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1st Corinthians 5
Be Ye Faithful and Forgiving
melody
Be ye faithful and forgiving,
In this holy House of Bread,
Who were called from the beginning
To exalt our risen Head.
Now established as the Corner
Where our works rest and align,
May we gaze not on things former,
Thirsting but for springs of Thine.
May Thy house be swept of leaven
To prevent spoil and decay,
So in us the scent of heaven
Might with savor be relayed.
In Thy name the Body censures
And commits some to Thy rod,
'Til they turn from fleshly measures,
To embrace the boast of God.
For Thy Lamb was led to slaughter,
And His blood to us applied,
That Thy rain of living water
Might from hearts in Christ arise.
May we never be divided
By what hails not from our Lord,
But by love ever united
In Thy never changing word.
For this cause we will be jealous
For this temple where Thou dwell;
To remove lies from among us
And the sins they oft impel.
So as trimmed wicks of a candle,
True will be our lampstand light,
Neither shall our salt be trampled
As it draws the lost outside.
Words: © 2015 by Stephen Popovich
Music: Nettleton by John Wyeth 1813
1st Corinthians 5
House of Bread
Summary:
In chapter three, we saw that God views his church as both his house and his field of crops. In this chapter, we see those two pictures coming together in a house of bread. Jesus has authorized us as stewards of God's house of bread to prevent it from becoming spoiled with leaven---and Paul here tells us what and how.
Be ye faithful and forgiving,
In this holy House of Bread,
Who were called from the beginning
To exalt our risen Head.
Now established as the Corner,
Where our works rest and align,
May we gaze not on things former,
Thirsting but for springs of Thine
May Thy house be swept of leaven
(1) It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. (2)You have become arrogant and have not
mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. (3) For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. (4) In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, (5) {I have decided} to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (6) Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that
a little
leaven leavens the whole lump {of dough?}
The world's wisdom pervaded the Corinthian church to such an extent that they went beyond merely tolerating sin, they had become proud in response to the sin. Sin gains a foothold in a church if some of its members don't view sin as the evil God
When Jesus threw money changers out of his Father’s house the Jews suggested he was overstepping his bounds (Matt.21:23-27). But he was acting on the authority of his Father (Jn.2:14-21). Jesus has passed to us that authority to cleanse the Father’s spiritual house made up of believers (Matt.18:15-18).
May Thy house be swept of leaven
To prevent spoil and decay
So in us the scent of heaven
Might be savored and conveyed.
In Thy name the Body censures
And commits some to Thy rod,
'Til they turn from fleshly measures
To embrace the boast of God
If there is no repentance the sentence is clear, that believer must be put out of the fellowship (1Tim.1:20). God has given his elders the authority to usher people out the door of God's house; and will fully support their decision from heaven (Matt.16:18).
Outside of the light of the fellowship of saints,a believer is easy prey for the devil who is seeking sheep to devour and sift like wheat (1Pet.5:8, Lk.22:31). It is a severe sentence but it serves a two-fold merciful purpose: It removes the sin infection from spreading through the local Body and it brings the fallen brother to the end of his rope so that he might repent and be restored to fellowship.
Just as leaven spreads thoroughly through a loaf of bread, soon leading to mold, so leaven of false doctrine spreads throughout the church inevitably leading to sin's mold.
The Lump of Dough that is the Cornerstone
(7) Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are {in fact} unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. (8) Therefore
let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth.
Before Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, God commanded that they mark the occasion by observing the first Passover celebration (Ex.12:3-7). The symbolism is clear. We all have become one with the unleavened body of Christ the moment we drank of his blood and ate of his flesh. We are now purged of sin and placed in the Father's house marked by the blood of the Lamb. We are no longer part of the leavened lump of Adam. We have become part of the new lump of unleavened dough. God is making a house of bread in which there is to be none of what leaven represents. There is to be no ingesting of bad doctrine in us and no mold of evil deeds among us (Jn.6:53-57)
Jesus desires his Father's house to be unspotted and has authorized believers to remove evil from among it. But this would be like bailing out a leaky boat unless we also removed the world's seducing lies from within us. This we do by holding dear the truth and clearing out all else.
For Thy Lamb was led to slaughter
And His blood to us applied
That Thy rain of living water
Might from hearts in Christ arise
May we never be divided
By what hails not from our Lord
But by love ever united
In Thy never changing word
God's house at Corinth did not celebrate truth. They allowed the leaven of the world's wisdom to hang around and spread like yeast through their beliefs---infecting them to boast in their tolerance of evil behavior.
House of Judgment
(9) I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; (10) I {did} not at all {mean} with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. (11) But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a
drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one. (12) For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within {the church?} (13) But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED
MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.
Some had misunderstood Paul 's previous call to church purity to mean separation from unbelievers in their daily activities. It’s true we should not be unequally yoked with unbelievers and immoral brothers should be put out of the church (2Cor.6:14). But we are not to sweep ourselves out of the world, for how would we then win the world to Christ if not by mixing it up as lights among darkness (Matt.5:16). The Lord ate with sinners and Paul tried to culturally blend in with unbelievers so that they might be more receptive to his gospel message.
For this cause we will be jealous
Of this temple where Thou dwell,
To remove lies from among us
And the sins they oft impel.
So as trimmed wicks of a candle
True will be our lampstand light,
Neither shall our salt be trampled
As it draws they lost outside
Believers are authorized to judge and sentence other believers of their local church. The sentence as we saw above can mean casting an unrepentant brother over the wall of the fortress into the night where the devil is waiting. Believers have not been given authority to govern the affairs of outsiders. Only Jesus has the authority to judge and sentence unbelievers. This he will do at an appointed future time (Rev.20:11-15).
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