v 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.
The Church in Corinth was failing to recognise a line that God had drawn – and perhaps they were even pleased with themselves for being so broad-minded and liberal in relation to what was going on. Paul was challenging these Christians to recognise a line God had drawn in relation to sexual behaviour, and then do something about it. And it was tough action too – exclude the man from the church congregation! How might that go down in our day and age I wonder. Our openness in society about sexual behaviour (and misbehaviour!) seems to suggest that there are no generally recognised boundaries. It is clear however that there are God-drawn lines. Sex is not a part of life about which God is indifferent. From the moment when God joined Adam and Eve to form the first family, lines were drawn resulting in the Seventh Commandment – ‘You shall not commit adultery’.
Reflect today however on how seriously sexual behaviour matters if Paul recommends exclusion from Church as a proper response to wrong behaviour. How lightly we treat sexual innuendo, and even plain wrongdoing when it is portrayed on screen for us to ‘enjoy’.
God has drawn lines; we do well to note them, and respect them.
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