Out, but a way back in too

In building his church, Jesus gave authority to the church to “bind and loose” with heaven’s backing (Matthew 16:19, 18:18). If someone in the church, for instance, had wronged someone else in the church but made it obvious that he didn’t care, Jesus said “treat him like a pagan” (18:17). Get him out of the church and have nothing to do with him.

The church, however, did not always do that. A case in point came up in 1 Corinthians 5, when a man in the church was having a sexual relationship with his father’s wife, something that even pagans at that time didn’t indulge in (1), but the church was “proud” of it (2). 

Paul turned several shades of purple when he found out, and you can almost hear him spluttering his incredulity when he writes, “Shouldn’t you have been overwhelmed with sorrow and shame, and by now have got the man who did this kicked out of the church?” (2). In other words, why didn’t you bind up the evil and get rid of it?

They hadn’t, so in verses 4 and 5 Paul does the “binding” part for them. “The next time you’re all assembled together,” he tells them, “hand this man over to Satan so he sees and feels the destructive force of evil in the hope that he wakes up to it in himself and is saved from it – and from God’s judgment.” Chuck him into the devil’s realm where for now this man belongs, for his sake and the church’s. 

And did the church do that? Apparently, yes they did. And it had the desired effect too. Tough though it must’ve been for the church to agree to such severe treatment for one of their own, the man got the message loud and clear, at which point Paul activated the “loosing” part too: loose the man from the obvious suffering and grief he’d been through and welcome him back to church with open arms (2 Corinthians 2:5-8).

Paul also admitted it was a “test” on the church to see if they’d obey (9), because it was highly important “that Satan might not outwit us” (11), or as Jesus put it, that the gates of hell may not prevail in his church. And that involves both binding and loosing. Bind up the evil, throw it out of the church, but when evil is admitted loosen up the punishment and provide a way back into the church too.

The incident in 1 Corinthians 5, therefore, illustrates the need to bind and loose to keep evil at bay. And it’s “The same test all through history“ too….(next blog)