Christ and Culture & 1 Corinthians 5

1 Corinthians 5 is not a passage that is frequently brought up in discussions about Christ and culture; yet it is highly instructive. Paul directly addresses a case of sexual immorality within the Corinthian church and sharply rebukes them for failing to deal with it promptly. He commands the church to excommunicate the unrepentant member, using the analogy that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” The meaning is straightforward: those who profess the name of Christ but live in open contradiction to that profession are not to be treated as faithful members of the church.

What follows, however, is crucial for understanding how Christians are to relate to the pagan world around them. Paul writes:

“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler — not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.’”

(1 Corinthians 5:9–13, NASB)

Paul makes clear here that associating with immoral unbelievers is not only permissible, but unavoidable. Christians are not to attempt to escape this reality by withdrawing from the world into a closed religious community; a strategy historically attempted by groups such as the Amish. Nor is their posture toward the world to be one of constant moral condemnation. Paul’s point is not that the sin of unbelievers is insignificant, but that it is not the church’s task to judge the world; rather, God Himself will see to that judgment. The church’s calling is instead to proclaim the gospel to those same people who, without its proclamation or acceptance, will be recipients of that judgment.

Also implicit in Paul’s argument is the assumption that the surrounding culture will largely consist of people who do not submit to Christ and who live accordingly. We find this same assumption in other passages in the New Testament as well.

For example, in Jesus’ prayer in John 17, He says:

“I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them… I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”
(John 17:14–15, NASB)

Christ explicitly rejects withdrawal from the world while at the same time acknowledging its hostility and moral darkness. The church is to be distinct, but present.

Peter likewise exhorts believers:

“Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles… Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution.”
(1 Peter 2:12–13, NASB)

Here again, the assumption is that Christians live among pagans and under non-Christian authorities, and are to bear witness through faithful conduct rather than through domination or separation.

And here are a few more examples:

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification… not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:3–5, NASB)

“For you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord… Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them.”
(Ephesians 5:8–11, NASB)

Across these passages, a consistent pattern emerges: Scripture expects a moral distinction between the church and the world.

Romans 13 is a passage far more commonly cited in Christ-and-culture discussions. There, Paul once again directs believers to trust God’s sovereign governance — this time as exercised through civil authorities, many of whom were openly pagan. While passages such as Psalm 2 call rulers to submit to Christ, Romans 13 demonstrates that, in God’s providence, non-Christian rulers nonetheless possess legitimate authority and serve real purposes, including the restraint of evil and the administration of justice.

Much contemporary discussion about the Church and society assumes that Christians can sit down and, using biblical principles, construct a system the state is morally obligated to implement. What is often forgotten is that the state exists as it does — whether for our blessing or for our judgment — because God has permitted it to be so.

This brings us to the frequent theonomic critique of “Christless conservatism.” The logic is that if a leader or nation believes in conservative ideas but rejects Christ, it is only a matter of time before their worldview becomes more internally consistent — and before the conservatism is abandoned.

But when a Jewish, Muslim, or atheist leader enacts laws that protect the unborn, punish theft, or uphold the created order of sex, that magistrate does something that is objectively good for society. While unbelievers suppress truth in unrighteousness (to varying degrees), the reality of natural consequences often restrains sin. A rejection of God may lead a people to vote for socialism, but the resulting societal degradation will cause many to change their minds. When Christians see such societal changes happening — such as the recent conservative movement in Argentina — they often confuse it with true spiritual revival. But a people coming to its senses on socialism because they are sick of poverty does not mean that mass regeneration is occurring. Ultimately, though, whether such truth is apprehended through a Christian worldview or simply through living in Christ’s world, it remains true and good nonetheless. I will gladly take Christless conservatism over Christless communism.

The label “Christless conservatism” itself, however, is also misleading. It implies that a nation can propagate Christ-full conservatism. Yet while a nation can make itself more or less conservative by changing its laws, no set of laws can make a nation Christian. To be a Christian is to have faith in Christ — something no law can produce and something no nation, as a nation, can possess. It is ironic that the Pilgrims are often invoked in defense of modern theonomic or Christian-nationalist projects, given that they themselves were fleeing a regime in which the state enforced religious conformity through an established Christian church.

A nation cannot be born again; only persons can be born again. This is actually a significant point of the Old Covenant. Instead of serving as a copy-and-paste model for modern nations (although it contains much moral wisdom that can be applied to the civil realm), it clearly illustrates that laws are insufficient to produce heart change. Good laws serve the important purpose of restraining sin, since they provide a negative disincentive to immoral behaviour, but they cannot provide the heart change promised in the New Covenant in Hebrews 8.

To acknowledge that unbelieving leaders can do much good is not to deny Christ’s lordship; it is simply to recognize God’s providence and to give thanks for restraint and justice wherever they appear. Scripture calls us to gratitude (even for the common grace found in our secular neighbours) and patience — not to demand a perfect system now, as though God were not already governing the world wisely according to His purposes.

A Christian worldview certainly generates many conservative political convictions. It is good when Christians act on these convictions and seek to persuade their unbelieving neighbours. It is better for unbelievers to implement good, rather than bad, laws. But conservative political convictions do not make one a Christian. A Christian should not be a drunkard, yet abstaining from drunkenness does not make one regenerate. Many have seen the destruction caused by alcoholism without ever seeing the true light of the gospel. In the same way, many may uphold real moral civic goods without submitting to Christ. Our task is not to despise those goods, nor is it to become completely consumed with the many evils of our pagan world. God in due time will judges those outside, for now, we know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19)