5I also received a report of scandalous sex within your church family, a kind that wouldn't be tolerated even outside the church: One of your men is sleeping with his stepmother.G191G3654G4202G1722G5213G2532G5108G4202G3748G3687G3761G3687G1722G1484G5620G5100G2192G3962G11352And you're so above it all that it doesn't even faze you! Shouldn't this break your hearts? Shouldn't it bring you to your knees in tears? Shouldn't this person and his conduct be confronted and dealt with?G2532G5210G2075G5448G2532G3996G3780G3123G3996G2443G4160G5124G2041G1808G1537G3319G52163I'll tell you what I would do. Even though I'm not there in person, consider me right there with you, because I can fully see what's going on. I'm telling you that this is wrong. You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own. Bring it out in the open and deal with it in the authority of Jesus our Master.G1063G1473G3303G5613G548G4983G1161G3918G4151G2919G2235G5613G3918G2716G3779G2716G51244Assemble the community—I'll be present in spirit with you and our Master Jesus will be present in power.G1722G3686G2257G2962G2424G5547G5216G4863G2532G1699G4151G4862G1411G2257G2962G2424G55475Hold this man's conduct up to public scrutiny. Let him defend it if he can! But if he can't, then out with him! It will be totally devastating to him, of course, and embarrassing to you. But better devastation and embarrassment than damnation. You want him on his feet and forgiven before the Master on the Day of Judgment.G3860G5108G4567G1519G3639G4561G2443G4151G4982G1722G2250G2962G24246Your flip and callous arrogance in these things bothers me. You pass it off as a small thing, but it's anything but that. Yeast, too, is a "small thing," but it works its way through a whole batch of bread dough pretty fast.G5216G2745G3756G2570G1492G3756G3754G3398G2219G2220G3650G54457So get rid of this "yeast." Our true identity is flat and plain, not puffed up with the wrong kind of ingredient. The Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has already been sacrificed for the Passover meal, and we are the Unraised Bread part of the Feast.G1571G3767G3820G2219G2443G5600G3501G5445G2531G2075G106G1063G2532G5547G2257G3957G2380G5228G22578So let's live out our part in the Feast, not as raised bread swollen with the yeast of evil, but as flat bread—simple, genuine, unpretentious.G5620G1858G3361G1722G3820G2219G3366G1722G2219G2549G2532G4189G235G1722G106G1505G2532G2259I wrote you in my earlier letter that you shouldn't make yourselves at home among the sexually promiscuous.G1125G5213G1722G1992G3361G4874G420510I didn't mean that you should have nothing at all to do with outsiders of that sort. Or with crooks, whether blue- or white-collar. Or with spiritual phonies, for that matter. You'd have to leave the world entirely to do that!G2532G3756G3843G4205G5127G2889G2228G4123G2228G727G2228G1496G1893G686G3784G1831G1537G288911But I am saying that you shouldn't act as if everything is just fine when one of your Christian companions is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory. You can't just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior.G1161G3570G1125G5213G3361G4874G1437G5100G3687G80G2228G4205G2228G4123G2228G1496G2228G3060G2228G3183G2228G727G5108G3366G490612I'm not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don't we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers?G1063G5101G3427G2919G2532G1854G2919G3780G5210G2919G208013God decides on the outsiders, but we need to decide when our brothers and sisters are out of line and, if necessary, clean house.G1161G1854G2316G2919G2532G1808G1537G5216G846G4190