Loving the Unrepentant in Church

Today, Brother Mark Chen preached from 1 Cor 5:1-13.

1. The problem in many churches
The Corinth church had a three-fold problem, which is also present in many churches now.
Firstly, open sin. What is this sin? It's the sin of fornication. In this case in v1, we read that a man has sexual relationship with his father's wife (his stepmother).
Secondly, unrepentance. From the phrase "commonly reported", we can see that this was a persistent sin and there was a lack of remorse for such open sin. It is also an ongoing sin, because "that one should have his father's wife" is in the present tense.
Thirdly, toleration of sin (v2). The Corinthians should have been sorrowful and corrected and admonished the person, but instead, they were proud of their toleration of sin. They took the situation lightly and Paul in his epistle, tells them that though unrepentance is bad, but tolerance of sin is worse. Many a times, we tolerate sin in the church because we fear to deal with unpleasant situations, giving the excuse of "oh, it's not my place to do it".

2. The task we must do
After having admonished and minstered to the person, and if he still remains unrepentant, we are to...
Firstly, judge him first before excommunicating him. This judging is not the unrighteous kind that Jesus warns us against, but the righteous kind - judging the person righteously after applying the same standards to ourselves.
Secondly, we are to excommunicate him and send him away from the church (v2b, 5).
Thirdly, the church as a whole is to mourn and weep for the brother who has gone astray. This is usually the most difficult thing to do.

3. The reason for doing it
In v5a, we read that we send the person off to the "destruction of the flesh". This 'flesh' refers to the rebellious and sinful flesh that we all have. If the person is truly a child of God, he will repent (v7) and thus, the rebellious and sinful flesh in him is done away. Just take the story of the prodigal son as an example.