Lesson 4: “Sin in the Church”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! Magazine |
Adventist, how many times have you encountered immoral or abusive behavior within Adventism without the offender ever being held accountable? How often have you seen leaders and teachers transferred laterally to different institutions where they were able to continue practicing their immoral or abusive behavior among a new, unsuspecting community of Adventists? Have you ever heard Adventism offer a solution that works for helping those either practicing secret immorality or for those victimized by it?
Adventism And Embedded Sin
This week’s lesson roughly covers 1 Corinthians 5–7, but the lesson lands in a place very different from Paul’s purpose in writing. From Saturday’s introduction onward, Adventism tips its hand and reveals that it equates itself with Christianity. Yet as we have explained many times, Adventism is NOT Christian. Yes, it uses Christian words and concepts, but its reality is not biblical. Adventism has a false view of the nature of man, of Christ, of sin, and of salvation—to say nothing of having an extra-biblical “prophet”. Adventism teaches an incomplete atonement and the necessity of observing the seventh-day Sabbath as the mark of being safe to save.
This Adventist presupposition reveals itself in Saturday’s introduction to the week’s studies. In the week’s Bible passages from 1 Corinthians 5–7, Paul deals with immorality, with marriage, with singleness, with being married to an unbeliever, and with immorality being “against the body” which belongs to God. Yet Paul’s conclusions are eclipsed, and the lesson introduces these “sins” this way:
Our brains are like sponges: whatever is brought to them, via our senses, stays in them.…
That’s why it’s so easy for us, even as Christians, to be impacted by all the bad things around us. The Christian church, from the start, has struggled with this problem. Where, for instance, did Sunday keeping come from? Did the church just pull it out of the air? Of course not. It came from the culture around it.
Did you see how the author reinforced the central Adventist belief about worship by referring to “Sunday keeping” as a sin that has corrupted the church? Even though this week’s passages have nothing to do with days of worship, the author doesn’t miss the chance to reinforce the central Adventist belief that the “Sunday churches” are Babylon, and Sunday-worship is the last great sin—the one that will earn the mark of the beast. In this way even the sins of immorality and broken relationships are subtly demoted in importance; before the reader even gets to the meat of the lessons, he is reminded that Sunday-keeping is sin, and the church absorbs it almost thoughtlessly because it’s just in the culture around it. Sunday keepers, it is implied, are less aware and less analytical than Adventists. They’ve mindlessly absorbed sin.
Turning Over to Satan?
The lesson tackles chapter 5 first in which Paul describes a situation in which a man in the church who has been sleeping with his father’s wife—apparently his own stepmother. Paul reprimands the Corinthians for their arrogance in tolerating this scandal. He tells them that this person, an established church member, should be delivered over “to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
Monday’s lesson concludes:
Because this man did not choose to be under the protection of God by living in obedience to Him, he would be vulnerable to Satan. So, this expression can merely mean something like “Let him reap the fruit of his decisions.”
The Teachers’ Comments say that “Such action was to be taken in order that the erring member might become the object of loving care and kind concern of the church. Then the church would be able to demonstrate that love by inviting him to repent and to become part of God’s kingdom again.”
Paul, however, doesn’t mean something metaphorical when he says to turn such a one over to Satan. Here’s what Adventism does not fully understand because Adventism doesn’t believe or teach the biblical new birth. When Paul explains that the church is Christ’s body (see Colossians 1:24 and 12:27), he literally means that the born again believers, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, are spiritually bound to Christ. He is the Head of the church, and the believers ARE His body.
In fact, this understanding is behind Jesus’ words to Paul when He met him on the road to Damascus. (Acts 9:5). Paul asked, “Who are you Lord?” Jesus answered, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting”.
Jesus wasn’t being metaphorical. The Christians who were born of the Spirit whom Paul was persecuting were His body! What is done to a born again believer is done to Christ because He is literally joined with that believer spiritually for eternity.
So, when Paul says to turn that church member over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of Christ, Paul means that the local church is to put that member OUT of fellowship.
To be sent out of the congregation of believers is to be turned over to Satan, away from the nurturing protection of the rest of the body, from the ministry of the word, and from the fellowship of the believers who share Christ. Even more, Paul literally meant exactly what he said in 1 Corinthians 5:11–13:
But now I am writing to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler–not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Are you not to judge those who are within [the church]? But those who are outside, God will judge. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.—1 Corinthians 5:11–13 LSB
Paul is telling this church that they are to put this person out of fellowship and not to associate with him. He is to be in Satan’s territory, experiencing the consequences of his actions and of his loss of true fellowship.
At the same time, this man may well have been born again. Paul explains in Romans 7 that even after being born again we still have a “law of sin” in our mortal flesh. If we do not learn to trust Jesus with our fleshly desires, we will ultimately act on them. We can’t suppress them with will power, but if we are truly born again, the indwelling Holy Spirit will not stop convicting us.
A believer who persists in sin must be put out of fellowship so he doesn’t infect his fellow believers and also so he experiences the consequences of acting outside the fellowship of Christ’s body. The purpose is to actually save this person’s spirit in the end. As Paul says in verse 5, the purpose of turning this man over to Satan is “so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.”
If this man is born again, the Holy Spirit does not leave him just because he has fallen into sin. God will allow the church to discipline him severely by cutting all ties with him—but if he is truly a Christian, he will grieve the loss of fellowship, and the indwelling Spirit will convict him of his sin. The goal is to be able to restore such a person to fellowship.
This scenario isn’t even on an Adventists’ radar, though, because Adventism does not teach the true gospel, and in general its members are not born again. They are bound by common beliefs, but they are not bound by the life and Spirit of the Lord Jesus. They are still spiritually dead—just convicted of similar beliefs that set them apart from the rest of the world.
Law Suits and Immoral Behavior
In chapter 6 Paul speaks of not taking fellow believers to court for arbitration by worldly judges. Adventists have taken this counsel as meant for themselves and have often hidden behind it as a way of hiding institutionalized sin from the public eye. Pastors and teachers who have committed crimes against parishioners, including minor children, have been protected and hidden from legal prosecution by claiming Paul’s advice in chapter 6.
Yet once again, Adventism missed Paul’s true point. See what he says in 1 Corinthians 6:3, 5–6
Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? … I say [this] to your shame. [Is it really] this way: there is not one wise man among you who will be able to pass judgment between his brothers? On the contrary, brother is tried with brother, and that before unbelievers!—1 Corinthians 3:5–6 LSB
Here Paul is referring back to his point in chapter 2 which the lesson did not properly understand. Paul has already said that believers have received the Holy Spirit and literally know the thoughts and purposes of God, that they “have the mind of Christ” (2:16). Paul is referring to this wisdom from God that is His gift to those who are born again.
The lesson, though, states the usual Adventist interpretation:
Paul cared about the church’s identity as a Christian community as seen by outsiders. Christians should not air dirty laundry in public (1 Cor. 6:6). Neither should they use secular means for judging inside matters.
Paul’s counsel had nothing to do with hiding sin to protect an organizational reputation. Adventists hide sin; they avoid prosecuting leaders who commit crimes. They want to preserve a squeaky-clean public image even if it means embedding chronic sin in the system out of sight.
Paul, however, wants to keep disagreements within the confines of believers if possible because believers have God’s wisdom. They can make better decisions and have more discernment than secular people can. He’s not suggesting hiding sins; he’s simply saying that believers are citizens of a different kingdom than are unbelievers. They have the mind of Christ, and to take their disagreements outside the body (except in cases of criminal behavior which falls under civil governments jurisdiction), they can settle their differences with more wisdom and with better outcomes than if they submitted to worldly wisdom.
The second half of chapter 6 addresses believers engaging in immorality and prostitution. Adventism teaches that if a person has asked the Holy Spirit to be with him or her, He will come—but only until that person sins. At that point, the Holy Spirit is grieved and leaves the person until they repent and beg him to come back.
Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit is God’s response to the person who trusts and believes the gospel of salvation: that Jesus died for sin, that He was buried, and that He rose from death—all according to Scripture. When a person trusts and believes this gospel, he or she is born again and indwelled permanently by the Holy Spirit
Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 6:12–20 is that if a born-again believer falls into sexual sin, he is literally taking God into that sinful liaison with him. Here is what Paul says:
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body [with her]? For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit [with Him]. Flee sexual immorality. Every [other] sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?—1 Corinthians 6:15–19 LSB
Adventism cannot understand the significance of Paul’s words. He is literally explaining that when a true Christian sins sexually, he is taking the presence of Christ with him into that immoral union. He is further saying that sexual sin is a deeper, identity-defiling sin. It is more destructive than all other sins because, as Paul says, it is a sin against one’s own body.
Sexual union is described in Scripture as becoming one flesh. A man and a woman create a shared identity with sexual union, and it is a union that has the potential to bring another life into existence. Furthermore, the relationship of husband and wife is the description Paul gives us of the church and the Lord Jesus in Ephesians 5. Jesus’ personal identification and purification and protection of the church is the model that describes marriage, and sexual sin is the most damaging of all sins because it is against our own bodies, our own identities.
Illegitimate sexual union is a deep sin against the identities of both parties—yet if one of those parties is a born again believer, that sin is against the Lord Jesus personally who doesn’t leave when we sin.
The lesson, however, cannot deal with what Paul is actually saying. It treats sexual immorality as a failure of will, a decision to indulge the flesh. Friday’s lesson seals the Adventist view by once again quoting Ellen White:
“When one is fully emptied of self, when every false god is cast out of the soul, the vacuum is supplied by the inflowing of the Spirit of Christ. Such a one has the faith which works by love and purifies the soul from every moral and spiritual defilement.”—Ellen G. White, The Home Missionary, November 1893.
Notice Ellen’s words above: each person is to empty him or herself of every sin, every fleshly desire and impulse to indulge oneself. Then, when one has “emptied self” and created a vacuum because one’s mind is empty and blank, THEN the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ will come in and fill the vacuum!!
Do you see the blasphemy of this? The Holy Spirit fills no one’s “vacuum”. The Holy Spirit indwells us when we hear the gospel of our salvation that the Lord Jesus has fully atoned for our sin and has risen from the dead, breaking our curse! He fills us when we TRUST and BELIEVE Him! He doesn’t ask us to clean up our sins and desires. He indwells us and gives us new hearts and minds, new power and desires. He changes us AFTER we trust Jesus.
Adventism makes moral behavior a matter of personal decision and will power. It is our job to clean up our act—and THEN Christ sends His Spirit In other words, we have to DESERVE Him before He’ll come. Yet Scripture says He comes when we see we need Him and trust Him. He comes and then He cleans us and washes us and makes us pure.
Just so there’s no doubt about Adventism’s bottom line, morality has always been understood to be our responsibility. If we eat right and live right, then we will have the power and fortitude to resist temptation. Look at these Ellen White quotes:
You place upon your tables butter, eggs, and meat, and your children partake of them. They are fed with the very things that will excite their animal passions, and then you come to meeting and ask God to bless and save your children.—Testimonies for the Church 2:362
We are built up from that which we eat. Shall we strengthen the animal passions by eating animal food? In the place of educating the taste to love this gross diet, it is high time that we were educating ourselves to subsist upon fruits, grains, and vegetables. This is the work of all who are connected with our institutions. Use less and less meat, until it is not used at all. If meat is discarded, if the taste is not educated in that direction, [and] if a liking for fruits and grains is encouraged, it will soon be as God in the beginning designed it should be. No meat will be used by His people.—4LtMs, Lt 3, 1884, par 8
These are only two quotes from a plethora of counsels against animal foods and stimulants as a means of gaining the victory over “animal passions”. This, dear Adventist, is the bottom-line reason for the Adventist health message. It is the key, the secret, to suppressing fleshly desires! It’s up to YOU to deny self and overcome temptation!
Adventism has no idea at all of what the new birth is or what it does for a believer. When Paul writes his New Testament counsels, he is writing them to believers. Only those who have trusted Jesus and have been born of the Spirit can actually experience a life that is not driven by desire. Only when our Lord Himself indwells us can we experience freedom from the chains and guilt of sin. Only when we learn to TRUST the One who saved us can we find freedom from our flesh.
I could say much more about the lesson’s avoidance of Paul’s instructions about marriage, about living with an unbelieving spouse respectfully if they wish to stay, and about his advice to singles. Paul was never opposed to marriage; He was, though, aware that God is the One who brings us His work and the people He designs for us to love.
The bottom line in this lesson is that it will never help to determine to overcome one’s immoral impulses. The first thing a person must do is to trust Jesus. If you are an Adventist, the thing you need is to admit your sin and know that Jesus has already done everything that’s needed for your salvation.
Let go of your efforts to fix your motives and your behaviors and look to Jesus. The commands in the Corinthians are not for you if you have not trusted Jesus alone and been for again.
Trust Jesus’ death and shed blood that paid for your sin. Repent of your efforts to be good enough to please Him, and thank Him for having done everything you need for salvation. Thank Him for rising from the dead and breaking your curse of sin. Believe Him today, and trust Him alone. You will discover that you have a completely new life, and your greatest desire will be to please Him as your Lord. †
This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
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