1 Cor 5:12 It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning.
In reference to judging there is a very popular verse that is often quoted: Matt 7:1 says: "Do not judge others, and you will not be judged”. Yet many verses such as the one above tell us to judge. How are we to explain this?
Let’s look at the Mt. passage more closely. If we look at this in its context we can see that it is speaking of judging hypocritically. The following verses talk about trying to take a splinter out of your friend’s eye while you have a plank in your own eye. Of course this is an exaggeration since no one could get a plank in their eye. This type of exaggeration was common speech in that day to get a point across. It was similar to us saying, “I walked a million miles”. What we really mean is that we walked a lot and what this verse means is that you need to clean up your own act first which may be more serious than what you are trying to correct. But notice it doesn’t tell you not to remove the splinter from your friend’s eye. It tells you to remove the plank from your own eye first. So even in this passage there is a reference to judging. But we should do it in a right manner, recognizing that we are also sinners and in no way superior to the one we are correcting.
Getting back to 1Co 5:12 what led up to Paul’s statement regarding judging those inside the Church? Backing up to V. 1 Paul tells us that He learned a man was living with his father’s wife or his stepmother. Apparently the Church members turned their head on this travesty and were proud about accepting this man despite his sin but Paul said they should be mourning in sorrow and shame (V2). He went on to say that the man should be removed from their fellowship.
Church discipline is not popular today but it is Scriptural. And what is the purpose in this action? V. 6 explains that a little yeast will work through the whole dough. The Church is to be protected against ungodly influence. If the Church condones gross immorality it says to the world that this is OK. The Churches light will grow dimmer or go out. Others will not be able to recognize the difference between believers and non-believers and our testimony will suffer. In other words, ignoring the problem only makes it worse.
What constitutes a sin that should warrant Church discipline? There are no clear guidelines for this. It requires careful prayer. The Bible tells us that we will one day judge the world and even angels so we should be qualified to judge trivial matters( 1 Co 6:2-3). This needs to be done through the power of the Holy Spirit as we are all sinful creatures ourselves and need direction.
