corporate thing now, it's the Church, The Body Of Christ, located in Corinth) and my spirit, (and naturally the Holy Spirit would be) with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh,..." Now remember the flesh, soul, and spirit are not the same. So Paul is not demanding the destruction of this man's soul and spirit as a believer. Now this person is a believer, or they wouldn't be addressing him as such in the Corinthian letter. But they could turn such a person as this over to the power of Satan to destroy his physical life or flesh. And we know according to Job that this is in the power of Satan when God grants it to him. In the dealing with Job, we find Satan could go no further with Job than God permitted, and it's the same way here. Paul is saying in so many words: That if this couple will not clean up their act, and come away from their open sin, then turn them over to the power of Satan to destroy the flesh, to take their lives physically from them lest they keep on bringing reproach to the name of Christ. That does not mean that they're going to be annihilated spiritually. Let's look at that aspect as we continue: I Corinthians 5:5b "...that the spirit (of this individual) may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." Now I know this is hard for a lot of people to comprehend, that people living in this kind of a sinful condition are still saved? Yes. That's what The Book says. But these kind of people if they're believers, aren't going to get away with it. It has to be dealt with by the Church, and God's going to deal with it. Now the Scripture says that even though God is going to take these kind of believers out of their physical existence, they won't lose their Salvation, and then he admonishes the believing community that we are never even to pray for the death of someone like this. We can find this in the little letter of I John. I hadn't intended to do this until we get to Chapter 11, but since we've gone this far with it we might as well go ahead. In I John Chapter 5 let's drop in at verse 16, and here he's dealing with pretty much the same kind of a situation. It may not have been as gross, but it was sin in the Church.