I Corinthians 5

Paul explains to the Corinthians the important distinction between immoral people of the world and immoral people in the church. We are called to be light to the world, and we can only share the gospel if we talk with and interact with the immoral people of the world. We are certainly not called to join them or to be like them, but we must interact with them on some level or else they will never know salvation.

The danger is that we must distinguish between that and the person that calls himself a Christian and yet is also completely immoral. The church body is for the saved; it's for believers. We must be careful to distinguish between those that belong and those that do not. And those that call themselves believers and are still living in willful disobedience and sin should not be tolerated in the church body.

Does that mean that we completely ignore them? No. If we are called to share the gospel with the world and to bring believers to Christ, then how much more should we work to reconcile a brother that has lost his way? Of course we do not ignore them. Paul is simply saying that we cannot gloss over it either. We cannot turn a blind eye to the sins within the church unless we want the church to crumble. We are not called to judge the world, only to share with it, but we must judge within our congregation and hold each other accountable for our sins so that we can build each other up.