But if anyone has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not for me, but in some degree—not to say too much—for all of you. Sufficient for such a person is this punishment which was imposed by the majority, so that on the other hand, you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a person might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. (vv. 5-8)

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, namely, that someone has his father’s wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. (1 Corinthians 5:1-2)

According to the First Letter to the Corinthians, there was a man who had his father’s wife. We are not given the details of the situation, but it is clear that the man was engaged in an immoral sexual relationship with his father’s wife.

The new covenant frees us from the old covenant, which required perfect obedience to the law. Under the law, we are all condemned to death. Christ did not free us by perfectly keeping the law on our behalf, as many theologians and ministers claim. Our salvation does not come from the law but from one person—Jesus Christ—who purchased us at a price and freed us from bondage. Only the Son of God could save us by dying for our sins and raising us to new life. In Him, we are a new creation.

Although we are free from the bondage of sin and the law, this freedom does not permit us to pursue immorality. The essence of the law has not changed; it is fulfilled in sacrificial love. We now live under the guidance of the new law—the “law of freedom.” We are not under the law that kills but under the new law that strengthens us.

But one who has looked intently at the perfect law, the law of freedom, and has continued in it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an active doer, this person will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:25)

This love, as described in 1 Corinthians 13, is the foundation of Christianity. It is not rooted in physical desire or human temptation.

The Reformers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries insisted that the moral law still remains. Strictly speaking, however, the law of the Old Testament has been fulfilled and perfected by Jesus Christ. The former written code no longer stands; instead, the new law of freedom now governs our lives.

Is the man’s sin, then, a violation of the new law of freedom? Yes, it is. Even the law of the Old Testament was only a shadow of this new law. God gave us fathers, mothers, husbands, and wives to reveal a greater truth: that we have one Father who created all things, and that the Church alone is the bride of Jesus Christ. When a person violates this created order for the sake of sexual desire, such an act stands against both the old law and the new.

These who trample the head of the helpless to the dust of the earth Also divert the way of the humble; And a man and his father resort to the same girl So as to profane My holy name. (Amos 2:7)

What, then, about other forms of sexual immorality? We must examine whether the love we claim to feel for someone or something stands in conflict with the new law of freedom. Adultery, in any form, is a violation of this new law. Although we are no longer judged by the law as in the Old Testament era, judgment comes where the Holy Spirit—who produces Christian love—is absent or ignored.

Anyone can fall into temptation. King David did, and he suffered the consequences of his sin. Falling into temptation should be avoided at all costs, yet it does occur in our lives. Even so, God continues to teach us, even when we are at our most treacherous and corrupt. David was humbled, and through his story we learn how sinful and vulnerable we are apart from God. Some believe they are keeping the law simply by attending church every Sunday and avoiding outward transgressions, yet we are constantly wrestling with our physical desires.

The Ten Commandments remain—not as a law we must keep for righteousness, but as a mirror that exposes how weak and sinful we truly are. They drive us to seek God’s mercy and to give thanks for the salvation granted to us through Jesus Christ.

It is deeply troubling that some Reformed churches insist the moral law still stands and publicly recite the Ten Commandments each Sunday, while their leaders tolerate sexual immorality and turn their backs on victims and the exploited.

In what may be called a new Reformation, we do not claim that the moral law continues in the same way as the old law of death. Instead, we affirm that the new law of freedom is the foundation of Christianity. We do not encourage or excuse immorality, but we fix our eyes on the law revealed at the cross. We do not pretend to be keepers of the law; rather, we acknowledge our sinful nature and pray for God to give us love for others. True keepers of the law do not boast in keeping it. Their good deeds arise like a fragrance through the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we rely on God, not on ourselves.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us reveals the fragrance of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like the many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. (vv. 14-17)