Lesson of fealty, and consequence of rebellion

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091018.cfm
I Corinthians 5:1-8
Luke 6:6-11

A stark declaration by St. Paul separates the bondage of a repentant Christian from the bondage of an unrepentant Christian. Paul clears up our place among the community of believers as opposed to those who are bound to the world community of peoples and religions and states. 

Christians operate from a position of repentance. Whether we repent or not, as sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus, and temples of the Holy Spirit, we belong to God amid a throng of fellowship. 

Other folks operate from some other place. Our citizenry to God is not the same as our citizenry to country, to religion, and/or to some other global entity. Christians step into a holy relationship, extremely personal to God and attached to the fellowship of believers. It’s not just a legal contract, a ritualistic process, or a philosophy. Christians are bound to God with serious and eternal implications.

We are both initially and forever bound up to Christ as a repentant believer. Tired and even angry with our sinfulness, we rely upon God’s forgiveness and grace, amid the love and support of our fellow Christ followers. When we fade from that bonding and become half-hearted believers we can, and probably will, act outside of the community of faith. Our thinking doesn’t just shift to “we’re not so bad after all.” Not really. It’s more that we shift into believing that sin’s consequences aren’t so bad. “Nobody’s seriously getting hurt.” 

Most of Christian sin looks just like any other sin. We don’t necessarily look like we’re retaliating against a holy relationship within the Body of Christ. When Christians sin we elevate our worldly relationships onto the same level as our fellow believers. It sounds like a good thing, to look and act like everyone else, but we are often required to make compromises for our non-Christ-centered relationships to work. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, doesn’t just wag his finger at this behavior. He condemns it. When challenged by our compromises and refusing to repent, Paul says we are to be handed over to Satan.

That sounds a bit black and white. When faced with a matter of truth and lies, though, meaning when all eyes are upon us, such declarations must be made. 

Bondage to Christ means to turn our lives over to Him. We bind up our will to his will. It’s quite a complicated thing in reality, but the gist of the decision means that we believe God’s will is the better thing. We choose to follow God’s leading, and not our own. A lot is involved there, obviously: like hearing God’s voice; agreeing to belong to a loving community of faith that isn’t always so loving (mostly because its members are like us); and trusting that God will repair and restore everything. 

Catholics agree to such bondage with both eagerness and hesitancy. I’m sure the same is true for other Christian faith expressions. We don’t always trust ourselves and our friends and authorities in faith. We do, however, trust in God.  

Repentance establishes our desire to remain under the wings of Christ’s protection. Each of the sinful matters in our lives where we tell God, “You can’t tell me what to do,” points out the need for repentance. The unrepentant Christian chooses another fealty. “I choose the sin, which I no longer, and maybe ever did, believe is a sin.” Paul calls this obstinance. An unrepentant believer, one who especially exhibits their obstinacy to a wide swath of both believers and unbelievers, can surely be pointed out as guilty. 

And you are inflated with pride.
Should you not rather have been sorrowful?
The one who did this deed should be expelled from your midst.

As a matter of course, when sin has not just been challenged by a man or woman against God, but has pitted that person against the entire community of faith, that person must therefore be separated from the Body of Christ.

When you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit
with the power of the Lord Jesus,
you are to deliver this man to Satan
for the destruction of his flesh,
so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.

Harsh discipline for sure, but oddly the goal of Paul’s condemnation, using the tool of excommunication from the Body of Christ, is for the eventual salvation of the soul or spirit of the man. Sure, Satan can chew on him for a time, ultimately even killing him, but repentance may still be possible. His soul does, after all, belong to Christ. When we give our lives over to God it’s a very difficult thing to excise from him. God is stingy about our souls.

We can argue, and we do, that some of the sinful behaviors condemned by Christianity fail to meet the full stink test of someone rebelling and joining Satan’s ranks. Currently, and coincident to Paul’s own time, a number of believers waffle on divorce, active homosexual partnerships, and abortion. The closer one sits to Jesus and listens to the Holy Spirit the more one tends to agree with the Church’s identification of holiness and sin. Life is hard no matter which way you go. If things aren’t clear, honest Christians just go with God’s will as we argue about it.

Aligning to the wisdom of God comes with greater discipline than aligning to some other wisdom. God’s will and direction for us provides great delight and spiritual comfort. I’m not sure exactly why more discipline seems required, since the order of the universe and the holiness of God makes so much more sense. Habitually chosen addictions, a running series of short-term ecstasies, insistence upon long-term satisfaction with ourselves, and thorough creature comforts don’t really feel as bad as they sound. Until they do. The battle of habits and disciplines, for me, usually helps immeasurably in calculating sin from holiness.

It’s one thing to argue over the delineation of rightful and wrongful acts. It’s quite another to oppose a position of the stewards of the Church’s teaching with public and even dismissive obstinance. A big part of Christianity’s commitment to faith isn’t so much following rules as it is living out love. We do struggle with the difference.

Built into this entire discussion, though, is the beginning proposition, deciding to whom do we belong. Once we fully choose Jesus Christ, accept the Holy Spirit’s leading, and bow to the Father’s love we start this incredible relationship. It’s not an insular singular relationship. We join with other Christians in that effort and the missions that go with it. Christian discipline does not, though, hold sway outside of the Christian community. We cannot expect non-Christians to agree and follow our lead and the lead of the Holy Spirit.

Did I just say that? Christian community does not have the right to run the world? Yes. How can we expect them to do the hard, loving, and eternal work of following God’s will since they have not agreed to do so?

Much of the world operates on another set of principles, some which are wholly unprincipled (oppressive governments, class-based societies, and so on) and others which form from clearly Satanic designs (sacrificing children, enslaving the poor, etc.). We Christians can point out the evil associated with wayward governments and philosophies, and should. We do not, however, hold any actual worldly authority over them. In the midst of well run transportation, corporate regulations, safety concerns and proliferations of non-profit entities almost all governments still fail to offer spiritual answers to death, life, beauty, and sin. 

It’s probably safe to say today that no Christian country exists, one which assigns its overlord as the Triune God with Jesus Christ as its king. Some countries attempt to rule with a religious hand, but none are god-like. That means  Christianity only operates publicly and worldwide under the generosity of religious freedom loving states. Elsewhere Christianity is an underground community.

All this is to say that only within the confines of the Christian community, those who willingly and eagerly believe that they belong to Jesus Christ, can the issue of excommunication of another be spiritually enforced. We obviously can’t excommunicate anyone from another religion or from no religion. So, Paul’s disciplinary decision as an apostle (that’s another argument) fits only because the Corinthian community under Paul’s care listens to him.

That’s the lesson of fealty. That’s also the penalty of rebellion. The love relationship to God, however, puts featly into a whole new light. It also points out the intensity of practicing holiness, being like God. Paul is just the messenger. God wants us, no matter what he must do to win us.