Sin in the Camp: The Church’s Call to Holiness

Paul grounds the church’s mission in the Great Commission: go, baptize, and teach believers to observe all Christ commanded. Christ does not gather His people merely to give them entrance information; He forms a community of faith that carries His name and learns how to live as His body in a dark world. The church must not get comfortable inside its walls, because the gospel can rescue those who are lost and change the world.

The image of “sin in the camp” shows that hidden sin never remains a private matter. Achan took what God had forbidden, Joseph ran from what would defile him, David learned that power cannot conceal evil from God, and Ananias and Sapphira discovered that the Holy Spirit does not overlook deception in Christ’s church. God watches over His people, and sin brings consequences even when somebody thinks nobody will ever find out.

Paul confronts Corinth because a man has taken his father’s wife, a kind of sexual immorality even pagans would not tolerate. The church’s deeper failure is not only the sin itself but its arrogance in tolerating it. The body of Christ cannot celebrate what should bring mourning, because Christ gave Himself to make His bride holy, clean, without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. The church belongs to the sinless Christ and therefore cannot make peace with what brings shame upon His name.

Paul calls for action when the body is sick, yet that action aims at redemption rather than cruelty. Removal from fellowship places an unrepentant person outside the gathered body in hope that he will come to his senses and his spirit may be saved. The little leaven image warns that tolerated evil spreads through the whole lump. Christ, the Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed, so malice and evil must be put away and sincerity and truth must mark the celebration.

Paul also makes a careful distinction between the world and the church. God judges outsiders, and the church still must go into the world with the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ. But those who bear the name of brother cannot persist in open rebellion while claiming Christ’s name. The church must not tolerate sin instead of seeking to redeem sinners, because Christ can save, deliver, clean up, and make His people holy.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Christ’s church carries His holy name. Christ’s body cannot behave as though His presence makes no difference. The church is not simply a gathering of forgiven people who remain untouched by the holiness of Jesus. Christ gave Himself to present His bride holy and clean, so bearing His name carries both high privilege and awesome responsibility. [87:46]
• 2. Hidden sin is never truly hidden. God saw Achan in the camp, Joseph in Egypt, David in his palace, and deception in the early church. Sin may be covered for a season, but God’s people never live outside His sight. The fear of being found out is not the deepest issue; the deeper issue is dishonoring the God who sees. [76:31]
• 3. Church discipline seeks redemption, not revenge. Paul’s hard command is not permission for cruelty or spiritual pride. Removal from fellowship is meant to confront a person with the seriousness of rebellion and call that person back to Christ. Love that refuses to name destructive sin is not rescue, because it leaves people trapped in what is killing them. [93:16]
• 4. Little leaven spreads through the whole lump. Tolerated sin never stays small or private in the life of a church. Malice, evil, compromise, and arrogance slowly blur the line between the church and the world. Christ’s sacrifice calls His people to put away the old leaven and live in sincerity and truth. [96:13]
• 5. The gospel both saves and cleanses. Jesus does not merely forgive people while leaving them dirty and hopeless. His gospel has power to save, deliver, heal, and reshape the way believers live. The church takes good news to the world precisely because Christ makes a real difference in those who belong to Him.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [64:53] - The Church’s Mission to Go
• [66:32] - Teaching Believers to Obey Christ
• [69:01] - Sin in the Camp
• [69:43] - Achan and Hidden Sin
• [72:10] - Joseph Runs From Temptation
• [73:45] - David, Bathsheba, and Exposure
• [75:38] - Ananias and Sapphira
• [78:18] - Corinth’s Shocking Immorality
• [85:26] - Christ’s Holy Body and Bride
• [89:49] - Discipline for the Sake of Restoration
• [94:07] - Leaven, Passover, and Purity
• [97:02] - The World and Those Called Brothers
• [99:11] - Judgment Begins in God’s House
• [101:26] - The Gospel That Saves and Cleanses

Bible Reading

1 Corinthians 5:1-13
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father's wife. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to 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 judgment on the one who did such a thing. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus 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, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 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.” [01:08:08]

Matthew 28:19-20
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” [01:05:46]

Ephesians 5:25-27
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” [01:26:22]

Observation questions

1. In Matthew 28:19–20, what three actions does Jesus give His church as part of making disciples, and how does teaching fit with going and baptizing? [01:06:32]
2. In 1 Corinthians 5:1–2, what was happening in the Corinthian church, and how does Paul describe the church’s response to it?
3. What picture of the church is given in Ephesians 5:25–27, and what did Christ do to make His bride holy and clean? [01:26:22]
4. In 1 Corinthians 5:6–8, what does leaven represent, and what qualities are believers called to live with instead? [01:36:02]

Interpretation questions

1. Why is the Corinthians’ arrogance over tolerated sin as serious a problem as the sin Paul addresses? What does mourning over sin show about a church’s view of Christ and His holiness? [01:28:23]
2. Paul calls for removal from fellowship while also speaking of the person’s spirit being saved. How can this difficult action be understood as an effort toward restoration rather than revenge? [01:33:01]
3. Why does Paul distinguish between people in the world and those who claim the name of brother or sister in Christ? How does that distinction allow the church to remain both holy and mission-minded? [01:37:41]
4. If “a little leaven leavens the whole lump,” what kinds of attitudes besides obvious public sin can slowly affect the health and witness of a church—such as pride, dishonesty, malice, or compromise? [01:34:07]

Application questions

1. Is there any area of private life where the temptation is to think, “No one will know”? How does remembering that God sees His people change the way a believer responds to temptation? [01:13:19]
2. Joseph ran from a situation that would have defiled him. What situations, relationships, media habits, or places may require a believer to create distance rather than trying to manage temptation? [01:42:27]
3. Christ gave Himself to make His church holy and clean. What is one area where Christ may be calling you to grow in purity, honesty, or obedience this week? [01:36:35]
4. When someone’s sin becomes known, is your first instinct more likely to ignore it, gossip about it, excuse it, or seek that person’s restoration? What would loving, truthful care look like in a real relationship? [01:41:42]
5. Where might pride make it difficult to receive correction from another believer? What would genuine repentance look like if someone who loves you pointed out a serious blind spot?
6. Jesus sends His people into the world with good news that saves and cleanses. Who in your life needs to see both the compassion of the gospel and the real difference Christ is making in your life? [01:05:01]