Sabbath: Sin in the Church
Daily Lesson for Sabbath 18th of July 2026
Image © Pacific Press
Read for This Week’s Study
1 Corinthians 5:1-13, 2 Corinthians 2:5-10, 1 Corinthians 6:1-13, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Corinthians 7:1-9.
Memory Text:
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NIV).
Our brains are like sponges: whatever is brought to them, via our senses, stays in them. We might not be conscious of most of what comes in (we’d be unable to think clearly if we did remember everything), but it’s all there, and, to some degree, impacts what we think, feel, and do.
That’s why it’s so easy for us, even as Christians, to be impacted by all the bad things around us. The Christian church, from the start, has struggled with this problem. Where, for instance, did Sunday keeping come from? Did the church just pull it out of the air? Of course not. It came from the culture around it.
And we can see this principle unfolding here in Corinth. After an appeal against factionalism (1 Corinthians 1:1-31; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; 1 Corinthians 3:1-23; 1 Corinthians 4:1-21), Paul now turns to issues related to sexual immorality, lawsuits, prostitution, marriage, and singleness (1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 1 Corinthians 6:1-20; 1 Corinthians 7:1-40). The standards of the world affected them extensively. The factionalism portrayed in 1 Corinthians 1:1-31; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; 1 Corinthians 3:1-23; 1 Corinthians 4:1-21 opened the door for the moral behavior denounced in the ensuing chapters. How does Paul seek to address this sin in the church, and what lessons can we take from what he wrote?
It’s complicated! Before we start discussing sin in the church, we need to understand two things. Most people bent on sinning and remaining in the church are very good at hiding it. Secondly, I have seen some people accused of sinning when they are completely innocent. I could cite instances and examples, but some of my readers will also know what I have seen and not seen.
As I said in my opening sentence, dealing with sin is complicated. And in recent times the enquiries into institutional sexual abuse has given us an insight into how complicated it can be. We must balance the need for transparency with the call to be salvitic. That requires wisdom, patience, understanding and love. That only comes when we have a connection with God, the source of these skills.
To accuse is easy, to repair is difficult.
Where is the best place for a sex abuser to hide? In the church.
What is my duty?
First – examine myself and pray, pray, pray
Second – protect others
Even sex offenders can get saved. They need Jesus’ love as much as we do.
Someone in my church has pointed out one who serves there. I sensed disdain in his voice and demeaner.
I considered this gossip. Even before I heard this, my spirit has called me to pray for the accused growth in Jesus.
I can see he suffers many battles, and I have been trying to help as the Lord leads both in prayer and in word.
The love of God as shown in 1 Corinthians 13 overlooks the faults of others, and I enjoy that God given characteristic in my heart. I say don’t let gossip affect your heart for others. See the new person in Christ, or just show love and acceptance, even if they haven’t been saved yet. Only God knows their heart. He may be changing it daily.
In addition, God’s way is to love our enemies. Love is what is lacking in this world. Love is the most important work we can do in thanks for His love for us that Jesus’ sacrifice which takes away our sins and brings us into righteousness.
Just love and trust judgement to Jesus. He alone is worthy.
Sin is no respecter of persons or places. Sin being found in the church should not surprise anyone at all. Sin was found in heaven. Sin even tried to snare the Son of God while He was on earth. Sin is not scared of anyone. Sin can visit any place on Earth at will. Sin can attack anyone without any sense of shame. Sin is shameless! The Corinth Church, although it was founded under the power of the Holy Spirit, was tormented by numerous sins (division and jealousy, sexual immorality, pride and arrogance, lawsuits among believers, misuse of Christian liberty, disorderly worship, abuse of the Lord’s Supper and rivalry over spiritual gifts). No human being is immune to sin. It is no surprise Paul encourages us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18).
It is worthwhile to note how Paul addresses the Corinthians as God’s people who had been sanctified in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:2), regardless of their many failures. This is profoundly important because, no matter how seriously sin can affect the church, God’s grace calls believers toward holiness rather than abandoning them. For this very reason, Christ died to redeem the church.
“For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.” (Ephesians 5:25-27, NLT).
Need God grace to overcome on sins
A boat in the water is a good thing. Water in the boat, not good. Just as allowing water to freely flow into a boat puts it in peril of sinking, so too is the problem of uncontested, or open sin in the church. It threatens to sink it. The bigger problem is when the sin is egrecious, flagrant, and willful. If we really love our brother or sister then we will speak the truth in love to them and encourage them to repent. This is for their own good as well as the church.
This requires humility on everyone’s part. We are all sinners and all have blind spots. Galatians 6:1 (KJV) calls on spiritually mature individuals to gently correct and help a fellow believer who has stumbled into sin, while remaining humble and watchful of their own vulnerabilities. Those that do the confronting should do so in the spirit of Christ, with meekness and humility. Realizing that no one is above temptation. 1 Corinthians 10:12
Leaders are to be held to a higher standard because they set the standard of morality. (Luke 12:48) Too often serious sin is ignored because no one wants to deal with the ramifications of it, or the negative attention it might draw to the church. We don’t do anyone any favors by turning a blind eye towards sin, especially our own. It can’t just be kicked down the road and left for someone else to deal with. No one likes to administer or receive correction or discipline. However, there is a time and a place for it for the sake of the individual(s) as well as the body of Christ, (the church). Indeed, we are our brother’s keeper.
The problem of sin in the church is a serious but delicate matter. One of the guiding principles in dealing with it is, “Who that is without sin cast the first stone.”
We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, that is why Jesus came and died for us that we may receive His righteousness and be slaves to sin no more.
The work of sanctification is a lifelong process, we can overcome sin but we must surrender our wills to Him in order for change to be manifested in our lives!!!!!
He who is without sin cast the first stone is PERMANENT. The person committing the sin has no chance of returning from the dead to alter his/her way, since he/she is deceased.
However, a church rebuke in love allows the sinner to openly confess and repent to God. If the sinner does not want to repent, and continues, this is when a stronger discipline should be implemented. As Paul has stated in 1Cor. 5:11 we are not to socialize with them.
We need to be careful about misunderstanding what Jesus was communicating when he said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” He was addressing a group of religious leaders who had set up a sham situation to catch him. They were not interested in justice, or the man the woman was caught with would have been there. In fact, I think it’s likely that the woman was framed and perhaps the man who led her into sin was among Jesus accusers.
Jesus was not addressing the disciples or the church as a whole and so applying this statement to church discipline is probably inappropriate. It was God who gave the laws with punishments in the Old Testament. It was God who inspired Paul to address the need for church discipline.
This doesn’t mean that we default to discipline in every situation but there are times when we have to act and it is actually cruel not to act. Two situations that feel are imperative are
1. When someone is being hurt by the sin
2. When the reputation of the churdch is damaged by the church.
In these situations, as a church we must act.
Jesus gives us the first step in Matthew 7:3–5. Before removing the speck from our brother’s eye, we must first deal with the plank in our own. Notice that Jesus does not say, “Never help your brother.” He says, “First remove the plank… then you will see clearly to remove the speck.” Self-examination always precedes restoration.
Scripture never requires us to become sinless before helping another sinner, Instead, it calls us to be repentant. There is a profound difference between a believer who is fighting against sin and one who is comfortable living in it.
Perhaps the healthiest pattern is this: before speaking to another, spend time allowing the Holy Spirit to search our own heart (Psalm 139:23–24). Confess what He reveals. Receive God’s forgiveness. Pray for genuine love for the person. Then ask, “Lord, would I want someone to approach me the way I’m about to approach them?” If the answer is yes, you are much closer to reflecting the heart of Christ.
Ultimately, church discipline is never about proving who is righteous and who is sinful. It is about one repentant sinner helping another return to fellowship with Christ. The goal is always restoration, never condemnation. The church must never lower God’s standard for holiness, but neither should it forget that everyone who seeks to restore another stands only by the grace of God. As one old saying puts it, we are simply beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.
When it comes to approaching others about their sins, we must be grieving our own sin. When there is a certain measure of grief for our sins, we demonstrate that we have a heart to go and correct another in their sin. Paul tells us that the immorality in the church was ignored due to arrogance. Arrogance is only present when we have not humbled ourselves before God in repentance of our own sins. There could be other reasons why they (we) may not have had the courage to approach another regarding this immorality as well.
1. They (we) may have feared conflict or division if they confronted this man Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 5:1.
2. Corinth was known for its sexual immorality.
3. Perhaps the culture had begun influencing the church instead of the church influencing the culture.
4. Hidden guilt can make us hesitant to confront open sin because our own conscience is unsettled.
5. Shame has a way of silencing people. It feels hypocritical to approach another in their sin when our own has not been addressed.
6. Fear that their (our) own sin will come to light.
When repentance becomes the culture, loving correction will no longer feel like the verdict of a judge; it then will become the ministry of fellow sinners helping one another walk in holiness.
Paul says they (we) should have mourned (1 Corinthians 5:2). Mourning is what love does when someone is trapped in sin. It neither celebrates nor ignores sin, nor does it delight in exposing it. It grieves because sin dishonors Christ and harms the sinner. That is the spirit in which all biblical correction should take place. A church that has first learned to mourn over its own sins will be far better equipped to lovingly restore those who have fallen.
Speaking of the culture around us or for that matter, why did the Israelites go back into idolatry and sacrifices to false gods instead of the true God the One and only God. First, the culture around them, Second extrapolating from last Thursday’s lesson, they were not grounded in the message of sacrificing a Lamb to the God of heaven as a reminder of Christ making the ultimate sacrifice on the Cross, indicated in last Thursdays lesson. Basicly, they did not get weaned off the milk. 1 Corinthians 3:2, Hebrews 5:12.
Sin in the church exists because believers are still vulnerable to the enticements of ‘sin’ as long as we live. At first, ‘sin was defined as the transgression of the law.’ But God gave us a new Covenant by which man is saved. Now, ‘man is saved by God’s Grace through faith in His Son’. I encourage you to read all of 2 Cor.3:7-18 – v.18 ”And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s Glory, are being transformed into his Image with ever-increasing Glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
Should we not ask ourselves: “What do I ‘like more’ – the ‘sin’, or loving God with all my heart?” Has my heart and mind really been changed? I think it to be very simple to decide which way to follow when finding the answer. Either one keeps on sinning or one starts to be serious about following God’s ‘Way of Life’. The ‘sinner within the church’ are all of us; some more so, some less, but we all sin.
I do not believe that we can truly ‘heal each other’; it would be God’s love emanating from our heart. It is the power of God released when believing and following His Son Jesus Christ which heals us of our ‘unrighteousness’; only by the Grace of God can the believer’s heart be turned toward Him for wanting to obtaine righteousness.
I do not think ‘confronting a fellow member with accusations of sinning’ is appropriate. Whom are we protecting when confronting the ‘sinner’? Is it the sinner’s Salvation or protecting the church from being ‘defiled’ by the sinner? Do we not all worship God in His Spirit by loving one another? Would it not be much more helpful to first find out why the person has difficulty embracing wholeheartedly the ‘Walk of Righteousness’ by faith; which, by the way, we all struggle with?
God provided us His Holy Spirit for better understanding His work of our Salvation; admonishing us to always love Him and our fellow man along this very difficult road. Do not all of us sin in many little ways? Ought we not leave the changing of the heart of the struggling believer to be done by the Holy Spirit; envolving him/her in spiritual education and prayer? Jesus Christ in us and we in Him – if it means anything, then it means to continue loving those still struggling with loving God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength – Mark 12:30-31
Paul uses the cross to address the problem. He tells them and us that the painful sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross is the price for our bodies and lives and therefore the body must be used to honor Him.
The precursor to Adultery mentioned in 1cor.5 story could be that the husband to the wife had died and the elder son of her co wife married the now widow left by the father is a common practice in Africa cultures and it is scarcely condemned! And in christian churches adultery that is being tolerated is an Adventist in polygamous marriage, a Adventist having a side chick,and in extreme an Adventist taking an Adventist husbands wife, it is now becoming difficult to rid these sins out the church,! Any attempt to erradicate these sins out of the church divides the church and the one leading the onslaught is considered enemy of church unity . I hope this lesson will be an eye opener to see sin it it’s Malignant.
Eradicating sin in the church require bold and courageous servants of God who are ready to lose their positions and even be sidelined by church members but it is rare to get such leaders for fear of consequences and probably balancing as you have said, but if there’s are more than three witnesses as the bible says and like the case in 1st cori.5 what need for balancing for sin has already done it’s baleful work ! The culprit should immediately be consigned to the devil as Paul says to be tormented and lead to remorse and repentance ,this is not the work for timid but for the bold and daring and has the welfare of God’s fold at heart.
We are all influenced by the culture around us. To live in it and choose what is good is to keep a relationship with the Owner of the Universe. Although we may fall, He is always willing to help us get up and continue.