I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with any who claim to be fellow believers but are sexually immoral or greedy, idolaters or slanderers, drunkards or swindlers. With such persons do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”
—1 Corinthians 5:9-12 (TNIV)
Here we see Paul instructing believers how to interact with unbelievers. Christians have gotten a bad rap, some of which is deserved, for being moralizers and self-righteous meddlers in other people’s affairs. But that, of course, is not how we are called to be. That happens because Christians too are fallen creatures and sometimes don’t get things right. That is no reason, however, to blame the Founder.
None of us likes to be “fixed,” especially when someone else is trying to fix us and shape us into their own image. Here Paul reminds believers that we are not to judge unbelievers. Again, this does not mean we are to suspend moral judgment when it comes to assessing behavior and events. But we have no right to judge or condemn people in the process of assessing their behaviors. Only God can do that. What Paul has been talking about previously in this passage (see yesterday’s reflection for context) is the need for mutual Christian accountability within the Church.
So how should believers engage with unbelievers? Christ tells us to be the salt and light of the world (Matthew 5:13-14). What does that mean? It means that we are to live lives that are worthy of Christ and that will bring honor and glory to his Name, not shame and dishonor. Woe to us as believers when the latter happens. We bring honor to Christ’s Name not by trying to fix people, but by denying ourselves, taking up our cross (putting to death our self-centeredness) and following Jesus. We let our actions speak louder than our words. Then when unbelievers see our humility, our gentle spirit, our compassion to others, especially our enemies, our charity and generosity toward all people, our kindness, our inner peace, our patience with those who are like fingernails on a chalkboard, and our joy in living life (not necessarily all at once), they may be curious as to what is our secret and ask us about it.
When believers really do deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus there is something different about them because they have the Power of God living in them. There is a special quality that is noticeable. They exhibit the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25) that observant readers noticed I described above. When folks ask us about what is our secret, then we can enter the door God has opened for us to be his salt and light of the world. We can point others to Jesus, the true Light of the world, and tell them about this relationship we enjoy with the Living God. We can invite them to have the same kind of relationship so that they too can be in on our secret.