And next week we look at homosexuality

On Tuesday in Zac's we continued to look at the first letter the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians. We've reached chapter 5.

Now the city of Corinth at the time was a pretty wild place with many temples especially to the goddess Aphrodite, from which thousands of prostitutes worked. The church in Corinth that Paul was writing to, had, in his opinion, let itself go a bit. So much so that one of its members was sleeping with his step-mother and nobody cared.

Paul was cross with the sinner but even crosser with the church for not doing something about it.

It can come over as a strict disciplinary message but I think it's more about community, responsibility and love. And I wonder if it's a message for the church today. Do we stand up and say, 'that's wrong,' or are we too afraid of being called fundamentalists or being politically incorrect?

If we think of the ten commandments, the ones that begin 'Thou shalt not ...' are written not to stop us having fun, but to stop us being hurt or hurting others. They're for our good but these days they're often seen as killjoy commandments.

Sean was having to tread very carefully when he talked about this passage. He definitely didn't want it to make people feel guilty. Many of us in Zac's at an early or precarious stage of faith, and are still in the process of clearing out the rubbish. It will be a lifetime job for all of us: we won't be perfect till we're in heaven (even Mr Practically Perfect Paul admits that). (I've said before that Paul isn't my favourite character; I love Peter who messes things up with remarkable regularity.)

And that's why the message of this chapter to the church is so important. It's about loving and caring enough to support, help, take action, and, yes, reprimand if necessary.

It's not about guilt. It is about changing, turning away from, asking forgiveness, and trying again. And again and again ...

Next week's chapter is all about sex and homosexuality. Tee hee, I can't wait to hear how Sean deals with that one!