When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that.

1 Corinthians 5:10

When it comes to our relationships with people who sin, we Christians often miss the mark. Sometimes we are far too judgmental of our brothers and sisters in Christ, condemning those who do even small things wrong, as if we ourselves were not guilty of the same kinds of moral failure. Yet, at other times, we tolerate persistent sin in our fellow Christians, pretending as if we don’t know what they’re doing or acting as if we don’t care.

This latter option was what the Corinthian believers chose when it came to fellow Christians who were consistently engaging in sexual sin, without a hint of repentance. So Paul wrote them a letter that has not been preserved. In this earlier letter, Paul instructed the Corinthians not to associate with people who continued to sin sexually (see 5:1-8). But the Corinthians took Paul to mean that they should not have relationship with unbelievers who were engaging in immoral behavior. They missed Paul’s point. He meant they should not associate with Christians who kept on sinning. If they stopped being with sinful non-Christians, they “would have to leave this world to avoid people like that” (5:10).

In fact, God has sent us into a world full of sinners just like us. There, we have the opportunity and calling to share with others the good news of what God has done in Christ. We bring the message of forgiveness, the possibility of a whole new way of living. This is part of our high calling as God’s special people.

But, all too often, we act like the Corinthians did, cutting ourselves off from the very people God has sent us to be with so that we might be channels of his grace, mercy, and truth. First Corinthians 5:9-10 reminds us that we have been sent into the world with the gospel. Through our relationships with people in the world—at work, in our neighborhoods, among our friends—God will communicate his good news.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: Who in your life does God want to reach through you? How are you nurturing your relationship with those people?

PRAYER: Dear Lord, it is tempting for us, much as it was for the Corinthians, to cut ourselves off from “sinners” in the world. When we do this, we lose the opportunity to share with them your love and grace. We fail to fulfill our mission to be salt and light in the world.

Help us, gracious God, to be in the world as witnesses to you. May we seize the occasions you put before us to love and care for people. May we find appropriate and sensitive ways to speak about you. Teach us to see our whole life as an opportunity to bear witness to you, both in word and in deed.

I pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.