1 Corinthians 6A

Sermon Transcript

A Proper Understanding of Judgement

We are here in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Last week we looked at 1 Corinthians chapter 5 where it talks about sins that will get you kicked out of the local church. And for somebody to be kicked out of the local church, a judgement must be made. Now as the pastor of the church I am the ultimate and final judge. But even as members ourselves, if somebody is guilty of something major and I might not be aware of it, I should be made aware of it because certain sins do get you kicked out of church. And 1 Corinthians chapter 6 speaks about judgement. The name of the sermon is A Proper Understanding of Judgement.

Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Judgement is a major theme of the book of 1 Corinthians because the church of Corinth needed to have judgements. The church of Corinth had problems, had sins, and nothing was being done about it. And so even early in the book the Bible is speaking about having proper judgement and preparing us for the sins in 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

1 Corinthians 2:14–15: "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man." The Bible says that if you are spiritual, you judge all things. You judge all situations. And what that means is you can look at situations and ask yourself, what does the Bible say? This is the judgement. This is what God thinks about a situation. In the Old Testament we have the book of Judges, and the purpose of the judges is to take the word of God and look at situations and judge how God would determine things in that situation. Here is the punishment. Here is my judgement because it is based on what the Bible says. And if you are spiritual, you judge all things. So for example, when there are situations such as abortion taking place, I make a judgement on that. I have an opinion on what that means. What does the Bible say? What would God say to the person who is the abortion doctor? What would God say to the person that chooses to have an abortion — whether it be the woman or the man that got that woman pregnant? And if you are spiritual, you do judge all things. You do form opinions on certain situations. And you can know with authority based on what God says, what does God think about this situation?

Yet he himself is judged of no man. Now why does the Bible say that you are judged of no man? Because in my personal life, if I am guilty of a crime, yes, somebody can judge that. But can somebody really judge my heart, what is going on in my life, or what I think about situations or why I do certain things? Obviously not. But that does not change the fact that when somebody actually does something — a direct action — God actually has his message of what we are supposed to do with that. And this idea of yet he himself is judged of no man comes up later on.

Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 4.

As you are turning there, I will just read you where the Bible said in 1 Corinthians 2: "For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ." As saved people, the Bible says we have the mind of Christ. We have the word of God. We have the Holy Spirit inside of us. So he that is spiritual judgeth all things. Yet he himself is judged of no man. Why? Because as we talked about earlier, judge nothing before the time. We are all going to come to the judgement seat of Christ and find out what rewards we get. I am not really all that concerned what people think about me. A lot of people think I am a hateful guy, a mean guy, an evil preacher. You can think whatever you want. I am judged of no man. But as a spiritual person I will judge all things and judge all situations.

1 Corinthians 4:1–2: "Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful." Verse 3–5: "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God."

As a person who is a minister, a pastor in charge of preaching and teaching the word of God, I had better make sure I am judging situations and proclaiming what the Bible says. That is my job. Yet I am judged of no man. And the thing is, I do not even judge my own self. I do not know what rewards I am going to get at the judgement seat of Christ — this is right after 1 Corinthians chapter 3 that talks about rewards at the judgement seat of Christ. I will find out one day, but my job is to look at the word of God, form judgements, and preach what the Bible says.

And as we talked about in earlier sermons, when it comes to a church like ours in Melbourne or Pampanga, there are a lot of people reading the Bible every day, a lot of people going to church every week, a lot of people going soul-winning, a lot of people trying to serve God. We are all going to find out what rewards we get at the judgement seat of Christ. I judge nothing before the time. I do not know what rewards I will get or what you will get. But that does not change the fact that when actions are done, when somebody commits murder, I can form a judgement and say thus saith the Lord, because he that is spiritual judgeth all things.

Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5 — and this is all just by way of introduction because this chapter has been led into by the previous chapters.

1 Corinthians 5:1–3: "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed." What Paul is saying is — I did not even have to be there in person to form a judgement because I knew what took place. There is lots of evidence. There are lots of witnesses. Nobody is denying this took place. So here is my judgement. And it is not that hard because you already know exactly what took place. We see a spiritual person actually judging the situation. We should judge situations.

1 Corinthians 5:12–13: "For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person." What the Bible means in context of them that are without, God judgeth — it is not that we do not form opinions of what other people do outside the church. It is not that we do not form judgements of what God says about whether they are innocent or guilty. What the Bible is saying is that inside the church we are responsible for making sure things are judged and done properly. If somebody outside the church is living in adultery, let God deal with it, let God do whatever he wants. But somebody inside the church — well, the Bible says put away from among yourselves that wicked person, and then God will deal with them. We had better make sure inside the local church that we are actually dealing with those situations. That is what God expects. And outside the church, God will actually deal with those people. That is the context leading into 1 Corinthians 6.

Now go to Matthew 7.

I will often tell people that the most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16. But honestly, I do not even know if that is true anymore, because there is actually a very famous verse — Matthew 7:1 — that people often quote. And I do not think people even realise this is part of the Sermon on the Mount. I am not even sure if people today realise what the Sermon on the Mount is. And they do not even quote the whole verse. In Matthew 7:1 the Bible says: "Judge not, that ye be not judged." Now this verse is not usually quoted in its totality, but the first two words — judge not — are a pretty common thing you hear in today's world. And the way people use these first two words, judge not, is: if someone is openly LGBT, judge not, right? You can have your opinion but do not judge them. They would say that by me judging whether or not something is a sin or whether or not it is okay, I am the one that is ungodly and not them. What a backwards way to look at things. No — the Bible says he that is spiritual judgeth all things. So we judge all things, we look at situations.

You say, but the Bible says judge not. The Bible says judge not that ye be not judged. It does not just say judge not. Period. End of story. New thought. It says judge not that ye be not judged. Let us look at the context of what is being said — because 1 Corinthians is actually condemning them for not judging. It says he that is spiritual judgeth all things. Yes, we should form judgements. And the reality is everybody forms judgements, because the people that get mad at us and mad at our church and say we are judgmental and hateful — are you judging me? Are you putting me in judgement of whether or not what I am doing is okay? I thought the Bible said judge not. Everybody forms judgements, but at least we are honest about it. Yes, I judge situations. I look at situations and form opinions and say, thus saith the Lord, this is what the Bible says, this is right, this is wrong. I am just honest about the fact that I do judge situations. But the people that are the LGBT and the really ungodly pro-abortion anti-Bible crowd — they will claim they are so loving and too loving to judge, they say everyone can do whatever — and yet they stand in judgement of churches like ours and sermons that we preach at this church.

Matthew 7:1–5: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

The Bible is using an example of a mote versus a beam in somebody's eye. A mote is a very small object. It is one of the most annoying things when you get a small object inside your eye and you are trying to get it out of the corner — it is really hard because it is very painful and your eye keeps shutting and you are trying to pull it out. Sometimes you might even need somebody to help you that can actually see it clearly. But imagine me trying to pull a mote out of your eye if I have my glasses off. You might not be able to tell in the camera, but my glasses are very thick — I always wear contacts or glasses except when I sleep, because without them I cannot see at all, just colours and a giant blur in front of me. So I would not be able to take a mote out of somebody's eye. But if somebody can see clearly, they could actually help take it out. But what if there was a beam in your eye and you could not even open your eyes? How are you going to take the mote out of your brother's eye?

The idea behind this is that if you have got major problems and sins in your life, your vision is blurred and obscured. You cannot even see clearly. So how are you going to form judgements on other people? A great example, and I do not want to turn there for sake of time, but David was a great man after God's own heart. He ends up committing adultery with Bathsheba and then commits murder. A period of time goes by where it seems like God is doing nothing about it and he seems to be getting away with it. And then Nathan comes to him, rebukes him, and gives him this parable — this rich man stole the one little lamb that belonged to a poor person, the only thing they had. David is horrified and angered about what this person did in stealing a lamb and says the man who did this deserves to die, giving a really harsh judgement. And then you look at it — wait a minute, David, you committed adultery, you deserve to die, you committed murder, you deserve to die. Stealing a lamb or killing a lamb is not guilty of the death penalty. And yet he has a very large judgement for something that is much smaller than what he himself is doing.

You know what you are going to find in life? When people are guilty of major sins, they will often be incredibly harsh on other people for very small sins. The reality is they have got a beam in their eye. They cannot see clearly. And they are saying, man, you have got all these problems in your life, you need to fix this and this and this. And it is like, you are living in adultery, you committed murder. And yet they are trying to judge people for very minor things. The Bible is not saying do not judge at all. It is just saying you had better make sure you are right with God before you judge other people, because if you have got major sins in your life you will not be able to see clearly.

Now here is the thing. When I call out the LGBT and say they are wicked and evil, I am not a homosexual. So yes, I can judge them and say what you are doing is horrible and awful — I can see clearly to make that judgement. When I say people that commit abortion deserve the death penalty and you ask how are you judging them, well, I am not committing abortions. I am not having my wife commit abortions. I am not having anybody commit abortions. I am not involved in that. So yes, I can actually judge and look at that situation clearly. And so as a pastor I need to make sure I am spiritual and serving God because I am forming judgements and declaring what the Bible says all the time. I had better make sure my life is pretty clean. Now look, this does not guarantee a perfect life. Of course I do not have a perfect life. And it does not mean I cannot preach what the Bible says if I am living in sin, because I am always living in sin — I am not perfect, the thought of foolishness is sin. But it does mean that if I am going to properly give judgement and proclaim what the Bible says, I had better make sure my own life is straightened out or I will not be able to see clearly. And the scary thing about this is that everybody thinks they can see clearly. You had better make sure from your own actions that you are actually serving God and doing right.

Go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

Now here is the thing about this. In the church of Corinth we have a man sleeping with his father's wife. I doubt other people at the church are doing worse than that — I mean, what is worse than sleeping with your father's wife? Committing murder. There are not a lot of things that are worse. So of course people could form judgements and say this is wicked and this cannot be accepted, because it is not like others are doing worse than that. That is a grievous and wicked and horrible sin. So you should be able to judge that and say, hey, that is wicked, it is wrong, you need to get rid of it. But what is interesting is they are not judging this man for this major sin — and yet on other things that are much more minor, they are going to war with one another outside of the church and taking their disputes to the law.

1 Corinthians 6:1–6 — Do Not Take Brothers to Court

1 Corinthians 6:1–3: "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?" The Bible is saying two people at church have a problem with one another, and instead of actually judging and dealing with the situation, they are going to the law — to an ungodly, unsaved person to form a judgement on their situation. And what we are talking about is something monetary, something that is not a crime — not murder, not paedophilia, but something like somebody stole money from me. The church should be able to deal with that situation. You should not go to court over something minor. You should try to deal with it inside the local church when it is minor and not a major and big thing.

1 Corinthians 6:4–5: "If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?" Why does Paul make a big point about there being somebody to judge the situation? Because when you go to a court of law, most of the time you are going to ungodly people that do not care what the Bible says. In America, a lot of people that have risen to power were lawyers and became high up in the criminal system and became district judges and so on. Kamala Harris, who just ran for president, was like that. Do you want Kamala Harris to judge a situation? Do you think she cares what the Bible says? Hillary Clinton was a high-level lawyer dealing with all manner of situations. Do you really want Hillary Clinton to be the person judging your dispute? Absolutely not. I would rather have somebody newly saved, the least esteemed in the church — they could do a better job than Kamala Harris or Hillary Clinton. That is reality.

So inside the church you should be able to judge these minor situations. But if it is something where there is a criminal offence, the Bible does not give us the authority to put people to death. The Bible gives that to the governmental systems — Romans 13, the higher powers. So give it to them and hopefully they will deal with it. Unfortunately in the world we live in today they often do not — somebody is guilty of murder, it is admitted, and nothing happens. We live in an ungodly and sinful and fallen world that is not following the Bible. But when it comes to situations at church — minor issues and problems that are not a criminal offence — you should actually deal with those inside the church, and you should be able to tell whether or not someone needs to be kicked out.

Now there is a wrong idea where this can be taken too far. At a lot of churches you have major scandals — a lot of paedophilia, a lot of kids being molested. You hear about it constantly in the Catholic Church, with Jehovah's Witnesses, and unfortunately it also happens at Baptist churches with children's ministries. And the attitude people have is well, you should always forgive one another, give them another chance, they said they are sorry — and just deal with it inside the local church rather than going to criminal law when something horrible has taken place.

Go to Matthew 18.

Matthew 18:1–6: "At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." The Bible says that when somebody does something like paedophilia and attacks a little child, a millstone should be tied around their neck and they should be thrown in the sea — basically they should drown to death. So look, if there is a problem with sexual abuse toward a young child in our church, you had better believe the courts are going to know about it. We will gather all the evidence. We want to get you arrested. I hope they give you the death penalty if you do something like that. That is a wicked and evil sin.

We do not leave that inside the church like the Catholic Church, the Jehovah's Witnesses, or whoever else does it. That gets dealt with. Now what takes place is churches have scandals and they want to cover them up because they do not want people to know about it. And so if you actually try to speak the truth, they will get really mad at you because everybody else is on the same team to cover up whatever took place. We are not covering up any crimes at our church. If a major crime gets committed, it has to be dealt with in a court of law. I hope the courts will actually deal with things properly.

So on minor things like money being stolen, try to forgive them if you can. If not, let the church know and let me know as the pastor and we will deal with the situation. But you do not go to a court of law for something like that. We are not saying somebody committed murder so the church covers it up. Somebody committed paedophilia, covers it up. Somebody has been raped or attacked, covers it up. No. On minor things, deal with it inside the church. But on major scandals and crimes, those must be dealt with outside. Those people are not even welcome at the church if they have committed things like that — so of course it is no longer something to handle inside the church. That person gets kicked out and the matter goes to a court of law.

Now turn your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 6. This is a major topic because unfortunately we are living in a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah. These situations actually take place at local churches and unfortunately bad people will sometimes come to churches — not because they are interested in the word of God, but because they want to use the local church for their benefit and they feel like they have access to young children. So you have got to be very careful that even at church there can be bad people. That is why we do not have a children's ministry. That is why we have kids with the parents. Yes, they can be noisy at times, and yes, as parents you need to make sure you control your kids. But we are not going to have some children's ministry where someone is watching them, there is no supervision, and something horrible could take place.

1 Corinthians 6:3–5: "Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?" Why does Paul make a big point about there needing to be somebody to judge the situation? Because when you go to a court of law, most of the time you are going to ungodly people who do not care what the Bible says. But inside the church you should actually be able to judge these situations. At the end of the day I am the person who would kick somebody out of church. But honestly, in a situation as extreme as somebody sleeping with his father's wife when everybody knows about it — do you really need to tell me ahead of time whether they need to get kicked out? I mean, that is not a grey area situation at all. We have definitely kicked people out of church for far less than that.

1 Corinthians 6:6–8: "But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren." Once again, that does not mean you just allow someone to — you know, somebody killed somebody in your family, you should just forgive them. Or somebody is a paedophile but you should forgive your brother in Christ. Look, if they did that they are not your brother in Christ. The Bible is not saying suffer yourself to be defrauded in that situation. The Bible is referring to situations like somebody stealing a minor amount of money from you. Somebody borrows fifty dollars from you and they do not pay it back. But that is also very different from somebody at church stealing your car — that has gone too far. And there are situations where you might not be able to turn the other cheek. You might say, I want that money back that you borrowed from me, it is a big deal to me, I need the money. And you actually go and talk to that person.

Forgiveness — Matthew 6 and Matthew 18

Before we look at the Matthew 18 process, go to Matthew chapter 6.

The Bible does say that we should forgive our brothers and sisters in Christ. The more you are able to forgive other people, the more God is going to be merciful and forgive you. But obviously we all have a breaking point, and the breaking point is not necessarily the same for everybody. You might be a person who lets somebody borrow five hundred dollars and they did not give it back and you say, you know what, that person needs the money more than me, God has blessed me, no big deal. But you might not be that person. You might say I gave somebody five hundred dollars and I want that money back. And so you actually go to the person and say, hey, you said you were borrowing that money, I did not give it as a gift, I need it back. You might not be able to forgive or overlook it. Everybody has their breaking point.

Matthew 6:12–15: "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

Now look, obviously this is not referring to spiritual salvation. We understand you believe on Christ, you have eternal life, and nothing can change that. Whether or not you are forgiving or unforgiving with your brother in Christ, we know that, we get that, right? No question about that. But in our lives as saved people, God can either bless your life or not bless your life. And what the Bible teaches here is that if we are forgiving with others that have done us wrong, God will be more merciful to us when we do wrong and when we sin. So if somebody gossips about you, lies about you, is rude to you, whatever — a good way to handle it and think about it is, I am going to forgive them. I have done worse sins that God has forgiven me for. I am being forgiving to other people and that will give me mercy when I sin against God and do wrong. That is the right attitude to have. But as I said, obviously sometimes we reach a breaking point. And if you are at your breaking point, instead of just letting it stay inside you and getting bitter and angry and mad — which will only lead to worse things — it is better to actually talk to that person, deal with the situation, and figure it out. And who knows, maybe it is a misunderstanding. Maybe you are viewing the situation wrong. Maybe they forgot. Maybe there is something else going on that you do not know about. What seemed like a big situation might turn out to be very small and easily resolved in a conversation.

Matthew 18:21–22: "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven." What God is saying to Peter is do not just forgive seven times — forgive 490 times. Now I do not believe Jesus is literally saying 490 times with you keeping a count, because number one, if you are keeping a list you are not really forgiving and forgetting. And number two, people are not going to sin against you 490 times unless you know someone for 49 years and they sin against you ten times a year. Or once a month for 40 to 50 years. Except maybe your spouse or your kids or your parents — if it is once a week with your spouse you would probably actually reach 490. But Jesus is not giving a literal amount of 490. He is just saying be a forgiving person. That is the attitude we ought to have. And he says this right after he talks about church discipline in Matthew 18, which shows that we cannot always just forgive. Sometimes we reach that breaking point. If we can, that is better. But if we cannot, then we deal with it.

Matthew 18:15–20 — The Process for Handling Disputes

Matthew 18:15: "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." If somebody does you wrong, you talk to that person alone — one on one. You do not go and tell your other buddies at church. Now in Matthew 18, you need to eventually let the spiritual leadership know. Maybe you go to them one on one at first and you do not have to tell me about it, but you might decide, hey, I want to make sure things are going to go okay, maybe they will get mad, I will just tell Pastor Stucky ahead of time. But you go to that person one on one. You do not tell your best friends at church. Why? Because your goal is not to get people to side with you and get people to be angry at that person as well. The goal is to restore that relationship with your brother or sister in Christ who did you wrong — or at least who you think did you wrong.

I remember specifically a time at my old church in West Virginia where somebody came to me and said they were bothered about something I did. I was completely taken aback because I did not mean anything by the statement I made. Even after they told me I was still like, what in the world, I made a statement and they took it a certain way — and to me it was incredibly minor. Even after they told me I was like, you know, I made a statement and they took it the wrong way and I was not implying anything. But the good thing is they talked to me about it alone and we dealt with the situation right there. They came to me about a situation, thought I was trying to say something rude or be backhanded to them, and I was not. We talked one on one and the situation was resolved. No big deal. Nobody knew about it. Neither one of us looked foolish. It did not become a big situation. Imagine how much worse that would have been if that person had gone to his friends at church and then everybody was mad at me about something I did not actually do or did not mean. You have got a bunch of people upset about a situation that is not even real. How are you going to handle that? It is better just to go to them one on one rather than telling all your buddies at church, because your purpose is to restore the relationship — not to win an argument.

Verse 16: "But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." So you go to somebody one on one and they say no, I do not agree with you, or I do not owe you money, whatever — and then you end up bringing one or two more people. At this point I should certainly know about the situation because it is progressing. You tried to handle it one on one, it did not work, they are mad, and now it is at another level.

Now I want to be very clear — 1 Corinthians 5 is a different example. Paul did not have to be there and talk to both sides. He has already judged because it is a very black and white situation. Matthew 18 is more about your brother or sister in Christ sinning against you personally — a personal conflict that is taking place. So you bring one or two more people with you. Maybe they hear the situation and they do not side with you, and then you have to realise, okay, I guess it is not as big a deal as I thought. But if they do side with you, the idea is there are two or three witnesses — are you going to make things right? At that point the person needs to humble themselves.

Verse 17: "And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." Basically if the person is not willing to deal with it, treat them as an unbeliever. A heathen man and a publican. They are gone from the church. If somebody gets kicked out of our local church it does not mean they are unsaved, but the Bible says to treat them that way — not to be someone you hang out with or fellowship with, but treat them as a heathen man and a publican.

Matthew 18:18–20: "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

The things that you bind on earth — the decisions you make — are bound in heaven. God stands by the decisions you bind on earth. We pray for God to give us guidance and help in these situations, and God will stand by your decision as you are hearing both sides, trying to judge properly, and God is helping you. If somebody gets kicked out of church and we let them come back — whatsoever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Hey, so and so is welcome back to the church, and it is like God saying all right, there is no longer that punishment upon that person.

This is actually very encouraging to me as a pastor because the times I have dealt with church discipline are the least fun parts of the ministry and they are not easy. There are a lot of opinions, a lot of sides, people deny things, and you are trying to figure it out as perfectly as you can. You do the best you can. And the good news is what you bind on earth is bound in heaven — God is going to stand by the decision you make. And if in the future it is loosed on earth, which we have done before — somebody got kicked out, they got right with God, the issue was dealt with, and we let them come back — it is loosed in heaven too. No more to be brought up or remembered.

So basically Paul is rebuking the church of Corinth for having the wrong perspective and understanding of judgement. They do not judge for major sin, but then on very minor things they are going to court and going to the law. He is saying that is not the way you should do it. If you are spiritual, you judge all things, and you should have a proper understanding of judgement. One of the things the Bible talks about is growing in grace and knowledge — growing in our judgement, our understanding of situations, how we should view them. It is something we should strive to get better at. But having this idea that you should never judge for any reason is ungodly. It is not what the Bible says. The Bible says he that is spiritual judgeth all things.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and being able to see your word. I ask you to help us to apply this to our lives and to our churches. I ask you to help spare us from major situations of people needing to get kicked out or major issues. But if there are issues, God, I ask you to help us to deal with those issues and not just let sin stay in the church and major problems go unaddressed — but to actually deal with situations, and we can rest assured that whatsoever is bound on earth shall be bound in heaven. God, I ask you to help us through this and continue to bless our church. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.