Taken From:
City of Refuge
by
Ps Peter Tan
I Cor. 5:1-5 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kid that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body I am present in spirit, and as if present I have already pronounced judgement in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
That is an interesting passage. Paul here says that the person who is living among the must be separated, to use a strong word excommunicated. We know that the power to excommunicate someone has been abused and misused in church history. There are a lot of people who are excommunicated by the bad guy. The bad guy sometimes excommunicates the good guy, because the bad guy is on the chair. So every principle and every thing that is right can be abused. Lets look at it in this context here.
Lets say everything is running in order. The church of Jesus Christ is holy and all the right people are in place. And Paul here was overall advising the church and the church leaders who are all yielded to the Spirit of God. And there was one blot of sin in their midst. Paul says a strange thing. Paul says, "I want you to take him and deliver him to Satan." That puzzles many young Christians. What do you mean deliver him? Send that person as a present to Satan? What have we to do with Satan our archenemy?
Look at it in a different light. Behind this thing is an understanding that there is protection in the church. You must see the other side. What was happening is that there is an invisible protection round this person who is not living right. Somehow by coming into their midst, and being with them, he is protected and shielded from the onslaught of the devil. Now see the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. Satan is very clever to give temptations on credit terms, which most people think was free. And after you have taken his goods you realize that he is now asking a heavy price for it. You have tasted of sin and he is coming after you.
Remember Satan never give anything free. Don't be deceived. He will ask for a price and the price is heavy which is paid by your blood. Anything that you take from the devil he will come and collect the wages and the payment for it. And you somehow are able to go into a place where Christians are. And while inside this place where lets say everyone is living right with God. Jesus said, "Where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them." Satan doesn't like to visit such a place. So he stays away from that place. He hangs outside looking for loopholes.
And of course the church is not just a place; the church is the people. And when we live our life right with God, the presence of God goes with us. And we are protected to a certain extend. The cities of refuge are Christians and we all are cities of refuge. And wherever we go if we walk in our life right with God there is shield of protection around us. You have to believe that you have the shield of protection around you. Remember the Armour of God and all those things protect you and are able to quench every dart of the enemy. If your shield of faith is up nothing touches you. Eph. 6 says that every fiery dart is quenched or removed by the shield of faith. So wherever you go you are protected.
And so this guy is living in sin and the devil is seeking to destroy all the time. Somehow he managed to always stay close to one of those Christians. Now normally I would be fine. But this guy is not repentant. And Paul understands all these things. And he says you should stop protecting this person from the judgement that is due on his life. He may encourage others to do the same thing. It is something that displeases God. Either this person repents or you cannot take him into your fellowship. And so Paul says deliver him off, surrender him. What they did was to come together and in agreement and Paul invoked the power of God. I know a lot of people who would love to do this thing but their motives are wrong.
Here it says in I Cor.5: 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together along with my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words there has to be an anointing. This power to deliver someone to Satan is not something you do by your emotions or just because you are upset. There has to be an anointing of God. It has to be something ordained of God. And there has to be unity done in the name of Jesus. And what they did was to cut off the protection of the city of refuge that they were offering to this person. The moment this takes place Satan will go after this guy. He will have the just consequences of what he has and that he may realize his mistakes. Later on you read the same person repented.
Let me find a small secular illustration to this. Lets say there is someone who lives off Christian love and is always getting into debt. The creditors are coming after him. He runs to you and say please help me. Then you help him. And he is debt free again. So you go again to another moneylender. Then he got into another debt. Then he comes again to you. And you help him again. Then he goes to another moneylender. Who paid the judgement for him? You. That is hard earned money. Somebody worked, somebody earned and somebody paid. You never earn, you never work hard, somebody is working double hard just for you. Now if this goes on as a life style you become a moocher. I have experienced one that came many years back. This person is very experienced. This person came and borrowed 100 dollars. He paid that amount back. He then borrowed 3 hundred dollars and then paid back that amount. Finally he borrowed one thousand dollars and ran off and disappeared.
What is happening here? By Christians not standing up to their principles, they are propagating a life style and a sin that could have been easily removed. When the Christians stand up to the principles this person would have to pay the price for his sin. For the first time this person is made to work to repay his debt. And he may be renewed and changed. Let say a person is in sin and is somehow is not dealt with and is condoned. It may spread and before long everyone begin to accept the sin and that person is not facing that kind of judgement he should. Not that we all judge. None of us can play the judge or should play the judge. But what happens is that we should have no part in some things that are not of God.
City of Refuge
by
Ps Peter Tan
I Cor. 5:1-5 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kid that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. For though absent in body I am present in spirit, and as if present I have already pronounced judgement in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
That is an interesting passage. Paul here says that the person who is living among the must be separated, to use a strong word excommunicated. We know that the power to excommunicate someone has been abused and misused in church history. There are a lot of people who are excommunicated by the bad guy. The bad guy sometimes excommunicates the good guy, because the bad guy is on the chair. So every principle and every thing that is right can be abused. Lets look at it in this context here.
Lets say everything is running in order. The church of Jesus Christ is holy and all the right people are in place. And Paul here was overall advising the church and the church leaders who are all yielded to the Spirit of God. And there was one blot of sin in their midst. Paul says a strange thing. Paul says, "I want you to take him and deliver him to Satan." That puzzles many young Christians. What do you mean deliver him? Send that person as a present to Satan? What have we to do with Satan our archenemy?
Look at it in a different light. Behind this thing is an understanding that there is protection in the church. You must see the other side. What was happening is that there is an invisible protection round this person who is not living right. Somehow by coming into their midst, and being with them, he is protected and shielded from the onslaught of the devil. Now see the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. Satan is very clever to give temptations on credit terms, which most people think was free. And after you have taken his goods you realize that he is now asking a heavy price for it. You have tasted of sin and he is coming after you.
Remember Satan never give anything free. Don't be deceived. He will ask for a price and the price is heavy which is paid by your blood. Anything that you take from the devil he will come and collect the wages and the payment for it. And you somehow are able to go into a place where Christians are. And while inside this place where lets say everyone is living right with God. Jesus said, "Where 2 or 3 are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them." Satan doesn't like to visit such a place. So he stays away from that place. He hangs outside looking for loopholes.
And of course the church is not just a place; the church is the people. And when we live our life right with God, the presence of God goes with us. And we are protected to a certain extend. The cities of refuge are Christians and we all are cities of refuge. And wherever we go if we walk in our life right with God there is shield of protection around us. You have to believe that you have the shield of protection around you. Remember the Armour of God and all those things protect you and are able to quench every dart of the enemy. If your shield of faith is up nothing touches you. Eph. 6 says that every fiery dart is quenched or removed by the shield of faith. So wherever you go you are protected.
And so this guy is living in sin and the devil is seeking to destroy all the time. Somehow he managed to always stay close to one of those Christians. Now normally I would be fine. But this guy is not repentant. And Paul understands all these things. And he says you should stop protecting this person from the judgement that is due on his life. He may encourage others to do the same thing. It is something that displeases God. Either this person repents or you cannot take him into your fellowship. And so Paul says deliver him off, surrender him. What they did was to come together and in agreement and Paul invoked the power of God. I know a lot of people who would love to do this thing but their motives are wrong.
Here it says in I Cor.5: 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together along with my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words there has to be an anointing. This power to deliver someone to Satan is not something you do by your emotions or just because you are upset. There has to be an anointing of God. It has to be something ordained of God. And there has to be unity done in the name of Jesus. And what they did was to cut off the protection of the city of refuge that they were offering to this person. The moment this takes place Satan will go after this guy. He will have the just consequences of what he has and that he may realize his mistakes. Later on you read the same person repented.
Let me find a small secular illustration to this. Lets say there is someone who lives off Christian love and is always getting into debt. The creditors are coming after him. He runs to you and say please help me. Then you help him. And he is debt free again. So you go again to another moneylender. Then he got into another debt. Then he comes again to you. And you help him again. Then he goes to another moneylender. Who paid the judgement for him? You. That is hard earned money. Somebody worked, somebody earned and somebody paid. You never earn, you never work hard, somebody is working double hard just for you. Now if this goes on as a life style you become a moocher. I have experienced one that came many years back. This person is very experienced. This person came and borrowed 100 dollars. He paid that amount back. He then borrowed 3 hundred dollars and then paid back that amount. Finally he borrowed one thousand dollars and ran off and disappeared.
What is happening here? By Christians not standing up to their principles, they are propagating a life style and a sin that could have been easily removed. When the Christians stand up to the principles this person would have to pay the price for his sin. For the first time this person is made to work to repay his debt. And he may be renewed and changed. Let say a person is in sin and is somehow is not dealt with and is condoned. It may spread and before long everyone begin to accept the sin and that person is not facing that kind of judgement he should. Not that we all judge. None of us can play the judge or should play the judge. But what happens is that we should have no part in some things that are not of God.
