The Set-Up
One thing that I’ve learned from my years in education is that different students need different expectations. Obviously, there are different academic expectations for different grade levels. I can’t expect a 2nd-grade student to multiply double digits. That’s more of a 5th-grade expectation. Likewise, in working with students with behavioral difficulties, my expectations for them have to be fair. I can’t expect a 1st-grade student with severe trauma who struggles with handling anger appropriately to act like one of their classmates who doesn’t have the same difficulties.
The same is true when it comes to spiritual maturity. We can’t expect someone who isn’t a follower of Jesus to act like someone who is. At the same time, we can’t expect a new Christian to act the same as someone who has been a Christian for a decade or longer.
In the verses immediately before today’s section, Paul is calling out the Corinthian Christians for allowing blatant sin among their members. Apparently, one of the church members had some sort of ongoing sexual relationship with his stepmother, but no one in the church was bothered by it. Paul continues, explaining that allowing sin to continue in the church can have far-reaching consequences. In order to stop the spread of sin, blatant sin must be confronted and dealt with.
In today’s verses, Paul wraps up his thoughts on confronting sin by explaining that we can’t expect godly behavior from those who don’t follow Jesus. It would do us well to remember this. How often do we spend our time and energy confronting the sins of society while ignoring our own sins? Don’t get me wrong – there are definitely things about our society that we should be concerned about, things that do need to be addressed. But we need to stop attacking those who aren’t Christian for not living by Christian ideals, especially when we tend to turn a blind eye to our own issues. For example, earlier this year, a huge investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention, the second-largest Christian denomination in America, went underway, uncovering decades of sex abuse and cover-ups. Could this crisis have been stopped sooner if Christians were more concerned about the moral behavior of their brothers and sisters in Christ rather than those outside of the church? Obviously, there’s no way of knowing, but I think that the church could do a much better job of reflecting Christ if we focused more of our energy on correcting our own sin issues rather than pointing out the sins of those who don’t claim to follow Him.
Passage to Read
Reflection Questions
Many people say that their problem with Christianity is hypocrisy. What do you think about that statement?
In verse 12, Paul says, “It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.” How can you apply this to your own life?
In Matthew 7, Jesus tells us not to judge (Matthew 7:1-5). How are we to judge those inside the church as Paul instructs, but also not judge as Jesus says?
Prayer Idea
Thank God for His willingness to forgive our sins. The Bible says that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. Ask God to help you focus on the things that are the most important, and ask that He would give you a heart that is open to confrontation from others when it’s necessary. If you feel like there is someone you need to talk to about a sin issue in your life or theirs, ask God to give you the compassion and gentleness needed to have that conversation.