How Should We Handle Unfaithful Members?

Current Trend

• Every believer has an unspoken list of sins that is acceptable and a pronounced list that is unacceptable.
• Christians tend to protest the sins outside the church and overlook the sins inside the church.
• Satan loves to deceive us into believing that our sins don’t affect anyone but ourselves.

Biblical Example [1 Cor. 5:1-13]

• Any supposed believer who claims the freedom to engage in unrighteousness is actually in sinful bondage (5:1-2).
• Church discipline is necessary for the restoration of the sinner and the protection for the church (5:3-5).
• Unchecked sin always swells and spreads into further ungodliness (5:6-8).
• We reverse the biblical command when we expect sinners to behave like saints while enabling saints to behave like sinners (5:9-13).

Personal Application

• Church discipline is handled best within the context of existing relationships (cf. Matt. 18:15-20).
• The goal of removing the log from your own eye is so that you can clearly see how to remove the speck from another’s eye (Matt. 7:1-5).
• We need each other to serve as moral guardrails for our lives.