Remove him to save him
God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” … 1 Corinthians 5:13
Getting scary? You bet. If you thought I was trying to dodge a hard line Pauline principle before, this one is lots harder. Paul has dropped the niceness and has told the Corinthians - God judges those outside (of the church), Purge the evil person from among you.
So, now not only are we to judge, but we are to kick him out?
Well, yes, but not in that way.
Paul has done this on a number of occasions. He has let the offending church goer go by giving him up to Satan, which is merely a classically Pauline way of saying “remove him from church until he sees what his decisions are ultimately doing to him”.
So, Paul is sanctioning (in extreme cases, mind you) the removal of someone from your congregation if he is deemed as a corrupting entity that is living in sin and will not repent, does this mean that you forget him till he comes crawling back?
Pardon the expression, but hell no. As Christians who are called to love one another (especially those unchurched), I feel we are to keep these men and women who have left or been removed (for whatever reason) that God in his irreplaceable grace will change him or her through the experience. We are never called to stop loving, although for our own health and sanity, sometimes we are called to get hands off.
