That doesn’t seem nice at all!

This Sunday we return to our study of 1Corinthians. In the fall we made our way through the first section of the book and now in this new section Paul is taking up some very specific and controversial issues facing that first church in Corinth. This weekend read 1Corinthinas 5:1-13. This is a tough one. Followers of Jesus are called to be a missionary people, formed by God’s love to love our neighbors. A missionary people entrusted with a message to our neighbors that the God of love is for them! However, what Paul is teaching in 1Corinthians 5 seems like the absolute opposite of love. How could a God of love call us to treat one of our own in such a way in full view of our watching neighbors?

Read the passage. Wrestle with it. Pray an angry, confused prayer if you feel the need. God can handle it. Let’s just not take the passage lightly or walk away from it quickly. Listen to it. Let it sit. Let it begin to shape us.

Redeemer is a church not for ourselves. We are a missionary people who are formed by love to love, yet it must be God’s love we are formed by, not our limited conception of love. A passage like 1Corinthians 5 confronts us with the reality that our conception of love must expand and be refined.

Are we willing to be shaped by God’s love so that we might begin to love as he loves?

Pastor David