This week we’re coming to one of those passages I’d rather not preach on.  However, since we preach through books of the Bible, and we don’t skip any of the hard stuff (and 1 Corinthians has a lot of hard stuff), we get to this week’s passage and have to face it head on.  And here in 1 Corinthians 5, our text for this Sunday, we have a situation of gross immorality with a member of the church.  Now, while terrible, it’s not terribly surprising, since sin has always reared its ugly head within the confines of the church.  And yet, this has become more difficult since the last few years have seen a significant number of both secular and spiritual leaders fall into immorality.

Sadly, in many churches, people just ignore the problem and hope it will go away.  Yet, in this passage, the Apostle Paul tells us in no uncertain terms that it will not only NOT go away,  it will, in fact, get worse.  And surely we don’t want to see immoral situations get even more immoral.  Sin spreads like cancer, infecting the whole body, and causing great pain.  So what do we do?   Paul says we have to become like cancer surgeons — face it for what it is, confront it directly, treat it as best we can, and if it doesn’t respond to treatment, then we have to go in and remove it — no matter how painful that may be.  Now, you and I both know that those steps are far easier to read and write than to do.  But do it we must.

Thankfully, Paul reminds us how and why we can face the cancer of sin.  As with every other problem in the church in Corinth, the answer involves refocusing everyone on Jesus.  You see, the problem of ignoring immorality is only solved with the Gospel of Christ.  Paul, being wise and gracious, deals with the problems revealed by their acceptance of immorality by reminding them of the person and work of Jesus Christ.  So, what does that process look like?  Come Sunday to find out.  See you then, Dr.  Dave