Reflections with Andy - 1 Corinthians 5 – Accountability
Today is one of those hard passages. Paul talks about excommunication. Why does this concept matter today?
As we continue through 1 Corinthians, we come to one of Paul’s most difficult chapters—a passage about church discipline, accountability, and protecting the witness of the Christian community. Rather than encouraging judgmentalism, Paul calls the church to lovingly confront patterns of unrepentant sin that damage both individuals and the body of Christ. In this episode, we explore the difference between condemnation and accountability, why integrity matters for the church’s witness, and how grace and truth always belong together in the life of a healthy Christian community.
Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.
You can read today’s passage here.
Click here if you’d like to join our GroupMe and receive this each morning at 7:00 a.m. CST.
Subscribe through Spotify -
Subscribe through Apple Podcasts -
Or, if you’d like to read the transcript of the video, keep reading!
Good morning! It’s good to be with you on this Thursday morning. I hope you’re doing well today.
I’m kind of excited about today. I’ve got lunch with some clergy friends, which I’m looking forward to, and later we’re going to take popsicles to one of our local school bands as they practice in this Mississippi heat. As a recovering high school band parent—well, I guess I’m still a band parent, just at the college level now—I know how hard those students work. So today, pray for all of our students as they begin band camp, football practice, and all the activities that come with the start of a new school year.
Today we’re going to read all of 1 Corinthians chapter 5. I thought about breaking it into two sections, but it really works best as one complete passage. Like yesterday’s reading, this chapter contains some difficult words from Paul. It’s a passage that has sometimes been misused throughout church history, but it’s also one we need to wrestle with because it teaches us something important about the life of the church.
Read 1 Corinthians 5.
This chapter is the biblical foundation for what has historically been called church discipline or, in the most serious cases, excommunication. Even in the United Methodist Church there is a process, though thankfully a lengthy and careful one, by which someone can be removed from church membership or leadership if necessary.
So what’s happening here?
Paul tells us that a man in the Corinthian church is living in a sexual relationship with his father’s wife—most likely his stepmother. Even in the pagan culture of Corinth, this was considered immoral. Paul says, “Even the Gentiles don’t do this.”
But Paul’s greatest concern isn’t simply the sin itself.
His concern is that the church is tolerating it—and apparently even boasting about it. Instead of grieving over what is happening, they are celebrating it, and in doing so they are damaging the witness of the church.
Paul’s response is severe. He tells them to remove the man from the fellowship so that, through the painful consequences of his actions, he might ultimately be brought to repentance and be saved.
Then Paul broadens the conversation. He reminds them that he is not talking about avoiding sinful people in the world. If Christians refused to associate with sinners outside the church, we’d have to leave the world altogether.
Instead, Paul is talking about people inside the church who openly claim the name of Christ while persisting in unrepentant patterns of destructive behavior.
That’s an important distinction.
Unfortunately, this passage has sometimes been used to justify removing people over disagreements, traditions, or personal preferences. That’s not what Paul is addressing here. He’s talking about conduct that so clearly contradicts the gospel that it damages the witness and integrity of the church itself.
One of the consistent themes throughout the New Testament is that the early church earned a reputation for its love, holiness, generosity, and integrity. The world may not have agreed with Christians, but they respected the way they lived.
When the church loses its integrity, it becomes much harder for people to trust what we have to say about Jesus.
Our witness matters.
That doesn’t mean we become harsh or judgmental. Quite the opposite.
Think about Jesus. Yes, He overturned the tables in the temple—but He spent far more time healing the sick, welcoming sinners, forgiving the broken, and caring for the vulnerable. If our favorite image of Jesus is only the One overturning tables, we’ve missed most of His ministry.
So this passage shouldn’t become our first response whenever someone sins.
Instead, it reminds us of something else: the importance of Christian accountability.
The church isn’t just a collection of individuals. It’s a family. Healthy families lovingly tell one another the truth.
Sometimes loving someone means saying, “I care about you too much to let you keep going down this path.”
That’s not condemnation.
That’s love.
One of the greatest challenges of our culture is radical individualism—the idea that no one has the right to speak into my life. But Paul says that within the body of Christ, we actually do have that responsibility toward one another. We love one another enough to encourage, correct, restore, and help each other grow.
As a pastor, I need that accountability too.
If I say or do something that harms the witness of Christ or the reputation of the church, I hope someone who loves me will come alongside me and say, “Andy, that’s not who we are. That’s not who God is calling you to be.”
Healthy churches don’t protect reputations—they protect people.
I once heard someone say that the quickest way to destroy the church is to make protecting the institution more important than protecting the body of Christ.
Our goal is never simply preserving an organization.
Our goal is becoming a healthy community where Christ is honored, people are loved, and truth is spoken with grace.
This is a difficult chapter, but it’s an important one because it reminds us that love sometimes requires accountability. Grace and truth are never enemies. In Jesus, they always walk together.
Thanks for being with me today. I hope you have a wonderful day, and as always, know that I’m praying for you. I appreciate your prayers for me as well.
We’ll continue tomorrow in 1 Corinthians. Have a great day.