In our lesson today Paul is making an important distinction between how we treat the people of this world who do not know Christ and the people in the Church who claim to know Christ.
There is a tendency in the Church to expect our secular culture to conform to church doctrine. When we see this happening, we can be sure that those who practice this do not understand the will of God or the nature of grace. We are called to be salt and light (Matt 5:13-16) and the scent of Christ (2nd Cor 15-16). Our presence in culture preserves society as salt, expresses truth in society as light, convicts the world as the fragrance of death and encourages those who are being saved as the fragrance of life.
We are never instructed to hold those who do not know Christ to some arbitrary Christian standard of morality. Paul in verse 9 of our text corrects the Corinthians misunderstanding of his admonishment to not associate with the sexual immoral he gave in an earlier letter. He tells them that sexual immorality is so common in the world that they would have to leave the world to not associate with the sexually immoral as part of their everyday associations.
As salt and light, we are to show the grace of God to the immoral just as Christ showed us grace. Jesus was accused of being the friend of sinners because apparently, He was found in their company so often, Luke 7:34. Remember the woman taken in adultery, John 8:4-11. Jesus showed grace to her without any guarantee that she would become His disciple or even correct her behavior. Grace in the form of another day without judgment is what Jesus gave her and what we must give to the world. In verse 10 Paul clarifies for us that this moral correction and discipline was to be practiced only among believers.
In verse 11 Paul gives a short list of some of the immoral behaviors that are common in the world but not tolerated in the Church of Jesus Christ. In verses 12 and 13 Paul then tells the Corinthians that it is not their job to judge the world, God Himself will do that when it is time. What’s implied here and depicted in the above scriptures we shared, is that we are to show grace as we appeal to the world to follow Christ, not judge them before they do.
As for the fellow Christian we must in grace call and guide them to repentance. We are called to restore our wayward brother or sister if they are willing, Galatians 6:1.
However, if grace and repentance is rejected, we must sever our associate with them.