Take Jurisdiction – Interpreting the Law of God (45)

Take Jurisdiction

Interpreting the Law of God (45)

Church leaders must act on behalf of the purity of the Body of Christ.

Let him who has done this thing be removed from among you. 1 Corinthians 5:2

The Law of God exposed the immorality of a church member who was having a sexual relationship with his father’s wife. Apparently the woman was not a believer—at least, not a member of the Corinthian community of Christians. The status of the father is not clear.

But the young man in question was a professing Christian and member of the local Body of Christ. He had, that is, openly professed His faith and been received into the fellowship under the oversight of the local pastors and elders (1 Cor. 16:15, 16). It is not clear from the New Testament just what the process of “joining” a local church involved. However, at the very least it seems, some credible profession of faith and agreement to be in submission to duly appointed church officers must have been involved (cf. also 1 Thess. 5:12, 13).

Given the discovery of this sinful situation, therefore, the elders and pastors of the church in Corinth were expected to act. In Paul’s understanding these men served in an office similar to that of the judges and rulers of Old Testament cities. In the Old Testament men were appointed by the community as elders and judges to watch over the well-being of the town by teaching and ruling according to the Law of God. These men would gather in the gates of the city, as we have seen, so that their deliberations could be observed and all members of the community would be reminded of the primacy of God’s Law as the standard of righteousness and justice.

Paul applies this same principle to the work of pastors and elders. These men were charged with the responsibility of paying careful attention to themselves and to the flock in their care, so that the Church could fulfill the purpose for which Christ gave His life (Acts 20:28-31). And in this situation in Corinth, the time had long since passed when these elders should have acted for the purity and peace of the community as a whole.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.