Internal Affairs
Heidelberg Catechism • Sermon • Submitted
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It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13
Sermon Title: Internal Affairs
If you can remember way back to March 29, that was when we began the second major section of the Catechism—in a word, it is the section of grace. Over the course of these last almost 10 months, we have been working through statements and passages that teach us how we are set free from all our sins and misery that we might live and die in the joy of belonging to Christ. Because we are caught in sin, it makes sense that the focus has been heavily who is God is and what has he done for us. Most recently we looked at the sacraments, which are practices through which the Holy Spirit nourishes us with grace to confirm our belief in what God has done for us.
What we read a bit earlier is the final Lord’s Day in this section. Those answers draw our attention to what the Belgic Confession in Article 29 calls the marks of the true church. Pure preaching of the gospel; pure administration of the sacraments; and practicing church discipline for correcting faults. Again how we are set free from sin and misery that we will find the joy in belonging to Christ has to do with being part of the church, part of the body of believers and these regular practices that the church is to carry out. With that in mind, let’s read from 1 Corinthians 5, where we find what was likely an uncomfortable situation when the church was called to action.
Brothers and sisters, the topic of the Catechism before us this afternoon as well as the action that Paul was calling the church to take up are rather uncomfortable parts of our faith and practice. If we start by looking at the Catechism, we find something incredible. On the basis of Scripture, the Catechism provides that the church’s authority, the influence of the Christian body is not restricted to this earth. Our schools and businesses, our government—all have an immediate effect on our lives here and now and for the most part only have effects on this planet. The Christian church though has been given what Jesus called the keys of the kingdom—the kingdom of heaven, and we have the ability, under God, to provide services that open the doors and close the doors to that kingdom. It is uncomfortable because that is a daunting task, we are talking about God giving us a role in the management of peoples’ souls.
Answer 84 provided one part of what that looks like. The kingdom is opened when people genuinely seek the forgiveness of their sins by accepting the gospel promise which has been proclaimed and publicly declared. With that, we also believe the doors are closed when unbelievers and hypocrites will not give a response of repentance, and thereby receive the wrath of God and eternal condemnation.
The way the Catechism authors and the tradition of the church have viewed the Christian life and calling of the church, the preaching of God’s word is not an optional part of that life and neither should people regularly hearing that word be. That is the heart of this part of opening and closing the kingdom—we are to make sure the gospel message is preached faithfully, and that it can be heard regularly. This is the case, whether we live in a town with one church or a city with a church building on every corner or in a remote area of the world where just one person has come into contact with the gospel message and a Bible. The gospel is to be proclaimed that all would have the opportunity to repent and believe for forgiveness or choose to not repent and bear the consequences of that.
Because we are in a church worship service and I know the gospel is regularly presented in our services and sermons, I am not going to go any further about into the preaching of the gospel. We want to focus our attention, then, on the matters of answer 85. What this answer puts forth as our belief and a rule for practice is that the Christian church, the body of believers, has a calling from Scripture to be involved in the discipline of one another. When we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is an individual decision and commitment, but with that decision we put ourselves into a larger community.
When someone says, I put my trust and hope in the Lord, first and foremost what they are doing is essentially surrendering themselves to God. They have recognized from the gospel that they need to be saved and are incapable of doing that on their own—God is the only one who can deliver and give them righteousness. When we do that we are surrendering the total authority over ourselves that our sinful nature tells us we ought to have. My sinful nature tells me, “Dan, you deserve to do what you want, what pleases you. You know what is best, you answer to yourself.” But when I become a Christian, I recognize that it is not me, but it is God who has the supreme authority has over me and each one of us as Creator, Redeemer, and Judge. I do not own and belong to myself, but God has that authority.
While it is a right for him, we also invite the body of Christ to nurture, and when necessary hold us accountable as well. We give authority to them or find them to have some authority to speak into our lives. We are accountable to them. One of the ways we might think about what that accountability looks like is to think about the purpose of the division of internal affairs for law enforcement officers. Internal affairs is who comes in when it looks like there may have been misconduct, when an officer may have broken the law, or they want to make sure appropriate measures were used. They review to see if there was wrongdoing, and if so, then they work to correct or hand out appropriate consequences. So too, in hospitals there might be people or boards overseeing the actions of doctors and surgeons to watch for malpractice. In our government’s Congress, there are oversight committees acting as safeguards. All of these are in place because we recognize that things do go wrong.
People unintentionally or intentionally do make mistakes, and those need to be resolved. If it is true that someone has done something they should not have done, they can take responsibility for that and seek to satisfy justice or they can ignore it and face whatever consequences come their way. But this takes place in view of others; there are people watching over them.
In the church, part of our public profession is that we admit we are imperfect. Our sinful nature that we are all born into seeks to chain us to sin and temptation. For those with genuine faith, we have been forgiven by what Jesus has done, and we are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit. But because none of us go from the life of sin to a life of perfect obedience and whole-hearted worship to God without any screw-ups. Recognizing that, and recognizing that we are quick to cover-up our messes, we invite others to help us on our journey.
That means that part of the Christian life is that we have to be vulnerable to the correction of others. If we consider ourselves members of Christ’s church, then we give ourselves to be admonished, rebuked, and encouraged if others see us sinning. This is what Paul was acting on when he addressed the church in Corinth about this individual caught in sexual immorality. Paul does not go into the explicit details, but it seems that it is well known what had been going on in this relationship. There was absolutely no doubt that this man was sinning; he needed correction. Today we might say, he needed to be told that his sin was a sin, and the proper response for a believer who is sinning is repentance.
Yet the people of this church and its leaders were proud about this situation. There was no grieving or mourning that this man was doing damage. It seems there was no seeking of any type of discipline. This man was considered as much a Christian as the rest of the congregation there. This is one of the foundations for what the Catechism warns us about and does well to summarize. Those who, though called Christians—those bearing the anointing to go and testify and live their lives in such a way that bears the truth of God’s gospel, profess unchristian teachings or live unchristian lives. They do not practice what they preach, but they also do not even believe the truth—but for whatever reason, they want to be known as Christians.
Paul calls for discipline in such situations. When we see sin in another believer’s life, we are called to give repeated and loving counsel aimed to repentance and change. Notice it is not a professing Christian sins once and is closed from the kingdom. Notice it is not even a Christian repeatedly sinning that gives the church the right to close the kingdom on them, but there are steps to address the individual first. Following right along with the approach Jesus provided in Matthew 18, the Catechism would have those who see a brother or sister, someone of faith, sinning, to go and meet privately to seek repentance. If it does not work the first time, we are called to try again.
Yet there will be times when that step does not work. There may also be times as was the case in Corinth, that a sin becomes so public and rash, that the duty of discipline gets turned over to the elders of the church. Maybe some of you have been in on meetings discussing discipline, discussing unrepentant members of a congregation, and considering how to address them. We need to understand that a true church will be willing to do that. When they see and hear themselves or are alerted to someone going astray, we have the obligation to check that out with the authority of our office.
I don’t know that we practice these things very well or very often. Partly because most people try to cover up their faults—if sin goes unseen then it does not easily fit into this procedure, but I think it is also true that addressing sin is uncomfortable. Whether we are go to someone privately or whether we are doing it as the church, this is hard work, and yet this is part of our calling. We need to remember that the purpose of this accountability structure is to show love that will continue to work towards the goal of sinners repenting and receiving God’s forgiveness. We are not being mean or making ourselves feel more holy, but we desire truthful and righteous living
God takes sin very seriously. When we bear the name Christian, we are called to a higher standard, and we are to help one another along with respecting the officers of the Christian church to live in this manner. When a brother or sister in the faith approaches us and addresses something they believe to be a problem, it is not because they are perfect, but it has to come from a place of humility. Each one of us has our own faults. When we exercise discipline it must be acting as if we do not sin.
For a great number of Christians today, self-discipline is lacking, but so too are what we could call mutual discipline and church discipline. Usually it boils down to people saying, “Don’t judge me.” They fall back on the opening verses of Matthew 7, where Jesus said, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”
But Jesus and Paul both clearly leave room for sin to be addressed, for some judgment to happen. When Paul was talking to the church in Corinth he says, verses twelve and thirteen, “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. ‘Expel the wicked man from among you.’” In his ministry, Paul looked at wrongdoing, and says, those who have chosen not to believe in God, who live according to the sinful nature, leave their judgment to God. We might critique people out in the world, but ultimately let’s leave their judgment and condemnation up to God.
However, if we are approaching someone as a fellow believer and for some of us, with the added authority of the office we have been ordained in, we have to approach because we want to help them. We are helping them, recognizing that we need help ourselves. Each of us must be seeking the forgiveness of God while being transformed by the help of the Holy Spirit.
“Are you not to judge those inside?” Paul asks that question in such a way that the church then and now is to understand, yes, we do have a responsibility to judge those who are Christians. We have keys that we have been entrusted to open and close the kingdom. If someone is consistently sinning, we are to call them on their sin, we are to point it out, we are to correct them. If we truly believe Jesus has given us keys, then we are to take the proper steps to use them.
There will come times when those who are in fellowship with us—even brothers and sisters, parents and children, long-time friends, may need to be addressed about the way they live out their faith. We might take up discipline slow because we say we want to show grace, we want to show compassion, we want to show them love. Scripture and the Catechism make room for that. That is why the system isn’t one strike and you’re out. There are to be multiple visits, repeated loving counsel given.
But if there is no change, if at this point the Sprit does not guide them back to repentance and reform, then discipline is to be handed down in such a way that they are ex-communicated, removed from the community in its receiving of the sacrament. As harsh as that feels, the hope is that it will be a temporary exclusion. That one day, they will be convicted to repent, and they will so desire to live a life honoring to God. They will see their sin as a sin, and we can welcome them back into the community of faith.
There is no doubt that these conversations are tough. To see sin not only in our world but hitting close to home is to be grieved. Yet we need to be willing to discipline and to accept discipline. Paul speaks of how the sin of one person and the allowance of that can affect the whole congregation just as a little yeast works through the whole batch. That is true. When we start to allow things to go on unchecked that are against the Lord, then in time they become permissible and acceptable and no thought is given as more and more people are torn farther and farther away from the Lord. We need to uphold Christian discipline as an act of loving service for the kingdom.
If Christ has truly given us such authority, this is not something to take lightly. We are involved, surely with the help of the Holy Spirit, to win souls back for God. We must be bold to proclaim the forgiveness of God for true repentance, and consider it a wonderful honor to see the change God brings in peoples’ lives. But let us remember that we do not just speak and talk at people about their problems, but we must be in prayer for them and with them.
As we close in prayer, if there are people you know that are struggling in sin and have been struggling, to call them to mind and lift them up silently to the Lord. Maybe even those that went astray long ago—don’t give up that the Lord may bring them back even now. Let’s pray.