02.32. Wicked Persons
Wicked Persons
It is important to notice that it is wicked persons and only such that are to be put away from the company of believers. "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person." It would be very wrong to put away one who had merely been overtaken in a fault or one that had only committed an offense. In applying this discipline of 1 Corinthians 5:13, the prime necessity for the Assembly is to be sure that the person is really wicked. This must be established and manifest to all. Mere suspicion of evil will not do.
We have seen that there are various forms of discipline for the different offenses committed. These forms of discipline which we have hitherto been considering may be called preventive and corrective discipline. Their purpose is to prevent the erring one from going on in sin and becoming a wicked person and to correct him in his walk. But when one refuses to be corrected and persists in an evil course it becomes wickedness and when wickedness in any form manifests itself in the Assembly it must be severely dealt with to preserve the gathering from being leavened by it. "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump" (1 Corinthians 5:6-7). The wicked person must be put away. This is preservative discipline and necessary if the Assembly is to maintain itself in communion with the Lord, the holy and true One.
Putting one away as a wicked person is like cutting off a member of one’s body. It is a very painful and grievous thing and only done when there is no hope of saving the member. The amputation is performed to preserve the body from the poison in the diseased member. So putting away an evil person is necessary to prevent the leaven from spreading in the Assembly. But what is wickedness? we may well inquire. The word for "wicked" in Greek is "poneros" and signifies the active exercise of corrupt and unruly desires, not just a single act, but a positive injurious activity of evil, a living in sin. Generally speaking, a wicked person is one who is morally bad and evil in principle and practice. He is characterized by either violence or corruption as in the days of Noah (see Genesis 6:5; Genesis 6:11-13) and is full of bitterness and enmity and viciously bent on doing harm or evil. Wickedness is more a course of conduct than a single act of wrong. It is evidenced by a persistent course of evil in which the will is actively engaged.
Wickedness answers to leprosy in the Old Testament. In this connection a careful study of Leviticus 13:1-59 will give much light on our present subject. We can only touch on it in passing, but would call the reader’s attention to this chapter. There we have minute instructions as to how to discern leprosy and how to deal with it. The priest was to patiently investigate anything that bore the symptoms of leprosy. He must look on the scab or bright spot and see if it was deeper than the skin. If it was, he pronounced it leprosy and the man had to be shut up as a leper. If it was not deeper than the skin, he was to shut him up seven days and look on it again. If the case was still uncertain, he was shut up another seven days and examined again. Then, if the scab was spreading, he was finally pronounced unclean and a leper.
All this emphasizes the priestly care, patient observation, and godly discernment that is needed before one can be pronounced a wicked person. Note the oft recurrence in this chapter of the words "shall look," "shut up," "see him," and "shall consider." There must be no undue haste or mere assumption in judging.
If one had a white rising in his skin and there was quick raw flesh under it, it was clear that it was leprosy and the man was pronounced unclean. It was something deeper than the skin and not just a mere sudden outburst of nature, but the deep seated disease of leprosy which shuts one out from God’s presence. So it is with sin and wickedness. Sin dwells within the believer and if one is not watchful and walking in self-judgment, it will show itself in a sudden outburst of temper, in rash hasty speech, or in being overtaken in some fault. This is like a rising in one’s skin or like a burning boil, which is spoken of in Leviticus 13:2; Leviticus 13:23. These sad manifestations of the flesh are not leprosy or wickedness, though leprosy or wickedness might develop out of them. But such outbursts of our evil nature need to be judged and watched, lest they spread and become like a sore deeper than the skin. If indwelling sin is allowed to work in a believer, it may soon become deep seated and develop into wickedness-something deeper than just an outburst of nature, something on the surface. It may develop into a real case of wickedness and become like "quick raw flesh in the rising," which was a sign of real leprosy in Leviticus 13:10-11.
Returning to 1 Corinthians 5:11, we find therein six characters of moral wickedness. "If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat." Here are some characteristic examples of what marks one out as a wicked person. A fornicator is one who is morally corrupt and living in immorality*., Such an one is not fit for the fellowship of saints. A covetous person is one who is greedy of gain and actively seeking to grasp what he has not and desiring to take away what another possesses. Covetousness is an unlawful desire to possess oneself of something in opposition to good morals. "Greedy unsatisfied lust" or "unbridled lust" is a good rendering of the word "covetousness." (See Ephesians 5:3 and Colossians 3:5, New Trans.). One whose course of conduct is characterized by such unbridled desires and lust for that which does not rightly belong to him, should be put away as a wicked person. Covetousness is idolatry according to Colossians 3:5.
* When Potiphar’s wife desired Joseph to lie with her and commit fornication, he replied, "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9) One act of fornication or adultery was great wickedness to Joseph and is such before God. It begins with lusting after another and committing adultery in the heart, (Matthew 5:28) and then the actual sin follows. An idolater is one who pays divine honors to idols or images, or one who pays excessive veneration or love to any human person or thing. A railer is an abusive person, one who is quarrelsome, insolent, noisy, manifesting temper, and who attacks others with vile slander and abusive language. As another has said, "The habit of evil speaking stamps him who practices it as a railer; and such a man is unfit for the company of saints, for God’s Assembly" (W. Kelly). A drunkard is one who is a sot, one habitually under the influence of strong drink. An extortioner means one who practices oppressive and unjust exaction and obtains by threats and violence. The New Translation renders the Greek word that is used here as "rapaciousness," which means one given to plunder and seizing things forcibly, one greedy of gain.
If any one who is called a brother is found pursuing a course of conduct, such as is indicated by any of the above terms, he is to be put away as a wicked person. We might add that we do not believe that 1 Corinthians 5:11 gives us a complete list of things which mark one out as a wicked person, or the only characteristics of evil for which one is to be put away. It is rather a characteristic list of what moral wickedness is. The apostle says, "with such an one no not to eat." We believe this phrase has a wider application than just referring to the six things of this verse. From 1 Samuel 15:23 we learn that "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." So rebellion and stubbornness, which is really self-will, are wickedness also. It is well to notice that the same evils which 1 Corinthians 5:11-13 gives as marking out a so-called brother as a wicked person are also listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 as characteristic of those who shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Thus by being guilty of these things the person concerned places himself outwardly in the class of those who have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and his place is without the Assembly and not within.
Such wickedness raises the question as to whether the person is really a child of God. His walk is contrary to his profession, so the apostle says, "If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator" etc. He does not say, "If any brother," for when a professing Christian is walking in such wickedness, one cannot be sure that he really is a brother or sister in the Lord. If godly sorrow and repentance follow, as was the case with the man in question in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 (see 2 Corinthians 2:6-11), the Assembly can be assured that the person was and is truly a child of God.