November 19

When talking about various examples of evil in the peaceful town of Mayberry, Barney Fife used to tell Andy they needed to take action against that evil. His words were specifically, that we need to, “Nip it. Nip it in the Bud!” In other words, whenever crime was committed, it needed to be dealt with right away before it got a toehold in Mayberry and infected others who would then follow suit.
In I Corinthians 5, Paul addresses an ugly situation in the church at Corinth. A stepson was living in sin with his father’s wife (vs.1). Sadly, no one in the church was doing anything about it. Everyone conveniently looked the other way and said nothing to the individual. Not only were this young man’s actions sinful, but Paul contends that allowing sin to remain among them would have a terrible influence on the rest of the body. “Don’t you realize that if even one person is allowed to go on sinning, soon all will be affected? Remove this wicked person from among you so that you can stay pure” (vss.6&7). Elsewhere, Paul had written, “bad company corrupts good character” (I Cor.15:33). And, “It takes only one wrong person among you to infect all the others - - a little yeast spreads quickly through the whole batch of dough” (Galatians 5:9). The Proverb writer agreed, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend” (27:17). Good people can either influence their friends to do good, or bad people will influence their friends to do evil. That is why Jesus cautioned his disciples to, “beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6; 12:1). He knew the hypocritical lifestyles and teachings of these so-called religious teachers could adversely affect his followers if they were not careful.
So, Paul takes to task the Corinthian Christians for allowing this man to get away with his sin without confronting him on it. Apparently, Paul had written an earlier letter (vs.9) in which he told the Corinthian Christians not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. He clarifies his earlier remark by saying that he was not referring to non-christians. If that was the case, we would all have to go into a monastery and live in total isolation. “What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler” (vs.11). God will judge those outside of Christ, but it our responsibility to judge and hold accountable those who claim to belong to the family of Christ (vss.12&13). For, if we don’t keep each other accountable, who will? If we don’t hold one another to the higher standards set by Christ, who will? To be sure, our speech, even in confrontation should be “full of grace and seasoned with salt” (Colossians 4:6; Ephesians 4:15; John 1:14), but love demands that we expect righteous living from those who claim to be righteous.