Ye Are Puffed Up
"And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you." (1 Corinthians 5:2)
"Puffed up" is from a Greek word bearing a sense of blowing or inflating. Figuratively it means to be proud or haughty. It is a position in which we do not want to find ourselves before the Lord. "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." (James 4:6).
The Corinthian brethren were puffed up in that they had not mourned the sin of an adulterous member. (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). They did not have sufficient sorrow for the loss of his soul and the reproach he brought upon Christ's name and church. This sinful toleration contributed to and encouraged the carnality of the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 5:6-7). They needed to deflate their egos and withdraw from the brother who continued in sin. (1 Corinthians 5:2-5, 9-13).
When brethren persist in sin and God's people delay in restoring or marking and withdrawing from the errorists, they are puffed up. They have exalted their way over that of God. They may feign to be most humble and so unable to judge, but they are puffed up. God's people are to make judgments of this kind (1 Corinthians 5:12-16:8).
When discipline is not practiced, shirking brethren are puffed up in that they presume to know better than God and cause division among God's people. Christians are taught not to have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them (Ephesians 5:11). Puffed up behavior disrupts fellowship with those who are determined to obey God. The refusal to withdraw fellowship from unfaithful brethren is sin of multiplied tragedy. (2 John 8-11).
As then, today's broken fellowship among those who have vowed to follow Christ has been caused by men and women who are puffed up, proud, and haughty. Who are puffed up? They are brethren who refuse to withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly (2 Thessalonians 3:6). They may be members who fight the process or simply paralyzed by fear of it. It includes weak elders who knowingly have fellowship with unsound congregations and invite false teachers to preach to their flock (Acts 20:28-31; Hebrews 13:17). It includes editors, publishers, and school administrators and board members who continue to give false teachers a platform to spread their damning and divisive doctrine. It includes alumni and patrons of the same who will not raise pen, nor voice, to speak against this sin. They are puffed up.
Those who take a stand against error may be styled as arrogant, proud, haughty or puffed up for their vigilance. However, God teaches that those who oppose them and do nothing are puffed up (1 Corinthians 4:14-5:2). The Corinthian brethren humbled themselves and did the right thing. Their godly sorrow led to the restoration of the brother (2 Corinthians 2:1-11), repentance and clearing of themselves in the matter (2 Corinthians 7:7-13)
From Our Archives, 1995
By Joe Spangler