Shun the Slut

Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, said,”

9	¶ I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10	yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11	But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one, no, not to eat.
12	For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13	But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”  (I Corinthians 5) Here is the problem the church faced:  Whether or not individual Christians, on a personal level, should associate with immoral people.  Paul had, in a previous letter which is no longer extant, exhorted the Corinthian brethren to avoid sexually immoral people.  Here he explains and expands upon that previous command. First of all, Christians are not to avoid immoral people “of the world.”  This would be impossible, a fact which Paul acknowledges, and further prevent evangelizing the sexually immoral people of the world, which Christ Himself did.  Paul explains that if anyone calls himself a brother, a fellow Christian, and yet continues in immoral conduct, including sexually immoral conduct, that person is to be avoided, even to the point of refusing to set down at a table and eat with him.  This is a charge given both to Christians on an individual level, and to the congregation as a whole.  Recently I have discovered that many of my fellow Christians believe that they have an “out” on this command.  Some teach that if the adulterous Christian is a member of your own family, then it is okay to carry on as normal.  Others hold that this only applies to a local congregation, and that if the fornicating Christian in question is a member of a different congregation, or if the congregation as a whole declines to take action, then they are still free to continue in association and fellowship with this sinner. This is reminiscent of the Pharisees who taught that if a man swore by the altar in the temple his oath was not binding, but if he swore by the gold in the altar then it was binding.  It seems too many would-be Christians are always searching for a loophole which allows them to evade the plain commands God gives His people. Note that Paul himself was a lawyer, and a very highly trained one at that.  Note as well that if you call yourself a Christian then you are obligated to acknowledge that Paul is speaking here through divine inspiration and with apostolic authority.  As he warns in verses 7 and 8, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.”  Paul gives a direct command, without wiggle room, and warns that failure to follow his command will lead to contamination of the entire church. Our churches today are contaminated be sexual immorality because we have not purged out the leaven of the slut.  Even if a woman is publicly rebuked, her friends and (physical) family in the church will still rally to her defense.  She will not be shunned.  She will not be excluded from social events hosted by members of the church.  She will not be shamed.  And we wonder why the leaven of sexual immorality has gone through the body of Christ.  Christ warns us that anyone who places his earthly family ahead of Christ is not worthy of Him.  It is well past time we accept this plain statement, and shun the sluts in the church until they repent.  Anything else will cost us our own souls as well as forfeiting any chance to bring sluts to true repentance.