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Hand This Man Over To Satan


It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife.  And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of your fellowship the man who has been doing this?  For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. (I Corinthians 5:1-5)
          This is one of those passages most of us would prefer to pretend doesn’t exist. In the last chapter, Paul was ranting about not judging, now here he is criticizing the Corinthian church for not kicking a guy out because he’s been sleeping with his father’s wife. Given the way it’s worded, I’m going with the notion that he’s writing about a step-mother, not a mother. I’ll even accept the possibility that they are consenting adults, and that son and step-mother may be closer in age than father and step-mother. If you insist, I’ll go as far as to admit that it’s even possible that the father in this story is either dead, or has divorced the woman, though I don’t think this is the case because of the language used. Come up with all the excuses you want. They don’t matter. 
          Corinth may have been the Las Vegas of that day, but this was out of bounds, even for the Corinthian people. It may have been (and it may be) legal, but slavery was once legal, and killing Jews was legal in Nazi Germany. That doesn’t make slavery or killing Jews right, and it doesn’t make sleeping with one’s father’s wife right. Corinthian law or Roman law may have permitted it, but that doesn’t mean the Church should accept it, and this church not only accepted it, they were proud of how “progressive” they were, and probably of how “loving,” tolerant, and inclusive they were.
          So, what happened to Paul’s “do not judge”? “Handing him over to Satan sounds a little harsh. But let me reframe the picture a little bit, to make it comparable. What if the woman were a girl or boy? What if the man were a church official, an elder, a pastor or a priest? What if, as the prince of this world, Satan is effectively ruler of the legal system. That changes everything! Well, no it doesn’t. As believers, we’re all part of a royal priesthood. It is the Church’s responsibility to turn those who violate God’s law and man’s over to the Law, in hopes that they may learn from their human punishment so that they don’t have to face the greater punishment at God’s hands.

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