ESOCS Devotional 20 September 2025 – What Happens When Sin Goes Unaddressed?
MEMORY VERSE: “Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, even as ye are unleavened. For our Passover also hath been sacrificed, [even] Christ.” 1 Corinthians 5:7 ASV
TEXT: 1 CORINTHIANS 5:1-13
It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.
12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”
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God created the church to serve as light to the world. The Church should be a place where love is abundant, God’s truth is displayed, and biblical values are upheld. Ephesians 5:27 says the Church is to be presented radiant, holy, and blameless.
To present the Church unstained, we have to be serious about removing sin from our own lives, then helping others do the same. If we’re raising our hands in worship on Sunday, then, using those same hands to steal, cheat and inflict pain without remorse, something is wrong. We cannot proclaim the Bible as truth and ignore sin. When we do, the Church becomes far from spotless, stained by our sin and the sin we’re too afraid to address.
We cannot proclaim the Bible as truth and ignore sin in the Church. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul is confronting sexual immorality and tells the church to expel an unrepentant sinner from fellowship. The man was proud and boasting of his sin. His public sin in the church affects the reputation of the entire Church and jeopardizes the spiritual health of the Church. To restore the offender to fellowship, Paul compares sin to yeast in bread (1 Corinthians 5:6-8). We must remove the yeast and create a new batch, or put our old selves to death and be made anew in Christ’s image. Confronting sin is difficult and often met with resistance, or in some cases, denial and defiance. If a person remains unwilling to repent, the Church must remove the person from the fellowship — both for their good and the good of the Church.
Expelling someone from Church membership is a last resort, and even then, is done with the hope that their repentance would lead to eventual restoration. After all, the best place to learn what it means to follow Jesus is among His people. If we take seriously the command to love others and we truly want what’s best for them, we’ll brave the uncomfortable conversations, knowing that sometimes the hard thing is the best thing.
CHALLENGES
- Is there a secret sin in your life that, if exposed, would damage the ministry of the Church? Will you take time today to confess your sin to God?
PRAYER POINT
- Lord, help me to confess and address every sin in my life, so my life can be a reflect of You in Jesus name Amen.
FURTHER READING: 1 Kings 1:38-53; 2:1-18; 1 Corinthians 6:1-12
ESOCS Devotional 20 September 2025
