Don’t have a bad person in your church family

1Now listen. I have to talk straight to you about this. Some people have told me there is something bad going on in your church family. One of you has his father’s wife as his girlfriend, and he is sleeping with her as if they are married. Look, even people that don’t know God don’t do that.

2But you mob don’t seem to care, and instead, you think you are great. But listen, you really have to feel shame and be sad, not happy. That man is doing a very bad thing, so you can’t let him stay in your church family.

3Listen, I’m not there with you mob, but I think about you mob a lot, and I’m thinking about that man that is doing that very bad thing, so I’m telling you what you have to do.

4I know that you will meet together as followers of our leader Jesus, and I will be thinking about you and praying for you. It will be like I will be there with you, and the powerful spirit of Jesus will be there with you too.

5Then, at that meeting, you have to ask God to let Satan hurt that man. Satan is the boss over the bad spirits. Satan will hurt that man’s body, and then God can save that man’s spirit, when our leader Jesus comes back.

6So stop telling everyone that you are properly good. It’s not true. Let me tell you a picture story about baking powder. We put a little bit of baking powder into the flour when we make damper. And that little bit of baking powder goes into all the flour in the bowl and makes all the dough swell up.

7That is a picture of that one person in your mob that does bad things. He is like that baking powder in the picture story. He will get all of you mob to go wrong, like that baking powder made all the dough swell up. So get rid of that bad person. Then you will be straight and clean, like new clean dough that hasn’t got any baking powder in it. And really, you are clean like that. Remember, Jesus Christ died for us to clean us from the wrong things we did, so we are like that clean dough. Jesus is like the young sheep that the Jews kill and eat at their ceremony called Passover. Well, just like that young sheep dies, Jesus died for us. And think about this. Before that ceremony, they have to get rid of all that stuff that makes damper swell up, and then they eat flat damper.

8That is a picture of us church people. Just like the Jews have to get rid of all that stuff that makes damper swell up, we have to get rid of everything that is bad, and we have to stop doing bad things. Instead, we have to be good and honest and true.

9I wrote you a letter before, and I told you, “Don’t be good friends with bad people. There are some people that sleep with somebody that is not their own wife or husband, as if they are married to them. Keep away from those people.”

10But I did not mean that you have to keep away from the people of this world that don’t know God. Some of them sleep with somebody that is not their own wife or husband. Some of them are greedy, like they want a lot of things and money. Some of them trick other people to get their money, and some of them respect bad spirits and make them their gods. If you try to keep away from all those bad people, you will have to leave this world, and you can’t do that.

11No. This is what I meant. Don’t be good friends with people that reckon they are Christians, but they do bad things all the time. If they sleep with somebody that is not their own wife or husband, as if they are married to them, then don’t be good friends with those people. Or if they are greedy, don’t be good friends with them. If they respect bad spirits, and if they make those spirits their gods, don’t be good friends with them. If they yell and swear at other people, don’t be good friends with them. If they always get drunk, don’t be good friends with them. If they trick other people to get their money, don’t be good friends with them. Don’t even eat food with a Christian that does things like that.

12You see, I can’t be the judge of people that are not Christians. God will judge those people, and he will punish those people that do bad things. But if a Christian in your church group does bad things, you have to work out how to punish them. You have to do what God says in his book, “Get rid of bad people from your group.”