A Ramble About An Ignored Passage

I ran across this passage again the other night when I started reading back through 1 Corinthians again, and it's been stuck in my mind ever since:

1 Corinthians 5:9-13, ESV
“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. 'Purge the evil person from among you.'”

The more I think about it, the more I think this is probably one of the most ignored passages in scripture by professing Christians. What St. Paul is essentially saying is that we shouldn't be passing judgment on anyone outside of the Church. We simply don't have the right, and Jesus Himself said don't judge so that you won't be judged. But what he is also saying is that we have a responsibility to hold our brothers and sisters in Christ accountable for what they do and say, and correct them if they don't hold to the practice of the teaching of Jesus Christ. And if they refuse to accept correction, then to purge them from the Church.

The truth is, most churches and Christians which I have seen lately reverse this and practice the opposite as though somehow St. Paul had it backwards. They thrive on holding outsiders accountable for not living according to Christian practices, and then say that we shouldn't judge or hold accountable our brothers and sisters who clearly either don't understand what Jesus taught, or simply don't care, and who don't believe they need do anything more than profess faith in Christ, and show up at Church.

Those not joined to Christ through baptism are still blind spiritually, and have neither means nor inclination to follow Him, and thus to maintain a Christian standard of practice or ethics. How then could we possibly pass judgment on them? Muslims, Jews, Satanists, Hindus, Wiccans, Athiests, prostitutes, axe murderers, or thieves it really shouldn't matter who they are. What right do we have to revile them, bad mouth them, or try to pressure them politically to conform to our standards and beliefs? Jesus went to their parties, healed them, exorcised their demons, and publicly defended them from the religious right of His day. He never humiliated them. He never mistreated them. He never turned any of them away.

Those who professed to know the truth, however, He ripped a new one. His choice name for them was “sons of vipers” (sounds close to a more modern term to me...). He spelled out every little thing they did wrong, and called them on it in no uncertain terms. His chief complaint about them? Their utter lack of compassion and judgmentalism. In his stories, it was the sinful reject who cried out for mercy that was justified before God, not the self-professed saint who towed the religious line. He spent almost whole chapters in the Gospels saying “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!”

How would Jesus treat the unbelieving woman who gets an abortion, or the doctor who performs it? How would He treat the Wiccan or Muslim who practices their faith? How would He treat the Christian who abuses them? What would He say to you or me? As Christians we need to spend a lot less time praising ourselves for knowing the truth, and a lot more time doing it.