* The following is an excerpt from today’s episode of The Royal Family Podcast, which is a podcast produced by The Light Network. For more information, visit thelightnetwork.tv or LIKE The Light Network on Facebook. *

What happens when royals quit acting like royals?

In the 1st century, the apostle Paul was dealing with a circumstance of just that nature. The church in Corinth had a brother in Christ, a member of the royal family, who had stopped behaving as a royal. In 1 Corinthians 5, we read Paul’s address to the church. He, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says:

“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife!And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”

The church in Corinth had a two-fold problem. The first was that a brother had stopped acting like a royal, and had instead started participating in worldly lusts – he’d given in to sexual immorality. But the second problem was that the rest of the royal family was acting as if it was perfectly acceptable. They weren’t mourning the sin he was involved in; instead, they were still embracing him. Paul admonishes them to purge out the old leaven, but will go on to give even stronger language. Picking up in verse 9, Paul continues:

“I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person.For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

When a royal stops acting like a royal, the rest of the royal family has an obligation to that person. It isn’t to shun them. It isn’t to shame them into submission. It isn’t treating them in any way other than love. But that love requires them to help that brother or sister get rid of the sin in their life -the sin that is leading them toward eternal damnation. The entire reason Paul says to withdraw from that person is for the good of that person. In another epistle, Paul will write, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted” (Galatians 6:1).

The spiritual brethren are to try to reach out and help the one who is erring…the one who has walked away from his or her royal duties. But if they won’t forsake their sinful lifestyle — if they won’t choose God over the world – then the royal family has to do something more drastic. And to some, it seems extreme. But really, nothing is extreme when it comes to trying to save a soul from hell. Nothing is too much or too far. Instead, we want to do all we can to help someone get to heaven. And if that person is a royal — someone who has submitted to God and has become a member of His family — that person is our brother or sister. We have a responsibility to them, to try and help them back on the path toward heaven.

You can listen to the rest of the episode by visiting The Light Network’s website.